20,000$+ Charity project - Let's be a change!
10-20-2013
, 08:25 AM
Hello Twoplustwo!
I want you to be a part of my project. It is not just a project, it’s a dedication. I got really lucky in life lastly and I want to give something back. Who I am and why it means so much to me is all written out below, but first I want to tell you what my idea is all about.
The plan
I will grind NL500 Zoom the next 20 days straight and I will to donate 50% of my winnings to charity. In addition to that, I will match all of your donations offered in this thread, up to a total of $20,000. So if you donate $50, I’ll donate $50 too. This is an opportunity for you to help make the world a better place, twice as fast as you could by donating elsewhere!
Your money is safe
Because I’m new to the community and I’ve heard that things went wrong with another charity project, OMGClayDol (MissOracle on PokerStars) will function as an escrow. As far as I know he has one of the best possible reputations. I’m really happy that he offered to receive the funds you want to donate so you can be 100% sure that your money is safe. Furthermore I’ve already sent him 10,000$, so you can be 100% sure that I match the money you donate.
The project
The project I’ve chosen to help is “Casa Esperanza” (http://www.casa-esperanza.de/Casa_Es...illkommen.html) in Valdivia/Chile. It’s a house for children who have lost their families or grown up in absolute poverty. More than 40% of the children in Chile live in a state of absolute poverty. The house provides support almost like a new family for all the kids and they all receive therapeutic care and education. They have 12 kids right now – without such support most of them will be waifs without any hope by the age of 16 and will most likely die very young. 100% of the money donated is going to the children’s home. I’m already in contact with the organization.
Next year I’m going to South America and I plan on visiting the children’s home and making a video of my visit, and hopefully document what we have helped to make happen with the money donated.
My story
So, I’ve reached the point where I want to share my story with you, the community of 2+2, because you are the reason I’m able to pursue my dreams the way I do. I’ll be mainly writing about poker, my travels and my life, but future plans and projects and some drunken stories will find their way in here too (that's why 95% of you will read the blog, I know). I'm happy whether you just enjoy reading it, dropping in a comment or even if you just don’t care about it (but that’s the least +EV option).
My name is Fedor, I turned 20 two months ago and I’ve been playing poker for 2 years now. Since I was a kid I had a huge interest in human behavior. I think my biggest strengths have always been a strong sense of empathy, a very sharp mind and the ability to just see people as they are, not as someone else told you they might be. I started studying informatics (just because I didn't know what to do and my family expected me to study) when I finished school at the age of 17, but dropped out after a year. The main reason was a deep lack of motivation. I am a very perfectionistic and passionate person, meaning that I work harder than anyone when I have a passion for something, but that I don't value "normal" things which other people might do. So basically every time I couldn't feed my inner hunger I felt an empty hole inside me and lost grip of reality. This has since drastically changed.
Last year I was living in a small flat in a boring city in Germany, had just dropped out of Uni and didn't know what to do with my life. And this was serious. I would go without food for two days without even noticing. I read books, watched TV series and couldn't even remember what they were about the next day. I just killed time. Around that time a friend of mine came back from an exchange to the US. He had become really good at sports, especially running. I played soccer from time to time but other than that I didn't do any sports at all. I will never forget the day when all of a sudden my motivation came back. I will always remember the moment when I heard about his progress and thought that I could never be as good as him.
I read this sentence over and over again and it just changed something in my mind. I can be as good as him and I even get can better. I just have to want it and stop procrastinating. Stop giving up. I wanted to beat his best time at 10 km which was 38:58 minutes (although he probably could do better) and I started running every day, at least six times a week while still playing football and doing workouts. It took me three months to beat his time by 2 seconds. Three days later someone broke my ankle in three places by shooting a glass bottle at it during a festival and I wasn't able to do sport for the next 8 months. I don't really know why I started it or why it was so important for me to achieve this, but it totally changed my view of life.
It took me half a year to understand something really important: You never know what's best for you and you never will, but you HAVE to change your life if you don't feel right. Never let yourself down and give yourself a shot to reach things you would never have dreamed of!
My life-changing decision was to start a world trip in January of 2013. Last year I grinded a lot both live and online and even though I was running really bad in my online staking (big thanks to Dönig for the trust he continued to place into me) I was able to win two big live tourneys in a row (WTF rungood) for a combined €35k. At this point I have to mention that without David and Adrian, two close friends I met on a German poker forum, I wouldn't be the person I am today. We spoke on Skype close to every day and back then I doubled David's bankroll because he had a big chunk of my live action (this will become important later on!).
