how's it going everyone? i just recently moved to Korea from LA and am looking for people to perhaps meet up and/or help me getting established to play online in Korea.

I have poker accounts from when I lived in the states, but am a bit confused on the steps to get everything set up to play here.

I'm out in Gangnam-gu area (right by Coex Mall/Samseong Station). I play almost exclusively LHE both online and live.

Please PM me if you could help.

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

I'd email them and explain you are in Korea now. They will want some kind of bills and proof. It's not that hard.

Thanks for the reply.

Would it be absolutely necessary to change my address if I will be staying here for a couple of years?

Also, I read there were some issue with depositing into and withdrawing if you have a Korean bank account. I have KEB.

Others have said they had no problems wire transferring money as well.

oh and if anyone is around the area and down to just meet up, talk poker, etc shoot me a PM...be good to make some poker friends here! =)

FYI - The Pokerstars APPT Season 8 is being held at Walker Hill April 1-6. Main Event (April 3-6) is 3,000,000won buyin.

For those who are in Seoul- make sure you guys play in the Friday Freeroll which is step 1 of a 3 step satellite for the ME.. Step 2 is on Sunday (55k won or Step-1 ticket) Step 3 is this coming Saturday (330k won or step2 ticket). Would be great if any of us could play in the ME for free.

I finished just outside the bubble this past weekend when my QQ ran into AA, Trying again this weekend.

i will be there, i assume you can buy in online via stars right?

I wanted to buy into the 1k Poker Stars Seoul Poker cup online and when I called them about it they thought it was weird. Eventually talked to the TD and he said he could set it up but I'd have to send the money a week in advance. In the end I didn't bother.

I've had this argument with some on here before so I don't want to get into again but if you're on a e2-Visa I'd be worried about cashing out large sums of money. Only because of the visa laws. Better thing to do is use a Netteller card. That way if a person asks you can say it's to track your spending.
I've never had an issue with my Keb account/D10 visa for cashing out. I've never had to deposit so. GL.

Of course, Madison thinks he actually lives in North Korea and the people are constantly going to be watching his financial transactions and interrogating him about where his money comes from. That he has apparently lived here for 6 years and this has never happened has done nothing to deter this belief.

The utter absurdity of this belief is mind blowing, my head nearly explodes every time he mentions it.

You can buy into APPT with stars online

Security on star will eventually ask you to verify your address in Korea if you keep logging in from Korea for years

I'd change it - and havent heard of one single person run into legal problems in Korea

No, I don't but i would rather not take a risk I don't need to on e2 visa. If you're just here as tourist then no worries.
I've only been cashing out with skrill to KEB while I wasn't teaching. You do understand that your Korean check book says where money comes in and out from so if a teacher on E2 visa all the sudden has large amount of money not from it's job then it's a red flag to the Bank and gets reported.

It's all over teaching forums about privates and things like that. In bigger cities it's not something I'd be overly concerned but in smaller towns with only 20 to 100 foreign teachers. Why take the risk.

Like I've said before, I got pulled in to the main teachers office and told about the dangers of gambling all because I tried to sell an extra poker book on a site. Teachers are held at very high standards compared to other professions and not having an extra job/privates is something they look down on.

That's funny, I can remember Americans saying this too until...... Oh yeah, Black Friday.
Like I said 99.999% most likely won't be an issue.

The bolded part is true. The rest is your invention

As you said, your bank records where the transaction comes from and as I've said before, Korean mums typically don't pay their private tutors with international bank transfers.

Not really sure how you get from this to an army of Korean immigration agents are methodically combing every foreign residents bank account looking for an inconsistency for which they can deport them.

I don't understand this at all.

Just to clarify your argument, and correct me if I get anything wrong.

1. It's illegal to privately tutor students on an E2 visa

2. Banks are constantly flagging any deposits made into a foreigner residents bank accounts and reporting these to immigration officials.

3. Merely having money deposited into your account (regardless of where the money comes from) constitutes proof that a foreign resident has been illegally tutoring students and is therefore subject to deportation.

Is that about right?

I think I'd better tell my mum not to send me Christmas money this year.

I have an F-4 Visa since I'm a Korean-American so I'm not tied down to any of those laws. I can freely do what I want in terms of job or vacation or whatever.

