Shanghai - pics

I just looked at my previous blog about Shanghai, and a lot of the pictures are very similar. Oh well. I still love this city. Lots to do, plenty to see, and for compared to Harbin, it feel's a little more like home.

On the day we traveled to Shanghai, there was a typhoon, and I think a few people died. However, when we arrived, there was only no evidence of the bad weather. All we had was sun.

The Bund

Shanghai Skyline

Skyline + Memorial

The Bund, again

Shanghai Museum with very very old stuff inside 

Pedestrian St. with thermometer in the background, likely high twenty's 

Cool little alley market 

again

Ped St. at night

Night out. Beer house

TV Tower

Another Market. Cool building and lights

Same

Nightline

Lots of Pocarr FTs while I was away, brought to you by..

China - Harbin

Harbin

Arriving in Harbin was strangely unfamiliar, even though I was there 18 months ago. It's such a contrast to what I am used to. Also, this time the weather was bearable. Rather than having -25'c, it was a sweat inducing +25'c and the airport was actually slow paced and not crowded. Weird.

Looking over the river, while speedo man eyes me up

Getting a ride to my girlfriends dads apartment, the real China came out of hiding. Car horns blasting, running of red lights, cutting off people, people cutting off us, redundant seat belts, and pedestrians not giving a shit that they are cm's away from death. It's wild. I could never drive there.

Card games with a huge rail at every table

Harbin, for a city of ~6 million, there aren't a lot of white people. It's not a city where tourists visit, or a big business hub for the western world, and as a result I could literally count on my fingers how many white people I would see in a day. It is pretty cool. At first I disliked it as any attention makes me feel uncomfortable.  However, they are not being rude, and I get a kick out of how people stop what they are doing to eye ball me as I walk past. It does get a little bizarre when randoms are taking photos of you, but I do the same to them!

Biran's uncles Art & Tea shop where the best calligraphers gathered for a show. I was there to be white and have my photo taken. Some cool, and skillful artwork!

Me at an art expo getting special treatment because they thought I was a loaded, international buyer. Sorry guys, you can't bribe my 'translator' (Biran) to get me into your shop.

Lots of small little shops around. Selling puppies on the street. Pets. They are pets.

Spending time with my Biran's family is always cool. They seem to get a long really well and always put each other first. They're very generous to put up with me for a week, and I appreciate it.

Myself, Biran, and the family, having dinner 

On the way to the Airpot. Typhoon Decides to bid  us farewell. Another sketchy car ride.

Next stop Shanghai.

Oh Hi,

Shit, I don't know where to begin. I don't even remember what has happened, it's been so long since I last posted.

I had a look at my previous posts and thought it was an amusing read, and a good way to keep track of my life doings. That was the main reason I started blogging, to keep an archive of my adventures, and to share a little bit of what goes on. Also, I feel like it could be fun and motivating to get this blog back up and running.

I'll try to remember what has happened.

• Black Friday - I did a post about BF, but it threw me off course and had a big affect on me. It demotivated me. Others couldn't play, and used it as an excuse to not play myself. I'm not exactly sure of the reasons why, but stress levels were way too high, and as a result I was questioning being in the poker industry.
• Pocarr Temp Shuts Down - After BF, with the majority of the team being in the US, we figured it was best if we closed up shop for the time being.
• Canucks - Sigh. 'nuff said
• Vegas/Canada Trip - Traveled to North America during the Summer. Still bummed on poker, not motivated at all to play. Questioning what I want to do with my life. I sold all my action for the ME to MaxKatz, but decided not to play as I was hating everything poker and figured I would insta spaz bust. Overall, it was good. Had a family reunion in BC, and was awesome to hang out in our log cabin with fam that I haven't seen in years. 
• Flat From Hell - I posted pics in previous blogs, I was stoked to move in, but it ended up being a nightmare. One flatmate was impossible to live with. Everything had to be his way and was just an overall weirdo. The other, well, fuck, he beat up his girlfriend in my en suite, then I had to talk him out of suicide. Then a few hours telling the Police about how my friend bashed his girl. Not Fun! 
• Depression - Looking back at it all, I was not in a good place. The stress and uncertainty was cutting into me. I would sleep too much, be reclusive, have no interest in poker. All signs of depression.
• Rugby World Cup - Hooray! Something cheerful and not dark. NZ did a great job hosting. Had an amazing set up downtown where people could drink and watch the games. Everyone, from all countries were having a blast. This could have been a turning point. I moved back home and let the stress subside. 
• Poker Flat - As the new year came, I set goals, was getting back into playing, had a small stable set up with Camzace and Missoracle. I was ready for 2012. Camzace, Look4waldo, myself and my gf moved into a nice little house. We were quite productive and had a lot of fun, but Waldo, unfortunately, had to cut his visit short and take care of his injury ridden family. Productivity was cut as I had a business idea, but it's nothing more than that, an idea, right now.

