good month - happy thanksgiving

Things have been good lately on the poker area, been making a decent amount at the tables, haven't had any (that I can remember) losing days yet for this month, so that should clarify that this month is going to be a good one. Been playing mainly 3/6 and 5/10 with a hint of 10/20 again, so I guess we're moving back up the stakes, feeling confident in my game and ready to face some variance. Hope we can continue this grind until end of this year and have a good closure of 2010. As for my year resolution, pretty sure I won't make it, but it's still nice to have a target and hopefully to be near it when the time comes.
On the other hand I have made it clear for myself that I won't be doing any coaching anymore. I thought about it for a while and weighted the pros and cons, and I just can't figure out how the pros could ever outweigh the cons. So every asian guy that wants poker coaching, please be referred to Jason Samsonov, you can find his blog on my bloglinks side. He is still willing to accept students and help you on your game. As for me there are just too many factors which makes me annoyed about coaching someone, so that chapter for me is closed. Not that I regret doing or trying it once, because you have to try everything once to know. But now I know, and it's just not worth it for me, and neither am I willing to put more time and effort in it.
Lots of 'regs' are coming back to Bangkok for the coming end of year, so I'm looking forward to it and party it up with everyone around here. Also looking forward in settling down in my condo next week, I already contacted my ISP to upgrade my line to get more speed and stability and also picked up a 24" external monitor (my 3rd one that I'm getting already for this year lol, such spew) from my friend to have a nice grind station. So I have a monitor in Singapore, Belgium and Thailand now, let's just hope I don't get it in my head to move to South-Korea next year LOL.

on a serious note

a silent prayer goes out to one of my best friend in Belgium whom grandma just found out she has cancer and only 2 weeks to live, may it be as peaceful as possible

Ryu Dang

settling down

Long time I haven't posted anything, nothing really special happened, been figuring out things and planning what I'll do. I made a short trip back to Singapore to check up on everyone and get my tourist visa and only to run bad and get some kind of food poisoning. Still that didn't stop Jeff from bringing out and getting me to drink :p Had a good time all by all, only thing that I probably won't be trying again is the turtle soup.. Jeff said it would be good for my digestion, well, I don't know about it, don't think I'll try it again. The picture of the turtle just kept crawling inside my head.. and made me unable to eat it normally, not that it tasted bad or anything.. it was just awkward. Anyways, so I made the decision to stay in Thailand for a year now :) Just signed the lease from my new Condo, which is located next to the MRT station, which is so full of awesomeness.. and hopefully it will make me move out more sometimes to actually buy some groceries instead of ordering in or going to restaurants all the time. Gonna upgrade my internet line also, to finally get a decent grinding station.. as for the grind itself, it has been going pretty decent, I'm not complaining. I think I have been playing pretty solid after getting coached and I feel back into the robot grinding mood since the period in Belgium. I hope this will keep up and that the fishes don't die out so fast ;) it's been quite some time that I haven't been enjoying the grinding life, I guess it's not too bad at all when I compare with other people :)

wishing you all good luck out there!

Ryu Dang

bad seat

Had a very long flight from Brussels back to Bangkok, and like at the tables, sometimes you get a bad seat. It was just horrible, I was so unlucky to be seated next to an overweight person. I mean, can you imagine sitting there in an 13 hour flight with someone next to you that hogs up all the space. But how big was he? Well let me clarify in details.. when the food came, you have to put down the foodtray in front of you, but he couldn't put it down the whole way, only half way and then it was stuck on his belly :/ so he actually had to move down his chair (which is forbidden because the person behind you doesn't have enough space then with the tray going down as well). Secondly his sidefat was blocking my armchair, so which would mean I had to ask him to stand up when I needed to reach my remote for my entertainment system.. and it took like 10min (exagerating obv.) before he could stand up, coughing and puffing.. sigh, so I was standing and walking around quite a bit on this flight, couldn't sleep, couldn't do anything at all :( I wrote a complaint mail to the flight company, because I really do think that overweight people should be asked to book double seats or to be upgraded to higher class to have sufficient space. I know it's a bit unfair, but well, life can be unfair sometimes, and you do get bad beats.. and bad seats sometimes, you just have to adjust and deal with it.

