Pffft, I've only spent about 5 or 6 days in Total in AC so my experience is limited there, but I think it would be a pretty tough place to live. There is a lot of serious crime there, I think its the last place I would live from the places I went to. Subic was ok and seemed a lot safer.

One place you might not have thought of that I thought wasn't a bad place is Baguio, Its a city at the gateway to the northern mountains, because its higher up its a bit cooler than most other places in Phils too.

@Kick2

I've told you a couple times now man, if you are looking for a cheaper part of the Philippines then Manila, that still has soild live poker action, Cebu is your place.

Now I've never been to AC or Davou, and I'll be honest about that, but I am still going to recommend Cebu, if not Manila.

I remember seeing a full on apartment complex in a decent part of the city, for only a little over $200 a month, and this was for a full apartment, not just a room somewhere.

If you are willing to, you can send me your exact expected net worth upon arrival in the Philippines and I can give you my best plan for how you should budget it.

I am very good at both money management and budgeting for living in the Philippines, so I'd say I could give you some pretty good advice in this area.

Bagiuo was freezing when I was there, very picturesque but seemed like a little sleepy town with limited night life from my experience.

The weather was perfect when I was there. Night life there was enough to keep me entertained for a few nights, so if night life is top of the list I'd say don't go. Also I don't think there is much in the way of karaoke/girlie bars if that is what K2 is after, its just more regular nightspots.

There is also a big university there that caters to Koreans learning English, there was a lot of very good looking Korean girls there for anyone that has a bit of game.

I went to Cebu and I would 100% say Cebu before AC. AC is a place to go party for a few days, not a place to live imo.

I could not live in AC. Wasn't the live poker there **** as well VV?

I certainly wouldn't go there to play for an income. Wild aces was ok for fun but the tourney structures were a total crapshoot, the cash games you would need to be really selective as the tables were populated by local nits just waiting for big hands to catch out the tourists. I wouldn't say there was a lot of value in those games unless you make sure you sit at a game with at least 50% tourists donking off.

I looked in at double aces, no way I would play in there. They had 1 table running with about 4 local players just waiting for the tourist fish to arrive, no way I would trust that game. It was actually really funny as when we walked in all the smiley faces turned around and started encouraging us to sit down, my friends would have done as they know no better, but it was obvious they were just waiting for the suckers

I heard there is a casino somewhere away from fields that has games that are populated by Koreans but I didn't make it out there to check it out. There are a couple of other places too, but I have zero knowledge of them.

if k2d moves to Ac , i would love to read the t\r

pls do not do it

itt isnt the internet pretty bad in cebu? that is up there for biggest concerns, way bigger of an issue than live poker, plus i believe uve said that the most common game in cebu is 25-50 and imo thats not even worth playing, or am i wrong and did u say that 50-100 is commonly run? still thats kind of a small game unless its just crazy action


so i almost did what paulb hates and just started asking random questions about baguio but instead i googled it, 300k population, on luzon, average temperature throughout the year is mid 70's (which sounds awesome, im somewhat used to heat now even though i dont like it, but heat + humidity isnt gonna be much fun)

it says the rainy season is really rough there

vucking while you were there did you hear anything about live poker? see many white people? would i stand out a ton or blend in some? and most importantly did you use the internet at all? if so would u consider it reliable?

it also said half the population of the city are students (no joke, says that on the wikipedia page) so might be an easier place to find the greenery

ive heard the internet in AC and clark might be the best in the country or up there with manila, since im gonna be playing online every day thats huge

also i like that there are a lot of tourists in AC, lots of white people there and in clark, and that in clark there is the duty free zone where i will be able to find lots of stuff that i wont be able to get in the rest of the country

also there are apts in the $200 a month range

thanks and always appreciate any suggestions or constructive criticism to my plans

I can imagine the rainy season might be rough in Baguio, but the rainy season is pretty rough in many parts of the phils. Heard nothing about live poker in Baguio but didn't particularly look tbh.

There wasn't a massive amount of white people in Baguio, just the odd one here and there, but that is a good thing if you ask me. You probably will stand out a bit, but I did feel reasonably safe there. No idea about the internet sorry, just get a back up line imo.

There is a thread about some guys living in Cebu on here, ask them about the internet in Cebu. In fact if they have space why don't you stay with them for a month until you find your feet?

As far as game sizes go, the only place I saw bigger than 25/50 was in Manila.

Seriously mate, AC is a real **** hole, and you have to be really careful safetywise too, I strongly recommend you don't start off there, by all means go for a few days partying but don't set your stall up there when you arrive.

