When life doesn't go according to plan

The past 2 days have been the most difficult and painful I've had to endure for a long time. Shortly after writing my previous blog post, I got some really bad news about our toy poodle, Diddy. The vet told me that Diddy was showing symptoms of canine distemper, which is the worst disease a dog can get. We won't know until Friday at the ealiest, but its looking like we'll get the results from the lab on Monday. Whilst we're desperately hoping that he's picked up something less troubling, I'm already fearing for the worse.

It's not the first time he's been seriously ill - a day after he arrived in the UK last month , he fell ill due to the Parvo virus, for which he wasn't vaccinated for in Macau. I was told by the vet that he wasn't vaccinated for distemper, again something which the Macau pet shop/vets neglected to advise us of!? The soul crushing part of this is that he was due to undergo these vaccinations here in the UK, but because he was still recovering from Parvo they had to delay administering the vaccines.

My initial reaction was of disbelief. How can it happen again? He's only a puppy, and we've only had him for about 5 months. Then I had a fit of rage. I put the blame on the pet shop where we bought Diddy from, for not providing adequate protection. Even the vets here are clueless - the day before we sent Diddy from Macau to the UK, he was taken to the vet who just thought he had a slight fever - which turned out to be Parvo. No fucking wonder the UK has excluded Macau off the PETs scheme. They have no fucking clue out here.

There is no cure for distemper. Knowing that really did upset me. I spoke to Yin, Melody and Jason. Jason's been great, really being there for me both as a friend as well as my poker coach. I told him I was too emotionally upset to play poker, and we decided that it'd be best that I put that on hold until I am ready to return. The next morning, we went to the temple to pray - something that we'd always been meaning to do but for other reasons - this time there was a sense of urgency.

Jason's always had this belief that things happen for a reason. From speaking with him, I've come to realise that life shouldn't be solely focused on attaining a goal, at the cost of sacrificing your happiness and time spent with loved ones. I regret that there are countless times I've either been too busy with poker or playing stupid FPS games to spend time with Yin and Diddy over the past 1/2 yr in Macau. Many times when Diddy would whine for attention, and I was busy with poker, I could have taken a break and played with him or take him for walkies. But I didn't - I put my success in poker first, above everything else. I'd give anything to get that time back, but not even money can buy that lost time.

I know I'm wrong, and maybe this is happening because I didn't heed the warnings when Diddy was first seriously ill, and all the times Jason and Yin were telling me otherwise. I spent too much time focused on the money, focused on the goal of winning a lot in poker to be able to buy a house and have a future with Yin and Diddy - a future which might not even happen. Everyone who has met Diddy has fallen in love with him, and Yin and I even planned to find Diddy a mate to breed more toy poodles. I spent far too much time living for tomorrow rather than living in the present.

Over the past 2 days I've come to finally realise exactly what's important in life. That's why I'll be leaving Macau for good, and coming home on Friday evening, instead of in December. I'll be amongst family and friends who care alot about me, and I need to let them know that I appreciate that. When I arrive back in London early Saturday morning, Yin and I will go and visit Diddy that same morning. I really do need to make up for lost time.

Macau Round 2 - Ding Ding!

I'm currently in Bookachino's right now with my laptop, waiting for my breakfast consisting of Grape Fanta and a pizza.

I've been back for nearly 2 weeks now, and I've been plugging away at the poker tables every single day. Seb had already arrived, and it was great to have a fellow crew member to work alongside with everyday. For the rest of September, I think I put in well over 50k hands.

So Jason had already mentioned getting me back playing full ring before I left for London, and I think it was long overdue to getting back into that game, having been playing 6-max for the past 3 months. Fast forward to today, I'm at NL200 12-14 tabling with a target of 200,000 hands to play in October, with a view So far, its day 6 and I've done 32k, so a little behind schedule if I plan to take days off. Which I probably won't (bar one for when Jei comes over) because there's nothing to do here and I long since stopped playing that infernal game called Fallout 3.

I'm gonna make this short as my pizza is ready, gotta apologise to my friends who've I've not gotten back to as I really have been super busy with the grind. Scotty arrives in about 10 days and he's staying up till Christmas, so I'll have another poker buddy to work alongside with.

Oh one last thing, I put myself back on London time, makes it easier to chat to Yin at 'normal' hours and also because the timezone is more appropriate for the best time to play. So when I say breakfast, its actually more like 5pm here in Macau. How long do you recon I can keep this up for? :)

6 Months in Macau

So here we are, I'm sitting in the airport lounge at HK airport waiting to catch my flight home. The past few days have not been good at all; after getting Diddy transferred to the UK and into quarantine, I got some really bad news that he'd contracted the parvo virus and was in a critical condition. That was 2 days ago. He's doing alot better now, but is still within the 72hr stage in which they will continue to closely monitor him, and keep him on a drip. So as you might imagine, we just want to get back and visit him as soon as we can.

I'm gonna be back in the UK for about 2.5 weeks, during which I've got a tonne of things to sort out. On top of that I want to keep logging sessions on the tables, naturally that isn't going to be easy what with my XPS laptop packing up. Jason said I should take 3 days off when I get back and not play - sound advice, so instead I'll continue on with my poker research on one of my key villains.

I guess this blog should be a review about the ups and downs of the past 6 months in Macau, but I really don't feel like blogging about it right now. Just want to get back and sort things out so I can return back to Macau with a clear mind.

Closing out August

What a month August was. I started off with an aim to do over 150k hands, even though I had a holiday booked and various other things to sort out. I managed to do only 76hrs of table time, which equates to about 2 weeks of a normal job. I'm disappointed that I didn't put more effort in this month, I think at least 100k was attainable given the time constraints. Still, managed to make a decent profit.

