Driving a motorbike anywhere but manila isn't a bad idea necessarily, but idk about Angeles. I drive one in cebu city often np. Taxi's are fine though if you're in a location with access. ex. my condo has taxi's outside waiting for customers at all waking hours. However, If I wanted to go out late for w/e I'd have to walk to the road and hope for an empty taxi.

**** it. I'm going nuts. I dream and daydream about Manila every day.

I'm gonna go back. I have to. I need some help, as I'm not as rich as I used to be and it will be more of a gamble than it was 2 years ago
This is what I need

-I'll have to do 80% live pro in the most fishy card room (can anyone confirm RW still???). I have a small roll and will have to rely on picking up stacks from drunk tourists at first. I will consider a live staking deal for the higher games if there are anyone interested in something like that reading this

-Need a really cheap place to stay close by [Newport]. This can also be a mid-low end hotel, looking for rent to be max 20K incl everything. I have stayed in SOGOs for 'round a grand a night and I like them. Suggestions? Convenient and cheap. I don't want a pool and a gym and whatever and ghetto hood is fine

Other suggestions on very cheap apartments near jeep/mrt/lrt options or short distance of card rooms are very welcome


I have a life roll of about $7K now. It is very marginal. **** it, let's do it. I'll just grind out a couple more $K at MTTSNGs on stars and it should be good to go. Gonna start looking at plane tickets asap, I'll be going from Oslo to Manila and the tickets are at around $800 - if anyone know smarter cheaper options also let me know

Getting all fired up here. 73% probable atm
!

BTW getting a bike in Angeles should be fine. I would do it, then again I'm like the trike driver's worst nightmare

good luck fanapathy, just do it!

Go for it!!! LOL at 73% pretty exact

btw Im a live player noob so I'll hire you to take me to a card room and show me the ropes, I must admit i'm really paranoid about going and playing alone im sure it would be fine but...well...I need my hand held OK

So what are your reasons fanapathy? Yellow fever by chance?

anyone know if staying in a pension house in cebu city will for-fill the address requirement to play on stars. For alot of people its basically an apartment seeing as how they pay by the month and one guy i talked to has been here a year already(monthly payments in advance gets u a decent discount off daily rates). Could I submit the receipt they give me after i make a monthly payment and pass it off as my appt.? They have free wifi in the rooms and i plan to open a small checking acct at a local bank here soon anyhow.

what do you find so compelling about Manila? I been there and couldn't wait to get out!!
Reading your last two posts, it seems like you need some balance in your life, not dream so much about 3rd world countries..

How much time did you spend there? What kinds of things did you do/experiences did you have?

My guess is Funapathy is going to have a very hard time articulating/putting into words just what it is that is so compelling about Manila to him. In fact I feel pretty confident that's the case.

The reason is, it's exactly the same for me.

By all accounts I should agree with you, Manila is dirty, poor, polluted, traffic jam ridden, and just generally not what any one would consider, nice, or clean. Unlike a city like, Bangkok for example, it doesn't really have anything in it to hold an air of magic or exoticness.

Yet, despite all of that, I to find myself drawn back to it more then any other place I have lived.

Why? Are Funapathy and I just the biggest degens ever??

Hard to say, the answers to these questions. As I said, it's tough for me to articulate or put in to words, even to myself, what it is I find so compelling about Manila, I just now that I do.

Easy pussy /thread

I think you can save about 80-100$ if you fly to Frankfurt first and then book another flight to Manila from there. It might work even better with London instead of Frankfurt.

I'm not talking about a flight from Oslo to Manila via Frankfurt/London but two completely independent flights. Just check some well known flight comparison sites.

lol fanapathys post sounds pretty much exactly like me, except he has already been there and i havent and he can play on stars and i cant

but everything else is the same.... except his 73% is 100% for me

When are you gonna be there K2?? Seems to be taking a while.

