Hey all!

First few days of the year I prolonged my free days, but was a bit in action as well, so I will not start like I did previous 2 months. I do have a problem that I have a bad cold. I could still do more, but last two days I am in bed with a huge headache and I couldn't sleep as well because of that.

New Years Eve I first spent watching UFC 207 event and then in a smaller group of friends with food and drinks. It was more calm, but a very nice evening.
Next few days I watched the Westworld series. I usually don't watch much series much, but I must admit this one was pretty great!!

I also wrote down my goals for 2017. At first I didn't mean to do it, but the last 2 years that I set myself specific goals and a specific plan on how to achieve it, I did some decisions that I otherwise wouldn't do, which helped me to do a "step beyond". I learned that form a successful millionaire entrepreneur that I am following. He said that you need to give yourself bigger goals than you really believe you can achieve, but you need also to make a specific plan/goal on how that plan would actually be possible to achieve. He made a big jump of 1 or a few millions per year to like 18millions. Went for some really ambitious things and made it happen.
I am not sure my goals for this year are so big at the moment that I would also be a bit scared of them and that would really extra excite me, so I might think about it more and make them better.
But for now it is something like this:

Poker:

• Finish BPC in first tertile of the year and get to 10k month
• By end of the year get 20k month

Spanish:

• Finsih 3 month Spanish program and learn basic practical use to speak a bit (will be now specifically on the schedule, no more random )

Gym/fitness:

• Continue Kinobody as planned, get to my target strength/mass and fat (cca. 10%) by the summer

This until now was pretty similar as I always had. But for this year I also included some personal goals that I will not share in blog, but have to do with different challenges and facing fears, educate on some areas where I feel will get me closer to the person that I would like to be. I already put a lot of effort into that in the past, but there are some things that need a specific plan and consistency and I will actually include it in my schedule. I have a general idea, but need to still make it into a more specific action plan. And it is quite exciting!

Investing and passive income:

• I have an action plan from the BPC seminar that I watched that I will include in my daily schedule. It will have to do with reading some books and educating myself. The goal is to start passively investing after I finish the contract.
• Every month after I finish I would also like to invest in building up some venture I was already doing a bit. Next to education I will probably cooperate more with some friends and more outsourcing, because time wise I will still spend most for poker,

This last goal will take bigger part last two thirds of the year (or tertiles, not sure if a lot of people use this term), but I will start to prepare myself a bit for investing and will research about some legal and tax issues.

I am also pretty certain I will travel somewhere again. I mentioned it a few times in my blog already. I didn't plan the destination specifically yet, but I am probably leaving next month and then see how it will be, but hopefully just prolong it for more months and maybe go to more continents. Tropical weather, good food and vibe, see or pool and gym close by were always my preferred lifestyle (well gym more lately). Next to that I will also make all my goals happen. I think I am ready for that step of traveling / relocating while also working. I know that it can be risky to change the environment now, but I will do it. This part of the plan is not so important in the grand scheme of things at this moment, so it is possible that it changes.


So that is for the year. For month of January I will change 10 hours of playing to 8 hours of playing and 2 hours of studying. I think this will lead me to much better results. It is also really easy to implement in my schedule. Either I will put 2 hour of study and 4 hours of grinfing in the evening or make it 1 hour in the morning and one evening. It will be February (ok just 28 days), March or April that I will tackle the 300hour playing challenge!

Happy New Year all and let's make it happen in 2017!!

GL this year ! will follow your journey

Thank you @Bolzzzz! Looks like it will be a rough start, but hope all will be well.

I wrote such nice plans and then I messed it up again in the beginning of the year.

I did it like the beginning of last two months and played just 10 hours. I also had some fever and bad cold, headache, so was two days completely out, but I could do a lot more to be honest.
On top of that I lost a lot in those 10 hours and ended up at -1123€ and 1620 played hands. Some of it had to to do with NL400, but I lost a lot of stacks on lower as well.

I actually later found out in reality I was actually 1323€ down as my cashier didn't update yet when I was putting the results in.. So I also had worst day at about -1k and hit stop loss.
My plan for the second week was to fix things, turn it around and make January a good month!
So plan is:

• Play 60hours
• make 7 lessions of Spanish
• be active everyday in analysis of hands (posting and answering in forum and talking with my colleagues about it)
• Rewrite/simplify notes of 7 chapters-> meaning everyday one
• Read or listen to book: The Richest Man in Babylon (its more for hobby, but also for personal and investment a bit-starting with simple tasks )
• Gym according to plan

If anyone has some recommendation for a book that they really loved, whatever theme, just if it gave you some aha moments, or you learned a lot from it, or it is just super enjoyable and funny, you are welcome to give me suggestions will be appreciated.

Otherwise I spent my week fixing my Nexus phone, as busted my screen in Thailand and finally bought new screen. Unfortunately a few days before I got screen also microphone stopped working so, while screen was changed successfully, microphone was not fixed in the easy way I saw on internet so not much was done. Therefore I ordered a new phone. Was looking for a great model, but cheap as I feel more comfortable traveling around with it, but still want a good camera and that everything works as it should.So I order one pretty known Chinese company, got the phone from Hong Kong in like 5 days, some delays and extra costs with Customs as I was a bit of a noob(there are better ways of getting it) and getting the ROM I want on, but very happy and ready for traveling

About traveling: I am looking for South America or Asia. Really wanted to go to South America at first, but was also talking with a friend who is also in the program and he would also like to go to Thailand. I was there already a few times, but on the other hand I like it there, love the food and I would really like to train Muay Thai this time. Anther good thing is that I know how things work there so will get set up for work asap with internet and everything. I started to get really excited for it and then a few days before the end of the week Maestro contacts me if I am interested to set up a Grindhouse in South America as he is in Colombia. So now everything is opened. Well but even if I go to Thailand, my plan was to finish BPC, maybe also go check Philippines as there is a friend with Grindhouse idea as well and then continue on to South America. Will also finish Spanish lesson by then, so it is a good timing to go and practice in real life

But if the results at poker will go in the same direction as first week, there will not be a need for a decision, as I will not go anywhere

Oh man, I am late again to do English version of 2nd week.

So basically it was pretty bad. I started the week in a same trend as previous one. With some huge losses and hit a -2000€ for the whole profit of the month at some point. That is my worst result in BPC and also in my poker career. All of that in about 25 hours of poker. I had my first positive session of the year on friday yeeey.

Also not everything went according the plan I set for the week. I had a good session with Somebody where I got some more goals to complete and also made a compatibility prop bet with a fellow student Adam. We must do a video review every day (can take 2 days off but need to complete it next day) or pay 150€. If we both fail we will donate the money somewhere.

The review of weekly goals:

• I play 42/60 hours
• I did 1/7 spanish lesson
• Everyday analyzed hands - DONE
• Did 5/7 chapter of notes
• Listened to 1 chapter of the Richest man in babilon (like 10%)
• Gym - DONE

The good thing is that I finally started with the note taking and rewriting!! Also in a session I found quite some leaks that I am actually aware of for some time, so I need to improve understanding in those spots.

For the next week the plan will stay the same.

Soooo, I really felt bad about playing. I didn't play the best and spewed a bit and I figured out I was playing too many tables at the same time and also was playing very automatic not being aware of what is happening. I noticed that when we were talking with Adam and then also had a sweat session and I was thinking very systematically and more objectively about opponent he was playing and I transferred that to when I was playing alone as well. Really fell into some weird state of mind in the beginning of the month. I also eliminated NL400 to not lose even more money and to get my confidence back.

Here is the sad graph of the week:

I did win 500€ on some other site so it ended a bit in the +.
The end result was so about 200€ of profit this week. Technically it was 400€ as I lost 200€ more previous week, but it is not so important.

So I hope I can change things around and also do everything I need to do in 3rd week. That is why I also didn't buy any airplane tickets yet and am not sure what I'll do with my trip. There is still a lot of days and a lot of poker to be played so I'll do my best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_y-V145mKw

Damn it guys!

It did went better this week, but I ended the week on another downer. Btw I had the longest session ever this weekend I was playing since 10pm until 4pm next day haha. So 18hours or 17.5hours session. I had a very short dinner break about 20 minutes in between at about midnight. Maybe it is some record or so. Also same day after I then continued playing at 6:30pm and played until 00:30, for another 6 hours. Some crazy stretch of playing huh I skipped one night of sleeping. My biorhythm was way off anyway and on sunday I finally normally slept well. Hope this keeps up for the future.


So how did I perform this week?

• Poker playing: 60/60 hours - DONE!
• Spanish lessons 0/7
• Everyday analyzing hands- DONE!
• Notes/video summaries 7/7-DONE!
• Reading Richest man in Babylon 100%.DONE!
• Gym - DONE

In 60 hours I played 8300 hands and had 1395€ profits. I really had a few very ugly set ups and bad beats when having been 95% and 91% favorite also deep stacked. Was a tough one.At least we got into the green numbers for the month and it looks much nicer than - 2000€ sum The profit is a measly 487€ though. Really hoped it would be over 1k and I actually got there before the disaster came crashing.