• Pocarr Reopens! - Alex 'BigMac Msusyr24' Carr, and Jack 'daripaa / Ilovetrains' Oneil came forward with the idea of reopening. Sold! We planned on reopening in a few months, but within weeks we were taking applications. We have a great bunch of guys, and I am learning a lot being part of the team. 
• China Trip v2 - Just got back from my second trip to China. Again, it was a great time and opened my mind up even more. I will post about it more later.

I am sure I am missing a lot, but that's a good start. I didn't mean for it to be dark and cheerless. Thanks for listening to me moan, anyway. It's been a good therapy session. I assure you I am in a good space now, and there were plenty of fun times scattered in there that I failed mention. :Sun:

Grand Canyon

Vegas

RWC

NZ

Whats Going On?!?

Since my last post, a lot of has happened.

Every single poker player in the world knows about Black Friday and it will be remembered for years to come. Many times there has been 'the sky is falling' moments for online poker, but this is definitely the worst. PS, FTP, and some other bullshit sites that don't deserve mentioning, were indicted on charges of, bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling. Online players in the USA are now out of jobs because they are no longer allowed to play on those sites. I really feel for my former colleagues who are now forced to make life changing decisions. GL guys.

 money laundering?

For me, it has been stressful to say the least. I can still play, but Pocarr has taken a bit of a punch to the nuts (about 50% of students are from the US) and the game aren't running as fast. At first the games are a softer, but as american players move abroad, and the fish don't spawn, the games are going to dry out. I hope as stress levels die down, I can enjoy playing again, but for right now, I am struggling. I am not running great, which doesn't help, but with all this added stress, it's tough.

The sudden end of US online poker made me think of what I would do if it all came crashing down tomorrow. As of now, I realize this is always going to be a possibility. It is a huge eye opener. Will Smith, once told me, 'theres no reason to have a plan B because it distracts you from plan A.'. Yes, its good to commit yourself to something, but I think I might go against the princes wisdom. I want to watch a few www.khanacademy.com vids/ read some stuff, find something that I am interested in and study it. Or maybe I can just bink something.

Another big piece of news is PS changed the structure and buyins to their sngs. They built it up as if it was going to be the best thing that has ever happened in online poker. HA. At least they are listening to players and making some more changes. Doubt they change buyins/rake though.

Since BF, I have been lazy and have had too many nights were I get wasted and do nothing but play games on my phone and eat greasy food the next day. As a result, we have had multiple complaints from our grouch of a neighbor and have had an official warning. One more and we are gone. Just another unnecessary piece of stress. I am now going to be a hard working, studious. Playing lots, studying hard, making vids, and reviewing hands. - 'Keep telling youself that, portly'

I feel like a bit of a prick whining about this stuff. Poker has given me so much and I know I am fortunate. I just need to go read a newspaper to put things into perspective.