I quit the contract for my flat and spent close to my whole bankroll on travel expenses, and I still think that I've never invested money so wisely as that. I travelled together with my friend Adrian and had the best time of my life. I learned so many things on these travels and that is one of the reasons I am where I am today. Here’s the story.
We spent a month in South Africa travelling along the Garden Route. We did a 212 meter high bridge bungee jump, partied a lot along the way, got to know a lot of really nice people and hiked the Table Mountain in Capetown (you have to do that once in your life!). These experiences totally blew our minds. The feeling up there is just amazing.
After this incredible month I stayed at Koray's house in Vienna, who was just a friend of a friend who kindly let me stay at his place after just a short phone call - we are good friends today - and we grinded the GSOP and WPT Baden for 20 days, where I took 10th in the Main event (AK < QQ). David just spontaneously took a flight when he heard that I was at the final two tables and came to rail me. I took the bus and lost him in the casino. LOL. (This is just a short preview of the drunken stories part of this!)
I took some time off and planned my next trip to Asia with Adrian. In March we started our 30 day journey across Vietnam, Cambodia (Angkor Wat is amazing!), and Thailand and then took a flight to Koh Phangan where we celebrated the Full Moon Party. In Koh Phangan I sat on the beach, clicked five tourneys and won a satellite to the EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final which utterly freaked me out!
I came back from Asia in April and immediately took a flight to Valencia to kick off a 15 day tour of Spain for the Estrellas Poker Tour (where I came 2nd in the High Roller) along with two other guys I barely knew from Austria. The hotel in Valencia was awesome but cheap at the same time. We went on playing the WPT Barcelona (where I made a tell-based hero-call against a fish-reg and was busted for a 170bb pot right at the end of day two by a 6-outer) and the MPS Madrid (where I played like a monkey). After this trip the two guys I was travelling with and I became good friends and they asked me if I wanted to move into their apartment in Vienna after I finished travelling. I mentally snap-called this offer (but balanced my range with a 1-day tank).
From Spain I took a flight to Berlin to play the full schedule of the EPT there. We rented an apartment with four other German poker players and a Danish PLO player called Mads, who I now stake and who is a good friend of mine today. Furthermore I got to know Julian and Rainer, two really amazing guys I am happy to call good friends. Berlin was the best EPT I had played in thus far, even though I didn't cash a single tourney (**** that Berlin Cup High Roller!). I just had an amazing time with really nice people and I got to know so many different players and even though I ran really bad at poker I ran insanely hot with (hot) girls - not sure whether she still thinks I'm a famous actor or not.
My next stop was the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo. I invited my best friend to join me and we had a relaxing stay in a nice hotel with an awesome view. I busted my 135k stack in the Main Event on Day 2 (set < set, AK < AA), but had an insane bout of run-good in the €1.1k turbo and chopped it heads up for €35k. Overall I liked the trip but I didn't like the city, it just seemed to be about paying a lot of money for things that are not worth it and that made me feel uncomfortable coming from a family where money was always treated with a lot of respect.
Some weeks after Monaco I had a really sick run with shares and that's the first time my bankroll hit the six figure mark. So after all this grinding, travelling, selling big chunks of shares for everything, I could finally be a little bit less stressed about my own financial situation. More than $100,000 in my account was a crazy feeling. The first thing I did was to buy my mother a new car, because she had this ****ty 20 year old car for like a decade and I couldn't think of anything better to do with the money. Other than that I didn't want to buy anything special, but I had a plan to start a stable.
It took me a lot of days and hard work to set everything up to have a good foundation for my stable. I talked a lot with people about their experiences and most importantly about how to find good horses. Finally I started staking some MTT players for mid-stakes and I really got into the whole stable thing. I couldn't be more happy to run into Ryan 'protentialmn' at that time, because with just a 5 minute chat he opened my eyes about a lot of things and I realized that I still had and still have to learn so many things. I had some tough decisions to make but based on the feedback I continue to get I think I'm doing something right. I trust my horses and I think it is very important and definitely possible to have a good personal relationship without forgetting about the business side. Right now I have seven horses and I'm more than happy about having each of them in my stable. I believe in all of them and actually I am really proud of their progress so far and that I can be part of that progress.