Here is the graph:


I didn't start Spanish yet as I didn't want to go over the first lessons of listening, but wanted to just go over the text and write out the stuff I learned before to make it faster. Of course never tackled this task and I started slow on Monday and Tuesday and then was playing like crazy. Over complicating stuff, if I would do it from the very beginning everyday I would have already been where I stopped anyway. But other tasks I did and am very happy that I am doing all the things.

The book was really great as well and I love to have this goal in my schedule to read books. It offers really good advice on how to manage the money and it applies to this day and age as well. Always taking part (at least 10%) of the earnings to save/invest and part of earnings to survive and hopefully to have some fun and enjoy what world has to offer. There are also other stories inside about hard work etc., but really great book. Maybe I'll start even before finishing the contract. So for next week I will select some other book to read, but haven't decided yet.

So that is that, see you next week! I hope I can run it up a bit more results wise- as a spoiler I can tell that first day was pretty horrible and maybe we lost the profits for the month... there is still a lot of playing ahead, let's make it happen!

Unfortunately things turned for the worse this month. I also gave up, which I am not the most proud off.

So I started the weak with some bad days that lost me all of the profits for the month, then I got back to close to 1k and still had 6days left until the end of the month. It looked like it can still turn into a decent enough month. But on Friday I got another downer and that did it for me. It was not only about results, I also couldn't beat anyone, even worst of the players and I was not sure if I am playing super bad, or card are against me, but just nothing went. I even lost 1 and a half stack versus opponent that bet like 5 times in a whole match of about 150 hands. I didn't even know that is possible.

I still had plan to play 46 hours for remaining days, but my champion spirit failed me and I took days off. But maybe sometimes you need to take a step back, before you can start moving forward again.

For the last day of the month I still had 6 hours to play, to finish my minimum requirement of 160hours that I set myself back in November. Even after a few days off I was still a bit skeptical about my current playing abilities state so I fall to the last thing that could still turn my month around, the only hope, the last resort:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikL-18q7uQ4

#YayoOnRepeat #yayogate

It started off good, but unfortunately even that didn't help. It is possible I had Yayo off repeat when I ran my KK into AA and I think it jumped to some other song when I lost another flip. I must pay more attention to execution of this strategy, or maybe the base strategy was wrong as it starts working only after 3 days.

The result is the worst month while in BPC, except first one: 160 hours of playing, 22004 hands and 208€ of profit :|

This is the graph of January:



As for the goals I played just 35hours this week, but completed other goals. Spanish I started doing Doulingo app on mobile, it is not as demanding as LEarn Spanish like crazy, so need to get back to that. I did notes, hands analysis and gym as scheduled though. As for the book The power of Now is a long one, so I I'll go with Eat That Frog for next week!

Otherwise I really hope that this is just one of those months and I will go back to crushing next month. Good thing was that I finally started studying a lot more, which is necessary for the next step. MY improvisation in some spots can only take me so high. Now I am having a lot of questions in those regular spots like CB or not, double barrel or not, what bet size is optimal etc. But yeah don't feel too optimistic, as those past months doesn't feel like anything. Like they say in UFC: You are only as good as your last fight.

-----------

February and next months will be super exciting though. I bought one way ticket to Thailand!! YEAH. I am just going alone in the beginning and then one month later or Project 20, one of the BPC guys in HU will join me and we will stay there for 2 months more. Maybe we will also go to Philippines, Malaysia or Bali for a while. We will improvise a bit, but it is very possible that we will continue our journey to the other side of the globe and go check Caribbean and South America as well. Be there for a couple of months. It all sounds like an epic journey. I will of course have to work hard and earn some money or I'll have to return back home. I would really like to take it to another level even while traveling, Crushing my goals, while enjoying and living the dream! We can help each other a lot with Project20, with discussing poker and studying together. A month like this doesn't give me too much confidence, but I will just have to work harder!


P.S. Yayogate refers to hottest affair of the month if you are not following poker news. 500k, blackjack, booz,drugs, strippers and the Yayo song!-you find the thread here on 2+2 if you somehow happen to miss it

Wssssup guys!!

Greetings from Chiang Mai!

I see I missed an update. So how did February go. First days I had a lot of things to taken care of. From doctors to visas and some other documents. Luckily all dates aligned perfectly and I took care of everything. The problem was that my cold turned into a fever, so it was pretty bad. Didn't want to go like that on the plane. Luckily my condition got almost back to healthy a day or 2 before the trip. On Sunday I left the cold behind me and off I went. I didn't play any poker in first days and I had in mind I will take another week off. I know I had a plan to go 8 months without break and minimum 160 hours of playing and this was only 6th month, but it was not just because of the results in January, my mental state was worse and worse and I felt I need some break, rewind and then make a final push to finish contract before I come back home. Silence before the storm.

I booked my hotel when I arrived at the Bangkok airport and it felt good to have 26 degrees even at 3 am in the morning, when I went to have a nice noodle soup. Sitting in short sleeves felt amazing, especially since I was hiding under two blankets with fever not long ago and had lot's of snow and - 10 degrees outside.

Next day I moved to a nearby hotel with rooftop pool and gym and chilled out also with a friend I knew from before.


Pretty close by I also had some big electronic shopping mall, 4 or 5 floors of million of shops with computers, cameras, mobiles. A dream for a tech guy. So was easy to get the cables and charger I forgot like I usually do
I was in an area that doesn't see much tourists and nobody knew any English. So I had trouble to order even food from nearby places as they served some stuff I never saw before. This time I learned how to use all the public transport available there as it was necessary because of the location of my hotel. You have a lot of bike taxis buzzing around, so you just stop one and hop on and he drives you short distances for 20-50 cents. Really useful to get to Metro or Sky train. And those two cost also under 1 EUR and you have whole of Bangkok covered. One day I also took ferry taxi, super cheap,about 40 cents, but I had to painfully wait to get on it as it was too many people waiting and ferry comes around only every 20min. When you have to wait a few before you can come aboard it becomes quite a downer.

So I spent my time walking around and exploring different areas, checking for some good places to eat, checked out some shopping malls or chilled at the swimming pool, going to the gym and played some pool.
I tried a few new dishes that my friend brought me and I don't even know the name, it is some local specialty or something:

It might look a bit weird, but it is very good. It is chicken and I think it also has some banana and curry, maybe coconut and lots of herbs. I really liked it. Behind that, what looks more normal is duck, but mostly insides, so I was not a fan, but it is again with lots of herbs and spices so it doesn't taste bad.


This is a desert called Kanom Sai Sai. I learned about it previous year and bought it at the night market and I really love it. It is made out of coconut and rice flour, not sure what is inside, maybe palm sugar. Really good stuff.

One other note to mention is that I went to some really good Thai massage place. Again would be hard to find for a tourist, it's really awesome if you know some locals. I had longer than 2 hours massage, first just feet and then whole body. I also told her about my shoulder and I noticed before on my own that I have some very hard muscle or not sure what it is called and it is super hard when I do the move that really hurts me. And if I pressed on it I can do the move easier. She went really hard on it and already my mobility was better. She told me to come 2 more times and my shoulder will be good. This is really good news as it probably isn't some bigger joint injury and I'll be able to continue training and even go do Muay Thai!! Not to mention I payed about 10€ for 2.5 hours.

So that was that, no playing, no studying, no reading.

Then it was time to go to Chiang Mai. I arrived Sunday at noon and then spent 2 days walking and driving around with scooter all day and looking for apartment. I drove over all of Chiang Mai a few times, checked numerous rooms, searched online and still didn't know what to do exactly. It is way easier if you stay in one place at least for a month, then I could get really awesome place. On Valentines day however I designed a plan, decided and booked my places. So now it will be time to start working! I still have some outside of playing things to take care of, but my station is set and let's get things rolling.

Will report more next time!

Hey, hey!

Time really flies fast, I meant to do an update everyday and nowit's already end of next week and even a month.

But anyway. Third week of February I went to Chiang Mai as I mentioned. First days I walked and drove around and on Wednesday did a decision and booked places.

It's hard in the beginning as you are in a completely new environment and you don't know how things are yet. Where is the happening, where are the restaurant and places that you will like. So on the third day I thought I knew where I want to be and it was also with the help of one receptionist that really helped me and explained a lot about different areas and cool places where locals hang out.

If you come to Chiang Mai for a month or more you really have a lot of very nice options in the rang of 300€ per month. More fancy Studio apartments with pool and gym. But even in less than 200€ to 250€ you get n ok apartment, a bit more outdated or a bit further away from the city.

The apartment:

Because I knew I will be staying just for 2 weeks and Project will not join me in Chiang Mai, I decided to spend one week north of the Old Town where I really liked the area and then the next one a bit further away from the city. I really like the residence where I stayed as it was in a bit of an ancient style and were also reminding for a clean environment which is a rarity in Thailand.

This is how you lock the door and Chillout space

I didn't realy know how to transport my scooter and luggage to the new place, but luckily I got a Tuk tuk driver to drive my luggage, while I followed him. IT made for a very comedy like journey as they drive a bit crazy and he thought I know the location, which I of course didn't without a help of GPS. So we were joking a lot and and stopped many times and figured it out togther. Realy cool driver.

