13.10.2018 - Pictures from the trip, Salzburg, Eagles nest





Lake Königssee - Amazing.



Salzburg's bridge full of lovelocks.



Salzburg at evening



Eagle's nest



Hero and the better half at Eagle's nest top



Salzburg's castle hill



The castle



Salzburg

Michelin restaurant and temptation:

We noticed this one Michelin star restaurant next to our hotel, so we had to go try it. We don't go to Michelin restaurants very often, so this was perfect chance to try one and in Budapest they are very reasonably priced. I think their lunch menu cost 30€, 10,000 HUF(forints), so we ended up having the bill around 80€ for two, which is quite reasonable. Anyway, the picture looks quite bad, but I was damn tempted to taste the dessert, I wanted to have it so bad and watching someone else eat it was terrible, but I'm happy I didn't take it!

14.10.2018 - How fragile is life

We went to Chinese restaurant on Sunday and after ordering takeaway we decided to take a short walk. We started walking and then something happened. We heard a big noise behind us, almost like explosion. I check behind and see scooter guy smashing into a pole next to road. He flew there with such a power from the accident. His scooter flew two meters front of him on the road. It took me some time to realize what actually happened. The guy got smashed quite badly, he got thrown to pole stomach first so I hope he ended up okay. Ambulance came quite quickly after. He was standing and all after the accident but I'm sure it hurt a lot.

I guess this made me thinking, we need to enjoy this life now. Today. Live in the present. I love to live in the future, in the great future I have build for myself but at the same time I should acknowledge life might not end up like that or life might be cut short. We need to live every day life we can love and enjoy. Even normal grinding day should be enjoyable. Enjoy the moments you learn poker, play poker etc. Life is short at the end and we don't have that much time. Life is too short to do things you don't want or have no desire doing. Mostly talking about work here but we should try to make the ordinary days great as well and enjoy every day not just some special holidays in the future. Be happy now.

Small things can change our life.

15.10.2018 - Nations League and meaningless friendlies or are they?

There's been a lot talk about how meaningless Nation League is. At least it's not true for Finnish people. Our gr0up has gone very well and we have 4 wins out of 4 games. Great results. This is one of the best things to happen for Finnish football in a long time. Maybe that just shows how bad we've been the last 10 years or so. Not many good things have happened, but I like this "glorified friendlies" games. It makes the friendly matches more interesting for sure. Normally I don't even watch friendly games because they are quite pointless to me but Nations League been a nice surprise. Great update by UEFA. Of course, it does put more pressure on the players and hopefully it's not too much for their bodies. Many players are playing over 50 games a season, that's a lot with all the practises as well. At the end they need great rest as well.

Either way, very happy with the Finnish national team and this must be one of the proudest moments in a long time, so let's keep this up!

I'm not a huge football fan at all, but the Nations League at least brings some meaning to the games. At least they're playing for something, even if relatively small. Games are certainly less meaningless now than they were before its creation?

Yes, exactly and for the smaller football nations it's still big thing, like for us in Finland. We are very proud of our team in Finland now, because we are very close to making it to the next qualifying round.

GetFit Challenge

Okay, so we got a flat on Thursday 18.10.2018, and I was finally able to weigh myself. Number stands now at 106kg, which is a bit alarming, but I would say I made it through the worst part, quite okay. Eating and sleeping three weeks in hotel and still losing weight.
Last week I’ve been struggling to move enough, though so my GF called on my bull**** and so I must pay 50€ (to one or two lucky poster/s (if two then 25€ each), GF will choose the winner today), for missing two practices last week. We haven’t been as active in Budapest as in Salzburg. Salzburg we were crazy, walking around every day for hours, but Budapest has been tougher because I know most of the places and even being a tourist gets boring. Just walking around the city isn’t that much fun after too long time. That’s why even holidays should be in moderation. Too much stimulation gets boring as well or starts to feel like nothing is that special. It’s kind of weird.

18.10.2018 Finally, a flat!
Yes, we finally found a flat. I must admit, that I’m god damn relieved. After the flat was signed, I noticed how sick of flat searching I was, and I had no idea what I would have done if we didn’t find it now. Probably moved back to Finland or something. I’m done with wasting time, time to get some **** done. Huge relieve to finally have a home again!

