Workaholic

I played this month almost 60.000 pokerhands, 81hours, and earned myself 42.000 points, wich leaves me with 21.000 more for december to reach my 2010 goal pointwise. This must be one the better months regarding putting in volume. I also made some money but wasn't as good as you would expect it to be after the first 2 weeks of the month lol.

Let's move quickly on to December!

Blogging

Since my last entry I feel a little bit more....I dont know, awake? Aware of what I am doing by just writing some stuff down. I also realise it will slip away again very easily if I dont actively hold on to it. So thats what I am gonna do. Also I want to update my blog more frequently again :)

With that being said I instantly notice the difference when I play cards. Got in a medium sized online pokersession yesterday and for the first time in weeks I think I played without too many errors. Also been to the casino yesterday where I won a little over a buy-in. Too bad I lost a big pot in the beginning where I played KQ pretty opportunist (Is that correct english?) Anyways I got it in preflop vs QQ and 94s (wtf?!). 94 obv wins the hand and at some point this guy states that he's back to his startingstack and I am like, oh rly?! hw the fk could that ever happen to this professor...There was so much fail going on at that table, and I am not even talking pokerwise that I decided to quit early and catch the last train back home to make sure I was able to beat Leslie this morning at 9 fucking 30 with squash. Managed to be awake but it was completely overkill since there was a zwartenpietenband that got the best within 10 minutes of a 10 minutes awake Lels. GG!

TILT

Yes, I am still in the Netherlands, and no, I dont know why and I dont know till when. To be perfectly honest Ive no idea what the fk I want out of life right now or in the future, neither do I know where I want to be. At one minute I feel OK being where I am and the next I wish I was at the other side of the freakin planet. Days goes by with me doing next to nothing. And it sounds weird coming from me but for the first time in my life it bothers me...When poker owns me it owns me so unbeliebaly hard. I feel like Ive been on permanent tilt for the last couple of weeks. Maybe even longer, I dont know. My mind is restless and constanty looking for something. I am bored out of my mind while there so much left to do and learn but I am simply lacking the willpower/motivation/energy do pick something up and do something with it. I ve got so little reason to feel the way I do and that in itself tilts me even more. For crying out loud, I am dissapointed with the way I roll at the moment!

capping last few months.

Still alive!. I was browsing through my blog yesterday cus I was looking for a picture in particular. Nice to see some stuff back, its only been a couple of months ago but still. I think I ll type somehwat of a recap of the lost couple of months. with a bunch of nice pics in there aswell.

When Robin en Steven left I spent till the 18th of April in BKK, that means I was there during Sonkran festival. It's a combination of a Buddhist celebration and Thai new year. It is by far the best thing ever. Its basically 5 days in a row waterfights and party, everybody is participating wheter they want it or not. The first day I met a group Korean people, and I remember being surprised by the way they take care of eachother. It took me 3 days to find out the didnt know eachoter before Thailand, but they insta thread eachoter like family.


In this area I ran into the Koreans, we spent a couple of days in this area.




This is not the entire group, I think it was around 10
Froggy is a loooot of fun!


This was the last day of Sonkran, actually we thought it was over the day before. We went out because it was froggy's last day in BKK. We picked RCA but went we arrived it became clear it were 2 giant foamparty's. I had a lot of fun outside, rest stayed in the actual clubs.

After these refreshing 5 days my visa was about to expire, I had to leave Thailand but didnt no where I wanted to go. I got Laos strongly recommanded by Alex and a handfull of other poeple. Only thing was, I was terribly tired, and I wanted/needed to go back to Malaysia anyway. I ended up flipping a coin for it, and faith decided it was going to be malaysia. Jinny wanted to come to malaysia, so I met up with her in Paneng. We stayed in MY for little over a month, I decided to abort my plans to visit UK Alex with Malaysian Alex in Australie. and instead travel via Thailand to Laos with Jin. I personally enjoyed the time we spent in Thailand more although Laos is absolutely amzing. Mainreason for this statement is A: I had a good time in Thailand and B: I suffered from a sunstroke most of the time in Laos + I feel like we should ve spent more time in the north then crossing the entire country from south to north by bus. Oh well cant complain I guess :D /


Super random that I again found an appartement in Paneng, when I was actually looking for a nice hotel with an acceptable longstay rate, I would say this one is better then my first house. This is the view from the balcony.