Motorbike:

In Thailand not having a motorbike is a big minus I think. You really miss a lot of places and adventures. I wouldn't drive it in Bangkok, but other places I feel is great. Even Chiang Mai, that can also have a thick traffic, but by end of the week I was already passing between the cars like a pro and I think traffic is not so horrible as people say. Cars give you a lot of room and are very aware. Only tuk tuk and Songtaew drivers are a bit crazy and you need to watch out a bit. I am really getting excited about a motorbike and a soon as I get home I will go do a motorbike driver's license. I talked to a girl that got me scooter a bit and then she rented me one for longer term directly from her bypassing hotel and I even got a special price for it. It is always good to meet local people as you can learn a lot of other things as well. Was driving Yamaha Mio 125 GT:


Food:

Most of the time I like to explore interesting restaurants and new dishes I never ate before. To not be too long again in Chiang Mai it is a must to try Khao Soi- Northern style noodles


REally awesome and that was actually a first Thai dish I ever tried in my life, made by a friend that learned hot to do them there in a cooking school. It was at that moment I fell in love with Thai food already.

WORK:

I have to admit third week was almost work free. On Wednesday I tried to play, but found out I don't have HUD and million of files I forgot to take with me. So I was working like 3 hours a day, but mostly it was some administrative work, budget and setting up everything. I also needed to update my notes as I didn't have the newest version with me.

I did stay away from distractions and even when I had a drink at Zoe in Yellow one night, which is one of the party places I went home fast even though environment was quite interesting. Discipline

Gym went according to plan and there are a lot of really cool gyms where the one day entry fee is just 1.5€ (60baht), but it is a really nice hardcore gym with everything.

I must say it was only this week that I really relaxed and loved the environment that I am in. I was not feeling best when I came or before I went, that is also the reason I wanted to go alone already, to have some time to think about some things I had in my mind. Also I really got used to travel alone and really started to enjoy myself.

On Sunday I moved to a new apartment and meant to start working a lot, but I said I will make a nice trip 20 km out of Chiang Mai to meet a very interesting friend I met and to see some environment and temples outside of town, that everyone said was really beautiful. I thought it will be a nice trip on a country roads, but it ended to be all way on the highway in quite a traffic. Was quite a challenge for me the first time and it also didn't feel best to drive fast in short sleeves and shorts without proper equipment. Of course I also got an idea that it would be cool to get over 100km/h, but I think I got to about 98, where traffic interfered and also I felt like scooter is going to fly. I really don't understand sometimes where I get these ideas from, as I said to myself I will always drive super safe and slow!

So I checked a nice temple in Doi Saket, learned some Buddhist rituals, saw some nice nature and there was also some festival, where I tried a few local foods, a noodle soup with blood instead of meat, which was surprisingly pretty good, but I loved even more the deserts. It was a nice end of the weekend.

Fourth week of February I moved a bit out of town, close to some Muay Thai gym (or MMA gym actually). I got a nice one bedroom apartment with a balcony and pool and gym. Well gym was just three cardio devices, but luckily I had again my O2 fitness near me, which has more of the gyms over Chiang Mai and I happen to be close to eat every time.


The apartment

The plan was to grind a bit, thai boxing and reading Eat that Frog.

I did a few sessions of poker in average 4 hours a day, I did earn something in the beginning, but than had two very bad days, but I did start to win some and felt much better during the end, so I hope this means good things are about to come next month. I played 22hours and finished at -111€.

Then my "Sunday trip" knocked on the door so Thai boxing fell a bit out of schedule. I didn't manage to dodge everything I read 7 chapters of Eat that Frog and it is really an interesting book that I need to start do. I bouth a notebook and pen so I can write in plans and things I need to do easily. Will come into action this month. I have one big frog I need to eat that I am neglecting for a month at least.

Other than that I was working a bit in he morning or in the evening, but during the day I was driving around a lot and saw so many different things from restaurants, temples, locations.

I started to really like Chiang Mai. I found more of the restaurants I really like, ones that have a realy nice ambient, to ones with nice view and one where I ordered 3 dishes for 2.5€ all together (intermittent fasting ftw) os I tried a lot of new dishes relatively short. Also fruit shakes in CM are mostly around 20 baht or 50cents.

Awesome Papaya salad

That tea I never tried before

Two very nice coffee shops

Chiang Mai is very popular for digital nomads so internet is mostly very fast and people work in such a nice places with beautiful views.

I was on so many different locations this week that I could make a whole report with million of pictures. I was also in the temple of Doi Suthep, from where you can see whole Chiang Mai and they say you were not in Chiang Mai until you visit it. But there is so many temples I won't put pictures of that here.

Also have an Important Announcement!! As my poker was not going that good, I branched out and opened my rooftop bar and restaurant:

So I invite you all to a delicious cocktails and dishes

All in all I really had a very nice week, I know I didn't work that much, but I didn't forget about my goal this time. I really needed this month, I recharged my batteries and I feel really great. In March poker will come first again. I really don't want to go home yet, I love to be here, I know this is for me, so I need to work hard, progress and earn some money to finish this trip. Also for my next steps in my career I need to finish this contract fast. But I really love to be here!
I also had in my thought that if in next two month I don't surpass 7k in a month or at least have two months over 5k I might make some changes in poker..
But for now what matter is I will give it my all in next two months behind the tables and off table work.

Tomorrow we are already going to Phuket, Project joined me yesterday, they lost his luggage, but he got it back today, so the plan is to find the apartment very fast and then action time. We will otherwise play in the hotels as well in the evening already.

I don't have a specific schedule in mind, but it will be something like 200 hours of grinding, go over some video series and fill it in the notes. I want to train Thai boxing at least a few times per week and chill some at the pool and beaches. MY confidence about poker is at about 0 percent, but I hope things get going again this month and everything will be even better then!

Greetings from Phuket!!

Apartment searching again took a bit longer, but now we are all set up.

Going back to the first week of March (end of February), I got to Bangkok one day before TheProject and went to look at some german movie at the Ghoette Institut and then eat to international food court, with some new friend I met. Next day TheProject came without his luggage as they forgot it at connecting flight. He went to bed after a long journey and I went to check a rooftop bar in Marriott hotel called Octave. Really nice view and setting and you can see whole city. Next day he luckily got the baggage already and we moved to a a pretty nice hotel Tai Pan-that also had pool and gym so we could do a workout, but decided to go to Phuket the next day, to get settled as fast as possible and start working. So we went

We caught an early flight, but still got to the hotel we booked at the airport very late. Too late to rent scooter or look for an apartment.

Windmill Hotel Phuket- really nice ambient with the pool under balcony

Days went flying after that. Weekend was pretty quiet, none of the agents replied and we just got a few numbers by driving around. We did rent scooters for a whole month, which was quite a search, as some wanted high prices. One mistake to avoid is to tell Songtaew driver you are going to rent a scooter. What happened was that they jumped ahead to talk with all the owners as they wanted a commission. So we were getting really high quotes. After we let them go, one of the owners lowered the price and next day that we came to rent for a whole month, we were explained how things work. We rented Honda Clicks and also bought some better helmets, full face thai standard for like 30€. Still nothing special, but much better than what you get by default for sure.

On Sunday we also got a visit from my Slovenian friend. She actually started working in a hotel nearby and will stay longer. Really interested how everytime I meet lots of Slovenian friends here. The week ended without being closer to the apartment though.

WE played almost everyday a short session, but I am still doing super bad. I was also very undisciplined, battled regs, spewing all around. A lot of things go bad and streets are bringing me worst cards possible. I played about 15 hours and started with - 480€

2nd Week of March started much better regarding the apartment search. Agents woke up, we got a lot of calls from the numbers we picked up and we were driving around and looking at options. First day it looked like it's high season, not much available at decent prices and on short term. However more and more became available next day and we also started looking more and more expensive things, upping our initial budget quite a lot. We don't influence eachother best in this regards haha, but before we made a decision, we started thinking more rationally and ended up in this place :



We have 3 bedroom private pool villa, so if things continue to go bad, we will start to rent out one bedroom haha. But really, it is a nice environment to work at, everyday we swim a bit, drink some coffee and hang out by the pool, sometimes have a beer. TheProject grinded outside by the pool, while I set up my workspace inside. In the free time we are exploring the environment and searching for restaurant and places we need.

We played a few longer sessions, but I still continued bad. I stopped a lot of the spewing, but not much goes my way. I had coaching and things didn't look as grim as I thought, which gave me confidence and I must just continue. My result for all of the month was about -700€ though.

Plans for next week is playing 50hours, everyday do 2 chapters of notes and go to the gym. Also to find a muay thai gym I want to start training at.
Next week I'll make a regular update and till then good luck guys!


Photoshooting on Yanui Beach

Hello all!
There is so much to update!!

So on the third week of March I played about 25 hours, had some fever and just didn't get into. I couldn't catch a break and I continued to do pretty bad.

