New Chapter

And so starts a new chapter in my life; although I will remain a perpetual tourist my days as a perpetual traveller are all but over. Last week I signed over a large portion of my savings in exchange for 4.3 hectares and a house in Uruguay! We move in next week, and I'm really looking forward to it.

It means a whole new set of challenges and problems to solve, which tbh is just what the doctor ordered. I've been stagnating a little over the past couple of years or so, not really enjoying playing poker for a living, but grinding away all the same in order to pay for this stab at living 'the good life'.

It's been a long-term ambition of mine to live as self-sufficiently as possible, to drop off the grid as it were, so with the purchase of this small-holding I take a big leap towards that goal.

All this means I have fresh stuff to blog about too! Why I chose Urgugay for e.g, how easy it was opening an offshore bank account here with a UK passport only, the process of buying land here etc etc.

It's OK to smoke weed in Argentina

Even after spending most of the last 4 years here, Argentina never fails to surprise me. Just when I think I have a handle on her ways I see or read something that leaves me feeling as though I have no idea what's going on.

This time around it was the announcement that Argentina has decriminalized the consumption and possession of small amounts of narcotics back in August of this year (Here's a report in english).

What surprises me even more than this common-sense ruling is that a State actually upheld it's own Constitution! The relevant section being:

"each adult individual is sovereign to make free decisions about the lifestyle he or she desires without the state’s being able to interfere in that ambit."

(Just goes to show how by ignoring this previously for so many years States pay lip-service to their Constitutions).

However, before you pot-heads jump on the next flight to Argentina be aware that although the ruling does strike down a law concerning all narcotics (and not just ganja), the decision does not legalize the possession and private consumption of drugs outright. The ruling has decriminalized only the private consumption of narcotics by adults, on the condition that said possession and consumption does not infringe upon the health, property or rights of any third party.

So no Amsterdam-style coffee-shops opening here soon sadly. Still, a big stride in the right direction taken by Argentina to further attract lovers of individual freedoms.

Work from a tropical island retreat anyone?

Slowly but surely those of us who can (and do) work via the internet from anywhere in the world are increasing in number.

Whilst bimbling around the net today I stumbled up CocoVivo.com "A rustic tropical island retreat for location-independent knowledge workers" based in Boca del Toro, Panama.

It's not exactly luxury accomodation, but as you can see from the video below the location looks pretty stunning, and the cabins do have reliable Wi-Fi apparently.

Deucescracked for free

Thanks to my buddy Jordan over at HypnoticPoker for the heads up on this one:

DeucesCracked, The best online poker training site in the world, is giving everyone a chance to get FREE poker training from Sept. 30 – Oct. 4th. All of the premium videos will be available for free streaming on the flash player!

DeucesCracked has over 1,000 videos covering no limit hold’em, limit hold’em, pot limit omaha, mixed games and tournaments

All you have to do is sign up for a free account at DeucesCracked and get to watching!

Seriously, you do not want to miss out on this offer. When I joined DC, I was playing .10/.20 limit games and using what I learned there I have moved up to as high as $30/$60 and have spent the last year playing professional poker.

Now that spring is in the air in Argentina I feel it's time to resurrect this blog.

As I'm passionate about indiviualism and freedom I'll start with this pretty worrying article from the UKs Telegraph about artificially intelligent CCTV.

A new generation of Minority Report-style security cameras that can detect criminals before they strike could be in operation across Britain within five years, scientists claim.

The CCTV technology identifies suspicious individuals and behaviour and then acts to stamp out crimes before they happen.

Looks like I won't be wearing hoodies for mugh longer when visiting friends and family in the UK:

Criteria that ISIS (Integrated Sensor Information System) will look for are likely to include clothing such as hooded tops, sudden movements, odd behaviour such as moving seats and verbal aggression.

But my favourite part has to be:

“We have four million cameras across the country at present but their impact on anti-social behaviour is actually fairly negligible,” said Dr Paul Miller, who is part of the 50-strong team.

Yay, 4 MILLION cameras have made a negligible impact on anti-social behaviour, we obviously need more new and improved CCTV cameras.

Argentina's Economic Collapse 2001

I've been meaning to post this video for quite some time....definitely worth a watch in these troubling economic times.

