Cool man, thx for chiming in Yeah, we are further down the beach, closer to the Lotte Mart bridge. I guess we must tangle on Stars then, as you probably don't know my 888 and Party SN... Hope you make it out of this downswing, and yeah, enjoying what Vietnam has to offer, is definitely the best tilt release We plan on visiting new stuff every weekend.

Speaking of different poker sites, 888 is suddenly cancelling its loyalty program, thus scrapping my 2016 40% progress towards VIP Needless to say, but am done with the site, so will look into joining William Hill or Bovada. If anyone has any info about any of these 2 sites (never played either before), don't hesitate to chime in

Yeah on stars, although we must play the $55s on 888 too... And yeah loads to explore, you recommend anything? We've been to the most well-known stuff, marble mountain, son tra, hoi an etc, but that's about it. Always looking for new things to see etc.

gl at the tables, hope things are improving

Just doing the standard stuff myself as well ; for instance, tomorrow we will go hike Marble Mountain and then go watch Deadpool at Lotte Mart. We plan on leaving for a few days and visit numerous beaches down the coast in the near future.

Speaking of visiting new places, I do plan on going to Myanmmar early next year, after coming back from Canada ; the plan is to do at least a 1 month vipassana retreat and to visit the country, of course. I think that Burma is #1 on my list of places to visit, along with Antartica (the latter less accessible, obviously).

Yeah, hope to put this downswing behind me soon as well, but will knock on wood until I can accumulate at least 1 month of solid results... At the moment - last week not withstanding - it has been my longest breakevenish/small winner stretch as far as volume goes (250k hands). Hope you get out of you funk as well

Hey Dubnjoy, thanks for all the cool pics and info. I play on Bovada everyday and like the site so much that I'm worried about moving and not being able to legally play. I have all sorts of info I can either pm you about bovada or just write about it in this thread. But are you sure that you can legally play in Vietnam ( that is, not have to use a VPN )? There was a man a while back in the Vietnam thread that was saying that unless you are from Vietnam you can't join Bovada or Bodog.
Thanks again.

Hey yukon, thx for chiming in Noticed your nic before and always wondered if you were from the Yukon... I just joined William Hill yesterday and the software crashed about 10 times during my 2h stint, so really not impressed with it... I will give a week or so, but am seriously thinking about Bovada... I guess I will message them concerning Vietnam (I don't want to use a vpn for poker, especially grinding Stars and Party as well), but I guess I could join it for my 3 month stint in Canada... My 2 main questions are : what is the equivalent RB you can get in MTT tickets and is the player field big enough in the speed 100z games?

Hi, I set up my nickname while living on the Alaska side of the Yukon. The points system on Bodog is equivalent to something like 1 percent rakeback. People play because the player pool is large compared to any site except Stars and the players have been consistently as soft as you will find online. This softness may change as the software sucks. For now though, the lack of rakeback, anonymous tables, the fact that you can only play 4 games at a time ( unless you are playing MTTs ) has kept regular players somewhat uninterested.
I don't know about zone games as I play 135 Sng's where the fields are large enough. I'm pretty sure zone is very popular so I'd be surprised if the fields weren't large enough to support 4 games at a time ( here I'm assuming the cap on games is still 4 but I'm not positive).
If you play on Bodog, I'd suggest PT4 or Holdem manager along with Bovada card catcher and bovada hand converter as necessary tools. With these tools, you can use any hud you wish and after 24 hours you can access not just your own hole cards but those of your opponents as well.
Bovada is stingy with reload bonuses so be sure to take advantage of their one time signup bonus which last I heard is 100 percent up to 1000.
Payouts are a bit on the slow side sometimes taking 3 weeks and occasionally even longer although often you can get paid in one or two weeks.
The games are so soft that, knock on wood, I've made a steady and fairly variance free 4k a month give or take a thousand grinding 4 tables of 135's. The sucky thing about the 135's is that they are slow moving tournaments but I make more from them than I do from the fast moving 50's. Oddly the Sng's jump from 50 to 135.
The software has been awful lately due to an upgrade that Bovada made but seems to be improving slowly but steadily. By awful I mean numerous disconnects per session, and lag ( I've just ordered more ram today to hopefully help on the lag).
Anyway, if anyone is playing on bodog in SEA without a vpn I'd like to know. Also, do I need to jet up to Canada to set up a bodog account before moving to SEA?
In the U.S., I'm on Bovada not Bodog and I've been assured that I cannot play on Bovada outside of the U.S. But it seems that some people have been able to play on Bodog in various other countries. My main question would be do I need to set up Bodog in Canada before moving elsewhere.

