Table of contents because this post is a long boi:
1. Life updates
2. Long-term goals
3. Life strategy
4. Poker
Life updates:
So, this is my first time logging into my 2p2 account in 2 years haha.
I've been lurking every once in a while without being logged in because my last PG&C thread was a bit of a failure and haven't really had a desire to update it.
Long story short, I left the US out of frustration with what I felt was a lack of opportunity in the US (not specifically just poker, but education, travel, healthcare (lol), etc) and moved to Australia on a 1-year working holiday visa
I originally intended on staying in Australia for one year, playing 6m hypers all year, stacking cash, and then returning to the US.
As it turns out, I liked the vibes down under even more than I thought I would.
I was doing alright with finances and every time I played hypers I ended up losing lots of money, (although I did play hu hypers for a good bit with decent success) and I was having so much fun just kind of bumming around the country and travelling with amazing people from all over the world that poker kind of faded from my focus. I didn't play nearly as much as I should have or could have. I also got super disillusioned with the whole social media thing and had some weird kind of personal growth experience.
I stayed in Australia for one year and then moved to New Zealand for 2 years. Had a few odd jobs along the way and played $7-$15 hu hypers with decent success, but I mostly just ****ed around for 2 years.
Unfortunately I was forced to return to the US when my NZ working holiday visa expired and it felt like.. well, a lot of suck. Entirely suck actually.
It's now 2 years after I returned to the US and the post-travel blues haven't disappeared. I don't feel happy here. I miss Australia the most, and I miss it terribly every single day. But that comes along with immense regret that I didn't take advantage of what really amounts to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You can only get those working holiday visas once.
So, first, my long-term life goals, and then a bit more detail on how I intend to achieve them:
Long-term goals:
1. Don't get fired from my job (I actually really like my job)
2. Become profitable and/or demonstrate profitability at online cash games
3. Travel out to Norway for at least 10 days, take (and pass) the Norwegian language test
4. Save enough money to survive in Norway for 4 years.
5. Apply for the Norwegian student visa and move to Norway.
6. Finish a degree in Computer Science in Norway
7. Continue to play cash games online from Norway
8. Decide whether I want to move back to Australia/New Zealand or if I want to stay in Norway
9. Get Norwegian or Australian citizenship (depending on #8)
10. Retire (Obligatory filler goal because 1-10 looks better than 1-9)
Life strategy:
My job: I currently work for an advertising agency, but I work in back office and mostly just **** around with Excel and AdWords/Google Ads all day. I love this job though. Good people, decent pay, we get to drink beer at work, I don't have to speak directly with clients, and I get do some scripting on a regular basis. To clarify, I think I like this job as much as I could ever like a job. I've had some attendance issues lately due to a number of factors, but missing Australia is a part of it and I've recently realised how stupid it is that I would miss work because I'm unhappy in the US... that just keeps me here longer.
Becoming profitable: I have literally played like MAX 500 hands of cash games in my life. I was never attracted to cash games for some reason, I think because I was always attracted to the concept of being "first", and SNGs, particularly 6m hypers, let me be "first" very frequently lol. This will be an incredible amount of work, especially from within the US to start. Looking to immediately focus on re-learning the basics and then establishing a GTO-based baseline strategy. Rolled to start at up to NL50 but rather not get crushed so will be starting in micro-micros. Not sure if it's better to start at NL4 or NL10. Happy to get people's opinion on this. I currently am playing on Global Poker and have had a few successful cashouts so feeling ok with their legitimacy but obviously the rake/lack of rakeback is an issue and I'd like to transition away if a better site exists.
Norwegian test: So yeah, while I was in New Zealand, I got bored one day and started learning Norwegian. Then I kept doing it, and now I'm like... well, I am positive I'm currently above a B1 level. I need to take the bergenstest / test i norsk (høyere nivå) in order to meet one of the requirements for admission to a Norwegian university. This requires me to be at a B2 level. I could study in Norway without learning Norwegian, but I would have to take a degree taught entirely in English and they don't as far as I know have any for Computer Science, so it's not really appealing and I'm already so close to B2 level that I might as well just do that.
Saving money: Officially, the requirement for each year's renewal of the Norwegian student visa is something like 105,000 NOK, which is around $13k. But I know Norway is expensive as **** and I know I don't like making my own meals ever, so I'm wanting minimum of $25k per year in the bank to cover my living expenses, so $100k is a nice goal. Norway does not charge American students tuition, so that takes care of that.
Student visa: Have to apply through Samordna Opptak, get to apply for multiple different schools and then based on a calculation of my age, high school GPA, college coursework, Norwegian and English abilities, and other factors, I am assigned a "competition score". That score, along with where I ranked each particular university on my preference list, is compared against the scores of other students and against the school preferences of other students to maximise everyone's happiness.
CS degree: A degree in Computer Science will allow me to apply for permanent residency in Australia or New Zealand under a "Skilled Migrant" visa - even if I don't have a job offer lined up in either country. Still unsure if I would do this. Might just want to stay permanently in Norway but could see myself wanting PR in Australia as well.
Continuing cash games: Lol yeah so "continue to play cash games in Norway" is assuming a lot. I believe taxes on poker winnings there are nuts and there is now going to be a DNS-block of Stars and other foreign sites of some kind in Norway, but it sounds like the effect will make it slightly more difficult for Norwegian players to access the global player pool, but still easily possible. This also assumes I am profitable at cash games at all. Don't think I am right now, at least at a reasonable stake. More on this below.
Australia round 2: I loved New Zealand. I love Australia. I feel like I would love Norway, but I literally have never been there yet. I like the cold and I like the dark, and I love snow and hate sun, so I feel like there is a good chance I will like Norway. Assuming my life there is good, I don't think I would want to leave, but it doesn't hurt to have PR in Australia, and the thing about the Skilled Migrant visa (that might actually be the name of the NZ version, but they are both almost the same) is that you only have to be under a certain age, have a degree of a certain type, speak english at a certain level, and have a certain level of previous work experience, and they basically just grant you the permanent residency. In theory you could get permanent residency in Australia before actually going to Australia. Nuts, I know. In reality you have to have your work experience evaluated by an assessing authority in Australia and there are a few other hoops, but it should be straightforward for me if I get the degree in Computer Science sooner rather than later.
POKER:
Okay, so with that all out of the way, here's what it comes down to:
I recently watched ChicagoJoey aka Joeingram1's latest Poker Life podcast with makeboifin, and the tale of going from 2NL to 20KNL in 4 years time was a nice reminder to me that I am a piece of **** for not actually trying to achieve any goals I set for myself, and while I don't think I'd be at 20KNL, I could definitely be in a much better position in life if I would have just stuck to any single ONE thing that I wanted to do the last 4 years lol. I think it would be cool if I could somehow replicate a fraction of that success and document it here.
So yeah, this is it. I'm going to document everything, even if I am just documenting me failing to beat 10NL for 3 years or something lol
Would be
super happy to get recommendations from anyone in terms of good GTO content. Looking at piosolver pro but not sure if it's too early for something like that. I still have my heads up nash push/call ranges memorised and I understand the basic idea of GTO in respect to cash games, so I'm not a complete beginner to the concepts, but as I mentioned earlier, I have in effect "literally" never played cash games.
So far, I think I have $40 profit on Global Poker at NL4/NL10, so uh.. I mean that's a start.
Here's the old thread (for transparency) that I let die:
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...64/?highlight=
This thread will live.
Last edited by debacle; 09-29-2018 at 10:56 PM.