God damn rain

Another 2 weeks down in OZ and time for another update.

This time i start off with poker. Haven't checked results since i posted teh last garph so i actually don't have an actual graph to show unless i would be checking results which i don't want to. But my impression is that not much has happend anyways. Finished february pretty weak in case of volume and earning, mostly bc not running as hot as before and bc of a short 5 day vacation further north during which i haven't played much and when i played is was for sure B+ game at best. Would assume i finished feb around 10k-ish before rakeback and should be up 1.5-3k in march already as well so even if it is not much it is money in my pocket. At the moment Stars has it's 95 billion hand promo which means games are a little bit better (especially during off-peak times) but not by much. Played my 2nd tournament this year couple of hours ago (first was teh supernova freerole which i a little bit moar than mincashed) but this one wasn't going that well. Was some sort of sunday million anniversary special with 7.000.000$ pricepool guaranteed and they ended up having almost 10.000.000$ for grabs with almost 50.000 players willing to pay teh 215$ buyin. First 3 hours were decent and i had some average stack until i get dealt Aces UTG which i raised and 2 people wanted to see teh flop with me. I bet with 20BB behind and one guy decides that his QJs is strong enough to get all teh money in on J52 rainbow - in retrospect a solid play after another Jack hit teh river and i'm out. Was teh first time in tis year that i punched my table :) Anyways, lol_donkaments i guess.
On a sidenote Partypoker, the worlds 3rd biggest onlinepoker room decided that it makes sense so seperate playerpools so that from now on pro's have to play with pro's and fish have to play with fish. So in teh next few weeks their marketshare will drop drastically - if you have any stocks of them, SELL THEM NOW ;)

Playing pretty solid volume atm as well mainly bc weather is atrocious. It's summer here and what i didn't
know it is raining season. So i haven't seen as many rain as teh last 14 days ever (not even in London, not even close...) Good thing when you are playing for a living though is teh freedom you have so after 2 other players who were staying at Byron Bay for some weeks arrived at our house we decided to escape teh weather at least for a couple of days and go further north where teh climate tends to be moar tropical and alot warmer. Fraser Island was teh plan but after we heard that one was flooded we decided to make a trip to teh Whitsunday Islands instead. Teh Whitsundays is like an island group north-east with one of teh sickest beaches worldwide and beautiful landscapes in general - highly recommended.
So 5 of us packed our bags and left on friday teh 22nd with destination Airlie Beach which is like teh gate to teh Whitsundays. It's a small village with only like 4000 inhabitants but shitloads of backpackers who are chilling and travelling to teh different islands there. We prolly would've missed our flight if i wouldn't have checked at teh trainstation how long teh train takes to teh airport so we had to get back to a cab. But in teh end all went well. Rented a house there which had like a supershitty groundfloor and a very nice 2nd floor close to everything. Strangly i was losing a very important flip for teh bedrooms there so that i ended up without a room. So teh next 5 days i slept on different beds and teh couch which wasn't too good so that i was pretty tired all teh time :/

one of my sleeping stations in teh upstairs living room

view from teh balcony

We went out teh first night and unfortunately no club or bar was very busy. Later i got told by a taxi driver that february is prolly teh unbusiest month bc weather in south australia is still very good so that no aussie tourist coming over to Airlie. During teh night we met teh usual 18 or 19 year old girls who just finished school and are travelling around. I swear to god it is basically impossible to meet anyone in their 20s from europe here bc they all working and their life seems already game-over - pretty pathetic when i think about it... I had a discussion with a mate about Australia and all this and teh mainreason why OZ is so hyped (read: overhyped) is that nobody of all teh people who are hyping it like crazy has seen anything of teh world so far (i don't blame them, they just turned full-age.) Obviously those people will tell how sick everything was once they back home but let's be honest you can take any 18year old boy/girl and stick him in his own place in Schwäbisch-Gmünd (insert any other random village here) and they will go mental without their parents around and everything is supercool and whatnot. It's nice and interesting here for sure but some people project it to be some sort of supersick paradise which it is for sure not. I also realized that teh moar teh people already have seen with whom i spoke with teh less impressed they are with down under... Anyways, enough of teh rant and my theories.

