Well I have made 11 trips up to Canada now. The last couple months I did two 5 day trips a month since that seamed to be easier for all of us. It has been interesting to say the least. I am really happy I found a nice place to stay while I have been here. I have been able to rent a room in a 4000sqft house with a pool and spa in the backyard in one of the nicest suburbs or Vancouver. They cook dinner every night and it gives me people to talk to when I take breaks. If anyone wants to stay near Vancouver let me know and I will give you their contact info. The last two trips they were on vacation so it was pretty quite around here. I went two days without talking to a live person and have eaten all my meals by myself. It certainly hasn't been easy on me or Jenny and the kids.
I have been doing decent playing poker. My hourly rate is down 25%, but that is expected since a large portion of the player pool was eliminated when they blocked US players in April. Im obviously not able to put in the same number of hours as before while only working 10 days per month. We have basically been breaking after travel expenses and other bills. This is why we are moving to another country. You are only able to spend 6 months a year in Canada as a visitor and its pretty darn cold up here anyway so that is why we decided on Grand Cayman. Its one of the safest and modern islands in the Caribbean. We have been in contact with realtors, property manager and owners for a couple weeks. We have it narrowed down to two options which we hope to book in the next few days. If everything goes according to plan we will be flying out on Jan 2nd. We will be have a condo walking distance to the beach so if anyone wants to come visit feel free. We plan on staying there until May and then come back to Lodi for a couple weeks before heading up to Canada. There is a town called White Rock on the water in the southwest part of BC pretty close to the US border. I think we plan on staying there until Thanksgiving. We have gone over this a ton but I am still curious to see how it actually works out. Of course if legislation changes we could be home a lot sooner.
We put the house up for sale with Mike Coldani for $545k. With the money we get from the sale, and the amount we will make being able to play poker full time again, we should be able to buy a smaller house with cash come next Thanksgiving. At that point we can pretty much do whatever we want. Not sure what that will be at this point, but we will see.
We are nervous and excited about this new adventure. I hope it all works out. I will certainly do another blog after we get there.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Hell of a Travel Day
We are 10 hours ahead of pacific time here. I havent been here in over 20 years, its nice to be back and see the family. I got some decent sleep last night for the first time in about three days. Here is the rundown of my days so far.
Woke up at 230am Sunday got a ride to SFO arrived at 5am (thanks mom that was early). flew to Atl and 2 hr layover there. Took some ambien and slept for a few hours on the flight from Atl to Madrid. 2.5 hr layover in Madrid its now 10am monday in Spain. 4.5 hour flight to Isreal and a 2 hour drive to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. It should have taken an hour but traffic was shitty and we had to ask 3 cab drivers how to get parking for our hotel. I think from my front door to the hotel it took about 32 hours. Drank a bottle of wine in the room with my dad, uncle Gordy and cousins Amnon and Itai. Walked an hour to dinner in downtown Jerusalem and then hit up 2bars for a couple drinks and a few pokes of the complinmentry hooka. (just tabacco). Cabbed it back to the room and in bed at 1am. Up at 545am jet lag sucks! Exersize and took advantage of the breakfast buffet eating at 645am and 8am. Headed to the Holocaust museam and walked through for several hours reading stories, watching videos and looking at the numbers. It is still shocking to see and imaginge the absolute disregaurd for humanity. 6 million jews were executed, 1.5 million children. And it wasn't that long ago. Just crazy.....
We went over to the old city of Jerusalem and walked through the streets barganing in the shops. I didnt buy anything, but I love to haggle. We walked throught as saw jesus's anointing stone tablet. Walked down to the western wall where I put my note in with all the others. Its one of the most sacred sites in Judaism. I am certainly not that seriously about religion, but it is cool to see places with so much significance. We grabbed some food and then about a 3hr drive back to the kibbutz where my aunt and uncle live. Its a small community of about 500 people. Its been fun joking around with my cousins, we are very much alike. I have 3 days to relax and hang out with the family before I head to Madrid for the tournament.
