Oh he just bought a new motorcycle. Maybe he can do some "motorcycle dwelling" videos.

Good to know he's physically okay.

Hyundai Tucson? Nice OG. Trooper going to get some Pune.... The laaadies

Thanks. I couldn't figure it out. Looks like it probably is a Tucson.

As for Bikeking, "Vegas vlogger" was what attracted my attention and interest to his videos. Now that he's not Vegas, I may pull away...that is, until he comes back to Sin City.

He could actually follow Trooper's original Florida to Vegas path and possibly make it work. 2k bankroll and Desert Manor and all.

I’m glad he posted an update and he’s alright.

He posts on instagram and twitter all the time, so anyone concerned could follow him there.

He just bought another Bike? Didn't he have a major accident on one already?

Same one as what Tom Cruise rode in the movie Top Gun.

How the F is he going on a cruise?!?!

Has to be mom and dad paying, right?

Dan B is doing it better imo

Can't we lock this thread?
OP hasn't posted here since Vuarnet t-shirts were cool.

Don't cruises cost like $200?

I thought 1K+

Either way....he went broke living in his car, and now is going on cruises and flipping a motorcycle

He said he likes the west coast better. He's going back to Vegas in a couple of weeks after the cruise.

Apparently he likes the rough and dangerous life.

The Trooper Vegas Plan. There is a tour of Desert Manor around 14 min mark

A lot of casinos comp cruises and port fee are usually around $300

I have also seen 3 day cruises of around 3 hundred. Otherwise 800-2k from what I recall

It varies, of course, by cruise line and by cabin category, but a good rule of thumb for a basic cabin on most mass market cruise lines is $100 per person per day, based on double occupancy. Repositioning cruises are cheaper.

I cannot believe this thread is still getting replies.

Same here.

There is no shame in giving things a go and backing off either permanently or temporarily when they don't work out. To his credit he did survive for quite a while in Vegas and then,rather than going completely broke and homeless, he did at long last get a temporary job for Poker News.

Believe it or not, there are more important things in life than being a "poker pro".

The OG moved out of Vegas in 2008 I believe. He was dealing at The Golden Nugget. He then came back in 2014 and started a revolution.

Andrew is back at home in Michigan with his parents after the LATB fiasco.

No shame. Hang in there BK

And we're back. Except we're gone, but we will be back, to Vegas, soon, likely.

PokerNews: So, World Series was a blur, I picked up a few extra days doing shadow editing, ended up earning $2,100 for my writing skills. It was pretty interesting, I quickly discovered two things; 1. Poker reporting is not as simple as it looks. 2. Pokernews does it best in the industry and it's not even close. It was a pretty interesting experience, reporting is very busy, which is why the last vlog of reporting was lacking in quality (in before, "aren't they all.") Writing up day intros and recaps, typing in the structure, updating every notable entry and bust out, getting stack sizes when many people stack their chips in uneven stacks, etc. You develop an interesting dynamic with the players, especially if you cover the tournament multiple days, you get to "know" a lot of them and it's almost like you're on everyone's rail, a lot of players are happy to talk to the media about a hand or how many chips they have etc, there's a few scumballs but, if you're on this forum you know that. I don't think I would like to do reporting full time though, it's usually 12 hour plus days being kept quite busy and it's a pretty pressure heavy job having only you and maybe one other person helping you to cover hundreds of people. I assume with more experience the pay also increases but it was working out to around $15/hr for reporting and for that I don't think it's worth it to pursue full time. Despite the few cons I still enjoyed the opportunity and would do it again for Pokernews or other media, getting to see and report on someone going from the start of the tournament to winning it is pretty cool and there were some cool stories like Shaun Deeb live multitabling then getting slowrolled the next day, a PLO rec player with zero people on his rail took down a bracelet winner over a four hour heads up match, there were some cool stories for sure, although at the end of the day I'd much rather be playing events than reporting on them.

