Chilling in the beautiful Vondelpark,

walking around the canals of Rozengracht and Herengracht,

partying in one of the worlds best clubs,

Playing poker in Holland Casino on Leidsesquare,

having a beer in one of the beachbars of Bloemendaal..


It surprises me there isn't a big pokercommunity in Amsterdam yet!

I'm a Dutch midstakes cash player. I've lived in Amsterdam for about 4 years, mostly when I still studied. I've also traveled and lived after my studying in other cities like Capetown, Bangkok, Budapest, LA, London and Playa del Carmen. After travelling around the world and trying different cities I decided I'm still in love the most with A'dam.

I'm looking to start a pokerhouse with 1 other pokerplayer. But a big problem in Amsterdam is finding an appartment, just like in Paris, so many young couples, students, businessmen, foreigners want to live here. And the appartment often have small living space, so are not very suitable for grinding in the house.

But, there is a big chance I have a really nice appartment by the beginning of May! (Which I already talked about in my other topic):

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...hread-1582686/

I will copy paste a part of what I posted there:

On tuesday I finally got to watch a really nice appartment in Amsterdam-East, close to Oosterpark, which is imo. the nicest park in A'dam. I was the first person to look at it, and I was very positive about this one. I just sent an email to the agent and did an offer, and hope to get it and live there by the 15th of April or first of May (they're renovating the appartment right now, there were 4 builders working in the appartment so I couldn't make decent pictures inside)

The living room/kitchen is 6 metres by 7 metres so very huge and a lot of light and space to work, then there is a balcony which is 6 by 1.5metre so good for 4 people to chill there. 2 bedrooms which are identical 3 by 3.5 metres. and a bathroom with a bath and seperate shower. There were 4 builders working on it now. it's on the 2th floor. Everything is brand-new. It's around 10/15mins bike to the centre and 5 minutes by train. I'm still looking for a pokerplayer that plays cashgame midstakes just like me, willing to share this appartment with me, if I get it ofcourse which I will hear in a few days.

This is the location, more photos will follow if the appartment is finished.


a lot of guys have shown interest, for example there is a midstakes PLO player from Sweden, which I did hangout with in Mexico, he wants to live in A'dam for around 3 months, not sure when yet. Then a mid/highstakes NLHE player from Cape-town, which wants to live in A'dam in May and June (He's pbb going to get these months if he confirms). And a lowstakes NLHE player from Germany, which would take the room for the whole first year (but as I said I prefer someone that plays at least the same stakes as I do). There is still room for more options, so send me a PM if you're interested , the longer you want to stay the better, minimum is 2 months. Your rent will be around 1000 euro's per month, depending on how long you would stay and which months of the year (I have to ask more for short term/summertime, since I'm taking the risk paying double myself if I don't have a housemate for a while!), the only 2 priorities are: at least 23 years old (I'm 27 myself), playing midstakes cash

I know there is at least 5 to 10 other online-pro's living in Amsterdam, also there is a lot of live cashgame players. So there is room to build a community for sure

I know the city really well, can get you a cheap bike and show you around the best places. So no need for a tourguide!

Are there more people living in Amsterdam which I don't know yet?
People planning to live here or visit for a while?

Let's get this beautiful city on the pokermap!

Taxes and high cost of living keep grinders out.

government is in lawsuits with pokerplayers about no taxes over online-poker, pokerstars is already tax-free and most sites are probably safe too. so this is not a problem imo.

High cost of living, this is true with renting appartments, but not really with drinking beers or having dinner. London for example is at least twice as expensive.

Internet is super-fast
people are friendly
girls are beautiful
it's very clean
weed is legal
food is cheap and good

these are all good reasons to live in Amsterdam.

You don't pay taxes as a foreigner, just don't let authorities know thar you play poker & they'll never find out.
Also what op says, its not all that expensive compared to london etc. Clearly not the cheapest city around however.

Gl op!

Amsterdam is great, but mainly during summer when it is really busy with all the tourists and there are music festivals going on almost every weekend. During winter it is a bit depressing (like most of Europe to be fair).

I agree winter is not really nice except for december with sinterklaas and christmas

Also it's still better than winter in Malta or other places in Europe.

I love Amsterdam, hope to live there at some point in my life.