I cant drive a motorcycle in Malaysia so I bought a cycle. Made one pretty insane daytrip. I remember feeling satisfied.


Lankawi (MY), cablecar, right after our 5 week break in Paneng. r: is Hyo Jin.


We travelled via Lankawi, Satun, Hat Yai, and Surat Thani to Ko Tao and Ko Pha-Ngan, where we both got our "avanced open water diver"


Nightdive, was my worst dive so far, apart from the time my buddy and I lost the instructors under water. I want to nightdive again though, saw some pretty sick baracuda's






World famous "full moon party" in Ko Pha-ngan, pretty insame.




Have to go there again with a bunch of guys *angel*


One of the seven steps waterfall. Absolutely amazing, I only saw 4 out of 7 steps. Wanna go back!




Laos: loading up chickens on top of the bus...


At some point the bus was flooded by kids selling food. kinda said, but they seemed pretty happy.


All folowing pictures showing the beauty Laos








had a great day! But had something less enjoyable the follwoing time beacause of it.


In the left corner you can see me wondering wheter to jump or not lol.


Some random dude fishing near the biggest challenge of the day. I realise it looks pretty gay on the picture, but I flipped like 5-10 meters further downstream.







Now that I am thinking of it, maybe I wasnt sunstroked most of the time in Laos but it definately felt like it. After another 10hour busdrive, 3 or 4 days after the fatal daytrip kayakking I just wanted to go back to Bankok and grind out my time before flying via PEN to Los Angeles, tired of travelling and still pretty sick, so thats what we did. We stayed little over a week in Bankok where again I met a lot of Korean people. Funnzies!!


Crazy! but pleasure to be around, again this is just a fraction of the entire group.


Jin bought me a shirt with the Korean flag on it. Result: lots of people randomly came over to me to shake hands :D .


Round of 16: Korea vs Uruguay


Jinny

The 28th of June I left Thailand wich felt me harder then I expected. I took the plane to Malaysia for a nice little sleepover among the cockroaches in Georgetown to continue my travels via Thaiwan to Los Angeles. When I arrived in LA around 8pm I wanted to let my connecting flight go and instead take the bus, because there was a 12 hour layover, I just wanted to get there I figured I could be in the Vegasvilla around midnight. I was horribly off...Arrived around 5.30am and hated my pooor decision. Obviously nobody was answering the doorbell, so i pretty much broke in, hoping nobody would axe me down as soon as I entered the house.


Vegas house.






Awseome restaurant, very small group tho. Amzing food and an amazing view.


After dinner we stayed in the Palms, went to a different floor to the Ghostbar. Pretty darn amazing, and a nice start off for a goood night!

I am here now for 2 weeks, and I landed in a pretty cool bunch of people. I obv lost a shitload of money. I guess people are supposed to lose in Vegas, still not too much fun. I lost 2.5k$ backing other pokerplayers in the mainevent of the world series of poker, I lost 1k$ playing a deepstacked event myself, I lost money playing cash both online and live + the cost of living is pretty darn high. I rly need to be more patient, and I really need to bump the amount of pictures I took in Vegas. Wish me luck!

out/


PS: I am going home end of this month woeiii!

Red shirts.

It has been 2 or 3 days now since, Robin en Oord took off. It sucked balls the first 30 minutes. But I found some distraction the same night, and i didnt really think of it again. I spent 2 whole days on the internet at a very nice where they serve facking awesome olives 'n cheese.



