Bill's Poker Blog » Travel

Stingrays in Grand Cayman and Skydiving in Cali

Bill Rini — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:10:23 +0000

Some more non-poker related videos.

Here’s a video shot in Grand Cayman of a stingray feeding dive we did. The funny part is that for all of the danger people think is involved with diving with sharks I actually received my worst animal related bite from a stingray.

While trying to feed one of the rays she sucked hard to pull the food in and I tried to get my hand out of the way after releasing the squid into her mouth. Well, she kept sucking and it pulled the skin on the back of my hand into her mouth and she clamped down (no teeth) and tore off a huge hunk of skin. Pretty nasty with a huge piece of flesh just hanging there.

So, don’t fear sharks. Fear those evil stingrays :-)

The next clip is my first (and so far, only) skydive in Paso Robles, Ca. I was pretty confident right up until I was sitting in the doorway. That’s when it all sort of hit me. Good thing the instructors were there to give me a push (literally). :-)

Shark Diving

Bill Rini — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:20:52 +0000

Last night I did an interview for the Poker Affiliate Listings radio/podcast show and Jeremy mentioned my list of travels. Well, coincidentally I’ve been going through a bunch of old videos and such and ran across some stuff that I thought I would share for those of you who enjoy some of the non-poker content I post from time to time.

The first two videos are of some shark feeding dives I did in Nassau, Bahamas. The first video is the first dive where we just toured the area and made friends with the sharks. The second video is the shark feeding dive. A lot more action in the second one if you’re short for time and can only watch one.

If I can get the other two videos ripped I’ll post skydiving in California and diving with stingrays in Grand Cayman.

Calvin Ayre in Bangkok

Bill Rini — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:18:33 +0000

Classic Calvin – Bangkok Delicacies Video

Video by Gaming & Poker news – CalvinAyre.com

I thought this was entertaining. Calvin and his friend hit up Patpong and eat bugs.

When people ask me why I like Thailand so much, this is it. You can go out and have a once in a lifetime experience like this every night.

Phi Phi Island

Bill Rini — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 19:18:37 +0000

Just to break things up a bit from the Full Tilt suspension news, here’s what I was doing a few hours before the news broke.

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The Hangover II and Reality

Bill Rini — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 16:07:35 +0000

Okay, I’ve already started receiving emails from friends wanting to know how accurate The Hangover II is to real life in Bangkok. First off, let me say that it’s about as accurate as The Hangover was to Las Vegas. By that I mean that there are as many people stealing police cars, waking up with tigers in their hotel rooms, and getting punched out by Mike Tyson in Las Vegas as there are drug dealing monkeys, accidental uzi discharges in go-go bars, and khlong (canal) jumping in Bangkok.

First off, very few of the Asian actors/actresses are even Thai. The Thais in the film are primarily the police, the monks (not real monks), and some supporting cast like flight attendants and passengers. Lauren isn’t Thai. Teddy isn’t Thai. The ladyboy/transexual isn’t Thai. So that should be the first clue as to how realistic the movie is.

Don’t get me wrong though, a lot of the movie is dead on Thailand/Bangkok. Parts like drinking Fanta from a plastic bag had everyone in the audience laughing because that is something that is very Thai.

As far as locations, it’s a little difficult to imagine how someone would get from Krabi (where Stu’s wedding takes place) to Bangkok in a speed boat. Krabi’s shores are on the Andaman Sea and the only major river running through Bangkok empties out into the Gulf of Thailand. So unless they went around Malaysia there’s no way that’s happening. Innocent enough. There are plenty of beautiful islands and beaches in the Gulf of Thailand. They took a few liberties with the geography.

The scenes walking around crowded Bangkok streets right after they wake up were filmed in Bangkok’s China Town. Uhm, pretty much dead on. That’s China Town. Crowded, confusing, and crazy.

The Buddhist monastery the boys visit seems to be pronounced Chiang Mai but I’ve seen listed elsewhere as Ching Mei. Chiang Mai is way in the north of Thailand so there’s no way they made it to Chiang Mai in one day. It’s a good 12+ hours by car or train and highly unlikely that they even meant to compare the two. The actual location was in Samut Prakan which is sort of a museum of Thailand architecture and not a monastery at all.

