And if you are just bored, theres always:

Looks like I am going to be moving to Estonia in mid September. Prepare yourselves.

posting once more in this thread so i don't forget to subscribe to it

will know within 2-3 weeks whether im coming down or not, tallinn looks awesome

I'm probably moving to Estonia as well, but as long as you're prepared for Hodge then you'll be adequately prepared for me.

Sorry, I was super drunk yesterday, so ignore our yesterday skype convesation. Also I think you are FR player (I remember you from 2 years ago) and maybe you remember wpr101 (rampage_jackson on 2p2, u met this guy on madrid I think).

So you can ask questions from me and also from him.

About this vodka I have quit funny story. It's cheapest vodka (dont know exact prize but I think 0.5l bottle is $6 or so) in estonia but it's quite OK. I dont drink that because there are better alternatives but as I said it's quite OK and drinkable.

My french friend (pokerplayer) was erasmus in Helsinki couple years ago. Then last year he moved to Estonia and he said that if he were in Erasmus they visited Tallinn many times to buy cheap alcohol. And he asked do we still have this good and cheap vodka with red cap I lolled so hard, how the hell french people know this vodka

Havent seen in estonia lol. Probably only import product.

You can pretty much only buy it in Estonia. I dunno why it says import, but it's essentially impossible to buy online or even in speciality liquor stores in the UK.

Is it possible to find apartments available for rent on a month-by-month basis in Estonia? Does anybody here have experience with short term leases?

Not the best scenario but it's possible. I have some friends who have contracts without deadlines. If u want to end the contract then you have to notify owner 30 days before.

Just got approved for the residency permit! In 2 weeks I will get the Estonian ID card, valid to travel anywhere in the Schengen Zone. I believe my ID card lasts 2 years.

My application was originally put on hold though. If you apply under the "sufficient income" clause it has to be income in the last 6 months. I had tried sending them 2010 IRS documents, and brokerage account statements showing I had way more than needed... they literally don't care if you made a billion dollars last year... you need to show them bank statements for the last six months you made more than 15k euro. Hopefully you didn't run bad at the beginning of the year, and have this :P

By the way, there are other ways you can apply too, like owning a business (of your creation). If you need, I can put you in touch with lawyers who can help.

good to know - congrats!

I'm going to be in Estonia on the last weekend in August - 26-29 (inclusive) so if anyone would be up for showing us a nice restaurant or drinks or something, drop me a PM.

Rampage-

Did you just go to Estonia with your passport and start playing on Stars, and then apply for residency from within the country?

How long did it take to get the residency card after you got them the recent bank statements?

How much did the lawyers cost?

I have to admit I had no doubt that Estonia was just an extension of Russia, but it seems like it might be much different. Minus the cold, looks like theres so much upside. Definitely adding it to the list of places I wouldnt mind living in a Poker House, if and when FTP releases $$$. Id way rather be in Europe over Asia/South America......

PM me or rampage day or two before u arrive. We will show, also 26-29 is weekend - nice timing

Yes. If u are in Estonia, contact with PokerStars support, maybe you need some kind of proof that you are living Estonia (utilty bill etc. - if you don't have, then contact with me, I know some PS workers and I can vouch that you are living in Estonia) and you get reoponed your PokerStars account in hours. He got lawyers in the 2-nd or 3-rd week and got residency this week.

It took for him like 6-8 weeks. Also we had quite bad timing because it's summer right now and lots of people aren't in offices - summer vacations. So it took more time.

Not sure about the cost, probably Rampage give exact cost but I heard it was €1500 or so. But he get very good and professional lawyer - guy who helps to get residency for Skype workers.

I'll tell rampage to check this thread and give more better information,

Lots of people think that but it's totally wrong. Estonia is more similar to America than Russia lol. Also our language is very different from Russian language, it's more finnish than Russian.

Also very good weather right now. Yesterday was this summer record - 32.5 degrees celcius, today coming the similar weather.

Yea, just went with the US passport. It took maybe two weeks of emailing Stars with evidence of being here before I was able to play again. But you definitely don't need the resident permit before you can start playing.

You cannot apply for residency without being here. You kind of have to committ to being living here before you apply for the residency since you need a place of residence here and a health care agreement.

About 2 weeks

The one I used was 980 euro for everything. There was also another lawyer I know who is good and can do it for like 400-500 euro. They were slightly less experienced with residency permits under "sufficient income" which is why I chose the more expensive one. However, both are good, and both can provide a consultation first for a smaller fee.

I haven't been to Russia, but I think culturely some things are similar. In regards to economics/politics, things are way better in Estonia.

Estonia is ranked #1 in internet freedom in the whole world:

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15021424,00.html

Doesn't get much better than that especially since that was the area where we got ****ed over lol.

From the internet freedom article:

The country that comes out on top of this chart is Estonia. And I think a lot of people who read this report may not be familiar with Estonia and Estonia's Internet history. Does it surprise you that Estonia came out on top?

Sarah Cook: Actually Estonia was the best performer in the last edition as well, so it wasn't entirely surprising that Estonia would be at the top. What's incredible about Estonia is that - partly because it's such a small society - is that it's extremely wired, as well as the way in which the government has used e-governance in a very creative way that draws more people to get online and to use the Internet.

One of the things that happened in Estonia in 2007 was that it was hit with very very severe cyber-attacks that brought down big parts of the Internet infrastructure, and the banking, and so forth during a short period. And that hurt Estonia's score last time around, because of the impact it had on Internet freedom for people around the country. In 2009-2010, the period that we're looking at, that kind of cataclysmic event didn't take place. So that helped propel Estonia to remain as the top scorer.

How much of a qualitative difference is there really between Estonia and the US, that by your rubric, have only a difference of three points? And again, the difference between the US and Germany is three points as well.

Sarah Cook: One of the things with this methodology is that you can really see the different strengths and weaknesses of different countries. In the United States you have certain concerns about privacy and surveillance, particularly after the passage of the PATRIOT Act. You also have challenges, in terms of - given the size of the country - connecting everyone, particularly in rural areas, to broadband. So those are some of the differences say, between the United States and Estonia.

With Germany, similarly, there were more restrictions in terms of blocking certain content related to Nazism or hate speech that you perhaps wouldn't find in the United States, and also issues related to defamation, we see in a lot of European countries. And in places like Australia, compared to the United States, as well as several incidents related to surveillance. So those were some of the small differences between these countries, taken into consideration that overall, from a global perspective, the Internet is quite free, although there's always room for improvement.

How is Pokerstars.ee (or whatever the estonian site is)? Is it EXACTLY like playing on Stars? VPPs add up the same, VIP program, etc.?

Yes - as far as I know, the only differences are the branding, the default language and that you cannot make real money transfers.

Oh, a few other things - .ee is 21+ & needs more verification to play RM. It also has different responsible gaming features and various payment/security differences.

+1

+1

Basically the same like PokerStars.com but some extra local promos for Estonian players. You can't make inter-account transfers and you have to be atleast 21 years old.

No extra rake, no different games, nothing