House and Vegas/Canada Trip Booked

The house itself isn't the greatest, but it is comfortable and I am really happy with it. The only thing that sucks is that I am without reliable internet. Right now I am using an aircard, which is fine for searching the web, but for mass multi-tabling, it lags, I timeout, and start tilting. Hopefully the internet will be sorted in the next couple of days. 

                  

I'm not the greatest photographer and don't know why the city looks so far away in photos, it actually looks a lot closer in person. 

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In other news, I have booked my flights and hotel for Vegas. Biran and I will be staying at the Palms between the 4th and 14th of July. We got a sweet deal for a 'superior room'. It was $69 for weekdays and $129 for weekends. Could have gone with a 'deluxe room' for cheaper, but we will have Mr 4toedstatue staying with us for at least 5nights, so wanted a little more space and a nicer room. A lot of poker players took this deal including, Msusyr24, Game2eazy, and Look4Waldo, so it will be awesome meeting these degens in degencity. 


"Can't wait till we (get drunk,) lose steve, and have to look4waldo" - G2E


After Vegas, Biran and I are heading to BC, Cananda for my family reuinion, which is also very exciting. It's been around 4 years since I have been back, which is way too long.


Bring on July!!

Long time No Blog

Hey everyone,

It has been way too long since I updated my blog. I have failed to finish my China trip report and not sure if I will get around to it. sigh, I suck.

My poker volume has been okay, not bad, but not great. I really don't like talking about results because I try to not look at graphs/cashier and if I start posting my results everyday, it will surely affect my attitude and cause me to sweat every showdown. This is much harder said then done, but I try.

Damnit! I couln't resist. I knew I went on some crazy swings this month, but man, this game is crazy.

My biggest downswing, followed by one of my biggest heaters. Poker has become insane - 2012 must be real.

I have another prop bet with Look4waldo. It is very similar to the last one, but we have adjusted the point system:
- 1 pt per game
- 1 pt per $ profit
- 200 pts if 3 ships in a day
- 150 pts if 1.5k profit in a day
- 100 pts going from 9/9 to ship
- 100 pts for biggest HU comeback
- 25 pts for going into FT 1/9
- 25 pts for biggest laughable call while still being ahead vs xxxxxxx

The loser has to have an avatar similar to this:

My girlfriend and I, after looking for a house to rent for two months have finally landed a place. The rental market here in Auckland is absurd. Supply is not there and people are moving up from Christchurch as there houses are in ruins. Every house we went to would have 30 people looking at it and no one wanted a 21 year old equity analyst to stay in their house. However, Biran found a site that know one uses and there was a house advertised. Bingo.

I can't wait to get some photos on here to show you. The house itself isn't anything spectacular, but I dig it and the view.

until then,

Later

Update and Props

The month of February was meh. I am currently looking for a place to rent, so things are a little unsettled and my volume hasn't been great. Hopefully I find a place, move in, and get settled quickly. The highlight of my month has to be Poacrr booming and singing two new MTT coaches, Crazyhorse76 and Sircrafty, as well as this. 

  -  Waldo and I had a prop bet, 1pt per game, 2pts per $ profit, loser had to have edward as an avatar. High stakes, and high variance. Unfortunately for Steve, he hit a 3k downswing and ended up losing. 

He's already getting abused in chat and i am sure it will make for some golden chat. 

Pujinator said, "dang waldo ur sexy"

Pujinator said, "whats ur sign hunny"

Pujinator said, "screw that how big are ya"

Look4Waldo said, "this will be a fun month"

  -  Kebziwi stated in a skype chat that he was going to try and go the rest of the year without shaving and I suggested a bet. I know Zeb is a pretty boy at heart and this will be very difficult for him. $450, no shaving, no trimming, 1 year. 

Have fun having a beard like this in the Whangamata summer.

GL.