If anyone here is going, can't miss breakfast at this place http://deverguldegaper.nl/

all around good area too imo.

have been like 5x and funnily enough never seen Amsterdam late spring/summer. guess there's something on the list to do in the near future

no luck with this appartment unfortunately
I will get a phonecall from my agent on wednesday with more news about other appartments

still got room for 1 grinder to live with me.

It surprised me as well to learn that so many poker players live in third world ****holes, but then I realised most of them have no appreciation for the finer things in life, instead opting to scrounge for low-hanging fruit.

Kingsnight and Kingsday just happened in Amsterdam. It's a day everyone dresses in orange and goes drinking all day long. DJ's are playing everywhere and it's a lot of fun. Today I'm pretty hungover so I haven't played poker the last 3 days.

I'm very happy I finally found a very nice 2 bedroom appartment in A'dam old-south! I'm going to sign the contract next week. I have to pay the agent that found me the appartment a fee, but it's worth it. the neighbourhood is known as the best in Amsterdam and it's close to the heart of the city (5 mins by bike). Next week I will shoot some pictures, it's on the 2th floor close to Olympic stadium.

I will live there from June 1st with a fellow grinder which I still have to choose. There is multiple people interested living with me in Amsterdam, but most of them are uncertain about which months and don't want to fully commit yet.

Do you play midstakes or highstakes cashgames and you want to live in Amsterdam for a few months, you can send me a message, I'm still looking for someone! Would be fun if we could motivate eachother to grind more and study together. Just like I did in Mexico a few months ago with 2 mid/highstakes grinders. Amsterdam works perfectly fine for this too!

Less money to be made online than in the past.

Plus cheap whores.

Is the Holland casino the only place to play live cash in amsterdam

Oficially yes. But there are quite some underground cashgames with lots of action in and around Adam. I prefer those mostly

Hi @Lekiii_fish
I'm about to move to Amsterdam with my girlfriend but I'm noticing that it's pretty tough to get an apartment. Do you have any tips?
Did you tell the owner of your place what's your job?
'cause It looks like they ask a lot of money guarantees such as the job contract that I obviusly don't have
Thanks in advance
Alessandro

Hi allessandro,

it is very very tough especially for pokerplayers, they do ask for your job contracts thats a bummer.. I thought I had one but I had to cancel it in the very end, because I had no housemate that could pay 900 euro's, expect an appartment in a decent neighbourhood at least to be 1200 euro's with 1 bedroom and 1600 with 2 I guess if you rent long term (like a year minimum), also the agent wants 1 month fee+taxes and the gas/water/light/internet/tv is not included there too.

Good luck with the search!

Hey Lekki. That poker room in the pic you posted looks huge. What are the games like in AM? Limits, rake, variants etc. What would you say a monthly budget would be for living expenses?

I have been to Amsterdam before and loved it. My work contract is coming to an end in October and I am considering places to go play some live NLHE. I prefer playing 2/5 cash games but would play 1/2 as well and the occasional game at 5/10. I can also speak conversational dutch so Amsterdam seems like a good place for me.

How much does it cost to rent a 1 bedroom apt for 1 month in an ok area?

For 1 month i would say around 3k but not sure.. You have to rent airbnb if you want to stay so short. If you know someone where you can stay it should be cheaper.

There is 2-4 and 5-5 most of time plo and holdem. Minimum buyin is pretty low but they often run deep too. The only problem is the casino closes at 3am so when the game is juicy you're forced to quit early anyway. Amsterdam is def one of the most beautiful cities in the world to me

Ok thanks. What is the rake like? I am very keen to make another extended trip to Holland. Unfortunately VISA only allows me to stay a maximum of 3 months.

rake is 5% cap 20 on 2-4, 5% cap 25 on 5-5

That's pretty rough rake there. Games better be real juicy and play deep often to be worth paying that rake.

Its def on the higher side, there are places in the world where its even higher tho. But its not unbeatable

love amsterdam.. but being able to live anywhere, it doesnt make sense to live there..
finding a good apartment sucks, weather sucks etc..

its better to visit sometimes

I'll be here for a month from September 12th onward, booking my place in the next couple of days so if anyone's interested in chopping an apartment or just meeting up let me know