Did I miss anything?

k2d

my advice would be to to make your personal safety your number 1 priority .
And take it slowly once you arrive .
As you have not got anyone to meet and greet you , i still think the best advice given to you so far is to book a hotel and i would suggest you stick to manilla or cebu .
I think venturing out further away from there could be to much to soon.
Admire you courage to go but i would take it slowly once there.

also , just because some one is white and a fellow foreigner does not mean they are not out to scam you

Yup, plenty of westerners in Asia in general that are there and finding it difficult to make ends meet. A newbie would be an easy target for some extra $$$.

meh personal safety, obv ive gotta a pretty big amount of "dont give a f..." in me if im doing this in the first place

naw vucking i think u covered it all, im sure ill have more questions coming (cuz thats what i do) but thanks a lot, i really like the cooler climate suggestion, the wiki page makes it sound like rainy season is even worse there than most areas though

oh, i guess i just thought of another, would you expect the apartments to be nice enough? not looking for fancy or anything like that, but liveable, hot water, decent enough for someone who is used to being spoiled in the us

you probably werent in any of them, but just going by how nice/modern the rest of the city was

good call on asking the cebu guys about the internet and will do right now, not really the type of guy to just jump into a house where 4 guys have been living together for awhile though, not a fan of roommates and really excited to go back into my online poker cave and just get away from people for a bit after being out every single day since black friday

i definitely believe this, and im not a trusting person at all, but got a ? about it

is there any reasonable chance that a white person that says they can get me a small amount of green stuff is a cop or going to be working with the cops to set me up to get a bribe?


im assuming you mean scam me in another way, but what about that one? or if they are trying to scam me with something like that would it just be more of a flat out robbery?

No idea about apartments mate. I wouldn't say the city was necessarily any 'nicer' than Manila or Cebu as such as they are all ****holes compared to what we are used to in the west.

But because its smaller it just had a nicer friendlier feel to it. In fact I would say in general the smaller the place the friendlier it is from the places I went, but I would exclude AC from that equation.

Subic was actually ok tbh, but it is pretty small so you might get bored there.

can not answer that one for you as i do not spend any time with other foreigners
and do not share that hobby any more
make friends , take your time and be aware what can happen if you get in trouble
google the laws on that , with out money to help you out , inside time will be long and bad

agree with what VV said about the smaller the friendlier
problem could be internet
you really need to check that it works well enough before moving in some where

you mentioned warm showers
i never ever have a warm shower there and i hate cold showers !!
you will probably be glad to have aircon initially but i only use fans now , helps me adjust to heat and humidity better.

Yes defiantly a reasonable chance you would be unlucky but it's a possibility. and if you get a street hustler whispering weed/coke into your ear ignore them or reasonable chance turns into most likely working with police to rinse foreigners.

AC is hardly a tourists place, the actual fields ave area where the bars is very small and half of those tourists are Asian the other half are washed up tired old boys wiling away meager pensions, and you get a few groups of lads smashing thought at the weekends. Any where outside of that small area is gnarly as ****.

Before you said to me in a pm you were gonna spend 98% of your time indoors grinding online. If that really is the case why is live poker so important?

If that is the plan he should just stay at home.

Except that home is the U.S. where online poker isn't really a viable option these days.

Personally if I was going to do pretty much only online, and no live at all, I'd go back to Thailand not the Philippines. Er, well probably so anyway.

But certainly I'd recommend Thailand over the Philippines to most people if they were just interested in online play.

I suppose we've already beaten that suggestion to death in this thread though, and K2D seems pretty confident, Philippines over Thailand.

Cebu isn't really cheaper than manila. I had a very tough time finding a 2br 1.5bath apartment for ~$650. It should be easier in the middle of rainy season though but no way $200/mo for anything close to decent or in a good part of town imo.

Internet is ok for grinding but you have to make sure PLDT is available and get the best package for around $100/mo. I highly doubt Baguio or davao would have better internet options.

The 50/100 games ran pretty regularly and played huge. If you can't afford a $500+/mo place this game will definitely not be "too small for you".

The place I was talking about before, was inside an area called Gonzalas Compound.

The area itself is lived in by average - poor Filipinos, this is true. But if you just walk 3-5 minutes you get to the edge of it and now you are right there in the city proper.

It runs out into Gorordo Ave. and is within walking distance (only about 15 minutes walk,) of Ayala Mall.

It's a short cab ride to Mango (which is the main night life area K2D and others that haven't been there.)

IMO Cebu City is small enough, that there are few areas that are truly bad location wise, but certainly one that is that close to both Ayala and Mango is in an at least ok location.

I didn't actually look inside the building, but the outside of it looked like it was kept up well, and looked like a fairly standard western quality apartment building. When the girl I was with at the time asked them how much it cost, they told her 8k a month. That's a bit less then $200 actually. Of course utilities and what not would be added on top of that, but still just saying there are places that cheap available.

i definitely know not to trust anyone who is walking up and offering me anything, my sort of backup backup plan if all else fails to find greenery is to ask white people in bars that look like smokers, though im hoping to avoid having to do this

live poker is important because ive heard the online games are a lot tougher now, and if thats true and i cant beat them it would be nice to have another option to make money

also just as it would be really nice to break the playing live every day rut that i am in right now it would be nice to be able to break the playing online every day rut that may occur, though its much better online than live

ITT is that going to be the type of place where the white person stands out like a soar thumb and they are gonna take any chance they can get to scam/rob me?