In June I returned to Vienna for a couple of weeks, bought myself a really nice new grind station setup and started grinding and working hard on my HU capped game, while looking around for more MTT players to stake and work with. I think since this moment my skill level has improved dramatically. I’ve just tried to improve my overall understanding of poker and I have had several coaching sessions for in high-stakes HU capped games, 6-max hypers, MTTs (especially turbos) and HU SNGs. I think my biggest leaks at that time were combinatorics and bet sizings, especially on the river. I became really good at manipulating and exploiting ranges with bet sizes and you can literally feel every tourney you play how you keep getting better and better and it feels like a new world keeps opening up in front of you.
I started to put in a lot of volume and set myself the goal of making 50k in VPPs or $25k profit in one week, because I wanted to buy myself a watch I really fell in love with. So I was grinding 6-max hypers and cash game HUs non-stop and MTT sessions in the evening. On day two I chopped the Super Tuesday (run hotter…) for $70k. Challenge over! I spent ten days in Italy after the ship travelling by train and enjoyed beautiful cities like Venice, Florence and Rome.
In August "TeamGatsbyKempinho" (which includes most of the friends I have named so far - all of them good German poker players) started their grind at WPT Cyprus. On the first day, which was a Sunday, I won the FTOPS #20 (...than the sun!). These two weeks were just totally amazing, because it was a really good mixture of poker, enjoying the beach and just having your best friends around you while winning a lot of money. The team won the $1k Sunday Warmup for $66k, two side events for $30k combined and scored a lot of min cashes. I bubbled the $10k High Roller (JJ < AK) which Marvin took down. Grinding is serious business! ;-)
Our next stop was EPT Barcelona. We rented an apartment in the middle of the city and I still can't decide if Barcelona was better than Cyprus, even though we had more opportunities to go crazy party-wise. The team had two deep runs in the Main Event and I had 120% shares left on day five (bought 155% total, lol). So even though I didn't cash a single tourney I was up a lot over both trips, because we swapped and I bought a lot of action from my friends, especially David who came 40th in the Main (huge pot AK < 88 > JJ). Brag: Got with a Dutch girl last night. Beat: My friend took my shoes instead of his when he left (HOW THE ****??!).
After grinding live for four weeks straight I’d had enough of poker for a bit and I was really looking forward to my next trip: I planned a 14 day tour of Scandinavia with my best friend. He’s really down to earth, which is what I love about him, because in a way he always reminds me of where I come from. We met in Stockholm in September (me without shoes, like a boss) and we stayed there in an awesome hostel in the city center. We took an overnight bus to Oslo and the Bergen Railway the next day. The view from the train was already incredible, but just a small preview of what was waiting for us. From Bergen we rented a car, slept in the car and did a 7 hour hike of the Trolltunga the next morning. In our photos it looks nice, but in reality the view just blows you away. I’ve had that incredible feeling only once before - when sitting on the edge of Table mountain.
From Norway we took a ferry to Denmark two days later and stayed two days at the house of my first ever horse, Mads. He was a really good host and it was a nice feeling to get back to civilization after sleeping in the car for 3 days (the smell of my socks was incredisgusting). He lives in Aarhus (try the bagel shop - tooo gooood!) so we stayed there for 2 days and took a train to Copenhagen the next day. Our stay in Copenhagen was relaxed and we enjoyed the character of the city - and the mermaid!
After this exciting journey I took some days off and visited my family to tell them that I’d booked five seats on a flight to New York and rented an apartment over New Year’s Eve. They really freaked out and I couldn't imagine a better way to have spent my money. Right after that my next destination was Dublin - and it was a good choice. I went to the Guinness Factory with three friends and we drank a Guinness in the "Gravity Bar" on the 9th floor of the building with amazing views (yeah, I like amazing views). At night we joined a Pub Crawl and experienced the night life of Dublin, which is something really special and exactly the type of partying I like. You just go into a random bar with nice live music and a lot of drunk people, but it's still possible to talk to people (e.g. girls, lots of hot gurrrls). We drank a lot and in the last bar I hooked up with a cute Spanish girl. We've also been to Howth the day before - a really amazing place at the coast to relax.
But because I'm a bad boy I left the spanish girl the next day to play the EPT in London (...but because girls like bad boys she told me that she has an apartment in Barcelona and invited me to visit! :3).