Woke up at 230am Sunday got a ride to SFO arrived at 5am (thanks mom that was early). flew to Atl and 2 hr layover there. Took some ambien and slept for a few hours on the flight from Atl to Madrid. 2.5 hr layover in Madrid its now 10am monday in Spain. 4.5 hour flight to Isreal and a 2 hour drive to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. It should have taken an hour but traffic was shitty and we had to ask 3 cab drivers how to get parking for our hotel. I think from my front door to the hotel it took about 32 hours. Drank a bottle of wine in the room with my dad, uncle Gordy and cousins Amnon and Itai. Walked an hour to dinner in downtown Jerusalem and then hit up 2bars for a couple drinks and a few pokes of the complinmentry hooka. (just tabacco). Cabbed it back to the room and in bed at 1am. Up at 545am jet lag sucks! Exersize and took advantage of the breakfast buffet eating at 645am and 8am. Headed to the Holocaust museam and walked through for several hours reading stories, watching videos and looking at the numbers. It is still shocking to see and imaginge the absolute disregaurd for humanity. 6 million jews were executed, 1.5 million children. And it wasn't that long ago. Just crazy.....
We went over to the old city of Jerusalem and walked through the streets barganing in the shops. I didnt buy anything, but I love to haggle. We walked throught as saw jesus's anointing stone tablet. Walked down to the western wall where I put my note in with all the others. Its one of the most sacred sites in Judaism. I am certainly not that seriously about religion, but it is cool to see places with so much significance. We grabbed some food and then about a 3hr drive back to the kibbutz where my aunt and uncle live. Its a small community of about 500 people. Its been fun joking around with my cousins, we are very much alike. I have 3 days to relax and hang out with the family before I head to Madrid for the tournament.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Need to Relocate
Doesn't look like I am making a million hands anytime soon. I haven't played poker in 8 days since the FBI shut the sites to US players down last Friday. It looks like we are supposed to get our money in a month or so, which is a lot faster than I originally thought. I do still get to play the European Poker Final in Spain next month. I fly out to Isreal for a few days on the first and start the tournament in Madrid on the 8th.
It is pretty frustrating living in CA where it's legal to play poker pretty much anywhere in the state, yet I cant play online in my own home. Also funny that Washington D.C. made Online poker legal in their city just days before the DOJ and FBI shut things down. The sites were providing a service that our government apparently thinks should be legal. Basically they were upset that the companies weren't in America and therefore couldn't get tax money from them. What if the rest of the countries cut off their citizens to google, facebook, MSN, and twitter. Those are American sites providing a service to the rest of the world. I don't know exactly how it works but I am pretty sure facebook isn't paying taxes to England even though their citizens use the site. How would things go over if the government made drinking illegal and then opened up their own bar and said you can only drink here? Probably have a lot of pissed off businesses. OK I feel a little better already getting that off my chest.
It looks like there are now 6 states trying to legalize online poker. CA is one of them. If they do things the same way as D.C. I will only get to play poker against people who live in CA. That is a pretty big decrease considering I am used to playing 10-15 tables against the population of the world. Not to mention most of the Omaha players I play against are outside the US. It seems I can play on Pokerstar and Fulltilt again if I set up and prove residency in another country. We just started looking at Vancouver and Cabo San Lucas. If anyone has a preference of where they want to visit let me know. I would probably live there for 2-3 week every couple months. Maybe grind out 12 hours a day 15-20 days or something. That's not going to make my back feel too good though. Things could change but from what I have read this seems to be the direction things are heading.
I do want to start some kind of small business to give me something to do while I am home. I have a couple ideas, but need to learn how the hell to start a business. Jenny got me the best selling book on Amazon which I plan on reading on the flight over and back to Europe. I am pretty excited about it since this is something I have always wanted to do. I should be able to do one more blog before I leave since I have a lot more time on my hands. lol
It is pretty frustrating living in CA where it's legal to play poker pretty much anywhere in the state, yet I cant play online in my own home. Also funny that Washington D.C. made Online poker legal in their city just days before the DOJ and FBI shut things down. The sites were providing a service that our government apparently thinks should be legal. Basically they were upset that the companies weren't in America and therefore couldn't get tax money from them. What if the rest of the countries cut off their citizens to google, facebook, MSN, and twitter. Those are American sites providing a service to the rest of the world. I don't know exactly how it works but I am pretty sure facebook isn't paying taxes to England even though their citizens use the site. How would things go over if the government made drinking illegal and then opened up their own bar and said you can only drink here? Probably have a lot of pissed off businesses. OK I feel a little better already getting that off my chest.
