Poker Abroad

[RainDog]

I believe the time is drawing near for the actualization of my little poker fantasy that I've had for the past few years. I've now been playing online poker fulltime long enough that I have developed an adequate notion of security (as far as poker being sustainable income). It has dawned on me that my current source of income is not entirely location dependant and I'm free to wander wherever decent internet connections are prevalent. Unfortunately, I am by no means getting rich off this now delitefully tedious game, but I am managing to aggressively pay off debt I've accumlated through the years, as well as cover bills, rent, taxes, and still have enough left over to support my expensive dining and drinking habits (Sushi has become a "top ten" expense as of recent).

Anyhow, I've been looking at different foreign locations that I might like to travel and reside for a time. Thailand was an immediate consideration because of its striking afordablility. However, I have a fondness for Latin America and would very much like to become proficient in Spanish. Currently I'm almost entirely settled on heading to Buenos Aires, Argentina in late August/early September. My apartment lease expires on July 31st at which time I will drive to S. California from my current home in Knoxville TN, visit with family for a month or so and prepare for the trip leaving, I imagine, from LAX airport. There is no Visa requirement for Americans staying 90 days or less in Argentina and the Visa is easy enough to renew for a longer stay. The Spanish dialect there is slow enough and interpretable for someone as daft as myself to potentially pick up over time. The city seems quite amazing and is a good central location to venture out to other places for weekend trips. I've scouted out several temporary apartment brokerages with reasonable offers. I'm sure they are a bit more costly than if I were to arrange accomodations from within the country, but for convenience sake I can get a 2-3 bedroom fully furnished apartment in a nice district with high speed internet connection, laundry service, and all utilities included (some even with a pc supplied!) for between $400-$600/m. The only downfall is that there is of course a deposit (typically one month's rent) and whatever term you decide to stay you must pay for up front upon signing of the contract. So, I figure I'll pay for a two month term and sign a new contract if I wish to prolong my stay at said apartment or I can just find a new place at the end of the two months once I'm reasonably oriented. There are some computer considerations. If I rent one of the places with a pc supplied, I'm going to have to inquire about detailed system specs and likely bring my 2001FP along. I don't have a laptop so I imagine that it would be cumbersome and perhaps expensive to bring my entire pc. I've considered investing in a reasonable laptop for the trip, which I'd like to have anyways. I'll have to contact Neteller and all the sites that I play at to inform them that I'll be operating from an Argentinian IP address. All these considerations seem easy enough to tackle, so hopefully all shall go well.

I've always been a solo, bare necessity sort of traveler...but this will surely be a different beast. I'm considering finding a like-minded person or two to bring along for aid in rent, beer consumption, and well...motivation. I don't imagine any of my close friends will be willing or capable of making the venture with me. I've posted a similar thread in a few travel forums minus some of the poker jargon. But hey, really, if there are any of you out there that would potentially consider a little adventure of this sort, feel free to send me a PM. Also, any advice that you knowledgeable zoosters might have for me is much appreciated.

Cheers all, just thought I'd share with ya. Soon I hope to meet some beautiful Argentinian girls and tango til' I'm sore (pun intended).

Ryan - 23 yr' old restless poker player

[Vish]

Good for you. Not enough poker players take advantage of the mobility of their profession. I'd take you up on your offer, but I'm off to France myself--not as cheap as Argentina, unfortunately, but it's where I want to live. Good luck to you, sir. Give us an update someday.

[KaneKungFu123]

[ QUOTE ]
I believe the time is drawing near for the actualization of my little poker fantasy that I've had for the past few years. I've now been playing online poker fulltime long enough that I have developed an adequate notion of security (as far as poker being sustainable income). It has dawned on me that my current source of income is not entirely location dependant and I'm free to wander wherever decent internet connections are prevalent. Unfortunately, I am by no means getting rich off this now delitefully tedious game, but I am managing to aggressively pay off debt I've accumlated through the years, as well as cover bills, rent, taxes, and still have enough left over to support my expensive dining and drinking habits (Sushi has become a "top ten" expense as of recent).

Anyhow, I've been looking at different foreign locations that I might like to travel and reside for a time. Thailand was an immediate consideration because of its striking afordablility. However, I have a fondness for Latin America and would very much like to become proficient in Spanish. Currently I'm almost entirely settled on heading to Buenos Aires, Argentina in late August/early September. My apartment lease expires on July 31st at which time I will drive to S. California from my current home in Knoxville TN, visit with family for a month or so and prepare for the trip leaving, I imagine, from LAX airport. There is no Visa requirement for Americans staying 90 days or less in Argentina and the Visa is easy enough to renew for a longer stay. The Spanish dialect there is slow enough and interpretable for someone as daft as myself to potentially pick up over time. The city seems quite amazing and is a good central location to venture out to other places for weekend trips. I've scouted out several temporary apartment brokerages with reasonable offers. I'm sure they are a bit more costly than if I were to arrange accomodations from within the country, but for convenience sake I can get a 2-3 bedroom fully furnished apartment in a nice district with high speed internet connection, laundry service, and all utilities included (some even with a pc supplied!) for between $400-$600/m. The only downfall is that there is of course a deposit (typically one month's rent) and whatever term you decide to stay you must pay for up front upon signing of the contract. So, I figure I'll pay for a two month term and sign a new contract if I wish to prolong my stay at said apartment or I can just find a new place at the end of the two months once I'm reasonably oriented. There are some computer considerations. If I rent one of the places with a pc supplied, I'm going to have to inquire about detailed system specs and likely bring my 2001FP along. I don't have a laptop so I imagine that it would be cumbersome and perhaps expensive to bring my entire pc. I've considered investing in a reasonable laptop for the trip, which I'd like to have anyways. I'll have to contact Neteller and all the sites that I play at to inform them that I'll be operating from an Argentinian IP address. All these considerations seem easy enough to tackle, so hopefully all shall go well.