19.10.2018 Buying stuff, constructing, etc. Watching football
We went to IKEA buy various stuff we needed at flat. Flat is quite well furnished, but you always need some small stuff for your daily things. I think IKEA is quite good for cheap daily things, but otherwise, their products can be bit of an hit or miss. Some of their products are excellent, like Markus office chair. It’s easy to build, very nice to sit on and lasts quite long without any problems. It’s got quite good quality. Then other things you buy, like for example this standing desk I was looking at, shaky as ****. Terrible quality. No one should buy it, because it has terrible quality for $500. I would say that’s with a lot of stuff in IKEA, some are good, some are bad. Small things are fine, because they don’t matter that much, but It’s good option for someone who travels a lot and needs few things for a flat. It has its purpose.

Chelsea – ManU
I would say, fair draw. I thought ManU was bit lucky to be ahead in this game and the drama Mourinho always create is amazing. Premier League would be much less fun without Mourinho. I hope he stays with ManU, at least for the entertainment point view.
Barcelona – Sevilla
Top two teams playing vs each other, who’s going to win? Well, Steigen and Messi won the game for Barcelona. It was great 15 minutes from Messi, but then the arm injury. ****. The worst possible timing to have an injury. Inter CL game coming for Barca and the El Clasico. Barcelona is in very tough spot without Messi. I don’t think they will be scoring any goals without him. Defense still looks very shaky, Barcelona can’t defend, at all.

20.10.2018 – Sunday the chill day
Today just chilling, watching new material (upswing Petrangelo coaching package), so hopefully, I will learn some new things. Tomorrow I have in plan to check local gyms, so I can sign up and start the gym workouts here, then we are supposed to try this thermal bath. It’s very nice and relaxing, so sounds perfect after few weeks of walking around and stressing out where we are going to sleep next.
Next week I need to find office desk, which has been bit of a challenge so far, so I need to find something online in Hungarian and pray I will find something good.

Just seen this thread, I like the semi nomadic lifestyle so sub'd. Does your gf have a job she can do remotely if she's joining you as you move from place to place?

Regarding the nation's league, I've been away from England for a few months so my view may be distorted but it seems nobody really cares for it, it kind of just seems like glorified friendlies. I guess this may be the viewpoint across some of the bigger footballing nation's.

Congrats, you were the chosen one and won 25€!

I will send you private message about details.

Yeah, I couldn't take the "proper" nomadic lifestyle, but I love to live in one place for one year or so. It's not as stressful. The constant travel is too much and changing environment.

She writes about Premier League for Czech/Slovak people. Her website:
http://www.anglickaliga.com/

She's also making some money through sports betting, using the promos and bonuses etc. So we can both work from almost anywhere. I wish in the future I would have a job without any restriction when it comes to choosing place. Right now poker is a bit limited and sports betting.

Where have you lived/would you like to live?

After being in SE Asia for a few months now I've found that being constantly on the move is a bit tiresome but I'd love to find a form of remote work and do something similar to you at some point over the next however many years.

Through the years I have lived in various places, for example

Spain, Barcelona
Hungary, Budapest
Cyprus, Limassol
Malta, Sliema
Czech Republic, Prague
Thailand, Phuket
Turku, Finland(originally)

It depends what you want. Bigger city is always better, If you want to have active social life (girls, parties etc.). Small places get boring quicker. If you a have girlfriend, steady life, I think you can live in more calm place and enjoy. I think it's better in that case, because you don't have this "hassle" around you. I also had my best results when I was in calm area and I could focus on poker. It seems the more you have distractions worse you do in your professional life, I would say.(If you are aiming for the max. professionalism.)

You should also consider what kind of lifestyle you want to live? Do you enjoy T-shirt and shorts, or do you enjoy four seasons? I would say, If you like the sun, Malta, Spain, Cyprus etc. Are great options. You will need at max. summer jacket and jeans for the winter. Otherwise it's so warm and even in January during a sunny day you can wear T-shirt. It's pretty mental.

I would love to live in Spain, Barcelona, but not in the center of the city. Somewhere close to Barcelona. I would like to go watch Barcelona play at Camp Nou and have the season ticket. I would own some business there. That's my dream for now and that's where I would live, If I could.