Until then this was the result:




I played 66 hours, 9000 hands and lost about 200 on untracked sites.

The Challenge:

In the beginning of 4th week, while we were in the pool with Project20 and I was talking about me playing 200hours. As it turned out I would need to play 135hours in 11 days. As he thought I will not do it we made it a challenge and put 100€ on the line if I make it or not. I basically went out of the pool, sit behind the computer and next 11 days I spent all days grinding. I started first days with 15 hour session and over 12 hour sessions later on to get to 10 hour average for the last 5 days. I later figured out, it is very time consuming when I go get myself food, so they brought me food home and I just ate in front of computer to spend my free time in a more fun ways. I also had birthday in between so wanted to somehow get a free evening. It was hard challenge, many times I felt like a zombie, but I made it!

The other thing was the results though I continued super bad and had my worst month. I played 202.5 hours, had -777€ loss. I played just 22625 games as I played during some times when action was bad, but even on general I notice that it is decreasing for me.

The Graph:




I was in a really bad mood and under pressure in between, as I am here traveling in Thailand, living in a 3 bedroom villa and then don't have any profits this year. January and March are super bad, while February I almost didn't play. In between of having losing day after losing day, I got to the stage that I just accepted it, didn't lose my cool and just tried to made sure I get my money in good or that I am doing the right adjustments and don't care what happens. More or less my mindset was ok. On the last day however I ended a day pretty bad.

It looked like I will even get close to zero, my game was getting pretty good and I must say coachings with Nubson really helped me in that. I got one pretty bad opponent and then I had multiple tilting factors. I had internet disconnecting, losing a few opponents, I had my computer breaking, the bad opponent sucked out twice really bad on the river etc. After I came back of technical details I even was lucky to get that opponent bad, but it just ended in more frustration and losing a few stacks with session ending in client freezing... It was one of the rare times I really tilted and I almost threw my mouse in the screen. The whole outlook also seemed pretty bad with month ending this way! That opponent was also the reason I played 2-5 hours more than 200hours.

Next days I was still outraged, I felt such an injustice is happening to me, that everything sucks and it looked pretty grim. It doesn't help that weather is also turning bad and it started raining a lot. But while I was in the pool, bitching about it to Project20, I got sick of myself acting like a victim and not in control that I decided it is enough with that!

I had to start looking for solutions on what I can do to change it and if I can't, just accept it.

So I decided that I will buy new computer and make my workplace as stable as possible!
Maybe I will play in my own room so we will no disturb each other during hard times, matches.
The other thing I can do is to get better. What I will do is mark every hand I am not sure about and really solve it in flopzilla and with talking with coaches, friends etc. I will be writing a diary and note all the spews and spots I am confused in and write the solutions. That should make sure I will not do same mistakes over and over again.
Other studying is just standard from before, going over my notes and make that happen.


The Birthday:

That day I started grinding really early and finished at around 8pm. Then it was time to make a small celebration. for a change of thai food, we craved for some good pizza. In my opinion we have the best pizza in Slovenia, so I wanted to find a good restaurant, with stone oven and good dough. One restaurant seemed interesting by Italian chef Danilo Bellini. He was three time world champion in Pizza baking. They had stone oven and everything and the pizza was pretty good. good start. Then we made a spontaneous trip to Patong and infamous Bangla Road and then went back home to have a drink by(or in) the pool. Was a cool night and a nice change from grinding and sleeping.



APRIL:

First days of April I was sleeping to get back from being a zombie. Then the computer hunt started. I love electronic so this was a big treat for me. I checked everything on offer, watched reviews, read everything and then go travel to the shops to see al of the models live. In the end I went with the new HP Pavilion. I am otherwise an Asus fan, but those gamer models also from other companies were either too big, had bad battery or no IPS screen. Now I am rocking i7 7700hq and am super happy. I think it works faster then my desktop and is just a beast

After sitting so much I felt really bad, I read one article about stretching and after I did I felt like reborn. So I set myself a new challenge or morning routine. Everyday when I wake up, I go to the pool and first stretch for a few minutes,throwing in some yoga moves that I know, then jump in the pool and swim a bit. I will do this everyday in April! Hope I do the Van Dam Split until the end of the month (at the moment I am missing like half a meter to make a normal split. )

After that I usually work on my notes and study a bit:


This is where I usually think how stupid a lot of my problems are and I embrace the environment and the setting in which I am and realize how lucky I am

First week went by pretty quick with sleeping, shopping for my new toy and one day I spent at immigration office to extend my visa. I played like 10 hours all together. When I started my playing challenge in March I also stopped going to the gym, but now in April we are back in action.

One thing I need to mention is the local fruits. The taste of pineapple here is just out of this world and we buy it at the market for 10 baht (25 cents). it is much better than in Europe, it is really divine. Mango is also divine, bananas are much better then in Europe and it is just soooo good. Oh I also became a coconut master, I need 4 strokes now to open it while in the beginning I needed close to 25 strokes and really butchered it.


Coconut water and papaya

So that is that. Regarding the journey, when we booked this villa, we thought about ditching Dominican Republic and just stay here. Now with the weather turning sour and is raining a lot, the internet, this doesn't look like a very good plan. Also if I continue with my results I will go back home anyway. My plan was to even earn more money than I spend and atm it is far from happening One interesting option is also Bali as I learned that in May the dry season starts. So we will see how this will end, there is a lot of work yet to be done until the end of the month. Connection to Dominican Republic is not so good from here and with how things are going it is also financially much more than staying here in Asia.

And bit of the pictures from our cruising with the bike. We saw Big Buddha

And just some nice nature

Storm incoming!!


GL all!

Hey all.

report for 2nd week of April! A bit late again

So nice weather again came back to Phuket and it affected our productivity. Every morning is so nice now and after my stretching challenge routine, to which I also added shadow boxing with those weights they use me and TheProject usually talk and chill by the pool and hours are just running by super fast. Later we go grab something to eat and evening is here.

Then we also started going back to the gym 3 times per week and after the gym to the beach, which is really relaxing.



We usually get there close to sunset as sun goes down at 6:30pm already. That day there were lots of surfers and also locals chilling,having food and drinks. Very nice!

Otherwise on Monday I went to have some drink and play pool a bit. we really don't party at all this year, but one evening like that was great. I was not drunk, but I drove back already too confidently about 100km/h, which made me think a few days later when one guy had accident right before our house and then lay on the ground unconscious and all bloody. Of course without a helmet. I think he was ok later as they drove him away, but it is not a joke!

On Thursday there was Songkran festival!! What a crazy day, even on our quiet street we got into many water fights, just when we went to get food and later I climbed on the fens of our house and used the gardening hose to spray all the people with water. really fun. In the evening we stayed home as we didn't want to drive scooter and taxi would need a lot of time as traffic is pretty heavy. So I actually put a short session in, but this is how days just flew by.

End of week I actually did put some paying in, but for the whole month I played 40 hours altogether.
And how were the results?

Well it finally changed and went into right direction I made a few suckouts some rivers went my way and this are the graphs:





Ended up about 1200€ for the month in profits and abut 5000 hands played. As we spent too much times out of poker I didn't do my planned analysis, but I'll do it. until the end of month I need to get some big grind in.

Another important announcement is that we bought flight tickets to.... home? No As prices home were quite high in the beginning of May, we decided to go to Bali no matter what is our plan of staying or gong home. it is basically a freeroll as it costs us only 100€ and we can get cheaper flight back home later. However there is a big possibility we will stay there for a month or even 2. Dry season is starting so it depends a bit on how internet is performing there as I read some troublesome things about it on the forums. But information was not for 2017, so I hope all will be good.

Was a very calm, relaxing and nice week all together!

So to continue on to 3rd week of April, or previous week!