As far as getting beaten up by monks, I highly doubt that. Buddhist monks are, as one might imagine, opposed to violence. Smacking someone with a stick rather than pointing to a sign or gesturing to them to stop talking seems drastic and very un-Buddhist.

Siam Sam’s is an actual bar but it’s called Cactus Bar on Soi Cowboy, one of the main red-light districts in Bangkok. I’ve heard some conflicting reports on whether or not the interior scene was filmed in Bangkok or LA. Someone mentioned that it was shot in Tilac Bar (a couple of doors down from Cactus Bar) but others insist it was shot in LA and modeled after Tilac Bar.

Similarly, the street they walk down to get to the tattoo parlor was shot in Bangkok on Sukhumvit Soi 7/1 but the interior of the tattoo shop was shot in Los Angeles. It was big news when the producers paid off all of the bars on the soi to shut down so they could film that scene. I have a friend who was hired as an extra for the riot scenes but they cut his part out.

The scene with the rooftop restaurant overlooking Bangkok was filmed at Sirocco restaurant on the 64th floor of the State Tower. Nice place. Beautiful views. You can get similar views at Vertigo on top of the Banyan Tree Hotel and Long Table in the Column Building (though not really rooftop).

Overall, I think the movie was fantastic. I know a lot of Thais who were afraid it might dwell too much on the flaws here like corruption, the nightlife scene, etc but most of the Thais I’ve spoke to that have seen it say they laughed from beginning to end.

I had a friend of mine say he was concerned after seeing the movie. I responded by saying that Bangkok, a city of 12 million people, is much, much safer than Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, or Frankfurt. Easily. Even though many of the locations in The Hangover II are real your chances of having anything even remotely like this happening to you are as likely as what happened to the wolf pack in Las Vegas.

When you really look at the movie there really isn’t very much that presents Thailand in an overly negative light anyway. They end up in the situation they’re in because of their own doing (well, actually just one character’s doings). Mr. Chow isn’t Thai so all of the crazy stuff he gets them involved with also has nothing to do with Thailand. Basically they could have filmed the entire movie in any city that has a reputation for being a bit crazy.

All in all, I loved the movie. We laughed like crazy during the entire thing. Part of it was because it was just funny but part of it was there were some inside jokes (like Phil going to the clinic and it only costing $6). If you liked The Hangover I think you’ll love The Hangover II.

Thinking About VPN’ing Poker? Think Again

Bill Rini — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 04:56:22 +0000

My friend Michael who lives in Japan asked me to write this post because he keeps getting asked about this topic and he’s getting tired of answering the same question over and over. Michael is an American who relocated overseas pre-UIGEA for school and work and much like myself he knows all too well how difficult it is to establish yourself overseas.

When I moved from the US to Gibraltar I was using Neteller for most of my payment processing. When the US cut off Neteller I was still allowed to play poker on non US-facing sites but getting Neteller to accept the fact that I had actually relocated outside of the US and wasn’t just trying to scam them was a month long mission. I had to make multiple long-distance phone calls, provide utility bills, and provide a sperm sample just to get them to believe I was no longer a resident of the US (okay, the sperm sample is a lie but it felt like they were intruding way beyond the scope of a mere eWallet).

I remember my friend Michael expressing similar problems to me when he moved to Japan. He had to jump through so many hoops that he felt like a trained circus performer.

I’m not saying it’s impossible to trick the system but if you want to appear to be outside of the United States you’re probably going to have to actually live outside of the US.

Getting a VPN and an overseas bank account are not enough and even the part about getting an overseas bank account isn’t easy. The US is infamous around the world for their strict banking regulations and money laundering laws so most banks that want to stay on the US’s good side don’t even want to deal with Americans.

The quality of your banking relationship often will be based largely on your legal status in the country. For instance, I could not simply open up a bank accounts with well known international banks in Gibraltar or Malta. I had to show proof of employment, a work permit, a residency permit, a letter of introduction from my employer, and a utility bill.