Did some random stuff, played some poker and kinda tried to make contact with some basketball players from an American pokerforum who are supposed to be play quite frequently in BKK. Kinda failed on that one wich sucks since I miss playing some ball. I felt like taking it very easy a couple of days when I was alone again. But during the yest. I started to feel kinda restless, and I felt ready to jump in again. I decided to leave the Koh san road area and go to central BKK bij boat and skytrain to find something to eat. I had to run like crazy to catch the last watercab, they only go till 7.30pm. Ran into another Dutchy, we had dinner together, and went our own ways afterwards. Maybe go out later with him, kinda depends on his phone I guess lol. I stayed at the "Si lom area", Very busy, It took me like 45 minutes to run into a sign saying "Patpong bazar" I think Ive read that to be the biggest redlight district in BKK. Kinda Bizar. It's pretty much a street with at both sides Ping pong shows, Go go bars and what more, In between there is a nightmarket selling the usual stuff, and a lot of childeren darting around while if you take a looky thrue the open spaces in between the stands you see half naked ladies poledance and try to get as many people people into there bar as possible. I hate my life for not taking a pic of that. I did take a piture while waiting fot the skytrain of a street with exclusively Japanese clubs and bars, causing me to miss my train.


You cant get in, if you are not Japanese

10 mintues later I was on my way to "Siam" . Siam has turned into base for the "red shirts" . They are demonstrating against the current administration in Thailand and want the old PM back who is not longer linving in Thailand. They do that by blocking streets, racing around in pickups covered with red shirts, red flags making a lot of noise.





In general its all non-aggro altho they did enter a government building last Wednesday, made people flee, I think BKK is now in state of emergency (if this is the right way to put it) . Anyways I wanted to check it out, and went over there. It's pretty sick. I saw so many people, all Thai obv. (I think I was one of the 4 westerners out there) wanting the same thing. Cheering, singing, jumping up and down, it was absolutely amazing, stood there with goosebumps at some point. I made friends with some random Thai people altho we didnt really understand eachother. I must have been there for hours, cause I started to feel hungry again.











I walked away from the enormous crowd and found a okish place to have something to eat. It took me like 5 minutes to find out that this place was actually a karaoke bar, and pretty much another place where they work with (semi-)bargirls. The only difference was, that these girls were less attractive and it was a exclusively Thai place before I entered. I found in remarkable that I couldnt care less about the whole thing. I just sat there ate my food (wich was horrible), applaused and shipped the surprised comments from both staff and customers for me being out there at that place and that point in time.





I facking love being with locals instead of those horrible, impolite fat tourists!

out//

Back in Bankok

Yoo, I ll post some shit I wrote down in the train on the way to BKK. (4th of April) Didnt go over it. I think its OK to just post what I was thinking at that moment in time.

I am sitting in the train to BKK at the moment. In the train for over 4 hours and pretty much done with it already, but Ive got antother 7 to go unfortunately. Nobody speaks English around and me, and that is pretty tilting especially cause there are sitting 2 nice girls at my immediate left. If only i could speak Thai! I am still travelling with Robin en Steven for a couple of more days. I decided by coin to travel all the way back to Bankok again before they take off to Japan. I am saying all the way because this morning we were still at the border with Laos. We spent one day in Nong kai and did a Visa run the same day. I think I ll go back to Laos at some point, Ive heard so many great stories about it. I feel like going back to Nong kai during the waterfestival wich is in 8 or 9 days or something. I kinda pinkypromised that to 2 people yesterdaynight. I think it was Was a good night. I felt really well in quite some time. I am not gonna whine, it's enough to say I had pretty sick downswing in real life, as in physicall pain. Add the fact it was the first night since our very first night in BKK we managed to avoid all the bargirls. I know that sounds a bit weird, what they basically do is selling company, you can just have a drink and a laugh, play games like Jenga or connect four all the way up too taking these girls home if you want too. My point of view on this thing starts to shift a little bit. Or maybe it doesnt, and I am just trying to accept it or something. Anyways Steve and I decided to go for a drink despite we were about to wake up at 5am the following morning. We went to a place wich was recommanded in my newly bought lonely planet. (I think I left the first one in some waterfall bar in Pai.) Place was packed with Thai people for a change. And were just about to finish our first drink when someone came over to us and asked if we wanted "to cheers with some of her friends" . We shipped the offer and we ended up drinking chatting and at some point being asked to mary and have babies with the biggest gaylord of the city. I kindly declined, Oord had a harder time rejecting his offer :D The fact that he didnt speak English and needed a tolk made it even funnier. Around 12 we decided to call it a night-->train in 5 hours. On our way out we ran into a group of English girls. And when the Thais started to ask again if we wanted to join them to the only club in town as one big group we just couldnt leave like that. We decided to throw a coin for it and we lost it. 3 way on a scooter, surprised faces from the English when we arrived at the same time as them at the club without bicycles and a nice club was awesome. Remarkable sidenote, the only money we spent was our very first drink at the first place...