Thx for the info yukonca I will be looking into joining Bovada after I give Ipoker more of a shot...

The same rule applies to Canadians. I'm a Canadian on a Bodog account and was told in no uncertain terms that I can only play on Bodog while in Canada, and nowhere else. I found out the hard way as I played a HUSNG in Thailand and had my account promptly locked until I came back to Canada.

China/Vietnam has the Bodog88 skin and I have no idea how they run things.

Realigning the Stars

Well, the bad news just keep piling up When it isn't 888 suddenly cancelling their loyalty programs, and thus rendering my 45% VIP 2016 progress to mere empty and purposeless ether, it is the Vietnam visa situation pulling a Thailand-must-do-constant-border-runs scenario... End of the world, anybody




Poker oftentimes brings you at crossroads where you must adapt or be left behind...


I am certainly glad that I finished 2015 on a monster upswing, thus bringing some well needed fallback perspective to these darker times... Not sure where the next path will lead to... I feel a calling for a meditation retreat... Live pokerz seems more appealing then the .com one, with softer fields, less variance and less hands per hour... Not sure if I will be back in SEA next year, as Florida or New Orleans offer a decent alternative... Not sure. All I know is I have been in this situation many times before and see it for what it is : a simple hurdle along the way.


Standard off the wall lol Poker Hand lately :


Aggro donk opens in MP (38/28/14) ; I defend in BB with AQ

Flop (6.50$)
27J

Obviously not a great flop for our hand, but we nonetheless make the call when villain bets 4.50$.

Turn (15.50$)
27J K

When villain fires again 11.50$, I double-float with the plan of betting almost all rivers if checked to or possibly shoving over certain river sizings on some runouts...

River (38.50$)
27J K 10

Gin Easy game, no He bets 25$, I happily shove for 82$, only to lose my connection, stand up, rip off the connector linking my monitor, run towards the router (was out of load on my backup), only to reboot the connection 2 minutes later

edit : have been on a decent upswing for the past week... knock on wood!!!

Run good all

I will be looking to join Bodog in 3 months, when I get back on Canadian soil. Question man : I remember you mentioning playing on William Hill in your thread... Are these crashes normal? I mean, I can't imagine that all players are getting crashed every 15 minutes or so...

I'm going to have to go to Canada first so I can continue playing on Bodog ( which for me is a sure thing ) while figuring out which Row sites will work best for me. Where in Canada are the women numerous, friendly, and availaible while the cost of living is reasonable? I was thinking back east, maybe Winnipeg or some French speaking region.

Definitely Montreal, without a doubt. You didn't mention if you wanted to stay in a big city, but Montreal has BY FAR the best value for cheap apartments (oftentimes 50% of the rest of other Canadian cities) and hotter/approachable French women. My ratings would go as follows :

Big Cities : Montreal > Vancouver >>> Edmonton, the latter being interchangeable, me thinks.

Smaller Cities : Quebec City > Victoria > Nelson (especially if you like skiing).

Towns : Vancouver island (a ton of islands/places there) > Dawson City > Fernie.

If you know French, then Quebec City becomes an easy choice, if only English, then Montreal is very doable.

I haven't played on ipoker for about 9 months now (when they dropped the big rakeback deals), but I never had major software issues.