It looks like there are now 6 states trying to legalize online poker. CA is one of them. If they do things the same way as D.C. I will only get to play poker against people who live in CA. That is a pretty big decrease considering I am used to playing 10-15 tables against the population of the world. Not to mention most of the Omaha players I play against are outside the US. It seems I can play on Pokerstar and Fulltilt again if I set up and prove residency in another country. We just started looking at Vancouver and Cabo San Lucas. If anyone has a preference of where they want to visit let me know. I would probably live there for 2-3 week every couple months. Maybe grind out 12 hours a day 15-20 days or something. That's not going to make my back feel too good though. Things could change but from what I have read this seems to be the direction things are heading.
I do want to start some kind of small business to give me something to do while I am home. I have a couple ideas, but need to learn how the hell to start a business. Jenny got me the best selling book on Amazon which I plan on reading on the flight over and back to Europe. I am pretty excited about it since this is something I have always wanted to do. I should be able to do one more blog before I leave since I have a lot more time on my hands. lol
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Finally Back to Even
I went through the worst losing streak ever. It lasted 3 weeks and I think I had only two winning days during that span. I lost almost 30k during the streak, but I have managed to get it all back in a little over a week. I was getting pretty unlucky, but I know I wasn't playing my best either. Not a good combination. Its also hard to put in a lot of hands when you are getting crushed every time you sit down. I ended up doing more studying away from the tables. I was watching videos of other players and some that I had made last year to see how I was playing differently. It was pretty frustrating and I am sure I wasn't the most pleasant person around the house. Sorry Jenny! :)
I also placed 15th in a tournament out of 5000 players, but the payout was only 4k. 1st was 150k so usually dissapointed to get that close to big money. I played a couple satellites for the NAPT 5k event in LA, but didn't make it yet. Marc got sixth in one where 5 people got the seat. I will probably take two more shots this week. I think I am going to play in the BOBS poker tournament in Lodi this Saturday. I am going to talk to them on Monday and send out more details.
I also placed 15th in a tournament out of 5000 players, but the payout was only 4k. 1st was 150k so usually dissapointed to get that close to big money. I played a couple satellites for the NAPT 5k event in LA, but didn't make it yet. Marc got sixth in one where 5 people got the seat. I will probably take two more shots this week. I think I am going to play in the BOBS poker tournament in Lodi this Saturday. I am going to talk to them on Monday and send out more details.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Late update, but I made it to One Million!
I got the million points with a few day left to go last year. It was certainly closer than I wanted to make it. I am off to a good start this year with 50k already. I would like to make it before Thanksgiving. I need to do a lot more conditioning and back exercises this year. My back is feeling better than it has in 6 months but still gives me some problems. I really need to concentrate on strengthening. I have notice the Omaha game are getting a lot tougher. I think there are more and more pros switching over from Holdem. I am going to need to do more studying to stay ahead of the curve.
I convinced Jenny to let us get a membership at Woodbridge CC as my reward since making it to a million is worth between $40,000 and $50,000. I have gone out a few times to play, but I am still pretty bad. I try to hit balls a couple times a week, but the weather has been pretty shitty here lately.
We spent the weekend in Santa Cruz with a bunch of the family. My aunt, uncle and two cousins came out from Isreal. We also had family from Atlanta, New Jersey, Reno, Los Angeles, Chico and Sacramento. I think we had 26 or something for dinner on Saturday. Then watched the Bears dominate on Sunday, one more for Superbowl!
We had Christmas here again and Preston made out like a bandit. I think we might need to start saving some of the presents and open them periodically throughout the year. When we have the whole family over and everyone get him two gifts it adds up quick. Mckenzie is getting to be more fun since she reacts to faces, especially smiles. She is a little colicky at night though. Preston started preschool last week and seems to love it. He comes home excited to tell us what he has done for the day.
I convinced Jenny to let us get a membership at Woodbridge CC as my reward since making it to a million is worth between $40,000 and $50,000. I have gone out a few times to play, but I am still pretty bad. I try to hit balls a couple times a week, but the weather has been pretty shitty here lately.
We spent the weekend in Santa Cruz with a bunch of the family. My aunt, uncle and two cousins came out from Isreal. We also had family from Atlanta, New Jersey, Reno, Los Angeles, Chico and Sacramento. I think we had 26 or something for dinner on Saturday. Then watched the Bears dominate on Sunday, one more for Superbowl!