I've always been a solo, bare necessity sort of traveler...but this will surely be a different beast. I'm considering finding a like-minded person or two to bring along for aid in rent, beer consumption, and well...motivation. I don't imagine any of my close friends will be willing or capable of making the venture with me. I've posted a similar thread in a few travel forums minus some of the poker jargon. But hey, really, if there are any of you out there that would potentially consider a little adventure of this sort, feel free to send me a PM. Also, any advice that you knowledgeable zoosters might have for me is much appreciated.

Cheers all, just thought I'd share with ya. Soon I hope to meet some beautiful Argentinian girls and tango til' I'm sore (pun intended).

Ryan - 23 yr' old restless poker player

[/ QUOTE ]

i did this.

im in thailand.

pm me if u want.

[Shoe]

Good luck, I would love to do something like this myself, but who knows if I ever will. I've considered moving to a place like argentina a few times but just don't think I could go through with it. I am partially fluent in spanish, but I am not the most outgoing person and just can't see moving away from all my friends/family for an extended period of time. Good luck, keep us updated.

[mj2]

i would seriously consider this if you're looking for a roommate. i've already thought about thailand. only because i already have a friend who's a teacher there. i think i would prefer a spanish speaking country. i just got back from barbados. i would go there in a second if i knew someone there or had someone that wanted to go with. i'm tired of california and i'm extremely tired of trying to explain to my girlfriend what i'm doing.

[imitation]

I am in mainland china doing this, in Guangzhou, pm if you want any advice.

[imitation]

Kane where in Thailand, I am going for a holiday down from China in August, I'm not sure exactly where, 2hrs north of Bangkok, I have a friend with a thai wife they are from this area.

[MarkGrandy]

Hello m8
I spent last winter in the Dominican Republic.
I played online all the time, had laptop with
WLAN. I dont know where was the problem, local phone
company lines or in my landlords WLAN system, but
I had connection problems.
Once I signin MTT and lost connection for 2 hours,
once had nuts fullhouse but couldnt call when opponent
went allin and so on.......
Otherwise I felt my way to play were better because
climate was so great and living was enjoyable!

[imitation]

I will elaborate some on playing in china here, one problem is some gambling websites are blocked, for example all of the crypto webpages are blocked, however if you have the software installed the poker networks are not blocked.

There are also "some" connection issues at times, but generally very good internet (i have 2MB adsl - it costs roughly $25USD a month unlimited access). Rent here is good, I live in a fairly nice place with security guards and other nice features, infact probably some things are unneccesary and it is $275USD a month.

Language is a big difficult in mainland china as many many people will not speak english or not enough to feel comfortable to communicate, which will make finding a place to stay difficult unless you have chinese speaking friend. You can find english speaking realestate for xpats but they will charge you too much. Alot of young people can speak quite reasonable english so often I just grab a highschool student on the street and ask them where something is and they can answer.

Apart from this in China you will be an oddity so expect a lot of attention if you have white skin. This is both good and bad, many people tell me it gets annoying after a long stay here, so far I've just found Chinese people to be most friendly and helpful.

Cost of living is very cheap obviously, so I think it's a great place to base yourself whilst saving and also to travel from to other places in Asia, as airfares (generally) are cheaper from China. You do need some money obviously to set yourself up, I think I spent roughly $6-8k or so on getting myself here, $2.5k laptop, rent + 2mths bond, other things for apartment, camera, etc, etc. So I would suggest to make sure you have a BR that can support the move plus then stay at same limit. Or like me you can just grind up limits again, which is also very easily accomplished, also playing 1/2 6max with an avg hourly earn of $20 is enough to live comfortably.

[Shoe]

[ QUOTE ]
i would seriously consider this if you're looking for a roommate. i've already thought about thailand. only because i already have a friend who's a teacher there. i think i would prefer a spanish speaking country. i just got back from barbados. i would go there in a second if i knew someone there or had someone that wanted to go with. i'm tired of california and i'm extremely tired of trying to explain to my girlfriend what i'm doing.

[/ QUOTE ]

I doubt I'd ever actually move out of the country, but it is definitely somthing I would like to try sometime (whether I actually go through with it or not is a whole other story). I have a friend in Califorinia that I was thinking of rooming with for awhile while I check out some fo the casinos down there, but even that seems too far from home to me. I must have that disease that Tom Green has in Road Trip.