Hello guys,

Im from Germany (born in Ukraine), 28yrs old and a struggling online grinder

First of all, I dont know if this blog gonna work out, since.. honestly I already tried to start 2 blogs and both failed, when I just stopped posting updates after few weeks. So dont be mad please, if this one fails again. But Ill give my best to keep it alive, even if its only "once a week update" coming.

So back to the thread. Ill probably get alot of trolls and haters, but i wont really care about them. A bit about my past.. having a conservative mother, I was kinda forced to give a Bachelor of Science degree a chance, so i studied for few years and wasnt really happy and having any progress. I quit it, and started to play parttime poker online & working parttime in a shop. Half a year ago the shop closed, and i gave it a try to become a fulltime poker pro.

It failed obviously, since I wasnt really organized and didnt manage to pay €1k for living expenses and still moving forward with my BR. That time I lived with my Gf in germany in a rented appartment in germany. Since it was too bad and expensive appartment, we now moved out and opportunity opened for moving abroad to the philippines. Right now I have the worst setup you can have to try moving abroad for half a year.

I have around €24k dept on creditcards and no savings. My Gf gonna have around €2k dept on her credit card with €3k possible money to grab. Since my job in the shop came to an end, and right now none of us have an appartment, its kind of the perfect time to try a 6months travel somewhere.

Why Philippines, San Pedro Laguna? Gf has a friend, who has her own house there and nobody living in it. She offered us to stay there for free, if we want to (obv we still gonna give her some money, like 100-200€ month). So thats immense saving on our expenses there. I think it should be possible to get along with like 400-500€/month living there together (but If somebody has any experiences living there, u r welcome to give me some extra advise and if its realistic.. once again, we wont have any rent costs..)

To my "poker career": For last 2 years I concentrated to play MTTs, but last half year also CG. Avrg BI in mtts is around 15$ (swingy, since I never really managed to take BRM seriously) I had time with avrg BI of 30-40$ and than again 10$... but on avrg, Id say 15$.
I play around 3k tourneys online / year. Always had positive ROI around 30-50%. I mainly play on 888, where my nicknames were "anonstranger" and actual one "polarizedOMG". I also streamed on twitch sometimes, but nothing special so far (~150 followers) with "polarizedpoker". You also can follow me on Twitter/Instagram/Snapchat: polarizedpoker

When I finally gonna be there, I definetely want to stream 80% of all my sessions and maybe later on gonna try to also make vids for youtube from my session highlights.

My biggest online cash was 4.6k in the 109$ Tuesday Challenge and live cashes: €4.5k 5way deal in local casino, €12k shipped tourney in local casino and ~€10k in Kings Casino Rozvadov making 3way deal in the €100k gtd Tristar ME in 2016.

Right now most of my Bankroll went away due the fulltime playing and paying for the life expenses, which is unfortunate.
Right now i have 800$ on 888 (also had free 20$ on ACR, which I grinded up to 65$, but I wont take that BR too serious, until itll reach $1k)

I aim to grind this Br up to at least 2-3k before going to Philippines, which will (hopefully) be in September.

So as you can see, I am that crazy to fly to philippines with like "no money and small BR". The only Backup we gonna have, are the €3k from my GF. I mean, if it totally goes wrong, we just fly back after 3months or so. But since we dont have to pay for rent and life expenses there are much lower, I dont see big difference living in Germany and grinding up that BR or moving to Philippines Its a bit scary, but overall Im pretty excited and optimistic.

I feel really confident about my game, and my goal for these 6months philippines is to reach at least the 30k+ BR to BE my creditcards (which is possible imo) playing 5-6 days/week 8-10h a day (at least in the first 1-2 months..)

I dont want to make this any longer, so feel free to ask questions, and Ill be happy to answer all of them (except the trolls )

Yours,
polarized

Viel Glück!

Merci - please feel free to give me any advanced advices (since Im not a beginner in poker stuff, no need te explain how important BRM is and how much buyins i need for what limit and so on.. i think u know what i mean

Also gonna post here short updates about my BR, when there are any big changes (not if i just had a BE session or 100$ down..) ...lets say if my BR gets 20% boost/drop, ill let you know

You realize you can't play on many of the major networks from the Philippines (Party, MPN, ipoker, Bovada) and those that you can play on will likely require you to change your address/prove residence which may be difficult for you. 888 was one of the stricter when I moved here IIRC...anyway gl

When has this changed? Recently with Duterte? As it was not the case 2 years ago...

