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I've been in Europe nearly two months now and it's been an absolute blast. I started in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival, continued to Barcelona for the EPT, then hit up Madrid, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Salzburg and Munich before landing in London where I am now for the EPT.
The highlight so far has definitely been my week in Munich at Oktoberfest. I had a mini-reunion with my friends from my Lund exchange and we hit up the tents six out of the seven days that I was there. Going in I didn't really know what to expect, but with all the hype and high expectations surrounding it I was expecting to be a little bit disappointed. Somehow though, I can honestly say that it was even better than I imagined. Picture thousands of people standing on benches, singing and dancing to German and English songs, downing beers and eating chickens, from noon to midnight, for two weeks straight, and you have Oktoberfest. The party really kicks off around 7PM and by 9PM you'll be swaying with your arms around strangers singing in full voice songs you barely know the words to. Incredible!
As for the poker, well, it's been a total disaster. After March I was up 270K for the year. Now I am heavily in the minus (yep, officially a losing player) and, having cashed out a lot post-Black Friday and with a bit locked on Full Tilt, my online roll is now just 60K. This to me is pretty sick because I've basically busto'd myself. Getting crushed at 50/100 does that to you. This week I was forced to drop down to 5/10 which is pretty brutal because I quit 5/10 about 18 months ago because it was too small and in fact earlier this year I also partially quit 10/20, resolving never to play it unless some huge whale was playing to make it worth my while. Everything comes full circle I guess.
It really kicked home how busto I was this week when 100/200 and 200/400 games were running on Stars and I couldn't play. Earlier this year I was dying for durrrr or Negreanu to log on to play 100/200, not because they were marks, but because games just didn't run unless they sat and I just wanted to play some really high stakes.
Not being able to play as high as I want to online is definitely frustrating but in the end doesn't change all that much. I'm travelling the live circuit till the end of the year and then start work in January next year so I don't really have much opportunity to play online anyway. In many ways my online career was over when I stepped onto that plane to Vegas in July. The only reason I finally dropped down to 5/10 this week is because I always want to maintain the ability to play 5/10. A few buy-ins there will always go a long way in real life.
As you're reading this, you're probably thinking: "what the f#%k is this guy bitching about? He can play 5/10 online, he's travelling the world, playing the live poker circuit, I'd kill to do that!" And you'd be right. It can be hard to remind myself of that after the nth straight -10K session, but in the end I know I'm extremely lucky in so many ways. This opportunity to travel, to meet up with friends, to explore the world, is one I can't waste wallowing in thinking about how much money I used to have. In 5 years I'll easily have it all back from my job. But I'll probably never have as much freedom and fun as I do now. That's what I can never forget, what I always have to try to keep front and centre in my mind.
So, what's next for me? I'm off to Cannes on Tuesday to play the 10K Split and 10K WSOPE Main Event. Despite my better judgement, I decided not to sell any pieces for these because I fully plan on binking and salvaging my year. After that I'm off to EPT San Remo where I'll play the 5K Main, the 2K HU and maybe the 2K FO. Then I'll do some general travelling, first to Monaco to visit a friend, and then probably to Budapest, Bratislava, Brussels, Amsterdam and Dublin, before heading to Asia for APPT Macau and APPT Manila. Then, sometime in mid-December, I'll finally be home!
I'll probably do one final blog post sometime in January next year. Let's hope I'll have some good news to report to you then. In the meantime, here are some photos of my travels since my last blog. Cheers.
Los Angeles
San Francisco
Edinburgh
Barcelona
Madrid
Frankfurt
Heidelberg
Salzburg
Munich
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