We started the week with a journey to Khao Lak. My friend from Slovenia, that works in hotel had a free day so we rented a car and went after she finished her job, to Khao Lak, a small beach town north of Phuket. We had about 2 hours drive to get there. It is known for diving, nice beaches and lots of national parks.
Project20 was driving and similar as myself last year when I tried to drive, was always switching the windshield wipers on and off instead of the turn lights. Luckily it is an automatic, so at least you don't need to worry about that while already having a steering wheel on the right. He got the hang of it pretty fast though.
When we got there I was in a big mood to party. I knew there will be no poker next day so wanted to have some fun. My friend that was working all day was super tired so she went straight to bed and TheProject was also pretty tired. He had to drive while I was sleeping the whole way there. He went to check out some places with me though. We were close to what was supposed to be the best bar, pub in Khao Lak. When we got there, there were just 70 year old guys dancing Makarena... If this is the best here it really didn't seem too optimistic. No young people around, but actually there was some group just leaving so I stopped them to ask here they are going and where is something happening. I also needed to find myself some party companions as I knew Project will soon go to sleep.
So we had some guy from Finland join us in same position as me. He actually also knows some Slovenian Sky jumper as he was doing that and now he is diving instructor, traveling here for a long time, but also first night here. So I ask the waitress where there is some party place and she tells us about some really good Club. Build Factory or something like that. So that was our next stop or so we though, as the place was 3 kilometers away and there was no taxi to be found (or any living being for that matter). We did bump into one other guy, also from Finland. We started talking and he told us even that club is closed at this point. He is living in Khao Lak for 8 months and is also a diving instructor. After talking to him for a while, we learned that there is no chance to get a taxi, but we did convince him to grab a drink with us and he knew some place still opened and said he will take us with his motorbike. So we start walking to his house, cool dude, but to make things even more funny, his motorbike is really small. So there is 2 meters high, another not too skinny guy and me climbing on the small bike asian style. I almost fell off whenever we accelerated, the last suspension was practically on the ground, but we got there. The place I guess was like a base for diving instructors to get together after working so I met quite a lot of them. Really interesting bunch and I learned a lot about the adventures and the lifestyle. Never dived myself before, but I got kinda excited. Must try it for sure!
So one of the instructors, also from Finland, named Patrick was actually a card dealer for a long time. Also did some Euro-poker tours and big tournaments and is a personal friend with Illiari "Zigmund" and knows Patrick Antonious and other famous players. Really cool guy. At one point he calls me over to the bar, where some locals started playing some card game. He saw that is almost same game as Baccarat, he thought me the rules so we gambled a bit haha. It felt really cool and the amounts were super small, like 10 cents in Euros. When I got home I wanted to take a photo of the sunrise and I dropped my phone and broke the screen. .. Guess this has became a tradition as well as I already did it last year
Anyway it was an awesome night and it felt really good to get loose after some time and meet all these new people and subculture.
Next day I was recovering more or less and we were chilling at the beach checked some waterfall, had an awesome lunch. This is also the area that was realyl affected by the tsunami more than 10 years ago, so you can still see it on some buildings an in memory of that there is still one ship standing there like more than 100m from the shore.



1.the beach 2. waterfall 3. grilled pork 4. best Som Tam ever (Papaya Salad)


Next day, on Wednesday we went to the Cinema to watch Fast and furious 8. Actually met some local girls, one of them was with her boyfriend that is believe it or not a poker player from Spain He plays Nl600 and up 6max on Pokerstars, there with some other crushers that I don't know, so I am pretty sure they must be super good. Really interesting who all you meet here and I guess there are quite a lot of us here
It is really interesting that before the movie starts you have an anthem and everyone stands up to respect the king. Movie was fun, it is a bit funny how the series progressed from normal street races to they becoming like the best trained elite force on the planet, to practically super human proportions.

And then there came Saturday where both me and Project were a bit more in easy going mood, we opened a beer and the night changed into morning listening to good music, having good food and Sang Som :P. In the morning also Slovenian friends that work in the hotel joined us. We were recovering whole day, but we had a nice chill-out by the pool and in the evening we went to some big weekend night market, where you can buy everything you want. Food, clothes, electronic, accessories, house pets etc.

So the week was more about having fun, but I didn't forget about poker completely. I didn't slack much doing nothing so I still played about 30 hours and also read through my notes that I saved on my pad and mobile phone, so I check it at various times. With TheProject we also did some Flopzilla analysis.

I added about 850€ to the mnthly profits, specially because of one guy that wanted to play me 3 days in a row. He was a bit lucky in the beginning, but luckily it went my way in the end. Some profit is also from untracked sites. I played a bit over 3000 hands.






Otherwise I know I am talking about working outside of tables for a while, but now it really hit me that this is the only way I can have better results. I knew it all the time, but now it is crystal clear in my head. The knowledge is the only thing stopping me for playing higher and having a higher winrate. I know it is obvious haha, but that is that. I am starting to work more seriously on my theory, where I will written my own rules and systematize some things. It is time for action!

To be continued with how April ended and the start with first weeks of May. We are traveling a lot so was not much by computer.

Hey, cool blog, keep the updates coming

Thank you Frontal Lobe. Ahhh am so slow with updates lately, people are writing me what is happening so, next few days I will update everyday.

Was writing this flying from Australia and writing on my tablet, but lets jump back to end of April first. Waa such a long time back…

So let's finally finish how the April ended. More poker oriented update this time

Last week of April was actually pretty uneventful. I had a lot of hours I needed to grind, so grind is what I did There was not much time for anything else as I was again in the 6th gear. I did manage to go to the gym and beach after and one evening I met with a girl I was talking about a car rental with. We went to some Shisha bar. She had plenty of businesses before and knows a lot of in and outs of doing business in Phuket, dealing with Police, what you can do and what you can’t do. It was realy interesting!!! Don’t think I should go too much into everything. She also has a lot of connections related to some field I was already interested in and have plans to start after finishing my contract, so it might be useful )
From Wednesday to Saturday I had craziest stretch of playing hours, playing more than 15 hours per day, with also a 19hour grinding day on 2 hours of sleeping) Previous day was about 17hours. Just jumped into the pool in between, but otherwise grind all the time. On Saturday I made just a short few hour session and that was a month
So how did poker go? I battled a bit more in the end, going up and down, but did pretty good on NL400 in the end to add some more profit and it gave me some optimism for the future. I also felt I played pretty good. The month ended a bit under 2800€ of profit, I played about 16000 hands and played 141 hours, with quite some study done.

Graphs of april:





So it was a bit more of a party that month and a bit less of playing. Luckily I finally did some profit again. My challenge of stretching everyday was successfully completed, not sure if I gained a lot of flexbility, but I noticed the difference, I did feel pretty good though.

The plan for next month is to study a lot and really go into theory and master the materials I have. Will write down the questions I have during play and then solve it once and for all!

Then came May!
In May the Slovenian friend that worked in a hotel nearby, came to join us in our house, so finally our third bedroom became useful It bring a bit of new energy into the house and we had a really great and fun week. After my grinding finish previous month I was sleeping like a baby first few days, but we were going to the gym together as Slovenian friend is also a personal fitness trainer and were going to the beach after a lot. The waves were super big and strong so there was plenty of surfers out as well. I think surfing season in Phuket starts in wet season, as before there are no good waves. I might be wrong on that though.
As it was our last week in beloved Thailand I made sure to feast on the food I love the most. Here is the Thai food throwback, probably because I am missing Thi food after so long away and you just need to try it:

1. Tom kha gai is probably the best thing on planet earth 2. Green curry

3. Chicken Larb (or spicy mint chicken salad) is freaking amazing 4. Fried rice and of course something is missing if there is not omellet on top, gotta get those proteins.

5. Grilled chicken, whole or cut, with awesome chilly and lime sauce and Sticky rice.


Not sure if i mentioned it, but I met one Slovenian guy in the gym, that is otherwise a trader for some NYC house, living in Miami, adrenaline junky and really cool guy. He can also travel and work and to me these are people that are owning life. I feel like I am in the beginning of this journey myself and hopefully will build a life I never even dreamed of not long ago. One part of traveling that I really love. We missed each other in the gym lately, so I was just talking to my friends about him and that we should meet before leaving to exchange contacts, when we stopped at some random 7/11 on the way to the beach. And believe it or not I am waiting outside when he stops there to turn on the main road. Haha so awesome.

Then at the beach I am thinking or we were talking about also meeting Somebody and the 1year1mil crew, before leaving as we also had that in plan, but they are a busy bunch, when he calls me to join them for dinner. Owning the law of attraction or what!! :-) I was craving for some steak and we went to a really good restaurant, food was divine, not to mention mojito there.

IamChampion’s blog was one of the first ones I was reading back in time, otherwise didn’t visit forums much, Somebody's blog gave me additional kick before joining the cfp and he was also my coach for a long time and of course I was following Goodfake and his progress and “Mogly’,s” awesome results from the 1mill project. Was really happy to meet them and they are really cool and easy going guys with positive energy. Not to leave out Somebody's gf. Also people that own life, work hard, but enjoy the life . I stopped believing a bit in my goals after bad start of the year, but they gave me some inspiration back I must admit. Was really nice to meet them and I hope I get closer to them with my own results

Otherwise be fore we left Thailand, I did managed two 5 hour sessions, and we also had a farewell pool party with SangSom and good music, with last day of mostly recovering and packing. It was also convenient that that car rental girl could give us a lift to the airport. And that was that of Thailand…Was hard to say goodbye.

On Saturday early morning we stopped in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia and followed our usual procedure. Money exchange if we have cash, buy Sim card 4g plan, search how to get to hotel. When we get out and I look for Grab, one guy gets to us and offers us a same price. He is also a grab driver, but premium one, but searchers normal customers as well, so we were driving in a big luxurious car. I think otherwise Grab is not allowed from airport, just taxi, so we were pretty lucky, but outside of airport everyone hates taxi in KL. They overcharge tourists and locals alike.
So we got a really interesting driver. A former professional racer, then street racer. Also had successful business when younger, but alcohol and gambling and crazy lifestyle destroyed him a bit. But really smart person otherwise and driving is what he loves to do. He told us a lot about Malaysia, women, business, nature of people. Btw found it interesting that Muslim have different law then others in Malaysia and have written their religion on ID card etc.
In the hotel we fell asleep as beds were just divine and I was thinking i need to put more thought on bed quality when renting apartment in the future.

view from the Hotel and purple KL Tower
After we went to dinner I also went out to Changkat Bukit Bintang party street to check the situation and I ended up with some Indian and Philippine people, bank workers, in some club that has Bollywood music haha. Had to go to send my friend that opened Bollywood restaurant some photos.
Next day we made the necessary tourist pictures at Petronas Towers, that were a highest building in the world for some time and is still the highest twin building in the world. They are really large, so it hard to get them whole on camera from around, so you have a lot of people selling the fish eye add one for mobile phones. We also visited KL tower and then chilled in the coffee to wait out the rain.

