how many girls do you know that are not like this ?

Outside of Brazil; 300.

300 is a lot of girlfriends !
good luck on your next one !

Bump.

I'm expecting to see a lot of you during the World Cup this summer. USA-Ghana, that should be a rare clasico between two of the giants of their continent.

Seriously tho, I'm really looking forward to the WC here. Especially since I got tickets for ITA-URU and it should be cool to see if we can get some new faces to the tables.

This part is TL;DR.
The past 8 or 9 months have been quite interesting, in regards to watching the development of the poker in this city. Granted, my reference points are the two biggest clubs in town, but I think it's safe to say that they represent the overall game in this region. Beginning last summer more and more people wanted to play PLO. This was also very good for the two clubs as it radically increased the rake in cash games and it also seemed that it brought more players to the clubs after a while.

The only problem was that nobody here, of the player pool, were really any good. Or at least there were no stand-outs or very solid players in PLO. Like I mentioned early on here, we have a lot of fish, or whales in some cases. Rich locals who just like to gamble and have fun. What essentially happened was that they traded money over time, the better players. The fish of course lost huge amounts over time. Instead of losing R$ 600 a night, they now lost R$ 2k or more playing Omaha.

Even the gamblers hate to lose and over time they visited less and less. It also produced another problem - the strictly NLHE players didn't show because they knew that there would be two full tables of PLO and no NLHE action. So during these months we saw a kind of cannibalism in these two clubs, were the clubs on the one hand was still killing it in rake and while losing players/clients, and the NLHE grinders went to the smaller venues for action. So eventually they stopped having PLO as an option. It was interesting to see this happening because it illustrated how vulnerable a relatively small player pool is to losses.
TL;DR over.

On another topic it occurred to me, after having some coaching lessons by a solid US cash player, how much damage a solid, dedicated cash player can do in these games. Cash games here are very soft. Very loose and of course containing high variance, but a good and focused player would absolutely crush it here. Tournaments are even worse, but the BIs are so low most of the time that it doesn't make that much sense compared to cash.

Cool thread Alex, just saw this. )

Sweet, didn't realize there was an existing Natal thread here! Thanks for starting the thread & answering Qs, I'm headed there for the US v. Ghana game.

Any logistical insights on what it's going to be like getting to/from Estadio das Dunas? (Game starts at 7 pm).

Thoughts on taking the bus from Natal to Fortaleza vs. renting a car and driving? Thinking of just staying up all night and hoping on the 5 a.m. bus to make it to Fortaleza in time to hang out for Brazil v. Mexico.

Staying in Ponte Negra vs. further south in Pipa? Is there a good cluster of bars/restaurants/nightlife in Ponte Negra near the major hotels there? (i.e., for lazy American tourist who wants to eat/drink/club/soccer) Is getting from Pipa to the Stadium on Game Day likely to be a major challenge?

Thanks for any help/suggestions!

I'll be based in Natal for the entirety of the group stages (as will the entirety of the 500+ American Outlaws.) How many days can one realistically expect to enjoy in Natal without wanting to get out and see something else?

As it stands today the traffic is very bad. During the WC they have to make changes, because one of the main roads leading from PN and the southern region of the city goes directly past the stadium on the right hand side. They will close this road off and direct all other traffic way out of harms way. This could be both good and bad. Today I spend like 8-9 minutes driving from Ponta Negra to the stadium (I drive past there every day) in rush traffic, so it's very close by my house in PN. My best guess would be half an hour from PN to the stadium, including the walk on the campus there until you get to the gates. But be prepared that it could be more.

Regarding Fortaleza. Rent a car. The buses here vary a great deal and can be horrible and over crowded. I went there a few months back and we spent just shy of 7 hours, including lots of beer stops etc. We also had a half hour stop in Mossoro for dinner. The roads are surprisingly decent and tho it's just a one lane type thing the traffic flows well.

I would not stay in Pipa for this. Pipa is great for weekends and stuff like that, but it's too far away from the action. While Pipa is famous for the restaurants and beaches I prefer the nightlife in PN and Natal. Getting from Pipa to the stadium on match day could be difficult. Sometimes the traffic between PN and Pipa can be brutal.