The odds of something similar happening in the UK/USA/Europe in the not-to-distant future have significantly increased over the passed year or so imo.

Introduction to Offshore Banking

For those of you interested in offshore banking, but like me have no idea where to start reading, or how to filter out the crap on the web I've found This free report. entitled "The 10 Things You Really Need To Know Before Opening An Offshore Bank Account".



The report doesn't go in to too many specifics, but it does make an excellent starting point for those considering opening a second bank account on foreign soil.

Here's an excerpt:

The Most Important Benefits of an Offshore Account

WG Hill, the author of the underground classic PT, is quoted as saying: Get your money out of country, before your country gets the money out of you! And this strikes at the core of what offshore banking is about.

When you bank in your own country, your funds are at risk. You must know this. Even worse, your funds are not secure. Say you owe a tax bill which you are contesting. Now, in most of the modern Western democracies, it's a simple matter for the government to seize the funds from your domestic account. One day you have $10,000 in there - and the next day you don't.

Secondly, most Western nations now get the banks to do their tax collecting for them. This is done by the practice of automatic withholding of tax on any interest earned. In this way your domestic banks are tax agents and put the government's interests above your own - the client.

Opening an offshore bank account puts your funds out of harm's way. If you had $10,000 in an offshore account, your own government could not siphon it off. And if you are banking in a place where there is no tax charged on interest, then your funds are growing quicker - without any withholding taxes being applied.

Thirdly, an offshore bank account gives you more financial privacy and flexibility - something in great demand in this increasingly regulated world.

March Rake Races

We're coming around to the time when most poker sites begin to announce their rake races for the coming month, so I've updated my rake race calendar for anyone who's interested in these types of promotions.

Not too sure if I'll be competing in one myself during March. The BetSafe race when combined with the $2K signup looks pretty sick value, but the thought of grinding 60K+ hands in one month on the Ongame platform makes me nauseous.

Eurolinx have offered up a $1K reload bonus that clears at 13 raked hands per dollar, so that plus the 30% VIP deal is probably enough to persuade me to play there I think.

Actually playing poker has taken a back seat over the past few months and it's starting to dawn on me that other business interests may mean that in 6-12 months I'll be able quit playing altogethor. My heart just isn't in the game anymore and it's no longer possible to just 'auto-pilot' your way through 6-9 tables and turn a decent profit. It takes a real commitment to constantly improve, deal with tilt etc etc.......and commitment is not something I do well ;-)

Phew

Just finished the interview, so typical that literally minutes before we're due to start chatting live my internet connection goes down. Unreal.

Am looking forward to hearing the first 5 minutes of the show, apparently the host (The Man of Mystery) had a bunch of technical problems.

You can listen in via the Juicestorm Gambling blog archives

Getting started in poker

So, if you're interested in having a crack at generating some income from playing poker online here's my advice on how to go about it. The following guide represents just about the lowest cost and lowest risk approach going IMO.

In the beginning you need to both learn the game and gain experience.

Traditionally the best way to learn was to buy a book. This technique still holds merit, and for the cost of a pretty average dinner out you can buy quality texts such as Phil Gordons Little Green Bookor Colin Moshmans Sit n Go strategyfrom Amazon.

However, most online pro's utilize the training videos provided by sites such as stoxpoker, cardrunners and deucescracked. Subscriptions to these sites don't come cheap - starting at a couple of hundred USD for 6 months, giving access to literally hundreds of hours of video from some of the top online pros out there. Definitely great value for established players looking to improve, but not necessarily great value for someone starting out in the game.

The good news is that new players can 'earn' a free 6 months subscription to stoxpoker simply by signing up at PokerSource.com and completing one of their deals. A couple of the easieast offers include earning 250 FPPs at Poker Stars, or 325 poker points at Hollywood poker. This will gain you a 6 month, or 12 month subscription at stoxpoker respectively....all at no cost to you.

Now comes the gaining experience part - i.e actually putting into practice what you've learned from studying the game. The ideal way is to begin playing for real money using someone elses cash.

Believe it or not this is possible - again PokerSource.com can be used. They currently offer free bankrolls ranging from $50-$150 at five different sites. There are certain requirements before being able to cash out (playing 'x' number of raked hands for e.g, check here for more info) but I wouldn't get too hooked up in the idea of cashing out, rather use their money to gain vital risk-free experience. (Cashing out is certainly a very real possibilty with some application).