Petronas Towers and a look at them from KL tower
Everyone speaks pretty good English there and prices are similar to Thailand, maybe a bit more expensive. KualaLumpur is suppose to be famous about cuisine, but we didn't do the homework and were not too impressed about what we tried. In the evening, we were already excited about our next destination- BALI!!!

Helloooo!!! What everyone has been waiting for and write me about it: "So when will you write about the freaking Bali already???" Here it is-The Bali update Will continue with next weeks soon!

Second week of May we arrived to BALI!!!!!!

We landed literally a few minutes after midnight. Our plan was to stay there at least a week, but if internet is good and we like it, we stay for a whole month. There were some troubled information online about it. Our routine was a bit disturbed as I read before that SIM in the airport is really expensive, like 4x the real price and sure it was pretty expensive. There was also a wrong or old information about the taxi fare, so we made a whole halo about it with official taxi as they quoted us 4 times higher price than Grab and like 2.5 times more than online info. There was actually some driver that told us he just wanted to go home and sleep and took us for lower price On the way we also stopped at ATM machines and it's interesting that some machines only have 50k /bit more than 3€) banknotes and some just 100k. We booked a 4 star hotel that was pretty good priced at 30€ per room. I messed up on the booking dates so we actually had nothing when we arrived, but luckily it was not fully booked. It had a nice restaurant, pool and launge area and it was a nice welcome to Bali:




In the morning we followed our routine, hired scooters and meant to go buy simcard and get the feel of the place. As we had great scooters in Thailand, we already paid and asking for weekly and monthly prices, when we got to our scooters which were a total disaster. Old models that looked like they won't even start. For a day they were ok (sort of), but getting some better ones turned out to not be the easiest thing.
The second shock was the traffic. They say traffic is crazy in Thailand, but let me tell you after Bali Thailand seem like a peaceful village (maybe not Bangkok). There is soo many motorbikes everywhere and roads are much less wide than in Thailand. So while in Thailand you usually just pass everyone on the side of the road, here you get stuck together with the cars. People are passing in the middle of the road, which is more dangerous as also bikes driving to other direction are doing the same.

1.)A bit less crowded road :P 2.) Night Madness

In all the chaos and everything being new to us, we didn't find any bike shops nor SIM card shops. We decided to go have a beer by the beach. Right at the beach some motorbike taxi driver stopped us and offered us to take us to SIM cards. I always refuse these kind of offers as I like to go to official shop and to operator i gather from information is the best one, but Project was not much for keep driving around and it we are talking about a few euros and without internet it is really harder to explore around. So we went and got to some clothes shop stand haha. There was his friend that also sold SIM cards, different operator than I wanted , but she said this one is best in Bali. After a friendly chat where we didn't really talk about business, they seemed like really cool people, so we decided to trust her and the price was not bad. For 12eur we got 12gb, I think 4 g is just 5-7gb though. Officially I think its about 3eur less, so mobile internet is pretty cheap. While talking we also got to know and old lady that owns a massage place. Full body traditional massage for about 4eur. We were really starting to like the place.

And then we got to the beach and loved it even more Huge sandy beach wtihout ending, awesome waves, surfers, pretty girls... First thing we did is get our feet wet, then test mobile internet with some envy inducing video calls and then get a beer.



I was getting a feeling we will not be staying only one week here. The only thing it seemed they want to hustle you even more than in Thailand, which we didn't like, but I guess it’s like that in Asia and when you get to know the prices and how things are, it is not a problem anymore.

We continued our way north to Canggu and this time we were passing cars on the side of the road as well, with actually driving up on the walkway O.o. Really crazy. In the middle of the road TheProject stayed out of gas, but luckily 5 meters away from a shop selling bottles filled with gas and also with the money exchange next to it, with best rates we have seen. Sweet

After driving around looking for some places we were loving the nature and environment. One time we just stopped in the middle of the road and at that time I think we knew we are staying


While we didn't really found any accommodations and ere super tired by the end of the day, we were convinced we are stazing here for a month... or maybe two

Next day we didn't extend our bikes that were almost falling apart. TheProject's health was starting to get a bit worse, so we went around by foot searching for info and buy medicine and in the evening I got myself a massage. They really are a bit cheaper than in Thailand even. We had to g try some Indonesian food as well. Of course fried rice is the first basic thing w, called Nasi Goreng here, we always try and I also took Gado-Gado. It's a salad with lot's of vegetables, tofu, eggs covered with peanuts sauce. For me it was a bit too much of the sauce as it has quite a strong taste. Was pretty good :


Next days TheProject got sick and stayed home and I was also not in the mood to go search houses by myself, so I took time to meet some new people :P or chill at the hotel. That is how one evening I went to look at the sunset, which is what I found out a popular thing to do by tourists and locals alike. It is nice to see a lot of people relax and enjoy the beautiful nature and island life:

GOOD VIBES

Near the end of the week we went back to action again and drove all day with the agent to check many villas. The price was cheaper than in Thailand and villas were amazing, however they didn't take our pleas for internet seriously enough so we couldn't even test it usually as they had routers turned off and location was always not really so good. We drove all day and saw Sanur, Nusa Dua, Jimbaran and all south part. Traffic was a bit annoying already and all we really got from the day was that we don't want to be in that locations we saw haha.
She also, among many others said she can get us the new bikes, but in the end nobody had any available. So weird. We wanted Honda Vario Techno model, that si same as new Honda Click in Thailand and has enough room under the seat to fit a whole full faced helmet, while some other Vario models are smaller and like older Click 110cc in Thailand.

Over the weekend we moved to a new hotel by the beach at the skirts of Legian and dig into searching for scooters and houses a bit more seriously. We found some potential candidates on airBnB that we usually didn't use and I also find some on FB after joining million of groups there. At the end of the week we still didn't have scooters were not settled in played any of the poker, so we were a bit anxious of take care of this things already. Also the traffic was a bit annoying as you need so much time even to cover short distances, internet was not so stable all of the time and everyone was trying to hustle you We really hoped next week will be more productive, but overall it was a nice week in Bali

Time to get the show on the road for real now! I have two week by week updates in the books still for May and then I will do a big update for a whole month so we get back to regular news and thoughts! Let's do it )

THIRD WEEK OF MAY we started decided do take care of the things. We went by foot to search for motorbikes. After 5 minutes of walking we start talking to some guy, he has them, we negotiate the price and 5 minutes later we have the Honda Vario Techno model we wanted, in good condition and for a good price! Really great and ready to check some accommodations.
We basically only had 2 potential accommodations left I found on airBnB and FB group and if that wouldn't work we would have to go back in research mode or dunno what we would do really. First one we didn't really like too much, but second was pretty nice! It was a Villa with a pool and the best thing was it is owned by a an owner of ISP company in Bali!!! haha. So we basically had our own internet and the girl that showed us the apartment was the manager of the company. So we had a quick contact for if something would go wrong. Here is how it looked like in gated community with security. 2bedroom, 3 bathroom:






And we were back in action and ready to work!!

First days I was pretty rusty, focus was not there. I was doing a lot of mistakes, but also cards were not on my side. also had too much not favorable battles and I lost quite a lot of money

After the grind we went to eat something by the beach and found our spot here. Even after so much time by the sea and all the beautiful scenery you see, the sunset doesn't lose it's power:





In the evening I usually went to have some drink or dinner, get to know the environment, some restaurants and how this are working here. Almost everyone speak English really good here.
Close to our house we also found a gym and joined for 10€ for a whole month! Not new machines, but you can do everything or you improvise a bit as people do there and the music is bumping really hard with some weird electronic mixes

We are also close to all of the laundries, restaurants, local and foreign. We can also order home almost anything we want. From cleaning to massage to groceries and food from restaurants. It is pretty amazing.

Work conditions are good and our live in Bali started rolling. The only thing we didn't like is that we are not close to beach and the traffic that is horrible.
As we lost a lot of time this month our plan was to grind like crazy for the remainder of May.

LAST WEEK OF MAY or last 10 days actually I had a lot of play to do and that is what I did, more or less. Actually could do more. Everything went according to an old plan of grinding in the morning, going to gym, breaking fast and eat, beach and back to grinding. On gym days of course sometimes I missed the beach and missed some evening session from time to time, but more or less this is how it was.


