Awesome thread, you're living out most of our dreams ha

haha looks like ur having a great time guys!

Excellent thread, read the whole thing. Really makes me think about moving to Mexico.

cool thread look warm there

Just couldn't stay away from this place!! Drove from Vegas to Rosarito on Monday and am here all week playing online. It's pretty amazing how I have trouble waking up before noon in Vegas, but regardless of what time I go to sleep here, I am up on my own around 8am every morning. It has to be the ocean or the sun or the fresh air....honestly I have no idea. But I feel so much better physically and mentally here, than I have anywhere else in my life.

Had a few good deep runs yesterday online, 11th in the late $55 $17.5k on Stars, two 1sts in ladies tournaments on Stars and a 5th on FTP. About to take Rylee for a run on the the beach and then start the grind for the day!

Super cool! Loved the 'meditation' pic that you have. Do you do yoga everyday?

What do you reckon - meditate every morning before you play or try and meditate when u r tilting. Its so hard to do the latter...curious to see how effective it is for people?

So beautiful!

Sure beats playing with dirty old men at a casino table

Hi Katie,

Thank you for this wonderful thread. It got me thinking pretty hard as why I am still living in the US while pretending I might have a future in online poker if it ever gets un-banned here.

Speaking of future, and I know this is not an easy question, what do you is a monthly cost of living there for a single guy? Assuming I only need a lease on 1BR/studio apt and my other needs are pretty modest. Also, do bills for things like Internet/utilities/electricity amount to much in Mexico (given modest usage)?

I'd probably feel better discussing such matters through PMs, but I can't find how can I send you a message here.

Thanks,
Al

I moved to north county San Diego and am a live grinder. I've been contemplating about moving part time to Rosarito to grind online. I'm a student in San Diego so I can't do it full time. I have a few Q's. Do you have cars and if so Mexican license plates? If I don't have a utility bill, is there a work around for transferring money online? I'm assuming withdrawal requires a non US bank account. I have applied for SENTRI to ease transportation. I figure it'd be safer if I left my car at the US border and take a taxi to Rosarito but I would be leaving my car from Friday to Sunday which doesn't sound like a good plan for every week. I've heard of car hijackings on highways. I've been to TJ and will be studying Spanish as I'm required a foreign language.

good stuff

really nice! HOpe you having alot of fun there.

Sharkscope says her last tourney played was last month. Wonder if shes even still there?

any updates?

great thread, keep up the good work!

I would LOVE to do yoga everyday, but it just doesn't happen.
I don't set alarm clocks here, except for specific tournaments during COOP's and FTOPS etc. So depending on when I wake up, I walk and feed my dog, usually make breakfast for me and my bf Joey, who generally starts grinding earlier than me, and then I will waste time on FB, 2+2 and Twitter before I end up starting for the day. I do love the structure-free environment here.

Yoga usually ends up happening on a whim, just like pretty much everything else here. Just found out it's a friend's birthday today so no poker just cake baking and training videos!

I love it here for sure and a year ago I would have told you that I would never play live again because I love the online lifestyle so much more. But games change and so do our lives. I ended up going to Vegas for 2 months this summer (with a couple trips back to Rosa during) to take a break from tournaments (seems real to go to Vegas during the WSOP to take a break from tournaments, right?!), to also be with my bf who was playing a full WSOP schedule, and to focus on low limit cash games 1/2, 1/3 and 2/5.

After WSOP was finished, we went to NJ which is 'home' for both of us. We spent a month with friends and family, played the Parx series in PA and also some Borgata tournaments.

We came back to Rosarito Sept. 1 and will be here until Dec. 1, then will go back NJ for 3 or 4 months for live poker (and possibly online poker??!!). We will come back to Rosa for a couple of months right before the WSOP and go straight to Vegas for the summer after that.

Cost of living here depends on where you live. You can def get a really yucky apartment for $300/month in a not so safe place somewhere in Tijuana. Generally the poker players get into the fully furnished ocean front buildings/condos in Rosarito though, and they average about 1k/month I would say. With utilities and internet maybe 1200/month in basic expenses. Most people here have roommates which cuts those costs obviously.

Most people have cars. Getting a Mexican license plate is difficult and I do not know anyone who has done it. US plates are fine here and quite common, they really do not care. You do need Mexican car insurance however. You can get it through bajabound.com which is where I and most of the poker players get it from. Do not, however cancel your US car insurance. I learned the hard way with almost $2k in fines from the state of Nevada that when you remove your US car insurance without turning in your US license plates, that the fines begin.
I discovered this when I got back to Vegas in May for the summer. I called the DMV, explained to them that my car was in Mexico for the year with Mexican insurance and was told by the woman on the phone that I was the "one who made the poor decision to move to Mexico" and therefore I would have to pay the $2k fine in order to make my car legal and driveable in the US.