What I liked the most? Well, I liked all of the places, in some ways. Barcelona is unbelievable, it has everything, nature, big city life, nice language, beach and amazing social life, but it has it's dark side, a lot of thieves etc.

Prague is very fun city. I met some great people there and it was a lot of fun. I met my GF there and I would highly recommend the city. The city is beautiful, old and quite calm, because the center doesn't have too many cars.

Remote work:

I think you can create yourself remote work these days. Online poker is one way, coaching other, but you can be doing almost anything these days. Write blog about knitting or write about football. As long as you are interesting and good at it, I think you will make a living. Of course, it's not that simple, but there are so many ways to make money online these days. Online poker was crazy way to make money 5-10 years ago, but today there are youtubers playing regular PS4 games for living. That's insane to me and that was my dream when I was a kid. That's what the kids today are doing. World is changing constantly and If you look for patterns or some emerging things I think you can find something very valuable where you could work remotely. I believe ESPORTS will be massive in the future.

It's easy to get confused with all the possibilities around you, though. It's tempting to try everything. I am tempted quite often as well.

The other 25€ went to sharkiie from pokerisivut.com blog.

and if no answer for one week, I will donate it to someone else from the blog.

Ty for the detailed response.

Of those cities Barcelona appeals to me the most. I spent just under a week there and it felt way too short so I'm definitely looking to go back/go elsewhere in Spain.

I'm typically English so I don't know if I could handle living anywhere too hot for long periods of time. I like the idea of being somewhere in western Europe as the climate is better but I'd still get somewhat of a mix of seasons but I'm not sure where exactly. Spain is definitely an option. I like the idea of Germany and Holland too as their English is generally pretty good.

Hey, I agree. The hot gets to you and If you live long-term somewhere very hot, It gets annoying. My dream would be to live couple months a year in Finland (during the summer, when it's too hot in South Europe), then rest of the year live somewhere like Barcelona/Italy/Malta/Cyprus etc., where the weather is quite good even in winter. Sounds perfect to me.

Amsterdam is fun place to stay.

How hot is the Finnish summer? I agree, something like that sounds decent. Ice met loads of retired people playing live poker who live in England during the summer and go elsewhere for winter, especially in Cambodia, although that's often not just for the weather.

I agree, Amsterdam is lovely although pretty expensive so maybe somewhere else in Holland perhaps.

I would say 25c is a quite hot weather in Finland. This summer was maybe the hottest in the Finland's history, so we had very great weather. Not too hot, just perfect.

Yeah Amsterdam is very expensive, especially the rent. If you want to compare prices for various places, check numbeo.com I find it very accurate and good source of info before I move somewhere.

23.10.2018 Nostalgy, High Stakes Poker

Hah, someone just posted on 2+2 a link to youtube account with all High Stakes Poker episodes. Oh, the nostalgy watching the first season. It's great. Poker used to be so much fun. So bad plays and so much money at play. Glorious times!

Here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1X...RbR0FCQ/videos

25.10.2018 Everything ready

Okay, the moving process took way too long, but now everything is perfect and I am ready to rock. I am quite excited to get back into the game and make some results. I hope I can provide some.

Health challenge:

Today morning weight was down to 105,2kg, so making small progress again, but I still need to increase the speed of my progress, If I want to finish this in time. Good beginning. I don't think I've been able to do this well in a few years, so it's promising start either way.

I just signed up to the gym today. It's actually quite perfect for me, open 24/7 and very close to my flat, about 200m. Perfect!

subd, gl with your goals.

budapest is a great city !

Thanks bud. Yes, I'm liking it!

Very inspirational diary, thanks for the read dude! I liked it so much I had to find my login for this account, which I haven't used since 2012, and drop a comment.

I haven't played in 5 years so I'm rusty af, but want to get into it again and started with micro donkaments. I quite enjoyed mtts, so my question for you is: do you have any tips or advice for me? I used to grind for a living (6max cg), like a lifetime ago. But I have the basic knowledge at least.

Good luck with your challenge, I'm sure you'll succeed!

PS. thread needs pics of doggo!

Thank you very much for your kind words!