Bi and I in Shanghai

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eimgRedLkkU

China - Shanghai and Hangzhou

Shanghai

Shanghai is badass. There is just a really good feel to it. Lots of culture and an amazing skyline. If I were to choose a place in China to live, it would be Shanghai. 

view from the Bund

 weird cold fruit thing

Biran: Chinas next top model

Artsy

 Financial District at night

The Bund

On our way out of our hotel, we asked what was the best way to get to Hangzhou. Not one person said bus, so we taxied to the train station. Some bro grabbed our bags, and told us there was no train for two hours. He lead us to a bus station, charged us 3x the normal price and then asked for a tip. Brooooo. Looking back we made some retarded decisions on the trip and its no wonder why they target the tourists. Oh well. So, we chucked our bags on the bus and then almost got into a fight. someone was sitting in our seat, and we were in someone elses. Biran almost threw down. About 20 minutes into the two hour bus ride, Biran was busting to pee. She was contemplating peeing in my bag. You know you're desperate when you consider peeing in a bag. Probably some bladder damage, but im glad she made it.
It was an interesting journey.

Hangzhou

On our hotel voucher, they described Hangzhou as 'Paradise on Earth'. Clearly there was a mistake in the translation. To me, it was dirtier than any other place I have visited and it wasn't some small lake-front community. It is a massive city on a tiny lake. We checked out the main attraction, West Lake. Living half my life in Canada and the other half in New Zealand, the scenery didn't do it for me. However, I suppose it didn't help that it was winter. It would be much more beautiful when the trees aren't bare and the lake not frozen. 

Escorts -After weeks of travelling, dragging my suitcase through massive crowds, my back was stuffed. I could hardly stand. We made our way back to the nicest hotel of our trip and headed to the spa. At the reception we asked about the different massages and the lady gave us a very vague description of each. Thai massage is harder than the Japanese massage, and the chinese massage was the most gentle. We decided on the Japanese massage and were put in different rooms. Biran asked if we could get the massage done in the same room but the request was rejected. Biran waited with me so she could explain what was wrong with my back. We were sitting on a chair, munching on some sugar cane, drinking green tea when this little, young girl popped her head through the door only to retreat straight away. weird. Seconds later another girl did the same thing. Somethings up. Biran asked again whether we could get the massage done in the same room. They looked tempted but a little unsure of the whole thing. They then asked repeatedly if I was Biran's boyfriend, to which Biran answered, yes. One of the girls then told Biran to tell me to take off my clothes and put on some plastic shorts, then told Biran to go wash her feet. This is when we knew our suspicions were true. The clues were there, we were just a little slow. After few moments of questions and answers back and forth, Biran told me this place is indeed what we joked about: a whore house. No thanks.

I felt dirty just being there. The girls were so young, the massages were as cheap as going to a movie, and they were actually considering doing sexual acts for both Biran and I, in the same room. In China, if you have any little suspicion whether or not it's a whore house, it is.

Onwards to Harbin

Valentines Day - music

Not a fan of of Valentines day but I am a fan of music

Biran arrives home this afternoon. Cutting the session short to go pick her up and we'll head out to dinner later tonight.

Getting smoked in the propbet but there is still 2 weeks to go. 

P^3 poker, prop bet, photos

Finally getting back into the swing of things.

The eight hour days seem to go by quicker, I'm panicking and miss-clicking a lot less while multi-tabling. Im extremely happy how things are going.  At the start of the year I said I wasn't going to play as much as last year. However, I am really loving it right now and I hope I can continue to get the volume in. I'm aiming for 800 games a week, ~90% 180 mans. With that amount of volume, the swings will go by quicker and it will be rare to see a losing month. Biran arrives back from China on Monday. Looking forward to seeing and spending time with her. We will be on the hunt of a place to rent, hopefully some baller pad, but more likely a run-down, moist cardboard-like structure.

So, with much of my time invested with Biran, and house hunting, the rest will be grinding the 180 mans. I have a propbet with one of  my buddies and Pocarr student, Look4Waldo. It is extremely high stakes because the loser of the prop bet will have to have this pic as an avatar for a whole month.

Definitely gives us motivation to play. Your going down Steve! i hope..

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more photos from Macau