Our visa run wich was one of the 2 mainreasons to go to Nong kai wasnt as smooth as we hoped for. We bought like a package in Pai. It was sold as being a visarun and I was suppposed to end up in North-east Thailand and with a 90 days visa. Instead we got pretty much dropped off in the middle of noshit without a Visa and a good 20 minute Tuktuk drive from the citycentre. We are cool and took care of it ourselves but I only managed to get a Thai visa for 15 more days. That forces me to leave BKK again pretty soon. While I was planning on a some sort of break. Just chill out, and maybe play some cards again. Oh well maybe it's good to have a set daye for me to take off again :D . Really looking forward to do nothing for some time though. I wonder how it wil be just by myself. I am not gonna say Oord and Robin are awesome, or above avarage company, stuff like that makes at least one of the 2 feel waaaay to good about himself.

I feel like I am having trouble to keep this blog on track, there is so much to tell. I am going to crosspost a Dutch email Steve sended out earlier.---->

Hey allemaal,

Vandaag teruggekomen van een 3-daagse hike door de bossen/bergen bij Doi Ithanon, in de buurt van Chiang-Mai, Noord Thailand. Los van wat toeristischere momenten, zoals een uurtje rondhobbelen op een olifant en op een bamboovlot van een rivier(tje) af, was het lopen erg vermakelijk, hoewel het wat mij betreft allemaal wat zwaarder had gemogen. 1ste dag liepen we op het heetst van de dag het steilste stuk omhoog en als het dan daarna alleen maar makkelijker wordt, ben je toch een beetje teleurgesteld. Gelukkig hadden we een superleuk groepje mensen bij elkaar, een leuke gids, een prettige gestoorde gids, een originele houten vloer als slaapplek met een muggennetje, en op de 2de avond belanden we in een soort van bergdalachtige locatie met een nature shower e.d. Gidsen koken thais voor je, en gisteravond was er een goed kampvuur, veel Changbier en een paar locals die toen het ging regenen kikkers gingen vangen, die ze daarna levend klaargrillen op het vuur en je een lekkere kikkersnack aanbieden. Niet gek. Best lekker zelfs. Vincent was zelfs gek genoeg om een hele kikker in een keer weg te werken :-)

Anyway, via Bangkok, richting Phuket, de kleinere stranden van Railay hier in het Noorden beland waar het prima bevalt. Ontspannen sfeer, goed eten, genoeg te doen, jullie raden het al, reizen bevalt wel tot nu toe. Eerste 2 weken met z'n 6'en (Robin/Vincent NL, Matt & Jordan en Jeff die Robin en ik uit Vegas kennen) rondgereisd, nu met Robin en Vince hier in het Noorden en George (Engelsman die we weer van het hiken kennen) reist nu met ons mee richting Pai (een soort klein backpackersparadijs verder in het Noorden).

Van te voren was ik een beetje sceptisch over al die mensen die zeggen dat je nonstop mensen ontmoet als je reist, en omdat we gewoon ook met ons kent ons zijn zeg maar dacht ik dat dat nog meer zou belemmeren, maar dat valt echt mee, als je reist ontmoet je gewoon mensen en ook echt leuke mensen tot nu toe. In ieder geval al een beetje Japans opgepikt op die manier :)

Toen we op Railay Beach waren ook met z'n 3'en een PADI open water duikcursus gedaan en gehaald, 4 zeeduiken gedaan tot 18 meter, wat best spannend is (ik ben geen natuurlijk zwemtalent (A) ), maar ook erg mooi. Goede Schot als instructeur hielp ook mee.