Beautiful relaxation after the grind

The only thing next to poker is that I met one Fashion designer. She is really an interesting human being and we really hit it off right frm the start haha. She is really hard working and does it with hearth. She also cooperated with 3 designers which names don't mean much to me, as I don't have a clue about this kind of fashion. She is working for 3 companies, cooperates on many shows, networking like crazy and is working hard with a goal of having her own label. She is a kind of person that would probably finish BPC in record time, grinded like crazy and did all the necessary things needs to be done. It was really interesting to talk about everything how to organize time, friends, work, how priorities change and just the mindset and balancing life. We are in some way in similar situation and I really love people who also goes on this road, to try to make something big and live their life how they want to. I hope someday when I succeed I can help and support people like this. I am also fascinated to meet people that know for their whole life what they want to do, what is their passion and then are doing it and working hard for it. I think because I never had career goals or one main thing that I could devote m life to I am in this way also puzzling together clues on how and why they have motivation, how they think of life and what is their mindset. I know I am too lazy many times, but hopefully I find or get the secret one day haha. That is why I like to meet all these new people and see their history and how they live.

About my game otherwise I had a feeling I am playing pretty good poker, my thought process was pretty good, but I lost some ver evenly matched battles by quite a lot, that could go either way, but I am very sure I had the edge, even though not very big one. at the end I managed to get something going as well and I at least turned a month around into a small profit.

I played like 80-90 hours and had 750€ profits. I did spend quite some time to actually study and review things though:




Those days me and Project ware also making plans for the future and decided to stay in Bali for one more month! We had good working conditions so wanted to put some big grind next month and then see how to proceed. Also the environment is nice, we got used to the insane traffic and we really wanted to finally start surfing!! Time flies so fast when you put a lot of hours in working. It was my long time wish to start, try surfing!!


Beautiful Vietnamese restaurant in Bali, with low tables where you kneel by them on the floor next to rice fields and the outer part of the restaurant is also nice

We had a visa problem to solve though. When you get to Bali from EU you can get "Visa Exemption" that is free, but you can't extend it. The other option is to get the "Visa on arrival" that costs 35 USD and you can extend it for a month. So we had no choice but find a flight out of the country. We both wanted to go to Autralia and bought a cheap tickets for Darwin! It's a capital city or Northern Territory of Australia, just about 2.5 hours flight to there from Bali, ticket was cheap and we ere super excited to go, even though it's a just a small town and not like Sydney with famous landmarks.

We could also extend our rent for the villa and everything was set up for the month of June!!

Nice story. You are in the right way man, keep going and good luck!

@braisps Thank you!

So here we go with a quick review of previous month, I will have to leave some more specific stories as it will be long anyway. A lot was happening this month and I practically didn't have any downtime to lay around and do nothing. I was either working or being outside, meeting people and even went to party a few times. This year I almost didn't explore this side of life much, but it looked pretty crazy in Bali.

JUNE!!

So I started June determined to work hard and do just poker. I started strong and first two days put good grinds in, even grinding all night before leaving for Australia on 3rd. I grinded like 15 minutes before leaving and then packed and went

Australia

We both really wanted to see Australia, even though just little Darwin. Before going I read that there is most animals there, that are dangerous to humans. From snakes, to alligators and jellyfishes. I must say I was a bit worried as I didn't know what that means, if there are crocodiles in the middle of the street or what? also they advised us that we shouldn't swim in the sea as jellyfishes still lurk around. which was kind of our plan for this short trip. Lay on the beach, swim and chill. When we landed we also learned Darwin is one of the most expensive cities in Australia as it doesn't have it's own port, so everything needs to be transported through half of the continent.
Another interesting thing I learned is that it was the first city to be attacked in second world war, by Japanese. The same fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor.
The first impression otherwise was pretty interesting. Streets looked to me kinda like in USA, air was noticeably more clean than in Asia, without trash laying around and it smelled more European and familiar. Grass also looked like in England or Ireland, people were running in the morning in parks and Australian are so open and nice upbeat people. Really sweet.
There was the other side I also noticed a lot. There was quite a lot of homeless people, Aborigines were usually in scrappy clothes gathering around in parks, doing drugs and so. Not just them, when I went to some smaller street I saw a few made up homes and one lady taking a dump, behind the dumpsters. It didn't look dangerous though and also local people were not avoiding anyone, but in Slovenia is a bit different, as we are not a melting pot so sometimes it really gets me thinking how we formed our society.
But anyway, prices really were quite high, specially coming from Asia. Kebab was like 8€, not expensive restaurant like 25€ and coffee about 4€. Quite different than steaks for 6€ and local food for 1€. There was a big pool party in our hostel, so we didn't get the rest in the first day, still looked a bit around or trying to rest in bed the first day and in the evening decided to go out and check the Casino. There was Italian floorman and one table of 2/5 AUD going on. We were watching a bit and deciding if we want to try and play, but there was a list, Neteller somehow doesn't work in Australia and then we were pretty tired already as we didn't sleep. So in the end we went home without action.

Next day Project was sleeping all day and I was writing blog on my tablet by the pool. In the evening we went to Mandil beach for a sunset and market. I was always fascinated even as a kid over boomerangs and koalas and kangaroos so was nice to see some of the aboriginal art there. And for the last day we went to the waterfront, where they have filtered water so you can swim in the sea without jellyfishes and crocodiles hunting you

It was pretty nice to get a small taste of Australia, but for sure need to go Sydney and east coast and stay longer there to get the real feel of the place. I am really happy we managed to get there though.
Oh as for Visa you only need to do it electronically if you are from Europe.
When going back to Bali they didn't let us on the plane without a return ticket or ticket out of Indonesia. It was because we flew with Australian company, so pay attention to that if you plan it. I was lucky to find cheap tickets on desired dates to Singapore (and forward to Philippines we also had in plan)

Surfing



Yeah!!! We finally did it. I was determined to start surfing last month so after we came back, we just went one day. It was great!!! A friend that I met there, also an awesome person, knew a group of people that rent and teach how to surf. So for around 12-15€ we went into action. First he showed me how to lay on the board and how to stand up in one swift motion. I did it twice, he was happy with it and we went into water haha. I was just laying on board and it was not so easy to keep balance in the beginning, but I managed somehow. Then soon he turned me in the right direction, gave me speed so the wave caught me, yelled stand up!! I did and that was that haha. The first time already I stood up and it was awesome!!! So we were in the water until the sundown, like 2-3 hours and in the end I was already paddling myself and searching for my own waves. it was so fun. Had also some long rides, but all this was happening on the white waves. when they already break, but they still have lot of power and can carry you long. It is great fo beginners. I even tried with my friends surfboard for more intermediate surfers and had no problems I was super confident about surfing, but next time I went the condition was way different. waves was super big and I got my humbling experience. I was struggling in the water for 2 hours, I couldn0t even get away from the shore, then all waves missed me, or I was too slow or when I caught one, there was such a huge force and it went so fast and I was out of balance before it even started so I just held on for my life and it ended in not a pleasant crash in the water. It was like going from playmoney to highstakes. So I got a hint and later only went surfing in playmoney conditions Really hope I get somehwere where I can surf more and raise up through the waves. Could really get used to poker and surfing.

Suit

In Asia a lot of people decide to make a custom suit. You have a lot of tailors that can d it for you for cheap. It is just always hard to find a people you can trust as they can scam you with quality of the fabric or quality of work. As I already met that fashion designer I remembered and mentioned to her if she can make me a suit. She said she did it many times so we went together to buy fabric (I chose 80% wool/20% silk), she took measurements and I also met the tailor. So I got myself a custom great suit for about 25% to 30% of the cost in Europe. I hope she does became a famous designer and then I can sell the suit for a few million on Ebay haha. Was really happy as I was thinking about making a new suit for the wedding I am going to in Slovenia in August.

Smaller trips around Bali

Before leaving Bali we really wanted to see at least some parts of Bali. UBUD was one of them, we went there just with bikes and is a really nice place there with lots of Balinese culture, temples and rice fields. On the way there already there was a lot of women dressed in traditional clothes, carrying stuff on their heads. Most of the houses were also behind some wall, like in an old temple or fortress.
First stop we made was in an awesome restaurant that one of the local people recommended to me. Its a bit more higher ranked restaurant and I tried the traditional Balinese duck that was just amazing and melting in the mouth and a great traditional caramel cake desert, where I added coconut ice cream with it. The ambient is amazing, close to the waterfall and river. Price in the end still was not more than 12-15€ per person.


then we also went to the monkey forrest and drove around a bit to see all the great scenery.


The city itself is quite interesting, more traditional with a hint of yoga and healthy food.

We also went to GILI ISLANDS, for two days. 2 hours with a fast boat away from Bali. They are famous for white beaches and sea turtles! I always wanted to see the big one. It was really nice getting there, also no motor vehicles are allowed there so people drive around with horses or bicycles. The place would be such a paradise if there wouldn't be so much trash everywhere. It really is such a shame for that, but it is still a lovely place.

