I've been playing poker seriously for over 8 years now and I usually don't like talking about it. Sometimes I find it boring and sometimes I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I make money playing a silly card game.
But after some introspection, I've really come to appreciate all the freedom and opportunity it offers me to live my current lifestyle. I'm planning to re-dedicate myself to poker this year... plugging some holes in my game, reading more strategy books, experimenting with more styles, playing more tournaments, and just putting in more hours.
I've had decent results playing the live cash games in Macau and am getting into the rhythm of being a "pro". I've settled down here more than in the past, having rented out a room in an apartment (one block from the Sands Casino) and joined a gym, rather than living out of a hotel and hanging out in the poker room everyday.I don't want to glamorize the lifestyle too much. The ups and downs can be mentally draining at times, losing thousands of dollars on the turn of a card. And the vast majority of people who try to make money at this game fail miserably. For instance, one of the guys living in the apartment with me has lost about 300,000 HK$ in the past two weeks playing 10/25, which I didn't think was mathematically possible.
Because of visa restrictions, I do have to leave Macau periodically. So my current plan is to alternate monthly between playing live poker in Macau and traveling to different parts of Asia. My visa expires this Saturday, so I'll be moving on to a Chinese city soon to spend the next month working on my Chinese, watching the NBA playoffs, playing online poker, and hopefully getting into some blog-worthy adventures.