In London we stayed at the Russell Hotel (mehhhhish), I sneaked onto Martin Finger's Championship photo (brag) and I busted the Main after 6 hours vs. Vicky Coren (sick beat). Then I came 9th in the 2k Turbo (QQ < KK for CL and 44 < JJ > AK, FML^2). Actually that is everything I can tell you about London - I'm really mad with myself that I didn't go and discover the city.
Some days before that David (you remember him?) invited me to his big birthday and celebration party two days later to celebrate his WCOOP ship. So I cancelled my remaining schedule and took a flight back to Cologne. Almost the whole team came from all over Germany and Austria to go crazy with him - and we went ****in’ crazy! I hope I can release some video footage soon! P.S: I had some shares in the win!
This all happened just a week ago and now I'm sitting on an airplane on my way back home to Vienna. That's my whole year so far (the short version) and I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading about it!
I chose to chase my dream because I realized that it's worth giving up everything for it. Even if you fail - and I have failed a lot in my life, I think a lot more than other people of my age, because coming from a poor family I’ve had challenges that were probably not normal for my age – the value of the experience gained makes it worth it. Even if it didn't work out this year, I would have tried another way of reaching it. Finally to be the person I'd like myself to be. But the most important thing I’ve learned so far is that you need people around you who believe in you. Belief is the strongest gift you can ever give someone. I'm so glad that I met the people I got to know this year and they don't even know how much impact they’ve had on my outlook and my way of living. Of course this year is just a step and I know that my life will be a long one, but it is a step in the right direction.
All of this probably sounds pathetic coming from a 20 year old, but when I look back at my life I feel an inner happiness I didn't feel before. It took me some time to realize how much these experiences are worth and now I know that I don't want to waste my life ever again. I want to have the same feeling, hopefully even stronger, when I'm old and I want to have something to look back at. That doesn't mean that I want to avoid negative experiences - it means that I don't want them to bring me down. So many people have given much to me – have believed so much in me – now I think it's time to give something back.
I want you to be a part of my project. It is not just a project, it’s a dedication. I got really lucky in life lastly and I want to give something back. Who I am and why it means so much to me is all written out below, but first I want to tell you what my idea is all about.
The plan
I will grind NL500 Zoom the next 20 days straight and I will to donate 50% of my winnings to charity. In addition to that, I will match all of your donations offered in this thread, up to a total of $20,000. So if you donate $50, I’ll donate $50 too. This is an opportunity for you to help make the world a better place, twice as fast as you could by donating elsewhere!
Your money is safe
Because I’m new to the community and I’ve heard that things went wrong with another charity project, OMGClayDol (MissOracle on PokerStars) will function as an escrow. As far as I know he has one of the best possible reputations. I’m really happy that he offered to receive the funds you want to donate so you can be 100% sure that your money is safe. Furthermore I’ve already sent him 10,000$, so you can be 100% sure that I match the money you donate.
The project
The project I’ve chosen to help is “Casa Esperanza” (http://www.casa-esperanza.de/Casa_Es...illkommen.html) in Valdivia/Chile. It’s a house for children who have lost their families or grown up in absolute poverty. More than 40% of the children in Chile live in a state of absolute poverty. The house provides support almost like a new family for all the kids and they all receive therapeutic care and education. They have 12 kids right now – without such support most of them will be waifs without any hope by the age of 16 and will most likely die very young. 100% of the money donated is going to the children’s home. I’m already in contact with the organization.
Next year I’m going to South America and I plan on visiting the children’s home and making a video of my visit, and hopefully document what we have helped to make happen with the money donated.
My story
So, I’ve reached the point where I want to share my story with you, the community of 2+2, because you are the reason I’m able to pursue my dreams the way I do. I’ll be mainly writing about poker, my travels and my life, but future plans and projects and some drunken stories will find their way in here too (that's why 95% of you will read the blog, I know). I'm happy whether you just enjoy reading it, dropping in a comment or even if you just don’t care about it (but that’s the least +EV option).
My name is Fedor, I turned 20 two months ago and I’ve been playing poker for 2 years now. Since I was a kid I had a huge interest in human behavior. I think my biggest strengths have always been a strong sense of empathy, a very sharp mind and the ability to just see people as they are, not as someone else told you they might be. I started studying informatics (just because I didn't know what to do and my family expected me to study) when I finished school at the age of 17, but dropped out after a year. The main reason was a deep lack of motivation. I am a very perfectionistic and passionate person, meaning that I work harder than anyone when I have a passion for something, but that I don't value "normal" things which other people might do. So basically every time I couldn't feed my inner hunger I felt an empty hole inside me and lost grip of reality. This has since drastically changed.
