Brief Update from Mystical Mexico
I haven’t really written much about poker or the experience of living in Mexico on here recently. I attribute that mostly to having a bit of a hard time “finding the story” down here some five months since my arrival.
The story on this Friday night was deciding to grind an evening poker session. I generally play Sundays plus perhaps one other day of the week. But I’ve been feeling really good about my recent sessions, so decided to chase some losses from Wednesday. I began registering for tournaments around 5:00 pm and caught the end of the late registration for a $2 PLO rebuy 6-max tournament that, while may sound like small beans, and for the most part it is, has been a staple of my poker schedule lately after uncovering how supremely soft the low buy-in PLO tournaments are.
Tonight I made a deep run in one such tournament, an $8 PLO rebuy 6-max, before I began having connection issues with PokerStars. It was strange because I was connected just fine on a web browser, AIM, torrent downloading program (just kidding RIAA!) and a few other programs, but not on PokerStars. After the problem persisted for several minutes, I made the decision to jolt out the front door and into a taxi to take a ride across town to a condo shared by four Playa poker refugees.
After an agonizing ten-minute crawl through Playa del Carmen street traffic during which I kept envisioning blinds being posted and auto-folded, I resecured a safe connection at my friends’ poker palace. Feeling disappointment, not to mention frustration, at the smaller chip stacks I had returned to, I refocused myself and soon was 1st out of 10 remaining players in the $8 PLO rebuy. Then, some dreadful stuff soured the moment. As can happen in PLO. AAxx was cracked for a big all-in preflop hand, I ran a set into a larger one, and then flopped top two pair and a flush draw and got it in against top set (I filled up on the turn and had one out). Poof. 9th place for $142, a far cry from the $1,200 top prize I felt optimistic about claiming just moments before.
I toiled along for a few more hours watching listening to my fellow comrades grown and sigh at their own dashed expectations before running pocket 8s into A6 to bust out around 90th in a no-limit tournament that was paying $6.5k to first. After getting my ass beat in a game of NHL 2k12 on xBox, it was back to the street to hail a taxi home. Normally I’d walk, but tonight I was unthrilled about the prospects of a long walk through a sea of tourists in a better disposition than myself. I took the lazy way out for 25 pesos.
Getting to spend time around other poker grinders down here can be nice in doses. I’m told there are around 35 of us lurking in Playa. Each of the eight to ten guys I’ve met seem to be cool dudes who are pretty happy about being down here. I’m with them on that. There’s an unspoken understanding between all of us that our lives right now are pretty cool. It’s like… we’re in Mexico!
Being here is strange and wonderful. It at times feels like Never Never Land. I’ve lost 40 pounds, am in the best shape of my life, and am generally enjoying a bit higher of a baseline happiness level since arriving. A tropical climate and a low cost of living can have that effect I suppose.
I’m not sure how long I’ll be here. I’ve been saying that since I arrived. It could be just a couple more months, or a couple years. If at some point my time here starts to feel like a dead-end or a more appealing opportunity presents itself, I would probably feel motivated to embrace another move and lifestyle change. And while either of those possibilities could conceivably present themselves soon, they haven’t yet yet. So I’ll continue enjoying the dream-like experience of living here and hope that maybe eventually my poker results will join the ranks of the positive things to speak of from my time in Mexico.
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Hey Cory…need anything from the US/Indiana? I will be on vacation in Playa del Carmen starting next weekend =)