Pump Up The Volume
by Dale Philip
It's already well into February and my poker volume for 2012 is way bellow what I'm aiming for. As part of Team PokerStars Online I have a certain commitment as far as earning VPPs and hours at the tables go. As part of that my goal is to earn 400,000 VPPs this year but I'm only at 22,000 right now.
The main reasons why I am behind already;
I could list off a million reasons why living in Thailand is better than living in the UK. So I am pretty much undecided about what to do. There are also more countries in Asia that I want to visit but haven't had the chance yet. Specifically Korea, Japan and the Philippines. It will be a hell of a lot cheaper, quicker and easier for me to visit them from Thailand than from the UK. Heck, even India is only a 5 hour direct flight from here.
I'm feeling like there's a 40% chance I will move back to the UK around June. A 40% chance I will stay in Thailand much longer and a 20% chance I will move to Macau for 3-6 months before moving back the UK.
In the short term I will be leaving Thailand this week, as my visa expires. Normally this would be a good excuse to take a trip somewhere new and fun, but right now I can do without the expense (in terms of money and time spent) so I will just take another bus trip to the Cambodian border (PoiPet).
I will take an agency run trip which for $200 all inclusive in involves a 6 hour trip in a VIP bus to the border, crossing into the scary no-man's land between Thailand and Cambodia and staying in a dodgy casino hotel (with no internet connection) for 2 nights. The 2 night stay is so an Agent can takes my passport to the Thai embassy in Phnom Phen, Cambodia's capital city, which is very far away. When I check out the hotel he's brought my passport back with a brand new 3-month Thai visa. Then get the passport stamped at Thai immigration and bus back to Bangkok.
I've done this trip before. It's not much fun and the food is a joke but it's a cheap and no hassle way to get a visa. The last time I went with an Aussie girl so had some company. This time I will be going alone. Maybe I will try to find a poker game in one of the casinos or find some way to pass the time.
The main reasons why I am behind already;
- The VIP reward changes and at the start of the year mean an extra hour or more of grinding every day for me to get the same number of VPPs. There has also been a recent rake reduction. That is great for improved winrate but means longer sessions to meet VPP goals.
- Computer issues didn't help, but I have a new setup now with 64-bit Windows 7, good gfx card, lots of RAM and most importantly - an SSD hard disk. If you use Poker Tracker or Holdem Manager then buying a solid state HDD is the best thing you could possibly do performance wise.
- Playing less tables to concentrate on TCOOP (didn't work out so well).
- I was on a 'normal' sleep schedule for a while. A good thing for living a healthy life but terrible for playing online poker as the games are pretty bad during the day in Asia with less games running and much fewer recreational players. When it is mid-day here in Thailand, it is 5am or 6am in Europe. I figure the best times for me to play poker are around 11pm-7am Thai Time, which is 4pm-Midnight in the UK.
Despite the low volume my results have been good, particularly at 180s and PLO. Good results are an important motivational factor as far as getting volume in goes. Any poker player knows how tough it is to fire up another session when you have been experience a run of rotten luck.
I will get back on pace if I work hard and pump, pump up the volume. I feel like the 180man SNGs are probably my most profitable game right now, but they aren't going to meet my VPP goals. So going forward I will probably be playing half 180s and half PLO, or something to that effect.
The time zone factor is one of the reasons that I am considering moving back to the UK. When I first settled in Thailand it was before 'Black Friday' and the yanks could still play online. There were good games round the clock. Not so much any more. If I want to take poker seriously then I need to stay up all night and sleep all day. I haven't stepped foot in the UK since the end of 2010, and don't miss it at all, but the better time zone and the UKIPT tourneys may convince me to return.
I could list off a million reasons why living in Thailand is better than living in the UK. So I am pretty much undecided about what to do. There are also more countries in Asia that I want to visit but haven't had the chance yet. Specifically Korea, Japan and the Philippines. It will be a hell of a lot cheaper, quicker and easier for me to visit them from Thailand than from the UK. Heck, even India is only a 5 hour direct flight from here.
I'm feeling like there's a 40% chance I will move back to the UK around June. A 40% chance I will stay in Thailand much longer and a 20% chance I will move to Macau for 3-6 months before moving back the UK.
In the short term I will be leaving Thailand this week, as my visa expires. Normally this would be a good excuse to take a trip somewhere new and fun, but right now I can do without the expense (in terms of money and time spent) so I will just take another bus trip to the Cambodian border (PoiPet).
I will take an agency run trip which for $200 all inclusive in involves a 6 hour trip in a VIP bus to the border, crossing into the scary no-man's land between Thailand and Cambodia and staying in a dodgy casino hotel (with no internet connection) for 2 nights. The 2 night stay is so an Agent can takes my passport to the Thai embassy in Phnom Phen, Cambodia's capital city, which is very far away. When I check out the hotel he's brought my passport back with a brand new 3-month Thai visa. Then get the passport stamped at Thai immigration and bus back to Bangkok.
I've done this trip before. It's not much fun and the food is a joke but it's a cheap and no hassle way to get a visa. The last time I went with an Aussie girl so had some company. This time I will be going alone. Maybe I will try to find a poker game in one of the casinos or find some way to pass the time.
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