Last year I was living in a small flat in a boring city in Germany, had just dropped out of Uni and didn't know what to do with my life. And this was serious. I would go without food for two days without even noticing. I read books, watched TV series and couldn't even remember what they were about the next day. I just killed time. Around that time a friend of mine came back from an exchange to the US. He had become really good at sports, especially running. I played soccer from time to time but other than that I didn't do any sports at all. I will never forget the day when all of a sudden my motivation came back. I will always remember the moment when I heard about his progress and thought that I could never be as good as him.
"Whether you think you can do it,
or you think you can't do it -
you’re right."
or you think you can't do it -
you’re right."
I read this sentence over and over again and it just changed something in my mind. I can be as good as him and I even get can better. I just have to want it and stop procrastinating. Stop giving up. I wanted to beat his best time at 10 km which was 38:58 minutes (although he probably could do better) and I started running every day, at least six times a week while still playing football and doing workouts. It took me three months to beat his time by 2 seconds. Three days later someone broke my ankle in three places by shooting a glass bottle at it during a festival and I wasn't able to do sport for the next 8 months. I don't really know why I started it or why it was so important for me to achieve this, but it totally changed my view of life.
It took me half a year to understand something really important: You never know what's best for you and you never will, but you HAVE to change your life if you don't feel right. Never let yourself down and give yourself a shot to reach things you would never have dreamed of!
My life-changing decision was to start a world trip in January of 2013. Last year I grinded a lot both live and online and even though I was running really bad in my online staking (big thanks to Dönig for the trust he continued to place into me) I was able to win two big live tourneys in a row (WTF rungood) for a combined €35k. At this point I have to mention that without David and Adrian, two close friends I met on a German poker forum, I wouldn't be the person I am today. We spoke on Skype close to every day and back then I doubled David's bankroll because he had a big chunk of my live action (this will become important later on!).
I quit the contract for my flat and spent close to my whole bankroll on travel expenses, and I still think that I've never invested money so wisely as that. I travelled together with my friend Adrian and had the best time of my life. I learned so many things on these travels and that is one of the reasons I am where I am today. Here’s the story.
We spent a month in South Africa travelling along the Garden Route. We did a 212 meter high bridge bungee jump, partied a lot along the way, got to know a lot of really nice people and hiked the Table Mountain in Capetown (you have to do that once in your life!). These experiences totally blew our minds. The feeling up there is just amazing.
After this incredible month I stayed at Koray's house in Vienna, who was just a friend of a friend who kindly let me stay at his place after just a short phone call - we are good friends today - and we grinded the GSOP and WPT Baden for 20 days, where I took 10th in the Main event (AK < QQ). David just spontaneously took a flight when he heard that I was at the final two tables and came to rail me. I took the bus and lost him in the casino. LOL. (This is just a short preview of the drunken stories part of this!)
I took some time off and planned my next trip to Asia with Adrian. In March we started our 30 day journey across Vietnam, Cambodia (Angkor Wat is amazing!), and Thailand and then took a flight to Koh Phangan where we celebrated the Full Moon Party. In Koh Phangan I sat on the beach, clicked five tourneys and won a satellite to the EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final which utterly freaked me out!
I came back from Asia in April and immediately took a flight to Valencia to kick off a 15 day tour of Spain for the Estrellas Poker Tour (where I came 2nd in the High Roller) along with two other guys I barely knew from Austria. The hotel in Valencia was awesome but cheap at the same time. We went on playing the WPT Barcelona (where I made a tell-based hero-call against a fish-reg and was busted for a 170bb pot right at the end of day two by a 6-outer) and the MPS Madrid (where I played like a monkey). After this trip the two guys I was travelling with and I became good friends and they asked me if I wanted to move into their apartment in Vienna after I finished travelling. I mentally snap-called this offer (but balanced my range with a 1-day tank).
From Spain I took a flight to Berlin to play the full schedule of the EPT there. We rented an apartment with four other German poker players and a Danish PLO player called Mads, who I now stake and who is a good friend of mine today. Furthermore I got to know Julian and Rainer, two really amazing guys I am happy to call good friends. Berlin was the best EPT I had played in thus far, even though I didn't cash a single tourney (**** that Berlin Cup High Roller!). I just had an amazing time with really nice people and I got to know so many different players and even though I ran really bad at poker I ran insanely hot with (hot) girls - not sure whether she still thinks I'm a famous actor or not.