Hmmp, well I would always advise starting with a coach, but If you don't want to invest that much money, I think following RYE (raiseyouredge) and GripsedPoker Training(especially Charlie Carrel $1,2 million tournament review was good stuff) on youtube is a great source of information for free. You need someone to teach you the basics and I think learning the basics is not that tough, you just need proper pre-flop charts to start with and then build up from there. Pre-flop is the most crucial at first I would say, then you can work on your post-flop game after your pre-flop game is fine-tuned. I think a lot of bad plays come from bad pre-flop plays, playing too many poor hands, playing too tight, not 3betting enough etc etc. Million things. If you get pre-flop decisions right, you are on right path crushing the micro stake MTTs.

You could also watch some twitch streams, Staples, toonkaaa and Lex Veldhuis. I think Lex is the best player and then toonkaa. Staples is a bit too solid for my taste.

Doug Polk's videos are good entertainment and quite nice from poker strategy perspective, so I would recommend watching his videos.

One thing I would highly recommend for you to do, is to listen joeingram1's podcasts on youtube. Very inspirational podcasts and you can listen the best poker players in the world talk about strategy, life etc. Very helpful I would say.

Picture of doggo. Top of the Eagle's nest in Germany. That's why he has his cool sweater on.

27.10.2018 - FIRST TOURNAMENT WIN IN BUDAPEST!!!!!

First tournament win in Budapest:



Okay, I was just testing the software and how it was working, but win is a win!

I had my first session yesterday and It was fun to play again, it's been one month since I played last time, so I had a good time. Today I will grind again.

Small challenge, 26.10-3.12.2018

It's been such a long break from playing poker, so I want to play a lot in the next 5 weeks and that's why I made a goal to play 5 days a week, lose rest of the weight and focus on playing the best possible.

Every session needs to be 8 hours+. I want to learn myself to always play longer sessions, no bull**** on that. Yesterday I had good 8,5 hours. If tournaments end too early, I will play some spin&gos to finish the 8 hours.

Mental preparations, morning meditation, evening meditation, pre-session warmups etc. I want everything to be as good as possible, so focus on these things.

Exercise and diet have the biggest focus, though. I need to lose the weight, so that's going to my main goal for the next 5 weeks. Drop as many kilos as possible. Make a plan how to lose it as well, right now I'm not sure how much I need to lose every week to make the target.

Schedule for the next few days:

26.10.2018 GAME DAY, DONE!
27.10.2018 GAME DAY,
28.10.2018 GAME DAY,
29.10.2018 FREE DAY (unless we have to change plan)

28.10.2018 BARCA BARCA BARCAAAA!!!

Barcelona just beat Real Madrid 5-1. SWEET! A good way to start the evening. Now it's time to win couple tournaments!

All right, GL to everyone!

29.10.2018 - Small challenge, 26.10-3.12.2018

3 game days are done and the free day, so going back to work tomorrow. I've done a few good workouts at the gym now and feeling pretty good. I have to admit, I missed a gym. It's fun to work out at the gym again, it's been a while.

Wednesday I will probably have a day off, because Halloween, but otherwise, I will be grinding this week THURSDAY - SUNDAY, so it will be hectic 4 days.

Exercising:

I feel much better about my body now than before the "Get Fit Challenge" started. I feel more energized, healthier etc. It's been pretty nice change already, but still 8kgs to go or something, so I just need to keep pushing. It's been fun, though. I've had to eliminate some things in my life (beer, extra carbs etc), but otherwise It hasn't been that bad. When you know you feel much better, it makes things easier to handle.

The gym is super close to my flat, maybe like 200 meters, so It's quite easy to go there and make a workout. I like that. It's also 24/7, so I was thinking maybe one day I could go there after my poker session, but to be honest, even idea of working out after the day of poker, I feel exhausted and tired. It doesn't seem like the greatest time to work out unless I'm super tilted or too happy about winning a tournament and I need to calm down. I think going to the gym is always the best time when you have the most energy because then you are happy working out etc. If you don't have energy, the whole gym thing can feel like a burden and it sucks to go there, If you don't have energy, you are tired etc or just low on energy. I like to take naps during the day to keep me more alert through the day. It helps me with sustaining good energy through the whole day. I highly recommend naps(max 45 min, though)! Usually, after the gym, I eat and after some time I take a nap and gain the energy back what I had before the workout.