Microgaming/Unibet are also networks you should be taking a look at.

Definitely surprised to see anyone mention Winnipeg as a possible destination to relocate. I grew up about 30 min outside of city limits and came back in October a bit more permanently (not that permanently really means much with me ).

As for cost of living, it's one of the cheaper major cities in Canada, but transit is terrible and having a car in Winnipeg is almost mandatory. Development is exciting - the new Canadian Museum of Human Rights is really impressive and plans are in the works to develop a city center walking square somewhat similar to what you'd find in a European city. Jets games are one of the top sporting experiences on the planet. IMO Winnipeg women are above average in Canada - ahead of Calgary/Edmonton and behind Montreal, for example. $1/2 ($400 max BI) runs every day at both Club Regent and McPhillips Station Casinos, $2/5 breaks out every once in a while but its much rarer. Tournaments every day and a small tournament series twice a year at McPhillips featuring an $1100 main event.

I like living here and I'm happy I came back for now. That being said Montreal is an incredible city and probably tops Winnipeg in every area except for cost of living. Just wanted to add my two cents about a city that no one ever really talks about.

Thanks a ton! I'm a small town guy but for now I'm looking for the most variety of women. I don't speak French so I do believe it's off to Montreal I go just as soon as the weather is a bit warmer.

Thanks Rockchucker. After surfing the net a bit I'm getting more and more sold on Montreal. I may still start in Winnipeg for no other reason than I have a good friend near Fargo ND.

Back to the Basics


Montreal, 2 am, December, 1998. The 4 of us knock back our beers, sigh, then order another 2 jugs. My gf is in Le Bleu est Noir club next door, dancing away with her girlfriends to the grudge-alternative tunes while us guys are stuck in this dive bar, slamming back drinks like no tomorrow. Like we do every night. You see, outside of these doors, beyond our safe drunken haven, lies a world in pursuit of mercantile ambitions, trying to make mere consumers of us all by laying unpromising odds on empty and vain purposes... This is what we discuss while pounding back our life away... The world. Its illusion. People's ignorance. And the power that the 4 of us hold in seeing through the delusion. Which makes us better. Superior. Yet, I can't seem to function normally in our society. Which makes me inferior. Combine both, and lets call it depression. Or anxiety.




I think we were a little younger than this , but I do like the black-and-white-old-timer atmosphere of this google pic




Good ole Montreal


My gf will be doing a week border run to Phnom Penh, leaving me with an empty flat, lots of ideas and a world to conquer Poker has been uninspiring as of late, so I will hence force myself to leave behind the virtual world this week, go out there in the world to remind myself what it's all about. You know, life... and the place that poker has in it. Not the other way around.

It was never about being the next Tom Dwan, but more about pursuing my interests and funding a nomadic lifestyle, yet have nonetheless found myself obsessing over a convoted winrate, an hourly or moving up in stakes trying to challenge the next end boss, yo My life has become a bit too saturated with words like flop-turn-river-bad beats-raising-range advantage-perceived range-fold equity-ICM-GTO-exploitation creating a cluster-**** of a headache And at such times, it becomes necessary to slow the system down, look around, and reassess what its all about.


Thx man, I think I will give Unibet a shot. But tell me, what's the deal with the no hud situation? Meaning, are huds totally forbidden, or simply don't work (as I will be grinding other sites with PT4...)?


Run good all

Dissipating


The whole goal of meditation, is to not come back. To eradicate the ego.








Kinda hard to build a hype for oneself when, you know, you are precisely eliminating that said "self". Of course, one cannot see things as such. When heading to the casino, we naturally assume that we will win some monies (given that we are +EV in the game...) and do not waste much time contemplating the potentially negative financial outcomes... The same can be said about meditation : we focus on the progressive liberation that ensues. The happiness. Peace of mind. Compassion. Without giving too much attention to the paradoxes that rise from such a path. Nonetheless, a certain heaviness has been inhabiting me recently. Not only when I sit down to play poker, but in life. A weight that burdens my daily forward motion

I will be doing a retreat for the next 3 days ; breath by breath, liberating me from this heaviness as 8h/day I will be going deep within myself to, you know, be in touch with my non-self Or something along those lines... I know by experience that 3 days is not long enough to release a ton of heaviness, but some chunks will surely be loosened. Which is much needed right now.