My next stop was the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo. I invited my best friend to join me and we had a relaxing stay in a nice hotel with an awesome view. I busted my 135k stack in the Main Event on Day 2 (set < set, AK < AA), but had an insane bout of run-good in the €1.1k turbo and chopped it heads up for €35k. Overall I liked the trip but I didn't like the city, it just seemed to be about paying a lot of money for things that are not worth it and that made me feel uncomfortable coming from a family where money was always treated with a lot of respect.
Some weeks after Monaco I had a really sick run with shares and that's the first time my bankroll hit the six figure mark. So after all this grinding, travelling, selling big chunks of shares for everything, I could finally be a little bit less stressed about my own financial situation. More than $100,000 in my account was a crazy feeling. The first thing I did was to buy my mother a new car, because she had this ****ty 20 year old car for like a decade and I couldn't think of anything better to do with the money. Other than that I didn't want to buy anything special, but I had a plan to start a stable.
It took me a lot of days and hard work to set everything up to have a good foundation for my stable. I talked a lot with people about their experiences and most importantly about how to find good horses. Finally I started staking some MTT players for mid-stakes and I really got into the whole stable thing. I couldn't be more happy to run into Ryan 'protentialmn' at that time, because with just a 5 minute chat he opened my eyes about a lot of things and I realized that I still had and still have to learn so many things. I had some tough decisions to make but based on the feedback I continue to get I think I'm doing something right. I trust my horses and I think it is very important and definitely possible to have a good personal relationship without forgetting about the business side. Right now I have seven horses and I'm more than happy about having each of them in my stable. I believe in all of them and actually I am really proud of their progress so far and that I can be part of that progress.
In June I returned to Vienna for a couple of weeks, bought myself a really nice new grind station setup and started grinding and working hard on my HU capped game, while looking around for more MTT players to stake and work with. I think since this moment my skill level has improved dramatically. I’ve just tried to improve my overall understanding of poker and I have had several coaching sessions for in high-stakes HU capped games, 6-max hypers, MTTs (especially turbos) and HU SNGs. I think my biggest leaks at that time were combinatorics and bet sizings, especially on the river. I became really good at manipulating and exploiting ranges with bet sizes and you can literally feel every tourney you play how you keep getting better and better and it feels like a new world keeps opening up in front of you.
I started to put in a lot of volume and set myself the goal of making 50k in VPPs or $25k profit in one week, because I wanted to buy myself a watch I really fell in love with. So I was grinding 6-max hypers and cash game HUs non-stop and MTT sessions in the evening. On day two I chopped the Super Tuesday (run hotter…) for $70k. Challenge over! I spent ten days in Italy after the ship travelling by train and enjoyed beautiful cities like Venice, Florence and Rome.
In August "TeamGatsbyKempinho" (which includes most of the friends I have named so far - all of them good German poker players) started their grind at WPT Cyprus. On the first day, which was a Sunday, I won the FTOPS #20 (...than the sun!). These two weeks were just totally amazing, because it was a really good mixture of poker, enjoying the beach and just having your best friends around you while winning a lot of money. The team won the $1k Sunday Warmup for $66k, two side events for $30k combined and scored a lot of min cashes. I bubbled the $10k High Roller (JJ < AK) which Marvin took down. Grinding is serious business! ;-)
Our next stop was EPT Barcelona. We rented an apartment in the middle of the city and I still can't decide if Barcelona was better than Cyprus, even though we had more opportunities to go crazy party-wise. The team had two deep runs in the Main Event and I had 120% shares left on day five (bought 155% total, lol). So even though I didn't cash a single tourney I was up a lot over both trips, because we swapped and I bought a lot of action from my friends, especially David who came 40th in the Main (huge pot AK < 88 > JJ). Brag: Got with a Dutch girl last night. Beat: My friend took my shoes instead of his when he left (HOW THE ****??!).
