Mittwoch, 29. August 2012

Travelbuddies for Australia 2013 wanted!

Hi there,

I just opened a facebook book regarding this but cross-post it here to maybe create moar interest. If you are interested just hook me up on facebook and I'll invite you to teh fb-group! cheers


Sup foos!

European summer comes slowly to an end and as some might know my plan this winter is to escape to Australia and co. from januar 2013 ongoing for 4-5 months. Last year I had a blast in South America but I decided to not go back there until I at least speak semi-fluently spanish and this will not happen in teh next few months. 
So my main issues in searching for a place to go were good weather (so obv i have to go south) and english language. After all I decided to roll with Australia for next year and see how I like it.

If I have to go alone I will do so but if I find somebody who is keen on travelling a little bit with me even better. If you have already plans for january++, cannot move bc no money, gf that stresses, whatever it is just snapleave teh group in order to keep it clean.

Optimal scenario for me would be 2 or 3 people who would be interested to go to OZ in teh aforementioned timeframe. If there is moar interest we can obv. go in different groups but living together only makes sense up to 4 people imo and even that will get pretty messy concerning we are all poker players...


General Plan:
- Sydney for NYE and staying there for 2-3 weeks til mid end january
- flying to Auckland and staying there for 2-3 weeks again til beginning/mid feb
- flying to Gold Coast and staying directly at Surfers Paradise for appr. 2 months - depending how much I like it maybe a little shorter or longer
- on teh way back to Europe spending a month in Bali or something similar (like Thailand, Philipines, Malaysia, watever)

= total time 4-5months

That being said this is my general plan which I will be doing if I'm on my own - i'm pretty much open for every suggestion there is and nothing is set in stone especially when travelling in a group...


Budget:
From what I've seen so far the downside is that OZ and NZL are not very cheap, especially when it comes to short-term renting. I don't really plan to stay in hotels there (bc this gonna be ridic expensive) but even apts tend to be on teh pricier side...
I only looked into Gold Coast accomodation so far but would expect Sydney and Auckland to be similar if not moar expensive.
If you search a nice 1br place for yourself and you want to have it semiballer you have to expect to spent between 2-2.5k$ a month. If you are a group of 3 or 4 I would expect to get this down to 1.5-1.75k$ a month per person.
That being said living in a nice place is pretty important for me bc teh better i live teh better i feel teh better i play teh moar money i make etc. So saving here it's not really an option for me.

I cannot say much regarding other costs like food, party, beach, sightseeing, etc. but assume renting will be teh biggest share. You also have to consider that flying to Australia is not cheap and will cost around 1keuro (atm) from central europe one way.

All in all I expect to spent something around 5k$ a month for everything but you probably can also go a little bit cheaper (i spent alot on food...)


Timemanagement:
I plan not to play to much poker during teh time in Sydney and Auckland and visit teh cities, make some trips, sightseeing, party, etc.
Once I'm in Gold Coast I plan to increase volume again to at least 100 hours a month, go back to a good workout routine, party, beach, etc. - same for Bali.
Since I'm quite flexible with my time I'm always keen to do something different like a couple of days road trip in teh outback etc...



As being stated in teh beginning if you have already plans just quit teh group directly in order to make it easier for me to see who is really interested in Down Under.
For those interested just leave a post here for now or drop a private message - I know it's still along time until january but you cannot plan this things early enough from my experience...

Montag, 27. August 2012

Eurosummer comes to an end...

After not updating for over a month now i guess it's about time...

During the last 6 weeks i wasn't doing much else besides party, party, party. So my pokervolume was probably the lowest i played teh since i started to grind for a living but fortunately i ran good for the most part and was at least able to cover my expenses and a bit moar...

In the end i was calculating from teh beginning of teh year that i will not work too much in july and august given to different factors. For once during this time it is just way too hot in Malta too work your ass off. Point 2 is that there are way too many parties to attend and another issue is that i got alot of people visiting me over the last 5 weeks and i cannot tell my good friends coming down to Malta "listen, i have to work, i cannot go out with you guys". So given all these factors i'm still kind of proud that i managed to play 150.000 hands during the last 2 months.