At the beginning of last month, I had to go over to HK for several days to meet up with my dad and aunts, who were visiting my terminally-ill granddad in hospital. It was here that I met my half aunt for the first time, and another uncle that even my dad didn't know about....

Returning to Macau, some of Yin's friends came over to stay and we showed them the sights of Macau, as well as returning to the grand buffet at the Grand Lisboa. Mid month came around soon and we were back off to HK for a night, when my bro and sister arrived for their holiday. Flew out that same day to Bangkok, spent a few days there and then jetted off to Phuket for some sun and snorkel time. Did the usual excursion to Maya Bay and Phi Phi Islands, on Maya it absolutely poured down with rain - guess we were just unlucky that time. However, the rest of the day was blue skies and sun. Also did a fishing excursion which was a waste of time, I'd rather go back to the Maldives to fish. As for poker, I managed to get log a few sessions on my XPS laptop over the course of the holiday, mainly due to the fact that I booked hotels with free wifi :)

So after a few days in Phuket, we spend 1 whole day getting back to Macau, where we chilled for 3 days. Actually, I spent a bit of time on the tables, but my strategy seemed to have gone AWOL. I subconsciously changed my game, and as a result endured a big downswing. However, I've gotten pretty good these days at analysing my game using Hold'em Manager, and that leak was fixed in a good few hours of study.

Spent the last day with Maybo and Chi-Wai in Hong Kong for some final shopping/sight seeing, and returned back to Macau the next morning. That was almost a week ago. In the past week, theres been a big rush to get Diddy prep'd to fly out to the UK, where he's gonna be spending the next 6 months in quarantine. Poor doggy. Unfortunately, thats the way it has to be because some stupid UK PETs rule states that Macau isn't deemed a 'rabies free' country. Anyway, at least he'll be housed close to Yin's home in London, where she can go visit him every week. Diddy will be flying back tomorrow, in which I'll have to go over to HK again. This time by Cotai VIP cabin.

Whats funny is that I don't regret buying Diddy, but wished I (and Jason) had thought more about the costs of sending him back to the UK. Lets just say I could have bought another 6 puppies for that price! But anyway, its only money - having read the stuff about Eurolinx going bust, and fellow players losing their whole BR's going into the 100Ks, makes you think that things aren't that bad.

Ok, so thats pretty much it for August. Yes, I know my grammar is poor, but whatever.

A little update...

Well last month was a bit of a lollercoaster...combined I think I exceeded 200hrs of table time and study. Mid month I hit an all time low, not really knowing if my strategy was working and losing faith in myself - but thanks to Yin and Jason, I managed to pull myself together, and really take the time to analyse my game. Since the 19th July, my poker strategy has taken off. Theres still alot I need to work on though, and alternative lines I need to look into to maximize my ev. But yes, things are going well for me here in Macau.

So much so, I've decided to come back for round 2 - I'll be flying back to the UK in September for a few weeks, then back to Macau until at least the end of the year. Right now though, I'm trying to log as many hands as I can before I jet out to Thailand for a week, and trying to cut down my time spent playing Fallout 3.

Work hard play hard

Last month was, looking back, probably my best month in terms of advancing my poker knowledge. I moved back upto NL200 and put in over 150hrs at the tables, a mammoth 106k hands. One more good month at NL200 and I should be ready to take shots at NL400. So Its not all been just work though, I did take a 3 day break in HK to go over to meet up with Yin and her family, and we went to see Raymond Lam put on a great show for his first ever concert. Even though I'd never listened to his songs before, I'm now a big fan.



Also last month Steve came over to spend a week with us, and we took a day off to go with Jason for his photoshoot at the Hong Kong Poker House. I managed to ninja my way onto a few of the professional shots. The next two months are gonna be choca - we've got two more crew members coming over and then my bro and sister are visiting in August.



Finally, I have to mention that p.diddy (our dearest poodle puppy) has been getting quite alot of attention whenever we take him out for walks. And yes, he's smiling :)



Oh yea, forgot to mention that Intercasino UK gave me a nice no-deposit 20ukp birthday bonus, which I promptly spun up on the Marvel slots to 200, then released it playing blackjack to end up +183ukp from nothing.

We ballin'

Had a great day yesterday. Poker went well, Jason's got me trying new things and combo'd with this new deal, it looks like its gonna be a decent earner. I've been working hard over the past few months, and so I thought it was time that I spent some of my poker winnings. It feels good because I've earned it myself. So I bought a new PC unit - a quad core cpu, 4gb ram, Geforce GTX260+...its mainly for work, but Jason said as part of my training we'll be playing some realtime strategy games to focus on exploiting each other's strategies.

But the highlight of yesterday has to be finally buying our poodle! Its tiny and its brown, we've thought of various names, so far Phi Phi/Diddy/P.Diddy, and also Brownie. Hes always craving attention, especially when we're working. Also got my UFC Undisputed X-Box game in the post, tbh the game is a bit too easy - I keep KO'ing my opponents.

June is gonna be a great month as one of our crew members is flying over for a week to work alongside Jason. Definitely helps to have likeminded people surrounding you when you're working, its that much better for motivation. By the end of June I should be ready to move back upto 200NL - this time I want to be well overolled for it, so that I don't play scared poker and default to folding in difficult spots.

Right now though I'm watching Man Utd vs Barcelona on TV...the commentary is in Cantonese, which kinda makes it less interesting. Gonna open a beer and watch the game.