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Moving to SEA to play poker
04-15-2018, 05:59 AM
Good day! So now I am sick of my home country, job, family, friends, everyyything! Therefor, Im going to move to SEA this year. I hope you guys can give me some tips and maybe some have been in a same situation. Some financials, I will have about 20k$ in the end of August,, in my poker bankroll I have 4k and I will get about 6k summer 2019. I guess this will be good coverage, I make about 1-1.5k in month from poker.
So I have spent ALOT of hours reading about Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia and so on. So far Im landing towards Danang in Vietnam, mostly because its cheap and I think the Vietnamese girls are the hottest in SEa, also its a big enough city and something that Im somewhat used to. I like to go out, but I dont need it to be like in BKK or Pattaya. Something smaller is ok.
But, Im far from sure of what im gonna do, so I need some tips from more experienced travelers. Where would you move if you were in my shoes?
Mostly im looking for one place to stay long term, but living in a place for 1 year and then move could be a option. Im 24 years old next month.
Thank you!
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Moving to SEA to play poker
04-15-2018, 06:09 AM
Was this post caught in some sort of time loop for 5-7 years?
There's threads about this. Short answer: grinding online poker is a fuck of a lot harder than it used to be.
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Moving to SEA to play poker
04-15-2018, 06:11 AM
Isn't online poker going to be dead imminently due to AI and such? I'd focus on something with a future.
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Moving to SEA to play poker
04-15-2018, 06:30 AM
I am aware of this, and playing poker aint something Im going to depend on for a long period of time, but this is not the reason i started this thread. I have some plans for getting other incomes.
Pot limit Omaha is the game im playing, and its far from figured out like Texas holdem. For now Poker is how im able to make money(I also have a job atm), and I do make money from it. There is shit ton of players who makes a living in SEA, I know its hard, but far from impossible, if you log into a PLO cash game saturday night, u will get the idea.
But can anyone reccomend any cities? Who has been there longer than for a vacation.
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Moving to SEA to play poker
04-15-2018, 08:23 AM
If I was doing it, I'd go to Chiang Mai or maybe Vietnam.
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Moving to SEA to play poker
04-15-2018, 09:13 AM
Very common question.
I always tell them it's down to personal preference. One person could like x country, another y country.
Try a hand full of options and decide for yourself. Everyone has different requirements as to what makes it "better" or "best".
Factors:
1/ City / close to beach
2/ Preference of girls
3/ Ease of pulling
4/ Online / DG / NG options
5/ Cost of living
6/ Internet connection
7/ English Levels
I always have a quick scan of nomadlist.com
At the end of the day, after all this research, like anything from the internet, you look long enough you will find strong cases for pros and cons, either way.
Best way is to visit your top 3 anyway and decide for yourself upon experiencing it.
Lots of people enjoyed vietnam. I didn't.
My preference:
1/ Thailand
2/ Philiphines
3/ Vietnam
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Moving to SEA to play poker
04-15-2018, 12:24 PM
Good luck OP. I know a few people from the Jamie Gold era who entered the lifestyle and never left it, some of them are massively +EV in life.
Poker advice:
-Maintain discipline to keep your weekly hands played high, this is the first thing that will collapse once you get to a tropical poosy paradise with cheap booze. A lot of grinders fall into a trap of hitting some $ target for the month then fucking off for 3 weeks, this will fuck with your discipline and your game. Put your hours in.
-Bumhunt. 2+2 e-posturing aside, easy money is better money.
-Withdraw often, but don't spend often. Let your bank account grow.
Life advice:
-Buy medical insurance for yourself since no megacorp will be taking care of it for you.
-Stay absolutely 100% on the immigration laws for your rotations through SEA. Don't overstay anywhere, and don't cut it razor-close by scheduling your flights on day 30 of your 30-days. Fuckups with taxis and buses and planes happen all the time, and it's far, far better to plan to leave on day 28 and have a comfortable window for recovery if things go awry.
-Don't lie to the immigration authorities at the airport about the purpose of your stay, but absolutely lie to the locals. You're a novelist or backpacker or spiritual pilgrim, someone low-wealth and not worth targeting.
-Keep records of everything for your local tax authorities if you still have a burden there even while traveling.
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Moving to SEA to play poker
04-15-2018, 01:20 PM
Why don't you just take a trip there first before deciding to move? You don't want to make big life changing decisions based on what you read on internet.
Everyone of us at some point shared your feelings of being bored with our life, our surroundings, friends and family. Just take a one month trip to Thailand and come back home with refreshed mind to think about your life.
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Moving to SEA to play poker
06-16-2018, 07:13 AM
Yes, never yell you are a poker player. Buddy of mine was arrested and extorted by local police who rushed his house with semi-automatics. He spend 30 days in 3rd world jail before he bribed himself out. He doesn’t recommend it.
Other dude, of the forum actually, was a poker player. We used to play in live games in the Philippines - until he dissapeared from the face of the earth. No one has heard from him since. These things happen.
Don’t be stupid. Watch out for yourself and your buddies. Deflate your net worth and lie about your occupation. Travel light, especially in the presence of girls you are banging. Have an emergency bank account with 2K just in case.
To answer your question: the best place as a beginner is where you know someone who can show you around. Not someone from the internet but someone from real life.
I assume you don’t know anybody, otherwise you wouldn’t have asked. In that case: read the above again, print it out to put it in your wallet and then travel to the safest place you fancy. Emphasis on “safest”. If you manage to not fuck up there you can always move to a place that’s more exciting.
Have a great stay.
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Moving to SEA to play poker
06-16-2018, 07:29 AM
Go to 2+2 and see where the grinders are. It's good to have a poker community around
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Moving to SEA to play poker
06-16-2018, 03:39 PM
Danang is probably the best option providing you like Vietnam
cheap living with excellent food
but I wouldn't go back there.
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Moving to SEA to play poker
06-17-2018, 12:47 PM
Define “safe”.
Read the Philippines thread for some highlights of Manila. Or the thread of the guy who got fake arrests in Cambodia.
These are 3rd world countries and there are many ways in which you can accidentally kill yourself or get in trouble. It happens regularly.
In that sense it is not safe.
If you are aware of your surroundings and make smart decisions, you still can get unlucky.
The guy that was extorted was an online player. The second guy took all precautions but admittedly was having a bad time.
These were gamblers. I didn’t mention bike accidents, infectious disease, drug arrests and bar brawls. I could, but it would be off-topic.
On-topic: start out on the beaten path for the first theee months, Ching mai for example.
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Moving to SEA to play poker
07-08-2018, 12:13 PM
Philippines is different from Vietnam/Thailand, much more crime. I highly doubt foreigner dies or get in trouble in Vietnam/Thailand regularly, but hey, what do I know.. I just have to go there myself and see.
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Moving to SEA to play poker
02-08-2019, 08:32 AM
A bit update! I planned to move last year, but delayed untill march, so I will be leaving by the end of March, first to Bangkok. I might start to write about my experiences in this thread, if anyone is interested. Im starting to get a little sick of poker, so currently looking for other ways to make money online, its just hard to start with something completely different.
I moved my Tinder location to Bangkok, one girl I matched with was looking for models to a photoshoot and offered me to be a model, haha.. I just said I had to think about it and will contact her when I get there, maybe working as a model in Bangkok is the way to earn a living, huh..