We had Christmas here again and Preston made out like a bandit. I think we might need to start saving some of the presents and open them periodically throughout the year. When we have the whole family over and everyone get him two gifts it adds up quick. Mckenzie is getting to be more fun since she reacts to faces, especially smiles. She is a little colicky at night though. Preston started preschool last week and seems to love it. He comes home excited to tell us what he has done for the day.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Less than 40k Hands to go
I didn't realize how long it had been since I wrote last. I was thinking it had been three months or so. Obviously a lot has happen since then; Baby, back issues, more poker.
Mckenzie has been great. She is two months now and has been smiling and cooing. Preston has warmed up to the idea of having a sister. I can't wait till she is old enough to play together. I haven't been playing as many hours the last couple months because of my back. I will get to that in a bit. It has given me more time with the family. Since Jenny is nursing, I spend a good portion of that time with Preston. He really likes to play with his stuffed animal friends having them talked to each other. It's very entertaining to watch.
I have had a sharp pain in my back for about six months now. The xray found arthritis but that is not where I am having the pain. I just started up with physical therapy again along with the chiropractor once a week. The physical therapist found a lot of knots on the right side of my neck, back and shoulder. Apparently I need to start using the mouse with my left hand too. I have also been getting massages twice a week to try to loosen and stretch things out. It has been two weeks of doing all this along with exercises and stretches at home. So far there has been little improvement. I plan on taking a week off at the end of the year, which will be the first time I have gone more than 3 days without playing so hopefully that will help.
I just got over 960k and I am getting anxious to get there. I plan on getting done on the 23rd. I get two poker tournament buyins and travel expenses. The EPT finals in Monte Carlo is the biggest buyin and best place to go. That will be in April. I was thinking about going to visit my family in Isreal before the tournament. I haven't been there since I was about 11 years old. The second buyin I will use for the WSOP. I think it might come with a suite at the Palms for a week, but I am not completely sure. We were going to use one to go to Atlantis in the Bahamas, but we didn't want to travel with the baby so young. This has been one of my best years and though I miss some of the excitement of playing tournaments it has been nice to be able to have more flexibility with my hours. I also don't think my back could take sitting for 10 hours strait like I used to do. I played my first tournament since the WSOP in Vegas. It was the WSOP circut event in Tahoe a few weekends ago. I was doing pretty well and had a chance to be the chip leader with about 50 players to go. I had 97 on a T997 board and got allin vs a guy with A9. I'm almost 90% fav there, but the Ace came on the river. One of the tougher beats I have had, but I was happy I played well since it had been a while.
I went to my first playoff game of any kind when I saw game 2 of the World Series in SF. I went there with Scott, Marc and Ted. Scott and I got some tickets off scalpers in the 2nd inning for $350 and then met up with Ted and Marc at Momo's after the game. Even though I am a Dodgers fan it was pretty exciting to see a game of that magnitude, I couldn't pass that up. There is a bunch of us going to see the Kings vs Heat tonight which should be pretty cool too.
My next post will be when I get to 1Million.
Mckenzie has been great. She is two months now and has been smiling and cooing. Preston has warmed up to the idea of having a sister. I can't wait till she is old enough to play together. I haven't been playing as many hours the last couple months because of my back. I will get to that in a bit. It has given me more time with the family. Since Jenny is nursing, I spend a good portion of that time with Preston. He really likes to play with his stuffed animal friends having them talked to each other. It's very entertaining to watch.
I have had a sharp pain in my back for about six months now. The xray found arthritis but that is not where I am having the pain. I just started up with physical therapy again along with the chiropractor once a week. The physical therapist found a lot of knots on the right side of my neck, back and shoulder. Apparently I need to start using the mouse with my left hand too. I have also been getting massages twice a week to try to loosen and stretch things out. It has been two weeks of doing all this along with exercises and stretches at home. So far there has been little improvement. I plan on taking a week off at the end of the year, which will be the first time I have gone more than 3 days without playing so hopefully that will help.