Nice. So that's 11 days? I would maybe pop off to Pipa in between matches, since it's a very beautiful and charming spot. Don't get me wrong regarding the above post about Pipa, I really like it there and I'm there at least 2 times per month. But staying in Pipa for like 2 weeks would be horrible for me, because of all the hippies and surfer kids.

Also I think you could consider doing day trips to Pirambu, Pirangi, Genipabu and even Sao Miguel de Gostoso. Just go to the beach and enjoy.

Natal is also very diverse. While Ponta Negra is the tourist trap so to say, the center of Natal (Petropolis and Tirol) contains some of the better restaurants and clubs. It's the fancier hoods we have here.

It's very easy to get stuck in a routine here, i.e. do the beach during the day and bars at night. Try and see stuff, go for a buggy rental or something.

Sup HelloFriends. I live in Mossoro, nice to see people from my region around here. Some friends of mine played in the last Clube do Poker big tournament in Natal last month. 10k gtd I think. Were you there by any chance?

post some pics if possible man! Would love to see what this area of Brazil looks like, as well as the girls you are speaking of )

In case you're interested, I posted some pics of things to do in Natal here

KansasCT, wow, Mossoro! Nice. How did you end up there? (I assume you are a gringo).

No I didn't play it. A friend of mine, also Norwegian cashed in it, I believe 5th place or something like that. I'm playing a smaller one now on Sat at Club Meza, R$150 rebuy. It's like a birthday party for a reg, should be fun.

PM me if you're ever in town! Nice pics too.

Keith, I don't have that many photos, but let me see over the weekend!

How is the quality of the internet in Natal, and can a foreigner get a pay-as-you-go aircard?

Most hotels have decent internet. It's not fiber optics quality but it will do the job (like Skype and general surfing).

Aircard, are you talking about the modem or the airpass for travel?

As a foreigner you can only get pre-paid phone plans. However, I do believe TIM Brasil have something like that for USB modems. Not sure if you can walk in to any store to get this tho.

Yeah, aircard like one of these for internet:



Some countries (like Mexico) it's pretty easy for a foreigner to walk in and buy a fixed amount of internet/data.

Nah, I was born here. I've heard about your friend, my friend got 3rd in that tournament and told me about him. Small world!

I almost swallowed my cigarette when I heard he made the final table. I was like "gosh darn it I should have played that".

Yes Gramps, I'm fairly certain you can pre-pay for those here. 3G works pretty good here, through Claro you can get 4G in some areas of Natal.

Sweet, thanks for the replies. Someone might be able to justify sticking around longer if they can squeeze a couple of online grind days in somewhere

Glad to help.

Why not squeeze in a few live sessions too?

Just spent some time reading through kerwintys thread and it dawned on me how expensive Brazil is becoming. Being Norwegian every place on the planet seems cheap in comparison, but having been here for nearly two years now I'm starting to realize the flipside of living in country where the economy is booming.

Played the tourney on Saturday and busted on the bubble in 6th place. By far my worst exit here to date. First two hours until the break went swell. Started with 25K and build it up to 130K and then hit a wall. Card dead for the next 4 hrs, unable to make moves etc. Made it barely to the FT with 10BB and then ran into AQ with my KQ in blind vs blind spot. Fml. Top heavy structure too (imo) with first getting R$3.000 and 5th getting 600.

Brazilian tables can be very noisy. Bring headphones if you want to grind for realz. Met this guy from Sao Paulo who told me that the highest legal games there now is 5/10 (saw someone asking abt this in the Rio thread).

The highest we have here [in the legal clubs] is 2/5. I know the are some private games downtown where they run 50/100 PLO, but these games are shady and you have to wait sometimes to collect winnings.

Someone asked about the limits etc. Here, in Natal, it is perfectly normal to bet 10x with 88+. Even more sometimes. Some of these guys will still call with marginal hands. They also love the straddle, it's not uncommon to see a straddle of 25 or 50. So, by the end of the night 2/5 is just a figure of speech.

Don't know if it's the same in Natal, but here they love playing with just the button paying instead of the usual sb/bb. there was a game in Tibau beach during the carnival where the button placed ~$10 and the buy in was around $2.5k.

You are correct. They often play 5 On The Button at Clube do Poker.

I heard some rumours of a big game at the Pyramids Convention Center during the carnaval. Have you heard anything KansasCT?

Tibau beach, as in Tibau do Sul?