Regarding teh parties i don't really know much what i should write. It was definitely a blast but especially during teh last 2 weeks i realized that it maybe even was a little too much. I mean i'm 28 now and if you go out 4-5times a week you get to a point where you are not 100% motivated anymoar and sometimes i found myself standing in front of a bar and basically didn't know what to order anymoar bc i was fed up with everything. But i guess that's teh price you have to pay for maltese summer haha. Anyways, there will be another couple of very nice events in september and from october on it's going to be alot moar quiet in my opinion that i can increase my pokervolume again, getting a better gym/running schedule while only going out once or twice a week and making some money for my time in Australia beginning next year. In case of Australia i'm searching for 1 or 2 travelbuddies so if you are interested you might get back to me. Plan is Sydney, Auckland, Gold Coast, Bali - nothing set in stone yet but that's teh general schedule.

Even teh legend himself Joe Ingram made it to Malta teh last month and even though he was faster gone then he was here i assume he had a good time and i can say that he's one of teh first persons i met where teh online impression 100% matched teh real-life impression (if that's good or no is another thing lol)...

Here are some of teh party shots occured over teh last weeks:

doing nonsense at a wedding of a friend

pool party at aria club

wit marica at marakesh

with a bunch of friend at entrance of bet and win bar

GTL

ez monday in surfside

hard wednesday in vox ultra loung

bet and win bar at late hour

farsons beer fest 2012

sunglasses at night party at gianpula

surfside pt 2

view over st. julians and sliema

sunday chill at xara lodge

day at teh beach in paceville

bining at medasia playa

And these are only pictures of like 30% of teh parties i attended lately.

Last thursday i made another huge discovery in malta. I managed to go to teh local drag race court. Even though i still don't know if it is good that i got aware of this i had a blast over there and if i have a picture of paradise in my mind this thing comes pretty close to it. Lotta people will not understand it but whoever loved teh first 2 fast 2 furious will know what i'm talking about. Basically all you have to do is to take you car up there, pay 6euros entrance and then you can race against other cars at a str8 track of like 3-4kms. It's loud, it's dirty, there are cars everywhere, girls wearing belts instead of trousers and so on. The only problem is if i go there too often i might need a new set of tires pretty soonish...




To go a little bit moar into detail wit poker here is teh monthly graph so far:



Started pretty hot, then a little downer but i'm back on track for now. Also teh usual 3k above EV but since that is pretty std with my account i don't want to go too much into detail here.

Since this month there is one major change i want to adress. Since I'm hating variance and swings i wasn't playing 600 6max and above anymoar but since i got offered a stake here i got it back in my schedule at least til end of teh year. For teh non-pokerplayers this means that i don't play teh highest stakes i'm playing with my money but with teh money of somebody else which means if i'm losing i don't lose my own money but when i'm winning i have to give a large share of my winnings to my so called backer (who is a good friend anyways). I'm convinced for me it is better that way bc there's nothing which tilts me moar than having a good day at 200 and then losing it all in 2 hands at NL1k. However so far this staking deal is not working out too well for my backer so that i'm down a decent chunk in money at the stakes i'm staked for (this is not included in teh graph for obv. reasons).
So i managed to play (and lose) my biggest pot since i play for a living so far vs. a massive fish a 2k deep. While i'm convinced my play is good pre and on flop and turn i'm very much convinced that river should be a fold but i was skyping with my sponsor at teh moment and he tended moar towards a call and since i'm not that much of a highstakes expert and in teh end it was his money i pressed teh call button and got owned... shit happens i assume. Here teh hand for u to see:


PokerStars - $20 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players

SB: $3,104.23
BB: $5,535.15
UTG: $7,734.46
Hero (MP): $9,093.28
CO: $19,481.07
BTN: $4,173.63

SB posts SB $10.00, BB posts BB $20.00, SB posts ante $4.00, BB posts ante $4.00, UTG posts ante $4.00, Hero posts ante $4.00, CO posts ante $4.00, BTN posts ante $4.00

Pre Flop: (pot: $54.00) Hero has Th Ad

UTG raises to $40.00, Hero raises to $160.00, fold, fold, fold, fold, UTG raises to $460.00, Hero calls $300.00

Flop: ($974.00, 2 players) Ks Tc 3c
UTG bets $660.00, Hero calls $660.00

Turn: ($2294.00, 2 players) 3h
UTG bets $1,260.00, Hero calls $1,260.00

River: ($4814.00, 2 players) 3d
UTG bets $5,350.46 and is all-in, Hero calls $5,350.46

UTG shows 4s 3s (Four of a Kind, Threes) (Pre 40%, Flop 23%, Turn 95%)
Hero shows Th Ad (Full House, Threes full of Tens) (Pre 60%, Flop 77%, Turn 5%)
UTG wins $15,511.92



allrighty, that's all for now, gl next month and see u around or at teh tables...