As far as private tutors go, they are in general illegal if you work for a hakwon/school. Does not matter the visa. However, almost everyone does it and gets paid cash for it.

I have read that KEB doesn't accept Neteller and/or Skrill. Do wire/bank transfers work for KEB? That would be easiest for me since I have not used Neteller in 10 years - since Pokeroom.com and Party Poker left the states.

Also, if anyone is in or around Gangnam and wants to link up. Let me know. Be nice to have someone to talk poker with as I said earlier.

I know that f4/f6's can teach privates or at schools legally but E2's are the issues. I have few friends who have done them and/or opened up hagwons.

Skrill works fine with KEB. Never tried NP, KB or the others. Netteller works too but I can't get cash out since closest KEB is far away. For me, KEB takes about 2 days or less.

It also depends on the contract you have with the school. Most schools will not let you teach privates outside of their school. F4, F6, E2, doesn't matter. My girl is on an F4, my sister, and almost all my friends here. If you are under a contract with a school you cannot teach outside of it.

However, the benefit of F4 is that you do not have to be tied to one specific job in order to stay past the 30-day period.

I know that doesn't really resolve the issue of E2s and bank deposits, but yeah.

I'll try to open up a Skrill since I have KEB. Now the issue is figuring out how to get the bank to give me a statement with my address. I wonder if a housing contract with my name and address would suffice.

Either way, thanks for your help!

1: As far as I know it's Illegal for e2 visas to do private teaching unless their school signs off on it. I did Sat work all the time but with EPIK.

2: If a person on an E2 sends home more than they make in monthly pay, it's kind of a give away. I think in 07 a bunch of teachers got booted from Dageu or something for that. Obvs they weren't being smart about it. I've known tons of people who do privates and haven't had a problem.

3: Srsly, is your mom going to send 2k each month?
I'm not being a nit about this but poker (gambling) isn't something open here.

Schools can let you go for many reasons. My buddy got fired for taking a sick day. Never mind his Hagwon wasn't paying medical insur. and overcharged him on taxes. 1 sick day and they told him you're gone. I've read many times about a gay teacher being fired after coming out.
It's gotten much better in the past few years.

you're pretty much right.

madison79, if you won a bunch playing live poker in SK while on a e2 visa, would you just hold all the money in cash because they will deport you for depositing it? i deposited cash many times without any issue. lots of my friends did privates too.

stop spouting moronic bs.

do you have any idea how many transactions a bank does on a daily basis? also the black friday analogy is ******ed because it was the companies that were shut down; not the players' bank accounts.

I'm not going to fight with you about this anymore. This thread pretty much sums it up. http://www.waygook.org/index.php?topic=28142.0
Tons of people do it, doesn't mean it's risk free.
As far as playing live poker and deposits. IDK if they would catch on but school might not look favorable about guy gambling all weekend esp if it's in underground games.

My personal experience is that after BF I had coach transfer it to paypal and didn't let my bank know about it.
When or if I won at the casino I would deposit that money but since Jeju didn't have poker then I wasn't a regular thing.

My opinion has been this the whole time. Why risk it with E2 visa? You should be making enough to live off of anyways. It's probably a small risk but a risk either way.

I've cashed out many times on my d10 so i know that's fine.

Some of the regular grinders in Seoul are full-time poker, part-time English teachers, lol. Also, I heard some lucky teacher from Canada hit over 33million won on a slot machine a couple weeks ago.

Again, depends on the persons visa. Only 1 that's a pain is e2. Congrats to that guy and gl to all in Appt.

Anyone looking to trade KRW for Stars PM me

Hello guys. What would be a fair price for a decent apartment in Seoul for 3 months? I will study at Sogang University for that period, so an apartment in Sogang univ area would be the best choice.
With "decent" I mean a clean and safe zone, with the european comfort standards.

Thank you in advance.

I could also accept the possibility of living with someone (like student houses or something similiar)

Thank you in advance

Standard apartment in seoul is 10,000,000 KRW down payment (you get this back at the end of contract) with about 600,000-800,000 a month

If you want to live really cheap they have GOSHIWON's which are about 4-500,000 a month and basically its like a dorm with tiny rooms.

If I were you I would look to rent a room in the Haebongchon area where you can get short term housing and just rent a shared room. Which would be 350-600,000 with no security deposit