Run good all

It's both - they're forbidden and they don't work. It's fine to use PT4 on other sites at the same time though, we don't stop that from working.

Hey UnibetAndrew, thx for chiming in Your reputation precedes you as the best Rep on 2 + 2, and you did not disappoint by somehow finding my question itt I have subbed to the Unibet thread for my further inquiries.

Did a 2 day retreat of 14h of meditation total, which is not too shabby, but am looking forward to a 2 month retreat sooner (perhaps Febuary next year...) rather than later. Meanwhile, time to get back to the grind. Hopefully some run good will ensue, for all of us.

Run good all

Succession

Gotta keep on keeping moving along, you know what I mean, yo GF finally got her business visa stamped in Cambodia, will be crossing on this side of the border tomorrow, probably taking a couple of days to come back up and stop in Nha Trang for a few pics, some ocean dipping and sight seeing... As far as I am concerned, outside of those 2 days of intensive meditation, went on some long strolls along the riverside, to contemplate life and death and tweeting birds












Always loved alleyways to get a fringelike perspective on life... Vietnam is no different, as they open a breach into the personal activities of the locals... This said, while vibrant and appealing, these nocturnal family activities make me realize that being devoid of the local dialect, makes me an eternal outsider...



Took time to relax, to sit down and watch season 4 of House of Cards... Damn I am impressed with tv shows lately Just in the past few years, series like Mr. Robot, True Detective, Utopia, Fargo and to a lesser degree Narcos, Mad Dogs, Making a Murderer and Daredevil (not too mention shows airing for an eternity and some like GOT and The Walking Dead) are simply GOAT Anyhow, I was saying, after taking time for myself, came... you guessed it, the grind


Da Pokerz :


With 888's latest decision on cutting RB and hence making an ultra high raker like myself (speed games, yo) tilt like no tomorrow and because I cannot join Bodog (have to be physically in Canada) nor Unibet (don't have a utility bill handy until I get back), it was time to stray away from the high raking speed games and throw in a few more 33-109$ binkaments in the schedule , while bumhunting more of the regular 6 handed 100z (unfortunately the state of the game in 2016) and trying to preserve a decent winrate online for hopefully another year before ultimately switching to live. Anyways, the next hand is taken from the 109$ Kangaroo, a new addition to my schedule.

ICM Pressure, yo :

10 left, pays top 8, 2 recreational players at my table with stacks of 5bbs (folding into the money 1 solid TAG with 15bbs and the villain in question who is a weak tight player with 23bbs of leverage, is willing to tangle - sort of -, while being scared of his shadow I am chip leader with 50bbs.

I have been opening roughly 50% of hands, attacking aggressively yet selectively, when I find myself in the CO with 65 and make it 6335 to go ; BB defends with 21bbs behind.

Blinds 1250-2500, antes 250

Flop (15, 170)
29Q

I don't love and all, as this board hits his calling range dead on ; this said, I can put A TON of ICM pressure depending on the run out, but only have 2 pot size bets to do so... After villain checks, I tank-check, hoping to spike a 2 or 3 on the turn to give me some equity...

Turn (15, 170)
29Q 3

Gin, the poker Gods are listening today After villain checks, I put my new found equity to work and fire 12345 ; villain tank-calls.