I just got over 960k and I am getting anxious to get there. I plan on getting done on the 23rd. I get two poker tournament buyins and travel expenses. The EPT finals in Monte Carlo is the biggest buyin and best place to go. That will be in April. I was thinking about going to visit my family in Isreal before the tournament. I haven't been there since I was about 11 years old. The second buyin I will use for the WSOP. I think it might come with a suite at the Palms for a week, but I am not completely sure. We were going to use one to go to Atlantis in the Bahamas, but we didn't want to travel with the baby so young. This has been one of my best years and though I miss some of the excitement of playing tournaments it has been nice to be able to have more flexibility with my hours. I also don't think my back could take sitting for 10 hours strait like I used to do. I played my first tournament since the WSOP in Vegas. It was the WSOP circut event in Tahoe a few weekends ago. I was doing pretty well and had a chance to be the chip leader with about 50 players to go. I had 97 on a T997 board and got allin vs a guy with A9. I'm almost 90% fav there, but the Ace came on the river. One of the tougher beats I have had, but I was happy I played well since it had been a while.
I went to my first playoff game of any kind when I saw game 2 of the World Series in SF. I went there with Scott, Marc and Ted. Scott and I got some tickets off scalpers in the 2nd inning for $350 and then met up with Ted and Marc at Momo's after the game. Even though I am a Dodgers fan it was pretty exciting to see a game of that magnitude, I couldn't pass that up. There is a bunch of us going to see the Kings vs Heat tonight which should be pretty cool too.
My next post will be when I get to 1Million.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Back from Vegas
It is nice to be home again. A month in Vegas is a long time. Having Jenny and the family there helped it go by much quicker. I also drank a lot less than I have in the past. Before when I got knocked out I would just sit at the blackjack table for a few hours which leads to many cocktails.
After cashing in on two of the first three tournaments I played I went on a drought and didn't make the money in any tournament there after. I think I played 11 more. I would have to count up my receipts to know for sure. That along with Preston getting sick and having to go to the hospital several times didn't make the trip that worthwhile. It cost about $20,000 which includes tournament buyins, the condo, food etc. Considering we will have two kids this time next year I will probably just go by myself for a couple weeks next time.
I felt like I played pretty well. I almost made day 2 of the $2500 PLO and took some tough beats in the tournaments after that. I did register for the main event before I left. Not that exciting plunking down 10k after losing 20k for the month, but I can't miss the main event. I will play that one every year no matter what. I fly back on the 7th and play Day 1d on the 8th.
We did have a fun trip to Disneyland last week. We got there around 9am and walked around doing rides will almost 11pm with a couple hour break for dinner. Preston had a great time. He went about 6 hours then fell asleep in his stroller inside for a couple hours while his grandma sat with him in the shade. We were there with Jenny's mom and cousin. Got to eat P.F. Changs for dinner, which I haven't had in some time. I almost forgot how good those crab won tons are.
Not sure what we are doing yet for the 4th. I play in a golf tournament every morning, but then we are still trying to figure things out. We might try to walk to the lake and see them this year although we might have to leave early because the noise scares Preston sometimes.
After cashing in on two of the first three tournaments I played I went on a drought and didn't make the money in any tournament there after. I think I played 11 more. I would have to count up my receipts to know for sure. That along with Preston getting sick and having to go to the hospital several times didn't make the trip that worthwhile. It cost about $20,000 which includes tournament buyins, the condo, food etc. Considering we will have two kids this time next year I will probably just go by myself for a couple weeks next time.
I felt like I played pretty well. I almost made day 2 of the $2500 PLO and took some tough beats in the tournaments after that. I did register for the main event before I left. Not that exciting plunking down 10k after losing 20k for the month, but I can't miss the main event. I will play that one every year no matter what. I fly back on the 7th and play Day 1d on the 8th.
We did have a fun trip to Disneyland last week. We got there around 9am and walked around doing rides will almost 11pm with a couple hour break for dinner. Preston had a great time. He went about 6 hours then fell asleep in his stroller inside for a couple hours while his grandma sat with him in the shade. We were there with Jenny's mom and cousin. Got to eat P.F. Changs for dinner, which I haven't had in some time. I almost forgot how good those crab won tons are.
Not sure what we are doing yet for the 4th. I play in a golf tournament every morning, but then we are still trying to figure things out. We might try to walk to the lake and see them this year although we might have to leave early because the noise scares Preston sometimes.
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