Verder tsjah, er valt zoveel te vertellen. Dus laat ik dan maar één verhaal uitkiezen, over een Duits meisje.

De tweede dag hier in Chiang Mai besloten we de excursie richting ''flight of the gibbons'' te doen. Vergeleken met de hike later een kleine teleurstelling, omdat het een serie ziplines, abseilen en wat bruggetjes zijn dwars door de jungle (hoewel ziplines van 120m best leuk zijn) met aardig wat safety ingebouwd zodat je nooit echt het idee hebt dat het spannend wordt zeg maar. Anyway, ergens midden in de tocht landen er 3 meiden bij ons op het platform (quote Robin: '' veel te jong Oord'' hehe). Eerlijkheidshalve moet ik ook zeggen dat ik ze rond de 15 schatte ofzo. Anyway, we wisselen 5 woorden ofzo, ik denk hm leuk blond meisje, en we zien ze niet meer omdat we doorziplinen. Later bedenken we dat 3 meiden die rondreizen natuurlijk altijd 18(+) zijn.

Later gaan we een kwartiertje omhooglopen bij een waterval en op de terugweg zie ik het blonde meisje foto's staan nemen, dus ik praat even met der, Robin en Vince sluiten aan, en volgens mij zegt ze zoiets als ''are you having dinner at the same place later?'' (krijg je met dagtrips). Dus ik euhmmmja lijkt me wel. Ondertussen ben ik al bijna verliefd, lol. (ze maakt me licht zenuwachtig, wat ik echt al een tijd niet had gemerkt). Later bij het eten lopen we elkaar echter half mis, wij worden opgehaald, ik loop nog even terug naar 't toilet en kom ze nog tegen, we praten nog even, en ik semifaal omdat ik a) niet in 30 seconden achter der naam kom danwel b) ze mee uitvraag voor later die avond). Als het busje niet ineens was gaan rijden ongetwijfeld wel maargoed excuses heb je weinig aan :-).

Dussss ik zit een beetje hard te balen in de bus maar aangezien zij in Chiang Mai zijn, en wij ook, is er altijd nog die 0,1 kans dat we ze nog tegenkomen. Ofzoiets, het is niet echt een kleine stad :-). We gaan de stad in voor een drankje en ik loof een duizendje (bath) uit voor degene die de 3 duitse meisjes spot zodat ik een tweede kans krijg, waar Robin en Vince dankbaar gebruik van maken door constant willekeurige meiden die erop lijken aan te wijzen en vervolgens lol te hebben omdat ik eropafga en ze het dan niet blijken te zijn. Denk dat ik twee meiden zo echt bang heb gekregen door achter ze aan te rennen :D ook weet ik nu dat ik geen tuktuk kan inhalen.

Avond vordert, we komen ze niet tegen, helaasch helaasch.

Volgende ochtend word ik wakker en laat Robin me een groepsfoto zien waarop het meisje staat, die naar iedereen die de vorige dag bij fligth of the gibbons is geweest is gestuurd. Zowel Vince als ik hebben daar een fake email ingevuld, dus dank aan Robin hier voor het wel invullen van zn echte gmailadres :) In de verzendlijst staan ook 3 duitse email adressen dus na wat ouderwets facebook stalken komen we tot de conclusie wie wie is, en knal ik met Vince er een oppurtuun mailtje uit of ze die avond nog uitgaan :) geen respons natuurlijk..