You have to go snorkeling while there and in the first few minutes of going into the water I saw the turtle!!! I was shouting for Project to get there with GoPro, but it didn't happen and then I lost her as well, unfortunately didn't get to swim with here more closely, but they said I was lucky to noticed her so close to the beach. Next days I was always searching hard and on the lookout, but didn't see it anymore. Fishes on the other hand are amazing. So many colors, some quite big, it can be a bit scary and it reminded me on that reef from finding Nemo. Really nice experience.
Otherwise we had an awesome grill on the beach, beer and it was a great two days of relaxing. Relocating and working a lot doesn't give you so much opportunity to just go around and explore everything unfortunately, but on the other hand you get a better feel on how it is to live there and get to know the people and learn about their way of living which is also really valuable. But sometimes I wish I could just travel around and explore all the new things. Like they say-have to work hard, to then play hard and have this opportunity.

Poker

I started really serious, results were doing ok, but last two weeks I almost stopped playing. I still put a session in here and there, but I was too much around, surfed, going to trips, shopping etc. after 95 hours of playing I was at about 1200€ profit, wanted to finish the month, when in next 2 hours went to lose 1k€. It was vs a guy I almost stacked for a third time, had 95% to 5% on the turn, which I lost and then everything fell apart. The main result was so a great 150€ of profits and 97hours played. I will really need to put much more focus in poker to get to higher level again, with traveling I just don't put enough hours of playing in, but also not enough thought! I forget about poker goals and what I need to learn and do. it is different than when I was at home living and breathing for success. So for sure I will need to get back to that soon, to make it to another level.




Other than that I was going to the gym regularly, had great diet that I did with myftinesspal and it showed. I hope I continue in Vietnam. I really liked Bali! I met some amazing people, even ones I didn't mention in blog. Internet was not always the best, we were a bit lucky to get such a great house with these owners, as we had some special internet package with access to USA as well that would otherwise cost insane amount of money. There are cheaper connections that have connection just to Singapore or something like, don't know how that works for poker and I heard places that have fiber optics are great as well. Otherwise 4g was working decently and I never had problems playing poker, just a few short disconnects that didn't fold my hand though Definitely worse situation than Thailand or other countries here. I also ate more steaks here then before in my life as you can get really good quality ones for 3-7€ already. I found more of the good local food later towards the end, but Bali is really so diverse so you can find anything you want, from cheap to expensive and I am sure I will be back!

After Bali we were thinking of going to Philippines but were then not sure, as there was a lot of news of terrorist attacks, kidnappings etc. But also people telling us that it is nothing in those safe zones. We decide to get ticket to Vietnam and then see on the way back whether we will stop there or not.

Singapore

29th in the morning we said goodby to Bali and stopped in Singapore, before going forward to Vietnam the same day in the evening. The plan to quickly see the city wran into trouble when we couldn't leave the baggage at the airport as we had electronics inside (computer screen, laptops etc.). They would also charge us like 20€ for it. So I found some hostel close to metro station, but finding the way and all of that stole quite a lot of time. We still managed to get to the center and had about 1.5 hours there, more to get the feel about. It was still a good experience and Singapore looks like a city from the future. Really everything modern, people and girls in nice suits or dresses. Some crazy buildings and architecture. It was short , but we were both happy we made the effort to get to the center.




And then we continued our journey to Vietnam where we will stay for one more month and then heading towards home. Now we finally got to the present time with the blog and will leave the Vietnam for next time. I must say that up until now I didn't really miss Slovenia and home much and I have a feeling I will get back soon. Maybe more staying in one place longer, where I will focus on poker.

Kind of a pity tbh, Darwin is the biggest Shtihole in Oz. :')

Hey. Yeah I know I didn't really see much, but a longer trip to explore the Australia is in the works, I believe relatively soon

VIETNAM!!!

On 29th of July after Singapore we got to Danang! Our last stop. I was super excited about visiting this city. I read about it on internet and it seemed like such a convenient place to live in. It is a beach town, no too big and they have good internet Oh and I read it is as cheap as Chiang Mai. Seems like a pretty awesome combination.

Btw we just started reading about Visa a few days before leaving Bali and there is luckily a quick way to get it without going to consulate. You need some letter that you print that many companies sell online to send you and usually takes 2-3 days to get it (luckily they provide express service as well), 25 or 50 USD in cash to pay at the airport and a photography. You also fill some application form and with that you have everything you need to get Visa on Arrival.

So as I checked the city layout on Google maps I had a good feeling we can get settled really fast this time, as it didn't seem so important where to be. I mean from a lot of places you are either by the beach, or 3 minutes away with a bike. So this was the main plan, with all the experience we got from the trip I was really prepared. I had concrete contacts for apartment or houses, before we even got there. When we landed at the airport we went straight to Airport Information counter and took 4g mobile phone data SIM, 18GB for 7USD. As it was pretty cheap we also took the limousine ride to the hotel,she offered. Mostly we were in a mood to just go with it and not complicate too much. We learned that usually we lose more money and precious time with looking to much before making a decision. So next day, we rented scooters at the hotel and went about checking the places out and in between jumping to the beach and check the place out. The first impression was really awesome! Pretty modern town, beautiful beach, wide roads.
So it all went pretty smooth. By the end of the day we already decided and moved to our new apartment. WE took pretty nice and very modern two bedroom, two bathroom place in the 11th floor, with a cool view. We even have digital switches for the lights and automatic curtains for windows.



What is really sweet as that this we both have desks in our room, so we can work there, while there is a main space for relaxing and no poker. The location is really good. We are next to Han river, where there is a lot happening in the evening, but we still have just like 3-5min to the beach with motorbike. The beach is a really long stretch of a few kilometers and really nice:





Awesome and relaxing time here. Oh the agent that got us apartment also hooked us up with motorbikes for 44€ per month. Yamaha Nuovo LX 135cc. We would otherwise go for Honda Air Blades, but it's easy to trust agent and we didn't need to leave any documents or deposits. Also there is one problem here in Vietnam.

The problem was finding some good restaurants, grocery shops or just anything around here. Almost nobody can speak English here. They don't understand even simple numbers or really basic words like "restaurant" or "food". So it can be really hard orient yourself. On top of that, here a lot of things are not in Google maps and the signs outside are horrible. Buying protein powder was a whole adventure, first days just trying something at local restaurants was also crazy. I did learn the basic words about food, but ordering whole chicken on barbecue still came as a surprise as it really was a whole chicken. Head and feet included! It was hard to just remove the unwanted parts... Or one time we got cold food etc. In Thailand almost everywhere I went the food was good, but in Bali and here I saw you must really know the places or get some local guidance, as the quality seems to vary much more. That is why we ate more of international food in Bali although later I did learn of some really awesome local places, that were amazing and it changed what I thought about Indonesian food. Here I found some guide online, but again it was hard to find on Google Maps, as things are just wrong in there or not really in the maps, plus you can't ask where something is haha. Well of course sooner or later you find it, bump into people that know English or with trial and error. So now we already have some go to places and the conditions are pretty good for working and living. But language barrier is pretty big versus other countries we were at.


Banh Xeo- is a special Vietnamese dish. Its a fried pancake.So you take that white rice paper and you put on it the yellow pancake. Than you proceed to put all the vegetables on top and roll it into a nice roll (maybe not me personally, but I saw people on other tables doing a very nice job haha). Next you deep it into that sauce. I think it is peanut one. And taste is reallllllyyyy good. You have a bit of everything saur,sweet,spicy and peanuts make a nice contrast. Really interesting food and how you eat

Oh btw, beer is super cheap here. In restaurants it is usually 50cents and in supermarket we bought box of 24 small ones for 8€.
We also signed up for a very nice gym, here close to our apartment. Here it is also possible to go to 8€ per month one and it had everything you need, but it seemed a bit crowdy so we decided to go to a more fancy one, but still has a hardcore feel to it.

Otherwise time passed really fast here. First days I was super tired as I had a crazy ending in Bali and then traveling and was basically just around for10+ days, without much sleeping and it caught up to me. I also became sick and lay in bed a lot so first week went by like that and I worked a bit when feeling better.
Maybe it was low energy days, but I felt a bit fed up with everything as well. Just relocating again, being in new environment and learning about everything again, not knowing nothing and leaving the cool people I met behind again. Also knowing that this is it now, going home after it.. Felt also a bit nostalgic and contemplating about life, poker as I am doing so bad while traveling and just everything. Later I snapped out of it and acclimated and start enjoying everything again First week I played 2 days 20 hours and ended with a 800€crash and - 350€ week.

Next week I wanted to play more, my sleeping schedule was way off so I played during the night and slept most of the day. Also analyzing hands a lot. Still went to the gym and all and like 2 times to the beach. As I was awake all night I also watched the McGregor vs Mayweather conferences live. It was not super entertaining all the time, but there was no way to miss it. Can't wait for the fight to happen! I watched some UFC events and was barely waiting for Game of Thrones new season In the mean time we also found airplane ticket home already. It was full of complications as first credit cards were not accepted, then when they were I wrote one of the names wrong of course. So it was a bit of hustle to change it, filled my phone up so I could call internationally only to find out I can't, so I bought another sim card and fill it up to be able to call. Luckily everything is super cheap here including calling internationally so in the end all ended good
I also recovered a bit had cca- 650 to 700€ profit.
So not much longer now and we are back to the home country. Hopefully finish the month on the up