Ryu Dang in Thailand

end of a streak

I had a good winstreak of 21 winning days this month, which ended 2 days ago.. but still now I'm 22 winning days out of 25 for this month (I didn't play 2 days due to coaching mainly :p) so I can be sure if I'm not gonna spazz out my winnings on high limits that it's gonna be a fine month. Things are working out a lot better then expected over here and I'm enjoying my time here very much.. had a few homegames with some friends for fun and a few nights of chatter with the good old homies that I haven't seen for a year. Ah time does fly by so fast sometimes, and already in like 6 days I'm flying again back to Thailand. I just pray that I will find some place where I can have a private phone/internet connection again that I can continue this grind. I'm definitely going to miss my new external monitor because I'm not planning on carrying it to Thailand. I guess I should find one myself over there which is not too big like my previous one, I think about 24" is fine to grind on. Still haven't made up my mind where I'm gonna stay. I do know that I have to do a visa run within 30 days, thinking about hitting up Taiwan and go visit some old friends over there. Wishing you all the luck.

Ryu Dang

back to the core

Things have been fine lately, I have spend a lot of time with my cutely cheeked little nephew aka pocket aces :D but the stable internet and less social life have granted me a lot of time to work on my game. I have been getting coaching lately by a crusher (no I won't disclose any names here :p) but I think it has opened up my eyes quite a bit and I think the fact that I have been on autopilot for the past few years, not adapting my game since I was just making stable money has made me a bit stuck in my game and well.. lazy :) But I have put in a LOT of effort the last few weeks and granted, the results are there also, I haven't had a single losing day since I came back to Belgium now. It might just be a hot run, but I feel confident about it that it is not, it's just me playing better and knowing which spots to change gears better. I hope to get a nice end of the month and then I'll be flying back in two weeks to Bangkok, Thailand where I will continue my grind in a more relaxed and definitely warmer climate. I haven't decided yet where or what I'll do for longterm.. maybe I'll fly back to Singapore, maybe not.. maybe I'll just stay in Thailand, because a lot of my friends are coming over, things are a bit undefined at the moment because I was more concerned and worried about my play then about anything else. Now that things start to clear up again, I should be thinking about what to do next and find some plans for some investments. Gonna try and make use of my short time here and try to enjoy myself before having another long exhausting flight back to Asia. Wishing you all the best at the tables.

Ryu Dang in Belgium

back in Belgium :)

I must say the flight back to Belgium felt like it didn't end, horribly long.. definitely if you have to do it a few times a year only, it's such a pain in the behind. They should invent insta teleportation right now :p It's been a while that I have felt a cold winter breeze blowing down my neck, I walked off the airplane in Vienna, where I had to do a transfer, and wow... felt like I was freezing to death. I guess I have been pampered staying in Asia for so long and my body expects warm temperatures only now haha :)
Seeing my family and my newborn nephew was a joy, he's so damn cute... well a lot less when he shits his whole pants full or throw up after drinking a lot of milk hehe.. but it's just that look in his eyes. aaah... the joy of being innocent, carefree and nothing on his mind. No worries or whatsoever, no responsabilities.. must be heaven, meanwhile we are working our asses off hehe, but it gains me strength, because it's worth it and all the pain seems to just flow away, if you just see the little fella smile and roll over and sleep ^^
I started back on my grind, and like last month I'm off on a decent start, however today I played I think 10 hands, my first hand was SB vs BB, he raises, I 3-bet with KK and he 4-bets, I shove obv. he has AA.. my first hand, my first buy in :( I just shrug it off and about 10 hands later, some guy raises UTG or early pos. I have KK again and I 3-bet, he tanks and calls, flop comes JJ6 with a flush draw, I bet out, he raises me a bit, and I tank.. I'm like meh, if he has AJ I guess I have to give it to this luckbox, but it could be any Ax with a flushdraw or any pocket pair really, so I decided to shove, on hindsight, it might have been better to just flat there, still same result though (as in I would have stacked off :p) because he had AJ. So I just quit the session for now, too many regs now online anyways, and it seems they want me to be the dog today :p However I feel pretty confident in my game nowadays, and with the good and stable internet connection, let's hope we can make it a good month.
Further on, definitely check http://www.SilverRakeBack.com. We got some really good deals, and if you need any private deals, feel free to contact me on dragonize80@gmail.com.

Ryu in Belgium :D

sometimes a graph says more then words

Sigh.. why can the month not end in a normal fashion? :(

Ryu Dang