Sorry about the lack of updates!

Vegas was great! It's definitely my favorite time of year, not just because you get to see all your friends from all over the world whom you usually only interact with online, twitter, fb, skype etc, but because you end up meeting so many new people and also putting faces to names and voices etc. Sometimes I struggle with my fun/work ratio during the summers in Vegas; playing poker seems to become an after thought much too often for me during this time of the year

I focused mainly on low limit cash games this summer, which I feel helped my overall game immensely. Getting away from mtts for a bit is never a bad thing, I think. I played 4 or 5 tournaments this summer, including the WSOP ladies event, a few other ladies events and the Caesar's 1k main which took place after the WSOP main.

We went home to NJ for a month after the WSOP and I finally met all of my bf's family for the first time, which was fun! We played poker as well in PA and NJ. Halfway through August, I got a phone call from one of my closest friends Lauren Billings, who is also a professional poker player; she had been selected to play the live $25/50 cash game for the new poker reality TV show Poker Night in America, and she wanted me to come up to Turning Stone in Verona, NY for the $1650 main event and to be there while they filmed that weekend. It was so much fun and I am really happy that she was chosen for this and that I just so happened to be on the East Coast to be able to experience it with her!

We got back to Mexico Sept. 1 and will be here until Dec. 1. Then will go back to NJ for a few months of live poker and possibly online poker soon??!! (fingers crossed).
We will probably stay on the East Coast for a while, and then come back to Rosarito for 2-3 months before the WSOP in Vegas and just head directly there for that.
Who knows where after that!

Here are some fun pics from the summer in Vegas and the month in NJ!
More updates soon



2 of my fav girls, Danielle Moon-Andersen who is one of the stars of the newly released poker documentary Bet, Raise, Fold, me and the lovely Katie Dozier:




My bf Joey and I at dinner in Vegas on one of our rare nights of no poker!




Definitely one of the most memorable nights of cash games for me ever... My friend Lauren and I were in a crazy 2/5 game at the Venetian, there was over $30k on the table and this guy would throw his Bank of America ATM receipt showing a balance of $157k in the pot and say "I bet this" ... He was a little drunk.





Jennifer Shahade's boy friend Daniel Meirom got this fun shot from a fun day we spent in downtown Las Vegas and was also used in a fun and creative video project that they made about poker and can be watched here!




The Rio and most of Las Vegas was covered in smoke for several days, literally, from a big fire in the mountains surrounding the area. Was super freaky.




Pic from one of the Venetian Ladies events this summer!





Took a couple of short trips back to Mexico this summer for a few days at a time to play online. One of those trips I final tabled both the daily doubles on FTP for the 2nd time simultaneously!





Bluff Magainze did a really cool Pro's Pro piece on me this summer! I was in Mexico for the week playing online when it came out, and then kind of forgot to find one of the magazines when I got back the next week So had a 2nd wonderful surprise when I was walking down the Rio hallway one day flipping the pages of the most recent Bluff issue only to turn to this:






At Turning Stone Casino in Verona, NY with Lauren:




While the cash game was taking place live and streaming online, I was a few tables away playing the $1650 and was watching/taking screen shots on my ipad lol






After hours fun with the cast of the show and OFC poker in the lobby. Portions of this group did not leave those couches for 15+ hours.





Visiting my cousins in NJ!





Beautiful night sky in Southern, NJ:





My two fav people. On our way to dinner with family in NJ.





We went to Petsmart for my birthday to buy Rylee a new bed!





Rylee getting back on the plane with us for another trip back to Rosarito!





Vivaaaaaaa Mexicoooooooo!!!

Nice update, thanks for including me in it! <3

Thanks for posting the update Katie, I love all the pics. So cool!!! You ladies are so inspiring for someone like me who's stuck playing merge/live poker in u.s right now. Hopefully NJ online poker will kick off well.

Hi Katie,

Great thread! You're living my dream right now. Looks like paradise!

I was wondering how hard it would be to find a poker roommate.

Another thing I am curious about - does everyone use their own individual internet connection? I'd imagine it could spell trouble if two people in the same apartment/condo/house using the same connection accidentally end up on the same cash / MTT table since it could look like collusion.

Mexico is scary as hell..

I hope so too!

Good stuff...really enjoyed the pics and general vibe. Hoping we get NJ online soon for the rest of us!