Trip to China (pt1)

- The Flight - I am fortunate to have a sister that works for Emirates, so I get discounted flights. The best value is to fly business class standby. However, after not getting on any of the three flights, I might have to look at the numbers and re-evaluate. Stress levels will definitely be apart of the calculation. The plan was to fly to Dubai and spend a day visiting my sister , and then head to Hong Kong. Since it’s such a long journey it would be painful to fly to UAE then HK without a break. I bought a ticket direct to HK. It saved me 14 hours of travelling, gained me a day in HK, and cost me $500 extra. With less stress added into the calculation, I think the confirmed ticket was worth it.


Hong Kong


I arrived in Hong Kong at 6.15am, and took the airport express into the city. The shuttle ride to the hotel was the first sign that I wasn't in Kansas anymore. Nothing was open, no one was on the street, there were high rise buildings everywhere, and there was a hazy fog around. It was like a post apocalyptic movie. I check into the hotel and pass out for a couple of hours.  When I awaken I take a walk. Wow. From post apocalyptic to the busiest streets I have ever seen.  I make my way past some markets, numerous fake Nike stores, gazillions of people asking if I want a suit or a fake watch, and eventually make it to the waterfront.

- Fortune Teller - 'sure is pretty here isn't it?' asked a guy with a beard down to his tits. He shook my hand. If I was wearing a watch, I would bet on it being gone. After asking where I was from he stated that he was a fortune teller from India. Humour me Mr fortune teller. After paying me compliment after compliment he wrote down a type of flower scrunched up the piece of paper and put it in my hand. I chose one out of the three flowers, Lily, Rose, and Tulip. "pick one." - "Lily." - "Pick another one." - "Rose." - He looked at me with such a proud face, "open the paper". Holy Shit it said Rose! He then went on about how I would live a long happy life, and I would have a lot of luck on the 1/01/11. But only if I put money in his leather book. Gave him about tree fiddy for his efforts.

- New Years - I'm not sure what it's like in other countries, but in NZ there is a correlation between how drunk you are and how good your new years is. In HK its different. Beers are cheap and you can drink on the street, yet no one was drinking. We joined the majority and didnt drink because we didn't want to spend the whole night making our way through massive crowds on the way to the toilet. Biran and I watched a vid of a NY celebration and they estimated half a million people on both sides of the harbour. Yikes. So, for my first sober NY in years, Biran and I make our way through the seas of people to find a good spot to view the fireworks. After a two hour wait the firework show was less than spectacular, but overall it was a cool experience. The number of people, boats and everyones friendly attitude made for a cool atmosphere and a good time.

subway after new years

- Other Activities -  There is so much to see and do in HK. We had 5 days there and could have easily spent another 5 looking around the place. There were plenty of markets we didn't hit up, including the gold fish market, flower market, and Stanley market. We could have taken a trip to old HK, looked at some temples and taken a boat out for a tour. Next time.

Me at Lantau Island

Biran at HK Disney

At the Peak

Overall, HK was awesome. The mix of the modernness, and its culture from both Britain and China make it a unique city. There is plenty to do and friendly people all around. If I don't come back here, I will be surprised.

Next stop Macau.

HK thus far

Just a few pics from my first couple of days in Hong Kong. I will write up a trip report when I have more time, and when it's not New Years eve.

Happy New Years!

Seasons Greetings

Hope everyone had a great Christmas.

I love Christmas. It's really hard to get into the Christmas spirit in New Zealand because instead of being knee deep in snow, it's 25 degrees. Also, Christmas decorations are scarce. There are a couple of houses per suburb that put up Christmas lights. On the other hand, in Canada it seems like there would be a couple of houses per neighbourhood that would not put lights up. As a kid I would be excited about Christmas as soon as we put up decorations, around 1st of December. We have a Christmas calendar, and instead of crossing out days like some people do with and ordinary calendar, you move a Santa Claus over. As a kid we raced to do it. This year, I raced to do it, but it was a move straight to the 23rd. Maybe this is normal and the excitement subsides as you get older.  But I want to be as eager as this little guy. Or maybe that’s too eager.

