Sydney at last

Ah, my first official Friday night here in beautiful Sydney, Australia. What a wonderful feeling it is to be settled finally and actually feel relaxed. Moving to another country is tough, but not insurmountable, and I've finally done it. It's hard to believe that exactly one week ago, I was on a plane flying across the Pacific (on the new Airbus A380!!!... sorry I'm a semi-aviation buff). In the span of 4 days, I found a furnished apartment in a sweet area called North Sydney (directly across the harbor from downtown), applied for it and got accepted, submitted my new documentation to Pokerstars, and got my account officially active again. I am a very independent person (however lazy at times) and when I want something, I apply 100% of myself to attain it. It is an immensely satisfying feeling for me to accomplish what I wanted to especially in such a short time frame.

Since getting my account restored, I've put in two sessions at the tables so far; yesterday was a tester session where I eased back into the grind. I definitely felt a bit rusty at times, but I was surprised how automatic most of the decisions still were to me – thank God :) I started “late” around 9:30am Sydney time, and only earned about 2800 VPPs before action died. This morning I was determined to get a longer session in, so I set the alarm for 7:00am and grinded the latter half of the prime Euro hours, earning a more respectable but still weak 7.2k VPPs. I was done by noon and hung out all day shopping with a friend and just relaxing.

And so here I sit, 9 on a Friday night, feeling pretty sleepy already. Since getting here, I've been fortunate enough to meet some new friends through my cousin and other friends, and so my social life will hopefully develop more as I settle here. I actually passed on going out with some of them tonight because I'm so exhausted from my early wake up today and the fact that I will have to start tomorrow even earlier. My plan for the coming days/weeks is to sleep very early around 10-11pm and be up and grinding by about 5am. This will be crucial in order to take full advantage of the peak Euro hours. Sydney is 8 hours ahead of all major European poker-heavy cities (Madrid, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Vienna, Berlin), 9 hours ahead of London, and 13 hours ahead of Brazil/Argentina. Therefore, I'll be playing when it is evening or afternoon time for the vast majority of the grinders on Stars. It's a pain to wake up this early of course, but then I'll have the rest of my own afternoon/evening free!

It is too early to tell what sort of VPP pace I will be able to maintain with these funky hours I will play. However, I do know that I need to average an even 250k VPPs/month, or ~8,333 VPPs/day in order to break the VPP record of 3.055m set by 'WizardofAhhs' last year. This had been very doable for me, but of course I don't know the future climate of SNG scene. From what I have seen though, action is buzzing at high stakes, especially with the introduction of the new $300 6max turbo SNGs. My general plan will be to play as much as I/my body/my sleep schedule feel comfortable with while taking regular days off, and perhaps even some trips overseas with friends. I am not looking to kill myself, quite the contrary.

From final tabling the EPT final in Madrid and having a trip of a lifetime there, to packing up everything I own in Washington DC, to finally jetting myself and everything over to Sydney – 13,592 miles in total – the whirlwind of the last month has been an unbelievably fun ride in my life. Some may find this excruciating, but I feel quite the opposite. I am simply blessed (I'm not even religious) not only to have these opportunities but also the wherewithal and desire to ACT on them. I've run super hot in having everything work out well so far and am extremely appreciative of that as well.

In closing, I sincerely hope everyone who aspires to live the dream, whatever that means, to go out and do it – it takes drive and desire more than anything, even money. If you want it bad enough, stop reading and go. I've done it and I'm no better than anyone reading this right now :)

By the way, huge congratulations in order for George “Jorj95” Lind III, runner-up in the 2011 WSOP Event #11, 10K Omaha 8/b Championship for 287k. Good run man, very nicely done. Mad jeals.