words of wisdom in Airlie Beach

Next day was happy hangover times and we went to teh lagoon in Airlie which is like a nice big saltwater pool to chillax. In teh evening Nace managed to book us an island trip with a speedboat to go diving and Whitehaven beach, which is in fact a sick 7km long superwhite sandy beach. Teh trip was allright but still fairly overpriced imo. We payed like 150$ p.P. for 60mins of snorkling, driving around with teh boat a little and 60mins on teh beach. Obviously we managed to get on teh boat with teh least attractive people and 2 chicks were so fat that i was in permanent fear of teh boat not making it back. In teh end we survived though...

Whitehaven in teh back

Viewpoint 2km from Whitehaven

On Whitehaven

Next day i woke up early to grind a little and teh guys rented a van in teh meanwhile so that we decided to make a trip to teh waterfalls nearby. That actually turned out to be good fun bc there were only 2 groups besides us, teh weather was good and it was a quite amazing location:

Posing

Waterfall

Since Airlie wasn't too busy i decided to definitely go back to Broadbeach on wednesday to be able to grind during teh 95billion hands promotion. On tuesday we did another trip with teh van which wasn't as good as teh waterfalls unfortunately. Tried out some nearby beaches but non off them were supernice in particular and in teh end rain sent us back home.
Overall was a very cool and relaxed trip to Airlie though, something like holiday during teh work & travel holiday ;) If you come to OZ definitely give it a shot but prolly aim moar for something like july/august when it will be way moar busy and prolly much nicer.

Airlie Beach

low tide and sunset at some random beach

3 of teh boys before boarding teh speedboat

hangoverments

teh timstone

teh lagoon

fucking awesome birds :)

feeding teh cockatoos

As being said i came back on wednesday 27th and been grinding and working out since then bc teh weather is still - shiat. On teh other hand this was good in regards to putting in some hours during teh promotion.
At teh moment our house is in full force with 6 boys and a gf of one of those boys but it will not stay like that for too long.

Changed my nutrition pretty much away from all those nasty pizza and pasta to chicken and fish only while still doing alot of cardio and gym sessions. I have a 24hour gym around teh corner here which defininitely helps... Since Sydney 14th january i lost 7kg so that i'm down to 78kg now. Losing like 1kg per week seems a good way to go. Sixpack is coming back slowly and i guess once i hit 75 i will reevaluate if that is enough or not. Really have a good feeling that i might manage to get back to my unique 2008 south france shape :)

Since i have too much money anyways and got alot of complaints about picture quality i decided to buy another Samsung Galaxy product today:

Galaxy Cam

It's not some supersick camera but pics should be way better compared to teh phone + you can go online and send texts with that badboy, only for calls you need an actual phone. Cannot say much about it yet, will get an update if i'm satisfied with it once i used it a couple of times.

Also i'm back to learning fucking spanish again after i took a break for like 3 months. Purchased a Rosetta Stone course and they seem to have a pretty unique learning method without translations. Was kinda expensive compared to my old course from babbel.com but it's defnitely moar fun so far and i have to be prepared when going back to South America. I'm going to kill myself if i don't have at least teh very basics down until then.

That's it for teh blog for now. I'm around 4 weeks moar in our house here (forgot to mention: won flip for masterbedroom in march vs. Tyler again) and then take a flight from Brisbane to Bali where i will stay until teh 20th in this beautiful place with a non-poker friend from Germany and from what it looks a swedish kid from Malta comes around for something like 10 days as well:

Villa for April in Bali

If you have time and want to come along please feel free to enquire. As for now we only have 2 bedrooms but place looks spacious enough to accomodate at least a 3rd person.
After Bali i'm not sure yet. I definitely want to visit a mate in Doha on my way back to Malta and maybe also do Dubai for 2 or 3 days once i'm in teh area. Might as well go somewhere in Asia after Bali for another 2 weeks before going back. Haven't decided yet but prolly i have enough after almost 4 months on teh road and am happy to return to my 2nd home: Teh rock!

Have to go for a run now,

peaze out