The House: Currently the car is in Vegas, it blew a valve cover gasket and I was attempting to fix it myself, in theroy it's a pretty easy job however the valve cover is stuck very snugly to the head of the engine and I was having problems removing it, I was able to crash at a friends house, if it does have to go to the shop it won't be a very costly fix, few hundred at the most. I know my vlog and thread may have turned some people off of Prius's or hybrids with the problems I've had, but I do not at all regret owning one. Remember it's a 14 year old car spending it's life outside in the FL or NV heat, and if I had the enough money to get a new hybrid battery like I should have done the first time there were multiple bad cells I wouldn't have had any other problems with driving it almost litterally all the time. It's also a second generation, hybrid technology has come in leaps and bounds since 14 years ago, and I've also put around $1,500 total in repairs and upkeep to it and have pretty easily saved that in gas. I just need to bink something and get a Tesla, that was already my "attainable" dream car and now apparently it's also a vlogger car with Johnnie Vibes and Jaman Burton.

FL: As the main event was wrapping up I flew back home to FL for a surprise birthday party for my mom. Cheap plane tickets pop up pretty often and there wasn't a cheap return ticket when I booked it so I just left it open planning to hop on a cheap flight when one popped up. After the party tickets stayed pretty expensive for a few weeks they didn't really come down until last week. I'll be going on a cruise in September that leaves from Miami so instead of flying back to Vegas and then having to buy another roundtrip ticket to Miami I elected to just stay here for a few more weeks since it's a relatively slow time for poker in Vegas right now and there's not an immediate need to get back. I've been able to pick up some work working for my buddy's landscape company earning me 1k or so, and also picked up a little work writing some articles (no link yet) for 9to5poker reviewing Upswing courses and RaiseYourEdge courses. The courses I have access to total around $4,000 so simply that is pretty great, the courses are very thorough and cover a lot of concepts and I definitely discovered a few leaks of mine. My parents have two cars and both work, so having no transportation has been rough, this part of FL doesn't even have UberEats yet so Uber and Lyft is significantly more expensive out here than Vegas, I actually ended up buying a motorcycle that's a classic "nitcast story." I was looking for some cheap wheels, 1k or less, preferably less, I could get and then sell for around what I bought it for as the cheapest rental I found was at $250/week, and being mechanically inclined if it has minor mechanical issues I can likely do the work myself for pretty cheap. Anyways, I came across this old sport bike, 1986 Kawasaki Ninja 1000, the bike Tom Cruise rode in Top Gun complete with the devil decal on the tail light and all. (Although I think he technically rode the 900cc version) Anyways it was for sale for $1,000 and it needed some work after sitting in storage for 5 years, but for what it was it's in pretty decent shape. In the ad he also listed that he was also willing to trade for a working riding lawn mower, so I did a quick search for a lawn mower, found a good one for $250, borrowed a truck to buy the mower, then one hour later dropped it off and traded it for the bike. Put around $200 worth of parts into it with new fuel lines, flush all the fluids, new spark plugs, rebuild the carburetors, surface rust removal, etc. and I've almost got it back on the road now and with having so little invested in it, it shouldn't be hard to find a buyer to turn a profit of 1k or so at least, plus it's given me something to do with the nearest poker room about a half hour away, haven't been able to play much except a little bit online which has been a little tilting.

Homeless and In a Relationship?: Yeah so, about that cruise I'm going on with "friends..." it's actually only going to be one friend, who's a female, who likes me, of her own free will! I'm really not sure how much personal stuff I should include in here, I've put a lot out there but now I have someone else to consider as well and she's definitely on the introvert/shy side which is why I haven't even mentioned her in the vlog yet. But I'll at least put the bullet points. 1. Currently long distance relationship. 2. Yes, we skype often, verified it's not an elaborate catfish. 3. She's also a Christian. 4. Without going into details, she doesn't have to work for the rest of her life (no she's not old, she's actually younger than me). 5. She's cool with poker. 6. She's a far better person than I deserve, which is why I really hesitate to bring her up because well, it's the internet, literally get people commentating to go kill myself pretty regularly don't even really want to think how introducing a girl would go over with the trolls. So yeah, life's gotten kinda weird with this thrown into the mix, despite the jokes, two people living in a Prius is obviously out of the question if this relationship does eventually lead to marriage. (No we're not talking about it so soon, just thinking big picture down the road) and what all that would look like. Poker is a hard profession to have a significant other in, I've had a few dates where there was not a second one simply because of poker. After the cruise I'll be headed back to Vegas.

