Back to Basics / Everything Changes

It's been a while since my last entry but I was pretty busy working and partying so there wasn't much time to write. Furthermore I had to think about many things concerning my life so that I can now give a far better overview compared to one week ago.

But let's start with poker.
I run good, I play very decent, I make money. That's the short version. Tbh I don't know the last time I was that convinced about my game. Month is almost over and I guess I let the garph speak:

That's my whole month/year on Stars so far and after a slow beginning sky is the limit. Atm I have around 2.5PTBB all stakes and over 3PTBB alone at NL200 over 60kish hands. Pretty decent. Of course it is kind of the long awaited heater but I guess given the current state of games I should be able to maintain at least 2PTBB when I not start to massgrind (more than 7500 hands a day) again. Considering that I'm up 3k on Full Tilt as well and taking around 6k++ Rakeback into account it is a pretty nice month and a pretty awesome start in the year as well.

Very good news came from Pokerstars this week when they announced that they will eliminate the 20-50BB tables on the 10th of february and replace them with 20BB CAP tables. This should make games for fullstacks like me alot better (imo CAP will not be too popular). If I'm right in this case Stars will probably have 90++% of my volume again. If I am wrong and CAP gonna be very popular then I will split 50/50 between Stars and FT - no biggie.
But I'm definitely very excited to see how things go.


OK, that was the poker part.
You remember my last post when I told we are searching for a new flat. Well, I am still searching for a new flat but I'm not searching in London anymore. I just booked some flights and mid february I will fly to Malta with a good friend from Germany and we will take a look at some sweet properties in Sliema/St. Julians. So it is now official and confirmed. Tim Stone is going to come back to the rock latest April 1st at least for this summer.

Many people will wonder why, many people will not really understand that decision (3 month ago I wouldn't have understand it myself) but after now spending around 4 months in LONDON I'm quite convinced this is not my city and not the place where I want to live anymore.
It all starts with the pricing of this city. I make easily enough money to afford a pretty decent lifestyle for this city - that's not the problem. The question is more if I really wanna spent so much money for this city when I am able to work from anywhere in the world with an internet connection at whatever time I want. Do I want to spent around 2k Euro for a 14m² room in a 3 guys pokerflat share per month? Do I want to spent at least 12 Euro entrance fee for any fucking club even if that place suck balls? Do I want to spent 8 Euro for a pack of cigs? Do I want to spent 15 Euro for a solid mixed Vodka Redbull? I could go on like this for ages... I came to the result that I can answer these questions with a clear NO. Tbh I don't have a clue how long I will be able to make over 5 digits out of Poker monthly and therefore I think it is pretty reasonable to save as much as possible while still maintain a baller lifestyle. If you want to live like a baller in London you need 5 figures - per month!
The 2nd major point is the weather. I never imagined it would piss me off that much but when you lived for more than 1 year in a country with the world's best climate (according to internationalliving.com) it is not easy when it suddenly rains on more than every 2nd day during the year, when it is always cloudy, when it is always cold, when it is always dark.
The last major point and probably the most important for me is the freedom as an individual. And in this city it is barely existing. I mean, I'm german and Germany is pretty much regulated as it can be but when you compare it with London it is literally the land of the free. You can live a very safe and secure life here but you pay a high price for that - freedom.

Only to mention some examples:
When I drive with my car here there's a speed camera every fucking mile - EVERY FUCKING MILE!!! I have no problems with speed cams in general (obv me and teh Vette don't like them too much) but if you put such a thing every mile it gets really really annoying and you ask yourself why. It's not like you could drive fast here anyways with the million of speedbumpers and most roads in similar conditions to the ones in Malta...
When it comes down to parties you have to plan accordingly.
"Hey, I would say we go to XXX"
"Dude, we are 5 guys, we will not get in any nice clubs 2nite"
"Ok, then let's go in 2 groups - that should work!"
"It might work but what if the 2nd group doesn't get in?"
"Whatever, let's book a table!"
"How much is it?"
"At least 1k like always ldo"
"Man, I just spent over 300 pounds 4 days ago"
Some pretty similar conversation takes place every friday or saturday evening. I mean it's not like I'm not spending a shitload of money anyways when I go out and then have to bother with this crap as well. If I would  look like shit I would be fine with that but I don't... I'm still waiting for the day when you get some sort of card here which tells exactly how much money you own and then have to show it in front of the door instead of your ID card - probably only a matter of time.
When you smoke you get fucked massively as well. Don't know a country so far where I paid more for cigs but I already stated that in the money part. 50% of the clubs (even some pretty nice ones) don't provide smoking lounges inside, when you are are walking through an outside park you first have to look if it is allowed to smoke there, and so on. I got no problem when smoking is more or less forbidden but you can definitely overexaggerate the whole issue.

I think I've now given you some reasons why I need/want to leave. Don't get me wrong, London is definitely not a bad place to live. It just seems not to be a good place to live for me personally either.
In Malta I have the feeling I just get significantly more value for my money (the poker guys of you know that almost everything in life is about value :) ) and alot more freedom. At least what I view as freedom... I'm sure everybody has his own definition in this case.

So if everything works out I will back in Malta soonish for the summer and it is going to be a massive summer! My Vegas plans for august are still pretty actual and I'm also thinking about Thailand in winter even though nothing is confirmed yet in that case. But spending the whole year in Malta will be too boring anyways so I'm quite confident I will keep traveling.

That's it for now. Still 2 days left of january and I need 5k more VPPs to maintain SNE (which shouldn't be a big problem). So I'm working today and tomoro and then take it from there. I'm also getting a bunch of visitors the next weeks so that I prolly not be playing high volume in february either (just getting the 50k VPPs ldo)

Good luck in life and Good luck at teh tables,

best regards from London