However, in Thailand it was a totally different story. In theory you’re not supposed to be able to open up a bank account unless you have a work permit. But TIT (This is Thailand) which means you can walk into a bank and they might refuse to open an account for you on Monday and go in the next day to the same exact branch and they’ll open up an account with nothing more than your passport.

I’ve heard similar stories about the Philippines and and a few other SEA countries. One person will tell you that they had to show a mountain of paperwork and another person will report that all they had to do was give their hotel as their home address.

I’ve also heard that in Spain you can get an account as tourist. From what I understand it’s mostly with smaller banks.

I have heard that some Hong Kong banks will open up banks for US residents if you go to their US branch and have the US branch verify all of your paperwork (i.e. signing documents, etc) and everything can be handled via fax between the two branches.

There are also options for banks in the Caribbean, Switzerland, and other countries that are well known for catering to people who prefer their banking to kept private but it’s very hit and miss for US citizens and usually they won’t touch you unless you’re going to be putting on deposit enough to make it worth their while ($10,000 would be an absolute minimum).

The general rule though is that you’re going to have to get legal residence somewhere in order to open a bank account. That means moving out of the US and having the legal right to live in the country.

So how do you get a visa to become a long-term resident in another country? The most obvious is obtaining employment in another country. For US citizens that’s easier said than done. I can’t go through all of the reasons as that would be another post in itself but for the most part the rest of the world either produces people with similar educational backgrounds which means they already have citizens who can perform the work or nobody would pay you a competitive salary.

For instance, if I were an IT guy and I went to the UK seeking employment in the IT sector, they probably already have tons of people with similar educational and work experience backgrounds already in the UK so it would be hard for any company that wants to hire you to make the case to the government that you possess a special skill set that they were unable to find locally.

Now, let’s say you decide to come to Thailand where you think you’re IT skills put you on a different footing since they don’t have technical schools that are comprable to US IT schools. Great, you might find opportunities but they may not hire you because you don’t speak Thai and even if they do hire you they’re only going to pay you what they would pay a Thai which might only be 30,000 baht ($1000) per month and not the $5,000 – $10,000 you might be expecting for that same skill set back home.

The only job skill Americans inherently have that can not be done by the local population in many countries is teaching English. Korea, China, Thailand, and many other countries around the world pay a premium for English teachers who speak English as their native language. Granted, here in Thailand premium means that you probably start off working at about 30,000 baht per month ($1,000) with an upside of maybe making 100,000 baht per month if you can get a nice cushy private school job after getting a few years experience under your belt.

So living overseas on a work permit is difficult. What other options are available? You could study overseas. I take Thai lessons and have an education visa. The school costs me less than $1,000 a year.

I think you can find something to study in nearly every country that would be covered under a educational visa. Cooking, Buddhism, martial arts, or whatever. I’ve seen educational visas given for just about everything.

That’s probably the best route for many people to go.

Another option is to set up a front company and give yourself a work permit. I’m not suggesting that you do anything shady or illegal but why can’t you open an internet cafe where you want to live, employ yourself, and hire someone to mind the till while you sit in the back room playing poker all day?

I said something about VPN’s didn’t I? Oh yeah, right there in the subject. All of stuff above is why just getting a VPN connection probably won’t work. You’re going to need to establish residence somewhere in order to have all of the proper banking relationships and prove that you live outside of the US. For instance, what happens if you try to do a cashout for a large amount and they ask for proof of residence and request a utility bill? If you opened up a dodgy bank account on a tourist visa that’s going to be next to impossible to provide.

You could get around it by subletting an apartment or something and trying to have the bills in your name but then again you could run into problems getting the utilities in your name since you don’t have a legal right to be living in the country. For instance, here in Thailand it was more difficult for me to get cable television than it was a bank account. I had to show my passport, my visa, have the landlord send a letter telling them that I was legally renting the apartment, etc.

I’ve heard of people suggesting that you get something simple like a post paid mobile phone but here in Thailand I’ve had difficulty getting one. Here was my last conversation with the AIS rep.

Me: I want to get on a post-paid plan

Rep: Need work permit.

Me: I’m on a educational visa. I can’t work in Thailand but I can live here.

Rep: Sorry, cannot.

Me: I have a 1 year visa. I live here, I have a bank account here, I have a Thai driver’s license.