Even though the build up is not as exciting, Christmas is great. It's a time where I realize how fortunate I am.  My family is very loving and we get along extremely well. There are very few times when we don’t, and that’s usually caused by super competitive board games. Today my mum asked for my favourite and least favourite Christmas memory. I did have a traumatic experience when Santa delivered a gift to the wrong person. I had a gameboy taken from my firm grasp. Big mistake Santa. That is the only thing I could think of, and that was over 15 years ago. That kind of stuff makes me think of the less fortunate around Christmas. Kids coming to school and wondering why they received socks and their peers had an iPhone in their stocking. Was one kid more well behaved that the other? Unlikely. For my favourite, I couldn't pin point one, I was spoilt and received so many thoughtful, amazing gifts. But, I am aware it’s not about receiving, it's about spending quality time with the fam, good food and drinking beer. I hope you guys are aware of that also.

Today my dad, brother and I went to a little golf course up in the hills. The wind was gusting and it was a tough little 9 hole course. I shot 8 over, which I’m happy with considering the wind and the greens being in rough shape. We plan on playing tomorrow as well. Twice, in 2 days. 5 times in the last 2 years. I am going to try and get back into golf. It's definitely one of my favourite sports to play.

Later in the evening we had Christmas dinner. Normally for us it's either a big seafood dinner, or turkey. This year we had ham. It was crazily awesomely delicious! Way to go Mum! Even Gordon Ramsey would be happy to serve that meal at any of his restaurants. I can't wait for leftovers tomorrow.

I leave for Hong Kong in less than 40 hours. Holy shit. I have been really busy and also, there has been a bit of procrastination. So, I haven’t thought about the trip a whole lot. It's going to be an extremely good experience and I am really looking forward to it. However, I am a bit anxious about the flying, the language barrier, the freezing temperatures and the food, but that’s what makes China, China and I am stoked for the trip. My eldest sister works for Emirates so I get discounted flights. I have to fly to, or should I say, I get to fly through Dubai, which adds to my excitement but, man, I better go do some research.

Exciting times! Happy Holidays! check back for updates. Thanks for reading blog post #2.

Blogging!. Intro. Goals.

Greetings everyone.

I am really excited to jump on board and be a part of the blogosphere.  I've been weighing up the pros and cons of blogging for a while now, and I struggle to find a whole lot of negatives. If there are some, I'm sure I will discover them shortly. It's something I just need to dive into and think about it later.  My excuse lately has been that I’m too busy. However, wouldn't that make a blog more exciting? Who wants to read someone’s blog when they do the same thing over and over again and live a tame life?

This being my first blog, I think it's necessary to do a little introduction about myself. I am Grant Dorey. I was born in Vancouver, Canada 21 years ago. My family and I have moved around quite a bit and made our way to New Zealand in 1998. We have been here ever since. I got into poker with my brother. We started grinding freerolls in 2005, sometimes through the night. We were quite successful and netted approx $4 in a couple of months. We kept at it and both ran well not to bust our miniscule rolls. I built my roll with STT SNGs and also transferring my roll from site to site, clearing bonuses. Eventually,  I wound up at PokerStars and mixed STT SNGs and MTTs. Then naturally,  MTT SNGs. I went to uni for a year, I loved the lifestyle but didn’t enjoy learning about subjects that I wasn't passionate about. so, I decided to pursue my poker career. I have been playing for a living for the last 2 years and it has been great.

I came into this year with high hopes and aspirations. I Moved down south to live with Eeetee2008 and was ready to crush. Bang! Downswing. I was second guessing everything, and rethinking the poker for a living gig, but I just moved across the country for poker! I couldn’t give up. I worked hard, dropped the MTTs and stuck to 180 man SNGs. I'm giving myself a pat on the back, because I really am proud of what I have done. People dream of my occupation, and I went and captured it.

My goals at the beginning of the year were to make $x and 200k vpps and be top 5 on  the sharkscope leaderboard for any game greater than 7 tables. I'm not 100% comfortable saying how much I’ve earned because I’m not sure who is going to read this and how they are going to react (its not that much, but still). Again, a pat on the back for achieving my goals. It was tough, but I knuckled down.

I don’t have specific goals for next year. However, I do want to do a lot more coaching. I have recently joined the coaching team at www.pocarr.com. It's a staking/coaching site that, right now, specializes in mttsngs. I am really excited to be a part of this new, fast growing company that has high potential to be really successful. Next year  I want to again be top 5 on SS leaderboard >7 tables, starting grinding the 45 man SNGS, gain 300k vpps and do some more travelling. These goals are written in the sand and are likely to change.

That'll be it for my first blog. I’m heading to China with my GF for 3 weeks, so watch this space for updates. I plan to upload a lot of photos on my blog, which hopefully people appreciate.  I think it is a good tool to document my travels/poker/life.

Hope everyone has a great holiday. Thanks for reading.