River (39, 860)
29Q 3 J

River is a perfect scare card, so when villain checks to me, I take little time in shoving an effective PSB

Run good all

Damn 2 + 2, you gotta give us at least 45 minutes to edit Especially with a poster like myself that takes IMMENSE TITANIC pleasure in throwing up wall of texts like no tomorrow

Last Man Standing


Everyone loves an underdog story. We see a little bit of ourselves in the struggling man, that resilient little fellow. Not just at the tables mind you, when an opponent seemingly reads deeply into your soul, but in life as fighting decay, decrepitude or even making ends meet, oftentimes becomes a burden... But alas and a thousand times alas! In the end, we are all but guaranteed to lose, as life will inexorably get the better of us, chew us up and spit us out like unwarranted matter... But in the meantime, lets cheer for that good ole underdog David over Goliath. Frodo Baggins vs all the darkness in the world. Oliver Twist vs social inequality. Nelson Mandela. Gandhi. Martin Luther King. Hells, even Satan, the biggest dog of dem all, being damned by an omniscient entity, can have all of my sympathy You see, through these long shots, we catch a glimpse of our own vulnerability. And perhaps a little hope ensues... If only temporarily... and delusional. Yet redeeming.





So what attracts us to South-East Asian, to countries where the majority of the population struggles on a daily basis? Where dreams of grandeur seem imprudent at best... And financial freedom presents itself as a foreign concept, one only achievable in the far away Western world... Hard for me not to dwell on these thoughts when at times, roaming freely through the streets of Vietnam, I contemplate left and right, try to get a glimpse into people's lives, before returning to the security of the 4 walls of my Western apartment...

Anyhow, pursuing our weekend attempts to go visit da nang and its surroundings, we jumped on a taxi and hopped over to Marble Mountain. I was of course anticipating a dense tourist population, but one somewhat spread out across the hiking paths of a natural mountain Little did I know that Marble Mountain is basically man made :








But despite the initial shock of seeing a glass elevator offering the lazy hikers an easy leap in attitude , I forgot about the people, took a ton of pleasure in crawling into the caves, exploring the monuments and making the best out of this breath of fresh air :














Had a nice panaroma view of the beach as well




Of course, cannot exclude a good ole pic of the Buddha, can I... Cause "I am the Buddha King, I can smoke anything (Cypress Hill) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_94Bm4iW6E


Da Pokerz


It has been hard to make a clear picture of it all and distinguish in between the state of the game, variance and liquidity during this time of the year... But anyhow, I have been throwing together anything I can get, adding a couple of handful of MTTs to my schedule (ABI of 65$), dipping down into 50z speed games, anything, really, just to scrape out a decent win rate Thankfully, I booked a 2k week, my mere second one in 2016 (after averaging such in the last 25 weeks of 2015 ), much to my relief .


The "I PUKE IN MY MOUTH " hand of the week :

50z Snap, 350bbs effective

Reg button opens to 1.25$ ; I 3bet to 3.86$ from BB with AJ. Villain defends.

Flop (8.22$)
724

Alright flop, but one that I will have to multi-barrel before villain even thinks about bringing his cursor in the vicinity of the fold button ; I bet 5.66$, villain calls.

Turn (19.54$)
724 5

One of the obvious cards in which I was ready invest myself dearly in the pot ; I continue for 13.65$, villain sticks in a call.

River (46.84$)
724 5 6

Life is beautiful, isn't it, when the sun is shining outside, and the river gives us the nut flush Or is it... I bet 28.42$, villain shoves for 151$ effective... FML I tank, revisit the hand only to

Run good all

Breaking the Wave

Vancouver, October, 2008. Been crashing in a downtown hostel for the past 6 weeks. Outside, it is pouring like no tomorrow under the heavy Vancouver skies... All feistiness to face the outside world has left me... Nonetheless, I am seemingly drawing dead on my options... Left with no other avenues, I pop open the door, defy the sinister heavens, the Gods, their children and their future divine generations, and step outside, backpack upon my shoulders.