Next step is to build a roll - I wrote a piece quite a while back titled earn while you learn which explains my outlook during this phase of a poker career. Basically I advocate signing up at sites like Poker Savvy, which along with PokerSource.com is an extremely reliable 'kickback' site whereby players get paid to complete poker site signup bonuses. Clear as many of these as you can....get that starting roll of $100-$200 upto $1000-$2000 and you can then start generating a decent income.

I think that's enough to get going and I hope this helps any aspiring pro get a foot on the ladder. Any questions just leave a comment, or contact me via email (available under the My Profile page of this blog).

Tune in

I'm giving a live radio interview tomorrow (Wed) over at the Juicestorm gambling blog. Should be fun.

I'm not too sure exactly what to expect, I can only hope I manage to convince the host and his listeners that I actually know what I'm talking about ;-)

Tune in at 1pm GMT if you'd like to hear the dulcet tones of yours truly, or you can also listen to the interview via the WUBT radio archives if you can't make it to the live show.

Que Bajon

The Argies use 'que bajon' a fair bit - it means 'what a downer', and sums up my recent trip to the UK. I went for two weeks, arriving back in Buenos Aires yesterday.

It was an unplanned trip to attend the funeral of my best friend: the dickhead decided to have a fatal heart attack at just 32yrs old; no age. Around 250 attended his funeral.

We did try to celebrate his life as best as possible in true British fashion: consuming large quantities of booze in his honour. The bloke was all about enjoying life and having a laugh and I did my best to 'be' how he'd have wanted me to.

It's a cliche, and easily said, but my mate passing so young has reminded me once again that you really shouldn't take anything, or anyone, for granted. Who knows what is around the corner? So, if you haven't contacted a close friend or family member in a while fire off an email tonight, or maybe make a random phone call later this week.

Another downer about my short visit to the UK was that I really noticed the effects of the current economic turmoil. The highest-class restaurant and bar in town had closed its doors for good, some of the best pubs had shut down, and several shops hadn't survived. Added to this was the fact that during my obligatory weekend binge drinking sessions catching up with friends the remaining pubs and clubs were virtually empty.

To top things off I arrived in the middle of a fairly typical British winter: perma-grey skies, wind, rain and cold temperatures. Horrible.

What a lovely cheerful update after 6 weeks of absence! :-)

Eurolinx reload

Now's the time to signup to Eurolinx, if you haven't already, as they're offering a 200% upto $2000 reload bonus until 31st December. If you already have an account you still qualify for the reload.

Here's how to get the maximum value from the deal:

If you're a new player signup and deposit at least $500 for the 100% signup bonus.

Play as much as you can from now until 30th Dec (to clear the whole $500 bonus will take 7000 non-contributed raked hands).

Re-deposit $1000 by the 31st, using the bonus code RELOAD2000. You could probably email support about this, they may well be kind and not require you to redeposit at all. To clear the $2000 will take 28,000 raked hands.

When you've cleared the $500 signup email support@eurolinx.com and ask to be placed on the VIP program. This is pretty important as it's an extra 30% paid daily in cash directly to your account. The bonuses aren't deducted when they calculate this 30%.

Try and play all (or as much of) your raked hand requirement over any 2 week period that coincides with one of the eurolinx bi-weekly rake races. Extra $$$ for finishing 1st-70th.

Make a note of the hand number whenever your pocket aces lose at showdown - email support and they'll place $25 cash in to your account every time this happens. (Obviously you can just filter PT or HEM at the end of each day).

When you're done and have been credited with all this bonus money (you'll earn at least $3500 from bonuses + VIP cashback + Aces never lose doing all of the above) cash in the 30000-40000+ loyalty points you'll have earned. You can actually get an Xbox 360 pro (60gb) from their loyalty store for 35900 points right now, or a Nintendo Wii + sports pack for 41200.

This is a pretty sick deal for full-time players. If I was a part-time player I'd definitely consider taking a seriously +EV 1-2 week vacation from work to grind this deal.

GG UB/AP

What $315 Billion looks like

That little black blob at the bottom is a car btw.

(Source)