I've been living in Thailand for the past 4 years and I absolutely love it here. I'm looking for a grindhouse because I wanna get more into poker. Send me a DM, I'm pretty flexible about the location.

i lived 2014 three months in bkk and really enjoyed my time there. i think of returning via a mua thai school visa and saw there are also schools in ching mai

whats the main diffrence between bkk and chiang mai? is there something i have in bkk which i cant have in chiang mai, or is it just a bit smaller ?
cheers

Chiang Mai is a smaller city with a slower vibe than BKK (small for asian standards anyways, it has a lot of people, many universities, etc). Night life and fine dining are the things that BKK has better than CM, you can do both in CM but BKK has more options.

CM is more "liveable" imo as in less traffic, smaller distances, way more chill, etc. Surroundings are beautiful too so you have many daily/couple days/one week escapes if you're into outdoors and sightseeing. Main issue with CM is smokey season (can't live here from Dec/Jan until April/May due to excessive pollution from crop burning in the mountains), if it wasn't for that, it'd be almost perfect.

I would definitely try CM unless you're a mega degen that can't live without his usual visits to Nana Plaza, can't think many other reasons why someone would dislike CM.

I’m currently in Chiang Mai and trying to find players for live games.
LINE ID: steven7227

the best way for the ed visa via langauge school( i wanna attend classes and actually learn) is just to write a few schools? or can someone recommond me any particular school`?
cheers

It just needs to be recognized by the govt and supply you with the necessary docs for the visa application. Normally all schools that you might be interested in as a foreigner will fulfill these criteria

Do you guys just grind from Hotel/airbnb/whatever WIFI? Or do I have to get pocket-wifi or something like that, since online gambling is illegal?

Thanks

Any wifi is good.

The "gambling is illegal" thing I've heard countless times but as many things in Thailand is more in a grey area than actually illegal (keep in mind prostitution is illegal here).

For example, you can create accounts and deposit/withdraw from many poker sites with a thai address without any issue. Also there's a poker club operating in BKK freely and advertising on FB (it's called "Gutshot", look it up). So yeah, even though it might be illegal in theory in practice is whatever and I don't personally know anyone that got into any kind of trouble JUST from playing poker online.

Any americans gone to thai lately and shown a pic on their phone of their CDC white paper vaccine card for entry?
Just talked to a friend who said that he saw someone get denied entry at the airport because all they had was a picture of their CDC card, but was just another random in line and he didn't see how it turned out.

Thank you Rama

Can Ed Visa and Thai Elite Visa both be done in Thailand? I'm in Georgia now and debating going to Thailand next with my girlfriend (and dog). The plan would be to check out Bangkok for 6-12 months and then purchase a Thai Elite Visa if we like it enough (I think we will). But It'd be too much of a hassle going back to our respective countries to apply for the visa then on to Thailand.

Also, my girlfriend doesn't really have much income to show of her own. Don't know if maybe each student has to show proof of sufficient savings.

One potential roadblock I see is this, mentioned on one of the language schools explaining the process:

"Before visiting us, make sure you have at least 45 days on your tourist visa or visa exempt."

My girlfriend, who's Mexican, only gets 15 days on entry in Thailand (and even Americans only get 30), so how is it possible to have 45 days visa exempt for her?

You def can for the elite visa and I think also for the ed visa. At least there are a ton of agencies in BKK offering to help you, probably elsewhere too. Not sure how the situation for your gf is, that might be a problem, yes. But maybe can be solved by transferring some money to her each month a couple of months or something like that.
I think that sentence should be either visa exempt or have at least 45 days left in your visa. But I doubt they are going too much by the book, probably you just have to find a good agency that will sort out things for you for a little "fee". Not sure about the latest but I knew quite a few peeps on ed visa, let's just say they were not studying a lot

from october 1st onwards, you will get 45 days (and your GF will get 30 days) with visa exempt. see https://www.tatnews.org/2022/08/thai...g-high-season/

How are they getting around the law i wonder?

Must be a loophole where members only are only playing for no cash or something but obv still getting real cash winnings.

Interesting tho would like to hear from anyone who has played there.

Just give the boys in brown their cut and mai pen rai kap. That is if one of the boys in brown doesn't own the place already.

He said (keep in mind prostitution is illegal here)
But its everywhere and they dont really care about it, as long they get paid.
Its a grey area and money issue.

Any more data points or experiences with regards to vaccination proof and Thai immigration? My vaccination documentation is just a stamped printout and it looks legit enough but I'm still a bit worried. I guess I could just get the PCR to be safe, but who wants to do that?

Anybody is Thailand know about getting a proof of address? Wanting to play on GG out here but my old account was a UK one. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Depends what GG accepts as proof. For most sites bank statement or a phone bill is OK. iPoker is the only one that required immigration proof of residence. If you end up going to immigration tell them you need it to get a drivers license. You'll need a rental contract and don't really remember what else...

I opened an Thai Bank account which was pretty easy via an agency but it will cost you about $300 in total. GG will accept that as proof of adress.
But somehow you can do it also by your own much cheaper when you go to immigration by yourself to get the paper the Bank wants first.
I was lazy and new to Thailand so I prefered the easier option.

Please tell me that's 300 THB and not 300 USD

lol no ****. No clue what requirements are now for bank account, but back in the day you could open Kbank account as a tourist.

Now you cant open one with a TV in most cases but some will let you do it depending on branch. Still if you cant, one of these farang assistance agencies will open it for you for 500-2000 THB (I did it for 500 back in 2015 in CM iirc). 300 USD for doing that seems criminal and borderline scam and the agency should be named so no-one else falls for it. A part of me still hopes it was 300 THB tho...

Hello everyone.
I am looking to move to Thailand in November to play Poker professionaly. I have been grinding my bankroll from Germany while still living witth my parents and not having a "real" job for the past couple of months. I have a few questions on which an answer would be greatly appreciated.

1. How should I approach the visa situation since I have no proof of income for the last months?
2. How do taxes work for poker players?


Thank You

Apply for a tourist visa from home, you don't need proof of income. Afaik nobody pays taxes here from poker, pokers illegal in Thailand. As a newb you should keep that to yourself. Also which sites do you play on? Some don't allow players from Thailand.