Rep: Okay, I think we can do.

Me: Great, so what papers do you need from me?

Rep: Work permit.

The other thing about VPN’ing your way out of the US is that it has a huge potential to set off alarms at the poker sites. I know both Stars and Tilt (as well as Party) have very comprehensive checks in place that flag suspicious activity. This is mostly for catching collusion, fraud, and money laundering but the VPN solution could put you in their crosshairs just as easily.

Let’s say you get a VPN service that makes it look like you’re in Canada. You’re playing on Stars and your VPN connection gets dropped for whatever reason and after a few seconds it reconnects and you’re back playing from a Canadian IP address again. Well, you bought the Canada package so that means you might have started your session with an IP address that’s associated with Vancouver and reconnected a few seconds later from an IP address associated with Montreal. Unless you’ve found a way to break the laws of physics travelling 2295 miles in just a few seconds is impossible and this could set off a flag that you’re masking your IP address which is usually done by people trying to do something funny on the site so the security department gets a notice to review your account, freeze any cashouts, and seek further clarification.

Busted. Now you’re back to square one again.

One way around that would be to purchase a dedicated Windows server in the country you plan on pretending to be in and installing the poker software on that computer and then remote desktopping into the server and playing from there. You would always have the same IP address but I’m not sure how laggy it might be trying to 24 table over a remote desktop connection.

Like I said, there are ways to get around all of the individual hurdles but they all come at a price and a risk. If you really want to play on Stars and Tilt (or Party or any other non-US site) your best bet is to leave the country. The whole reason you’re in the mess you’re in is because you chose to make something your profession which the US government had explicitly stated it felt was illegal. Why continue to skirt the laws when you could go completely legit?

Plus after a year or two when (hopefully) there’s legalized and regulated poker in the US you can come and clean up on some of the old grinders who have been letting their skills get rusty :-)

Happy Songkran

Bill Rini — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 05:19:52 +0000

If people had been wondering where I was all last week, I was up in Phetchabun for the Songkran festival. Songkran is a religious holiday but over the years it has sort of developed into a three-day nationwide water fight.

I prefer the Phetchabun type of Songkran because it’s civilized. In Bangkok, Pattaya, or any other tourist town it’s almost like people take pride in ruining expensive electronics by soaking you while they can see you have your mobile in your hand. In Phetchabun there’s a main drag and most of the action takes place on this stretch of road. People just go crazy throwing buckets of water at each other and smearing talcum powder on your face.

Some people bring huge blocks of ice and put them in their water source so when you get hit it’s freezing cold. Not fun :-)

Fanelli ‘Found to be Sane’

Bill Rini — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 04:22:26 +0000

Just a quick update on Ron “The Mad Yank” Fanelli. After five months of psychiatric review in Surat Thani Fanelli is back in Phuket prison deemed to be sane. Fanelli requested the psychiatric examination after saying he was unsure of why he did what he did.

You can read more about that here:

Phuket Wan

I also wanted to thank everyone who contributed to Wanphen’s family. We have been dolling out the money to the family as needed. It’s still tough on them though. Thais generally go back to their hometowns on the holidays and so every holiday when I’ve transferred some of the money to her mother my girlfriend calls her to let her know and she talks about how this is the first New Year’s or the first Songkran that he daughter won’t be coming home and how much she misses her.

I thought I would round up some of my previous posts about this in case you’re coming in late and missed it.

Ron Fanelli – Should We Feel Sorry For Him?
Ron Fanelli aka The Mad Yank’s Confession
Fund Raiser for the Family of Wanphen Pienjai
Screen Names for Donation to the Wanphen Family
Going Up To Phetchabun
A Visit With Wanphen’s Family

New Hangover 2 Trailer

Bill Rini — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 05:01:12 +0000

The Bangkok International Motor Show

Bill Rini — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 05:55:21 +0000

Someone told me there were cars there too. I think I missed that part.

Bill's Poker Blog » Travel

Stingrays in Grand Cayman and Skydiving in Cali

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Shark Diving

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Phi Phi Island

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The Hangover II and Reality

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Happy Songkran

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Fanelli ‘Found to be Sane’

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