Zelfde avond gaan we weer de stad hier in en belanden in een bar met relaxte live muziek,frans-canadeze meiden, leuke thaise ''barmeiden'' (dont get met started on that), de standaard 65jarige man met 20 jarige knappe thaise koppels, nouja je kent ze wel :) uurtje of 01 kijkt Vince me ineens aan en beweert dat ie de Duitse meiden voorbij zag lopen, wat ik eigenlijk al niet meer geloof, maar gelukkig ben ik gek genoeg om de bar uit te lopen en 't zijn ze nog echt ook :P achteraan gerend, gevraagd of ze wat willen drinken met ons, (hier een nee horen was vrij k ut geweest), ze blijken alledrie rond de 21 (ik zal nooit meer beweren dat ik leeftijden kan schatten), het blonde meisje heet Mandy, de nacht is leuk, en een paar uutjes later staan we zoenend onder Tae Pai Gate en die kans was écht verdomd klein volgens mij.

Eind goed al goed!

Waarschijnlijk is deze hele mail totaal onsamenhangend dus korte samenvatting: ik heb het naar mn zin en reizen is fun.

Groetjes,

Steven

out//

Fine

-In chiang mai at the moment.
-Good timezz!
-Insanely tired.
-Retrieved my passport today after leaving it at the plane yesterday-->me happy!
-[x]lincensed openwater diver.
-I still think Patong is a crazy, crazy place.
-Cocktails + swimmingpool are +EV.
-Smoothies are not as bad as I thought
-Bought a shirt supposed to be worn by an old, old man,
-About to give Oord credits.


"Please post the gg picture instead of that ladyboyshit lol :)

/Oord"





I wanted to post a link of Jeffs blog aswell, he made a nice trip report.

http://www.leggopoker.com/blogs/lostinthesaus/thailand-tr-pics-7611.html

of to bed, out//

PS: not much of an update, but I only intended to post the link lolz

Thailand

Writing some stuff down before I forget about it.
Arrived 6th of March in BKK, traveled via Phucket to Railey.

This is de group Ive been travelling with so far:


Robin, he's a dutchy from the pokerunlimited forum.


This Steven also from pokerunlimited. He's having a hard time with the ladyboys.


Matt and Jordan, Matt is a Leggopoker coach and Jordan his girlfriend. They ve been travelling Thailand for a couple of months.


Jeff, also from leggopoker in this picture busy with is 4k icescreambet.


Robin again, and the final member of the group.

We lost Jeff when all the rest went to Railey and lost the 2 other Amerians today. 3 down 2 to go! :D


-I got limited packingskills when I dont sleep enough.
-Slept little in the plane again.
-Waited forever in a mac.
-Chang-ing out!
-Hard to see the difference between some girls and ladyboys.
-Got owned/scammed quite bit already.
-Chinatown is sick busy.
-Guitarhero for the win.
-VIP-Karaoke bowling was a lot of fun.
-Longtables view+food was outstanding.
-"Alice in wonderlands" sucks, "Book of eli" is solid.
-Very nice to see Alex again.
-Hard to see the difference between a "working girl" and a regular girl
-Made money on Thaibox betting. :D
-Took part in a sick $4k propbet involving a lot of icescream.
-Pingpongshows are awesome.
-"NO, I DONT WANT A FCKIN MASSAGE, TUK TUK OR SUIT, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!"
-It's easy to lose money in connect 4
-I found my nemesis
-Injured my wrist and elbow pretty seriously during a hike.
-Got stung by a jellyfish the very same day.
-Lagoon wasn't as good as I hoped for.
-Railey is mellow.
-Doing a padi scubadiving course in open water at the moment.
-I run like sh*t at credit card roulette.
-Travellers+Americans are nice people.
-Some people are above average. :D


slowly becoming a suspicous mind in this country.



Random chinatown.


Right on the street.


Viewpoint, During this hike van een verhoging afgepleurd :(


Railey


Worldpress?!


Ko san road


Had to pay the 3k Bath bill after losing credit card roulette while I only drunk for 300 bath->fuck my life! :D



This man is an ass for the following reasons: 1.Slammed his chair twice into me on the plain to Phucket 2.Complete jerk when I asked him to put his chair upright again. 3.Wanna be bold 3.French 4.probably sextourist==>nemesis, please kick him if you see him, thank you.


BKK


Thaiboxing.


Chang!!


Yeahh buddy!

HWW out//