Aug 312011
Aug 302011
Aug 242011
The Pub in Prague allows customers to pour their own beer at there table. With a computerized beer tap, each person can keep track of how much they drink as they pay per ounce. Its a huge drinking competition, see who can drink the most of out your friends or team up and compete against the other tables. A big screen in the center of the bar shows which table has drank the most and will then flip to the national scene to show how the bar is ranked against the other Pubs around the country.
Aug 232011
We threw a lot of House Parties (Las Vegas)
Below is a video tour of one of our house parties
But like all good things, eventually… they come to an END… 
You will be missed…
Late September 2010 – The Cops had had enough….
We had to move out
Teaming up with Roommates Ryan Parker and Jonas Dick, we went to Los Angeles for a few days
October 2nd 2010… Everything I now owned was in 2 suitcase..
Getting HAMMERED at the Airport
Good Bye America! Boarding the plane highly Intoxicated.
I do not remember this...
22 hours later, with a massive Hangover, I arrived in Bangkok, Thailand.
Spent 3 days in Bangkok
Temporary stay in Bangkok, then caught a Flight to Phuket.
The Island of Phuket
Phuket “Pooh-Ket” was another world…
1st Night Kata Beach with Ryan & Jonas
Beautiful Beaches all over Island. Kata Beach only a 5 minute walk.
The Island of Phuket (October 5th- December 26th 2010)
Found a hotel for $15 (500 baht) a night and partied it up for all of October.
Me, Ryan, Rudy and Thai Girls.
Rudy (yellow shirt) a fellow poker player and poster on twoplustwo, has been living in Phuket for many years and really helped us adjust to the new life in this strange land.
Beach House, November and December 2010.
Moved into a Beach House where I lived for 2 months with some fellow poker players
Partying in Patong Beach, Phuket.
Flipping for Shots with new poker player friends who now called Phuket home.
And as the life of a poker player goes, the ups and downs come with them. In late December 2010 had a bad run on the tables and had to give up the luxurious beach house and move to a different.
October-December 2010 Results
Instead of paying $900 rent for a beach house room, I got my own place for $250 a month in Chiang Mai
Phuket to Chiang Mai 2 hour flight.
Ryan had arrived a few days earlier and we celebrated New Years Eve
I love Belgium Beer!
My sister Courtney came to visit for 6 weeks and loved Chiang Mai
Chang Beer Tower only $7
April 2011 Song Kran!!
Song Kran is the Craziest Holiday EVER!
What is Song Kran?? Its a giant water fight for between everyone in the entire country for 5 whole days! Yes, 5 whole days. Not lets stop and think about what this means exactly. Yes, its hot, yes, everyone has water guns, water hoses, huge water buckets in back of trucks and no one is safe. The 1st couple days were fun, but when I just wanted to go to grab something next door I would get drenched by someone. Yes, 5 days! But I loved it!!
I loved Chiang Mai, $4 1 hour massages and this …
Popp'n Bottles for $10
Played some softball with the local college team, Payap University.
I'm a FOOT taller than EVERYONE
Next Stop Philippines for 2 weeks
Manila in May 2011
After living in Thailand for a while, I didn’t care much for the Philippines. Everything seems over priced and EVERYONE tried to ripped you off, hustle you, and bother you. We had repeated horrible experience with cab drivers, over charging, having faster meters, one drop us a few miles in the wrong direction to run up the meter, making us 10 minutes late. Manila was dirty, over crowded and a headache.
White Beach, Phillipines
Went to White Beach, Philippines for a few days and it was better than Manila, but still not a place I would recommend vacationing too. Plus I found out the next day that the hot girl I was making out with all night was a lady boy. Yeah, don’t go to Philippines.
May 2011 off to Prague!
After that, flew to Prague to spend the summer drinking and playing baseball for the Praha Eagles. Now its the end of August and that concludes what happened over the last 12 months.
Aug 222011
As I sit and ponder about the past I smile as I remember these 5 friends and the good times we had together.
Crystal Pherson, Shawn Vance, Nanci Pietras, Jason Kane and Niki Virga.