I agree with ITT666 obviously.
When I first got to Manila, I met up and talked to some expats. The first guy I talked to was the owner of housinginteractive.com who I befriended. After talking to him and a few others I met on the way (business men for the most part), had only negative stuff to say

"This is a hell hole. Get away from here. Manila is the most awful city in the world, take my word for it I have lived here for 7 years"
Everyone were ranting on the traffic, pollution and how stupid Pinoy were - how they hated the scammers, getting bled dry at any cost, etc.
However, after 4-5 days I realized I loved the place


After this, many expats I've talked to have said "I don't talk to foreigners, they just complain about this wonderful country"

When I went to central Africa with the UN back in the day, fellow soldiers would speak of "the African fever". Apparently, it was common to quickly develop some crush on the continent itself. The atmosphere, nature, people - all things different.
I never got a special feeling about [southern sahara imo] but I got this for Manila.
I also love LA (the city) but not in the same way, and I've spoken to people who hate LA as well.

Anyway it's weird. For me, no it isn't the pussy. If I told you how many girls I've been with during my time there, most would think "WTF". It is true that probably 2-3 obvious non hooker options present them self a day just doing regular things but I don't capitalize on that. Maybe I should. When walking in a non-touristy area, and inside either a store or outside on the street. Say a group of 5-6 college girls are there. They will shove the most attractive one over, I usually completely crack up and lol then chat a bit but not interested. As some of you know, I prefer to date morally insane ex hookers who do anything in their power to destroy my life.

KaizenK - Well I am somewhat degen but I do exaggerate this online persona a bit. Those who have met me IRL here probably think I'm not that nutso, but who knows
I was quite devastated in the end and lived an extremely unhealthy lifestyle before I left Manila last time, so I've done lots of recovery. Days consisted of chain smoking and very heavy drinking, eating a meal a day and like just. It became pretty bad. But hey, that was fun too!
I'm not completely over everything that happened, but getting there!

Also, thanks to Spitzo, I will check it out, and encouraging words.

Absolute poetry!

pooter i got a lease till july 15th signed it in october right before this idea got put in my head, and was right in the middle of the best live rush ive ever went on so i wouldnt have come then anyways (quit reading here if you dont want to read random bitching/venting)

but since then PLO variance has smacked me in the face (admittedly im crazy for trying to play live PLO on a small bankroll) and im to the point where i either need to get a job to make sure i can go when my lease ends (ie not be an idiot) or hope to grind it out till then, but if i dont have enough on july 15th im gonna move back home with the 'rents and work like 70 hours a week till i have enough to go over (which my target line is the same $7k that fanapathy mentioned earlier oddly enough)

my entire goal in life right now is to be able to go as soon as possible, but i havent worked for a long time and damn its hard to actually go out and look for a job when ur this lazy

i realize that is way longer of an answer than u wanted poot, but these last few weeks of PLO have been absolutely brutal and i needed to vent PLUS i gave a fair warning, hehe


and ya totally lol'd at fanapathys line in the last post

Nah thats cool man

Dante, can you crush 1/2 NL? Play it... Build your roll now. $7k is not going to cut it in Manila for a newb. Even in Xevera its close. I am planning on going and grinding on stars etc but I refuse to go with less than $15k (EXCLUDING POKER ROLL) and this is from a former sharkscope silver star at the low stakes (not saying much but still)... Your roll in the bank for living expenses is far more important than your ability to grind out on stars. It may be a month before you can even get back on stars.

YES...I was in the Cebu area, but the foreigners have the same attitudes there. I think I probably mentioned in an earlier post that I try to avoid foreigners.

I hate sitting through conversations foreigners have about what they dislike about the country. All the while, I'm thinkiing, if you don't like the country as it is, GO BACK TO YOUR COUNTRY!