After grinding live for four weeks straight I’d had enough of poker for a bit and I was really looking forward to my next trip: I planned a 14 day tour of Scandinavia with my best friend. He’s really down to earth, which is what I love about him, because in a way he always reminds me of where I come from. We met in Stockholm in September (me without shoes, like a boss) and we stayed there in an awesome hostel in the city center. We took an overnight bus to Oslo and the Bergen Railway the next day. The view from the train was already incredible, but just a small preview of what was waiting for us. From Bergen we rented a car, slept in the car and did a 7 hour hike of the Trolltunga the next morning. In our photos it looks nice, but in reality the view just blows you away. I’ve had that incredible feeling only once before - when sitting on the edge of Table mountain.
From Norway we took a ferry to Denmark two days later and stayed two days at the house of my first ever horse, Mads. He was a really good host and it was a nice feeling to get back to civilization after sleeping in the car for 3 days (the smell of my socks was incredisgusting). He lives in Aarhus (try the bagel shop - tooo gooood!) so we stayed there for 2 days and took a train to Copenhagen the next day. Our stay in Copenhagen was relaxed and we enjoyed the character of the city - and the mermaid!
After this exciting journey I took some days off and visited my family to tell them that I’d booked five seats on a flight to New York and rented an apartment over New Year’s Eve. They really freaked out and I couldn't imagine a better way to have spent my money. Right after that my next destination was Dublin - and it was a good choice. I went to the Guinness Factory with three friends and we drank a Guinness in the "Gravity Bar" on the 9th floor of the building with amazing views (yeah, I like amazing views). At night we joined a Pub Crawl and experienced the night life of Dublin, which is something really special and exactly the type of partying I like. You just go into a random bar with nice live music and a lot of drunk people, but it's still possible to talk to people (e.g. girls, lots of hot gurrrls). We drank a lot and in the last bar I hooked up with a cute Spanish girl. We've also been to Howth the day before - a really amazing place at the coast to relax.
But because I'm a bad boy I left the spanish girl the next day to play the EPT in London (...but because girls like bad boys she told me that she has an apartment in Barcelona and invited me to visit! :3).
In London we stayed at the Russell Hotel (mehhhhish), I sneaked onto Martin Finger's Championship photo (brag) and I busted the Main after 6 hours vs. Vicky Coren (sick beat). Then I came 9th in the 2k Turbo (QQ < KK for CL and 44 < JJ > AK, FML^2). Actually that is everything I can tell you about London - I'm really mad with myself that I didn't go and discover the city.
Some days before that David (you remember him?) invited me to his big birthday and celebration party two days later to celebrate his WCOOP ship. So I cancelled my remaining schedule and took a flight back to Cologne. Almost the whole team came from all over Germany and Austria to go crazy with him - and we went ****in’ crazy! I hope I can release some video footage soon! P.S: I had some shares in the win!
This all happened just a week ago and now I'm sitting on an airplane on my way back home to Vienna. That's my whole year so far (the short version) and I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading about it!
I chose to chase my dream because I realized that it's worth giving up everything for it. Even if you fail - and I have failed a lot in my life, I think a lot more than other people of my age, because coming from a poor family I’ve had challenges that were probably not normal for my age – the value of the experience gained makes it worth it. Even if it didn't work out this year, I would have tried another way of reaching it. Finally to be the person I'd like myself to be. But the most important thing I’ve learned so far is that you need people around you who believe in you. Belief is the strongest gift you can ever give someone. I'm so glad that I met the people I got to know this year and they don't even know how much impact they’ve had on my outlook and my way of living. Of course this year is just a step and I know that my life will be a long one, but it is a step in the right direction.
All of this probably sounds pathetic coming from a 20 year old, but when I look back at my life I feel an inner happiness I didn't feel before. It took me some time to realize how much these experiences are worth and now I know that I don't want to waste my life ever again. I want to have the same feeling, hopefully even stronger, when I'm old and I want to have something to look back at. That doesn't mean that I want to avoid negative experiences - it means that I don't want them to bring me down. So many people have given much to me – have believed so much in me – now I think it's time to give something back.
10-20-2013
, 08:39 AM
I couldn't launch the thread the past days because I was still looking for a really trustworthy escrow so that you don't have to worry about your money.
So right now my graph so far looks like this:
So amazing!! Running so hot and it feels 100x better, because it's for the kids! :-)
So......
Donation-counter
6110$
So right now my graph so far looks like this:
So amazing!! Running so hot and it feels 100x better, because it's for the kids! :-)
So......