You see, after I scooped in a 2700$ profit in the Dawson summer games in the 10-20 limit tables, I was a gangsta, a mother****ing hustla Top of the world baby

Spoiler:

or a suckah on a crash collusion trajectory : the Big Bet games in the city took a bite out of my 6700$ BR, chewed it up, only to spit back a mere 150$

On top of this pure run bad, my buddy (and probably best friend at the time) leaves me dry when he skips on his promise to pop over and pay me my well needed 200$ ; stranded and broke, I take the skytrain/bus out to Surrey, hit the highway, thumbs up in direction of Fernie (a charming ski town) to replenish my empty BR. Problem is, I can't catch a break : I fall asleep and miss the exit, thus somewhat forced of making a 1000 km detour up north in Jasper before deciding to get off (my ride was going to Edmonton, thankfully).

It only takes me a day to find a first-cook gig in a kitchen, a paycheck to buy myself a laptop, before proceeding to dump all my hard work wages to the online pokerz, yo Rinse-repeat. I drop about 10k for the winter before something clicks inside of me and the art of being a net depositor becomes a thing of the past .


This is our last week before moving into a different, quieter neighborhood closer to my gf's school (where she teaches) and offer ourselves a different perspective than the more touristic Son Tra district. We will be booking a hotel for the next month. Got a (apparently) sweet apartment lined up for Dawson (just outside of town) and will be purchasing my buddy's camper van. Looking forward to the camping that will ensue. But in the meantime, here are a few random pics to keep yall entertained (didn't do much outside of eating out and catching a movie at the cinema this weekend, as the weather did not warrant being outdoors much...).




and I mean random pics













This city invests a ton in making it a nocturnal picturesque postcard





Da Pokerz

Well, online is just getting from being terribad to a stinkfest, isn't it : https://www.highstakesdb.com/6701-po...ases-rake.aspx

Oh well, adapt or be extinct, is the code to abide by... Just got an account for Unibet a day before the 888 Rakeback cancellation goes into effect, so will add a few 100z cash tables to my grind (and thus straw away from the speed games until I can add Zone from Bovada once in Canada), but, with your permission folks, it is time for...


The Yolo Hand of the Week :

50z Snap


How wide to defend the BB has been a heavily scrutinized subject for the past little while, to the extent where it has been turned around, flipped (omelette style), spinned, spunned, twisted, distorted, wiggled and all that jazz so when I find myself with 82 in the BB after a min open from a reg button, I fear no evil and make the very wide call

flop (2.25$)
64J

Not a gin flop by any means, but with my backdoors and a distinct desire to make something fruitful out of this garbage hand, I float the 1.12$ flop bet with plans to conquer the world on future streets

Turn (4.49$)
64J 6

I plan on X-Raising my flush draw on this turn card that clearly hits my range stronger, but villain checks back.

River (4.49$)
64J 6 A

Interesting... The A should hit his range smack on, yet I don't want to risk him checking back, so I go ahead and donk 3.36$ ; villain raises to 7.12$. I am in no mood to let go of my world dominance plans, so I click it back to 19.68$


Sports Betting


Definitely not something that I plan on making a habit of, but when I saw that the line for the Atlanta Hawks vs the Toronto Raptors was favoring the latter, despite Kyle Lowry being doubtful/injured if he does play (everyone knows the Raps cannot win without a fully healthy Lowry), I promptly placed a 300$ bet 1h before tip off on The Hawks. I mean, what could go wrong... With a brief sports betting career that oscillates in between a 14 year old teenager paying for his smokes/beer off astute baseball stats analysis and a 30 something drunken gambler spewing a few Ks on hockey sureshots, what could go wrong... After all, I wasn't being a homer on this one...

Run good all

Don't mind me, just trying a new picture uploading site... Since photobucket has been momentarily shut down with DOS attacks a few weeks back, the site is no longer trustworthy, especially after I caught the Alibaba malware twice



It finally worked!!! Anyhow, working on a post right now that will be out in a couple of days...




edit : oh wait, it doesn't work, images are not the right size...