As my friend Chase Bianchi says "there's nothing wrong with keeping poker as a hobby", and that's very true. It's not simply poker that I've really found a fascination with, it's the industry as a whole, all the people and experiences I've had which I would have never gotten had I been working full time, obviously, there's the freedom of schedule factor, it's pretty great, even when not on the best financial terms. If you don't love it, than yea it can be terrible poker for sure has a lot of cons, but for me, the pros still outweigh them.

Really good point with the mini movie, I think videos are much more succesful when structured with that in mind. Thanks.

Well, aside from being a million times better than Job currently, God has always more than provided for me being in great health, never going hungry, never wondering how I'm going to put gas in my car, there's quite a lot to be thankful for really. And I also have some good Godly poker peers which is a big part of my decisions who have shown really great support for me, if they saw me in a down spiral they would be quick to address it.

Seems like it'd be a lot easier to simply disappear than attempt to keep misleading people with no value in it. I look at nearly everything in my life in plus or minus ev, what value is there to keep up a facade and make up all this fake stuff? With all the people I've met IRL, some of them on here and good friends of mine, wouldn't somebody call me out? I forget his screenname, but there is a guy who reads my thread I nearly moved in with when I had the falling out with my roommate and moved into my car who could verify I was ready to pay $600/monthr. It continues to surprise people that something so unorthodox can be fine.

I'm way too much of a nit to be a degenerate, if I was truly a degen would I simply focus on soley poker and nothing else in Las Vegas degen heaven and then make up fake results for that and write and vlog about it? Possibly I guess, you're entitled to your own opinon. There's quite a bit of money in aviation, but again, believe what you want. For six figures you'd almost certainly be required to travel overseas, for in states A&P with every avionics cert 60-75k is around what you'd be looking at for a solid job.

Thanks for the support!

I know some pros who have been it for quite awhile and still love it, I don't think because you choose poker you're giving up a better life. I don't believe it's on there any more, but there was a pretty interesting documentary on happieness in life and they went around the world talking to people from all sorts of backgrounds and living conditions and to neuro scientiests explaining how our mind processes happieness and the chemical reaction that takes place, they found one man in some third world country it escapes me ATM but he was a rickshaw driver walking several miles a day living in a mud hut with a large family, loving life. It's clear "success" and money do not buy happiness, so I don't really see the point that you could have been so much happier if you had a real job.

You say you sub and unsub all the time, good for you but since it's free, not sure what you're complaning about.
Put on 20 pounds of muscle since the start of the year, can deadlift 200 lb. now I think I started at 150. Must be a bad camera angle.

This one was around $450 for a 7 night cruise, and the girl wanted to pay for it which I did not object to. Probably take some flack for it, because internet, but w/e.

Thank you on the update, Bikeking. I am glad things are going well for you and congratulate you on your relationship.

Good to hear from you, Your Bike Highness.

What poker leaks of yours did you find from reviewing the courses?

Congrats on the muscle gain, especially since it didn't seem like you were eating enough for someone with a fast metabolism, but apparently you were.

What's your specific plan when you return to Vegas?

Dude scored a girl with loot who dont mind spending it.

Just curious, do you think there will ever come a time when you will tell the truth
about your "scammed" money or have you told yourself the lie so many times that you have accepted it as the truth?

Obviously you cant answer yes, this is more of a question for our own mind to answer.

Enjoy the cruise and the loads of deep sea poontang headed your way.

Hooking up with a gal with a good JOB or retirement fund is very positive EV. Some of the best pros do this like Bob Dancer and Johnnie Vibes. Hold on to her tight BK!!