Donation-counter
6110$
10-20-2013
, 08:57 AM
Can confirm OP has sent me $10K which has been received, and that I will be happy to act as an escrow for any donations anyone here makes. I've only met OP once, however a mutual friend of ours who I trust a lot (and have personaly dealt a lot with) has confirmed he is very trustworthy, plus as said I am escrowing already. As mentioned already he is also well known and trusted within some German forums/communities and some of the guys will probably confirm in here too. Will obviously post proof of donation/s once they are made. Feel free to ask if you have any questions. Think this is a great idea and encourage you guys to read the OP if you didn't already, pretty interesting stuff in there!
Gl everyone!
*
Gl everyone!
*
Last edited by OMGClayDol; 10-20-2013 at 09:12 AM.
10-20-2013
, 09:02 AM
Great project, deserves much 
So good to see what you are looking to do with all the great success you have had in your young life and poker career, OP!
OP is not only an exceptional poker player but also one of the nicest and most caring human beings I was lucky enough to meet.
Donated €100.
So good to see what you are looking to do with all the great success you have had in your young life and poker career, OP!
OP is not only an exceptional poker player but also one of the nicest and most caring human beings I was lucky enough to meet.
Donated €100.
10-20-2013
, 09:22 AM
Fedor is most likely one of the most generous and honoust guys in the poker community, huge props for the project and good luck 
Last edited by Alobar; 10-20-2013 at 12:07 PM.
10-20-2013
, 09:24 AM
Quote:
Can confirm OP has sent me $10K which has been received, and that I will be happy to act as an escrow for any donations anyone here makes. I've only met OP once, however a mutual friend of ours who I trust a lot (and have personaly dealt a lot with) has confirmed he is very trustworthy, plus as said I am escrowing already. As mentioned already he is also well known and trusted within some German forums/communities and some of the guys will probably confirm in here too. Will obviously post proof of donation/s once they are made. Feel free to ask if you have any questions. Think this is a great idea and encourage you guys to read the OP if you didn't already, pretty interesting stuff in there!
Gl everyone!
*
Gl everyone!
*
Quote:
Great project, deserves much
So good to see what you are looking to do with all the great success you have had in your young life and poker career, OP!
OP is not only an exceptional poker player but also one of the nicest and most caring human beings I was lucky enough to meet.
Donated €100.
So good to see what you are looking to do with all the great success you have had in your young life and poker career, OP!
OP is not only an exceptional poker player but also one of the nicest and most caring human beings I was lucky enough to meet.
Donated €100.
Received 101€! Appreciate your support and will add it to the counter ASAP!
Thanks Artur! Appreciate your comment! gl today :-)
10-20-2013
, 10:22 AM
Fedor is a great guy, honest and big-hearted, not to mention a sicko poker player. I'm donating $100 now, and if I bink something this week, I'll put some more
Good luck to this thread!
Peace
Good luck to this thread!
Peace
10-20-2013
, 11:21 AM
fedor is a good friend of mine and a rly nice guy aswell
i can confirm all above posts about him and i think this is a rly good opportunity for us to give some back for other kids which arent in this great situation in which we live
i ill spend aswell if i can motivate me to grind
great first post and a great idea aswell
keep it up
i can confirm all above posts about him and i think this is a rly good opportunity for us to give some back for other kids which arent in this great situation in which we live
i ill spend aswell if i can motivate me to grind
great first post and a great idea aswell
keep it up
10-20-2013
, 11:32 AM
10-20-2013
, 11:39 AM
Can also confirm fedor is a good guy and honest, have been working with him for the last 3 months.
Donating 100$
(omg will have the funds come from "OneTimeJoker", will ask him to send for me sometime)
Donating 100$
(omg will have the funds come from "OneTimeJoker", will ask him to send for me sometime)
10-20-2013
, 02:10 PM
Quote:
fedor is a good friend of mine and a rly nice guy aswell
i can confirm all above posts about him and i think this is a rly good opportunity for us to give some back for other kids which arent in this great situation in which we live
i ill spend aswell if i can motivate me to grind
great first post and a great idea aswell
keep it up
i can confirm all above posts about him and i think this is a rly good opportunity for us to give some back for other kids which arent in this great situation in which we live
i ill spend aswell if i can motivate me to grind
great first post and a great idea aswell
keep it up
I thought of something special for all of you donating more than 100$ - I'll show my sick photoshop skills and print T-shirts for all of you! I will gather your names at the end of the challenge and send them to you!
Now starting my sundaygrind - I will donate 25% of any profit!
For the Kids! :-)
10-20-2013
, 03:16 PM