On this note though, make sure where you will be living has a stable enough wifi signal, as you should definitely not take this for granted. GL

Which network are you asking about? Party and MPN dropped after Duterte, ipoker and Bovada were never allowed here.

holy **** thats a solid cray cray plan.
you can use a VPN for sure the first time you log in into 888 etc, at least acr you can play from anywhere haha.

How did you manage to do that? I mean how did you get that credit line without a real job?

Well, this sounds like quite a thrilling trip that u r planning there. The budget that u r calculating with is probably to low. Im living in Manila too and can say that the costs of living will be higher then what u r expecting. Specially if u r used to the way of living in western countries. I mean if u can live really like the locals u might get along with 500 euro. Even this i doubt highly as i dont expect that u 2 want to eat day in and day out just rice the whole day. Dont forget also the costs for extending the visas, electricity ( very expensive in the phillipines) and as mentioned before food. Internet is also a big issue, specially if u considering to stream. First of all, a reliable internet isn't everywhere availabe. 2nd, for ur purposes u will need a kinda expensive contract. Depends on ur loaction and availability but expect sth btw 30-60 euro each month. Furthermore u will need to make a contract for at least 1-2 years. If u want to get out of the contract u need to pay a pretty high pre termination fee.

Manila is one of the worst places to choose from to live. If i wouldnt have to live here for a while i would prefer almost any other location in the world. In ur shoes if i would calculate conservative. Then expect sth. like 500-800 euro each month after paying monthly bills.

I think if u apply a strict BR management and play lowstakes with a avg abi to max 10 $ u can do it. Should be possible with ur lifetime roi to make 2-3 k $ every month with the right game selection and volume. Just need to play arround 800-1k games every month.

By the way I'm able to play all major skins here like ps,party, 888, winamax etc. U guys have probs playing any of these sites?

Looking forward to hear from ur plans. All the best cause u will need it

Good luck..and you can ask fellow Germany info shove for living cost and etc he's the one 👍

Party pulled out in March, MPN end of last year.. have you played Party since then? Also he may not be able to verify address since he won't have bank account or lease which will be a problem playing on some sites long term.

Yeah im still playing every session on party without vpn. Maybe they dont accept filipinos anymore? Did cashed out everything before i moved to Manila in April. I did let someone sent me a few bucks and tried it. It worked obv and i cashed in after. Since then i had no problems playing there.

Ahh maybe they are treating me like a Filipino but my account was originally reg'd in Austria so that's weird

thanks for the info. Wow so I need to change address, even if id say im only on vacation over there (which would be true, but a long vacation...)?
if im not able to play on partypoker, it would be unfortunate, but ill be fine ...888 would be most important ...and well, ACR also possible as last hope

thanks, yea ive already read about this. And about "night schedules should be better with wifi" ...Ill ask GF's friend, how well internet is over there def.

btw would it be possible playing with VPN all the time (if i get a good one paying monthly for it?)

lol this miracle named Barclaycard. Ive started with Student Visacard and 1500€ limit. Since i was very active using it (deposit & withdraw again from poker), they kept extending my limit ...to like 2.5k, than 4k, some day it was up to €14k and up to 8k on other card.

Hey sick_ayhan,
well didnt expect that about the electricity, but as Ive told (at least in the first 1-2 months) we wont have any rent payment. Since there also living sister of GF's friend, we wont need to pay for anything, if we cant at the beginning..

Also if internet is too crappy, i wont stream. Wont be that big deal. But I thought id get away with something like 30€/month mobile 3G internet or something similar?? Also maybe its very possible, that GF's sister overthere already has internet in the house, which would be awesome. But since this plan is very RAW and just in the beginning, i dont know that yet. But gonna ask.
But yea, not big fan go to Manila, but since we can live there for free, if we are low on money, kinda dont have any options to choose. If id have to go on my own, id prefer Thailand. Low cost, good internet etc. but nvm, it is what it is..

didnt get this... what u mean?

I actually started playing and registered to 888 4 years back, in the Phils. They emailed me twice asking about my location (I registered my Canadian address), once in the Phils, the other in Vietnam. It was fine, just standard checkup (888 doesnt care, really).