Crystal McPherson
I miss Crystal. It was a Sunday night, we were hosting a beer pong tournament at the house and it was a little disappointing because I ended up out of the match early. However, it worked out for the best as I went outside and that’s when I met Crystal for the first time, sitting somewhere around the hammock feeling really really good. I miss all the times we spent under the influence, in a world I haven’t been back to very often. I miss the day at MGM pool and the night at Diablos. I miss looking into her eyes and knowing we both felt the same feelings and thought the same thoughts. We had many great times together and I wish that she could be here now to experience the new world I am in. I just don’t ever want to repeat the “naked Jonas in my tub” night ever again :/
Shawn Vance
I haven’t seen Shawn in forever, it was April 2010 in San Diego, California at a Padres games when the Braves were in town. Atlanta won, we had some beers and I think I took down like 7 hot dogs in the all you can eat stands. It was a good day. I miss all of the adventures we had throughout Sweden, Prague, South Africa and Las Vegas. We put back a lot of beers together and I contribute 100% of my alcoholism to him alone. Now he is living in Stockholm with his beautiful wife and baby girl and I hope them the best and hope that I able to afford to make it out to Sweden to visit within the next month.
Nanci Pietras
I remember the night we first met, Ryan and I were taking advantage of free drinks at the club before heading out to another location to meet some friends… we ended up staying there a little longer than expected. I was a little closed off at first, but your friendly and real personality had me opening up to you fairly quickly. Haha, I remember you signed into my facebook on my HTC hero phone and for some reason it wouldn’t let you sign out! It took forever to figure out what was wrong, lol. It was worth it though, however, I wish we could of spent more time together taking pictures of you with my hat and funny wig :p I wish you the best in Philly and hope we will run into each other again during our travels.
Jason Kane
We met at one of my first house parties at the Rockin Seville House around the beginning of 2009. It was unfortunate that we were never able to set up a day for his band to play at any of our parties. We did have some good times, drank a lot of beer and it would of been great if we were able to have one last party on the strip with some of those green pills before I left 
Niki Virga
It seems that all the times we spent together were pretty spontaneous, from a random drink at Ellis Island, a mid day Yankees game at Barley’s Brewery and Casino, Foundation room, Cadillac Ranch, to Stoneys with a guy who ended up being the 2009 World Series of Poker winner. I do remember the first night we met, it was at Blue Martini, you were wearing a black top with blue shorts, actually, haha, I have no idea what you were wearing, that would be creepy, but I do remember you were sitting down at a table and that encounter was brief. I hope everything is well with you and I’m looking forward to a Yankees vs Braves World Series this year!
Aug 212011
Before we can move forward, I would like to take this opportunity to catch up on the past as its been a while since most of you heard from me.
Last blog post was somewhere around April 2010 as I was getting more involved with the people from cast network and hosting huge house parties that were all filmed via live broadcast. Las Vegas Party Club Because of this, I had put more focus on their company and less on this site.
The summer went on as we threw some huge parties, met a grip of awesome people and when the summer was over and the dust settled, our 9 bedroom party house, known as the Rockin Seville House, was on the cops top list of disturbances and we couldn’t have 4 person beer pong match after 10pm without the cops showing up to investigate. That’s when I knew it was time to move on.
October 1st, 2010, teamed up with Jonas, Parker and Nathan as we left the country for the ever so interesting country of Thailand. Now while I have a massive amount of stories and adventures from this crazy land of fun, I will not go into too any detail in this post. I spent 3 months in Phuket, 6 months in Chiang Mai a couple weeks in the Phillipines and in May 2011, I left for….
Europe to reunite with a ex baseball rival Andy Bergland who was now coaching the Praha Eagles baseball team. Today is Sunday, August 21st as I prepare for a day of poker tournaments on poker stars. Our team clinched a spot in the baseball playoffs yesterday with a pair of walk off wins. Now we make a push to win the Championship for Czech Baseball as I mix some absinthe drinking adventures in between. Stay tuned to see what happens next.
In the Meantime, here are some captioned photos with the memories of the last few years.
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Aug 202011
New adventures coming soon….
Designing a blog is hard work, even for the multi-talented human extra0rdinaire Van Wildest…so between the boozin, baseball and poker, I’m dedicating time each day to give the old blog a complete makeover better than ever. THEN…I will be teaming up with a couple of wingmen and adventuring through the countries of eastern Europe until I end up at the northern shores of Estonia where we will take a cruise to Stockholm to visit my long lost friend Shawn.