I don't believe I'd like living in the heart of Manila, but I'm looking very hard at Lipa City. It looks AWESOME.

better at 2/5, 1-2 people are scared to put any real money in imo, but ya i really need to switch back to the 2 card game but its soooo boring (again im an idiot)

ive done everything in my life with way less of a roll than any sane person would do, i moved to vegas with $4.5k, after deposits and moving expenses i only had $3k, survived a year got a part time job for a year then quit it with the same $4.5k in 2008 and have been hovering between 5 and 10k ever since

again in vegas where things are way more expensive than over there, and if my rent drops to like $100 a month in xevera...... i can last forever on that (if the online games havent got super tough)

i understand im a PI noob, but im also a super life nit that doesnt drink and just blow money, i may get scammed for an extra 50 cents by a taxi driver now and then but thats not gonna break me

and probably most importantly i dont have anything to lose, im sick of vegas, sick of playing live every day, and the worst that can happen by going broke is calling mommy and asking her to loan me the money for a plane ticket home

Most foreigners don't have the patience or resourcefulness to really enjoy the Philippines. I bet many do end up going back to their own country.

just had an exciting night of the 2 card game, but it ended with some profit so.....


anyways anyone know what happened to that dru guys vblogs on youtube? they were all taken off earlier this week and i cant find them when i search on blip......

not like they were that great but whenever i had 20 minutes to kill i would watch a few and ive definitely learned quite a bit about the food over there if nothing else

Hey K2 gotta admit i am fascinated by you and your upcoming move/life change. If you started a blog i would follow it surly.

I agree 7K ish is low
Spending tight, including rent we can get by with about $1k a month

For 1/2 we IMO need a live roll of 150k or 10 150bb buyins which is a little over $3K, and chop it to 100bb if losing a bunch. With unforeseen expenses in addition, we might last around 3 months if running bad, but it's really hard to have a low enough winrate to run that bad with table selection. We'd obviously shot the straddle games in the weekends when they are really good(they are). My sample isn't awesome perhaps 100 sessions, but I think I had at most 20% expected losing sessions and 15% in reality. I didn't even know proper good cash game play at the time, as I was a sng/mtt guy. Winrate would be probably 20-30% higher atm. The straddle game used to have 2 aggro fish regs (just super spew but it works against the nits), a couple tourists and a couple nits.
I'd expect to make 3-4K a month in the 50/100 game 5 days a week playing the deep good tables

I'm grinding online atm, just ship a massive heater asap and it's go time!

just realised, this is the only thread in the site i've visited over the past couple of years. almost forgot this was a poker site :P

where does everyone play online now, does stars have a monopoly going on?

i just dont understand how you guys are saying NEED $1k a month.....

right now i pay $580 a month for rent, $150ish for cable + internet, $30ish for electricity (other than june-aug) and maybe $300ish on food (lots of comped meals at casino thanks to black friday) plus gas, cell phone (mine is super cheap) and other random stuff

if you cut the rent down to under $200 (if i go with clark/mabalacat, and it could even be in the $100 range), internet down to $80, make electric higher (not sure what average electric would be for a 1 bedroom over there but sounds like in the $75-$125 range maybe??? though i am used to vegas summer heat now and dont run the AC as much as most, but the humidity will be a bitch im sure) pay $60 to immigration and food would probably be about the same (maybe cheaper depending)....... all of that adds up to about just what im paying for rent right now in the $650ish range.... add some for jeepneys or taxis but jeepneys are like a quarter a ride...

basically half of what im paying now

of course my life sucks now and i rarely do anything, so add a couple hundred a month on going out expenses and thats about $850.... but if need be you can cut down on the going out

of course there are other things like the initial move costs, buying a comp and things like that, but i dont think you guys can fully understand how much of a true life nit i am without knowing me..... i bring my own soda cans to the casino every day so it only costs me a quarter instead of tipping the waitress a dollar (this saves $300 a year do the math)

my cell phone is prepaid where i get 1,000 minutes for $100, and i tell people things like "hey im heading over to aria if the game is good i will call you as a signal so please dont answer" using it like a code.... this makes the 1,000 minutes last 4 or 5 months (damn close to a year pre black friday)

im super cheap and an extreme nit, but thats what u gotta do to survive in vegas on a $5k roll........ but if ive figured that out im not seeing why i wouldnt be able to survive in a place where everything is way cheaper


thanks for the kind words pooter, i gotta say for as non existent of a life as i have i still find myself in a ton of interesting and ridiculous spots