To infinity and beyond

For the last year I’ve been talking with a friend of mine about leaving the UK for the winter – jetting off somewhere considerably warmer and setting up base there for 6 months or so playing poker.

Until the last couple of months it has been nothing more than a pipe dream – there was quite a lot of red tape, and even in the areas where no red tape existed – ie neither of us have any family commitments, our prospective leaving date was so far away that anything could happen to throw a spanner in the works.

Where to?

Originally it was all about Australia. At first we figured Melbourne – Crown Casino, great city, option to live by the beach. But then that changed to Byron Bay, and then to Sydney, where we figured we’d have more options and would enjoy a warmer climate even in the autumn months.

Of course it would be too easy if we stopped at Sydney – that just wouldn’t be right, I mean there are hundreds of other countries and thousands of other cities where we could call home for 6 months – why not consider them all??

One of the main things we have to consider is the time zone of a country. One of our primary reasons for moving is so that we can play a full day of MTTs during normal working hours so that we can lead as normal a lifestyle as possible as a professional gambler. Ideally we’d like somewhere with a time zone 6-7 hours behind GMT, allowing us to begin our current 5pm schedule at 10 or 11 in the morning.

Latin America started to emerge as a strong favourite. Learning Spanish being a strong pull, and it’s relatively cheap living costs. For all of 3 days it was all about Costa Rica. Unfortunately that hit a snag fairly early when we found that the possibility of finding a reliable net connection there was about as strong as finding a sober man in a strip club.

Before we ruled out Costa Rica, a ski resort in Canada was still being considered – which hardly fits the bill as being somewhere warmer than the UK, but I think we can forgive a ski resort for being a little chilly. I say we could forgive it, but it was my reluctance to move away from a cold and wet climate to a colder one that saw us ditch Canada fairly quickly.

Cancun, Mexico was and still is (to an extent) being considered, but at this point another country has appeared as a new front runner: New Zealand.

Tauranga is the fastest growing city in New Zealand, and has some beautiful suburbs including Mount Maunganui, which boasts pristine beach fronts and scenic mountains on the front of its tourist brochures. It has a time zone in the winter that will allow us to play a largely European MTT schedule from 7 or 8 in the morning each day and has a climate that doesn’t fluctuate too much from season to season.

Planning this trip is incredibly exciting, and really helps motivate myself for what can sometimes be the grind of MTT poker. I don’t need reminding that I have a lifestyle to die for because of this game. Sure I don’t interact face to face with people on a daily basis, but the freedoms this job gives me are endless, and wherever we eventually end up, I’m sure we’ll have a ball.