Aug 172011
My Story as a Poker Player
Poker ages 6-18
I grew up playing 7 card stud with my family for nickels and quarters during vacations and weekend getaways at my lake house. I was always very aggressive and even though I was 8 years old, I found a way to make a few bucks.
Poker around 1999-2002 (Rounders)
I had seen the movie Rounders and all I wanted to do was to play Texas Holdem and check raise my friends with strong hands. We played home games once a month never for more than $20.
Poker 2003 (Chris Money Maker and Ultimate Bet)
Late 2003 I say Chris Moneymaker win the World Series of Poker on TV and when I realized that you could play online tournaments and potentially earn a living at it… well, wow, I was hooked. I found Ultimate Bet and deposited $50! Looking back now, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, however, I turned the $50 into $2,000 in about 2 weeks. I was the BEST POKER PLAYER in the world. I quit my job and decided to do poker full time. Total Luck Box!
Poker 2004 (Moved to Vegas)
Packed 2 suitcases and drove to Las Vegas on Jan 11th, 2004, my birthday, my gift of a new challenge and adventure. No limit didn’t exist in Vegas in early 2004, so I stuck to play some 4/8 limit and grinded it out for a while. This wasn’t pretty. I barely made enough to eat, instead of nightly hotels, I ended up sleeping in my car to save my bankroll. After a couple of months of this I ended up getting an opportunity to play baseball in Belgium, Europe.
I took the all expense trip with an extra 400 euro a month. I spent 7 months playing baseball and learning as much about poker as I could, occasionally making the trip up to Amsterdam to play in Holland Casino’s 10/20 euro limit game. The summer came to an end, I had earned a few thousand euro playing live poker and it was back to Vegas to attempt to do it again.
I arrived back in Vegas to find no limit was EVERYWHERE. I was reborn and actually crushed the 1/2 $100 buyin live games at the Excalibur enough to rent a room and start saving money.
Poker 2005-2006 (Rent a big 4 bedroom House)
After a few months of live poker, I made the transition to online poker and in January of 2005 I somehow donked my way into crushing Party Poker for almost $10,000 in which I used to lease a big 4 bedroom house , furnish it, and rent some of the rooms to other poker players. I made a lot through rakeback and the next two years I continued to play cash games with most of my action on the Prima Network. Until the worst thing in the world happened. September, 30th 2006, most of the sites were BANNED by the US and I couldn’t play on my main sites anymore.
Poker 2007-2008 (Pokerstars and a New Country)
I started playing on Poker Stars and found new baseball teams to pay for my expenses over the course of a few years. Spent 2007 in Sweden, the Winter playing in South Africa, then 2008 in Amsterdam (got released) then Sweden. I mass tables 24 cash games and while I only beat the games for about $10 an hour over those 2 years, I made a killing from Super Nova bonuses and FPP’s. While 2007 was an extremely profitable year, 2008 had a great start, but games started to get tougher near the end of 2008. Graph below tracks cash game stats since late 2008.
Tracked from late 2008
Poker 2009-2010 (9 Bedroom Vegas Grind House)
After gaining trust back in the US and missing the States, I returned to Vegas in December 2008 and found the perfect new house to move into. It was a 6,300 sqft beast of a house with 9 bedrooms only 5 miles east of the strip. I signed a 2 year lease, furnished it, and rented out all of the rooms to poker players from around the world. With the house full, I was able to live rent free and slowly started playing less and less poker as my expenses were at a min. Online poker became a thing of the past and a few times a month I’d play live cash games which were more fun and could walk away with the occasional $2,000 score. The coolest part about the house was getting to meet and live with a crowd of really good poker players, most notable Joe Cada who stayed at our house and won the 2009 World Series of Poker.
Poker 2011 ( Online grinding got tough!)
Left Vegas for reasons describe in another post, (link here) and decided to travel the world and just play online poker. What I found out… wow, online poker has gotten a lot tougher. Currently playing tournaments between 18 mans, 180 mans and MTTs at low stakes trying to grind enough to keep living the way I would like.
Here is my sharkscope graph from 2010 (mostly game from the end of the year) and 2011.
2010 Poker Graph
Through August 2011.
2011 Poker Results
Obviously this isn’t much money and its been kind of a struggle the last couple of years having to budget everything when you were used to making this money in just one month playing. Its the life of a gambler and I’m just hoping for that big tournament score to help spice everything up.