Internet really depends on location, but if you are going to Manila, you should be fine. Also, Manila is an absolute ****hole, me thinks Much better places in the Phils, in Asia, in the world

haha, thanks. I dont have a choice, ill go whereever i can live in a nice house for free

btw guys, big BR updates, had a sick goodrun MTT session tonight, with a 3way deal in a 5$r for 500$, 2nd place in a 8.80$ re-entry tourney for $1k and also had a deeprun in the Friday Challenge, but unfortunately couldnt FT the big one, busted around 20th for 120$

So great start for the thread, BR got a boost from 800, to $2k now gonna keep playing the limits and mix in more nl30&nl50 CG

You sound pretty degen so will follow, GL sir. No girl stories is a downside though.

How did you manage to get a credit line of 25k with just a part time job?

If you pay the usual 20ish percent a year that's 5k a year just in interest.

Its around 17% and yess, it sucks. But nothing I can do right now about it. Its a rollercoaster there, i already was twice on these -20k, and got out there again, not like the end of the world. But yea, unfortunately i pay alot of interest

@samcx hahah thanks man, yea sorry fot that ;(

your plan has little chance of success but after reading your post it gave me inspiration to call my cc company today and ask for a limit increase

Thanks, i mean im a smart person, and i know how crazy it sounds&is, but i mean "what do i have to lose". Since i moved out from my appartment, my salesman job finished because shop was closed, i dont give up anything at all here in germany. Its perfect time to do something like this. Also having opportunity to live for free over there is something, i cant just miss out. It just doesnt make any difference if i stay in germany grinding here and paying all the stuff i need, or fly over there and do the same with lowe costs overall.

The only stupid part about this all not having creditcards clear on 0, which they was back in March. Yes, this sucks and is unfortunate. But everything else is a pretty nice setup to try out. Also thinking about beeing baked for the time im overthere, since i have a nice ROI and the opportunity to offer a fulltime schedule. But ill only do this, if stakers offer me to borro the €25k for the time, they stake me (so i dint have to pay 300€ on interest every month).. i think if id find something like this, it would be perfect

@0 in march and @ 25k in june wtf?
and u use that card for depositing to poker sites?

Its 2 cards, yea also for this.. also paid my live poker trip.. something like that:

€4k thailand (me&gf with emirates for 2weeks)
€1k portugal
€1.5k desktop pc
€3k moving new appartment
€4k trip to Rozvadov Kings Casino for wsopc
rest i dont know for sure, but prob like online shoppin small ****, going out, gettin some new clothes, interest payment etc cant really say spontaniously

Okay guys, disappointed news today.GF talked to her friend about details (the house, internet etc.)

So long story short, house is more like a "weekend house", which means its not that nice and clean. Another friend, who already was in this house told like "there are everywhere cockroaches, no working shower, everything is kinda old and crappy. I wouldnt go there again". And he was only for a week there.

For me that means, i def wont go living there for half a year, even if its for free. But yea, these kind of things are super typical. Friends telling ya random crap like "yeaaa lets go for holidays to philippines, i even have a house there, where we could live, it gonna be awesome" ...And when you actually ask them for details and get more interested, u gonna hear the terrible truth lol

nevermind, this just means now, that i dont have to go to philippines and can choose a country, whereever i want to go ...or better said, where my mothly expenses gonna be the lowest and life still enjoyable.

My question would be what country would you recommend to me, where my plan for this "4-6 months grinding and building BR" has the most chance to succeed?

Just what ive read so far (which is not much), i think best countries for that would be in south east Asia:

1.) Cambodia
2.) Lao
3.) Vietnam
4.) Thailand
5.) Philippines

I only was in Thailand, Phuket for 2 weeks, so i cant really say anything about these countries. Would like to hear any first hand experiences..
Ive read the Cambodia thread and what ive read, i liked it. Question now is, should i safe these 200-300$/month and go to a cheap country, or spend a bit more and go to thailand again (i like thailand because of cheap stable internet, easier to find other grinders, food ...but dont know how hard and expensive it gonna be to get visum for hald a year)

Cambodia definitely sounds like the perfect option for you (alright wifi, live poker, cheap), Thailand and the Phils seem like a good option, Vietnam is my personal favourite (more for non-degen non-single guy, comfortable, great food etc.) and the wifi in Laos absolutely sucks balls. GL