Moving To A Poor Country To Be An Online Pro

Panama would be perfect. Internet is great because the infrastructure is so new and their main industry is money laundering

They also use the green back dollar as their legal currency!

this post is actually good. for $1500 a month, u'll have to move to the really poor countries like africa. but for $3000, somebody mentioned thailand, and it's actually an excellent suggestion. there's plenty of places to live like a prince with a income of $3000 a month. bangkok for one, manila in philippines, vietnam are all good places. and there's no shortage of good food, fine women and entertainment.

i'm from singapore and the standard of living is pretty high here. i've had a friend my age, 23, who plays online poker for a living and grinds about $3k USD a month on average. he moved to bangkok for half a year, and had a really good time there. basically he stayed in a condo with his fellow grinder friend in a nice 3 room condo, with all the perks, swimming pool, gym, bbq pits and the like, which cost only $1k USD a month. divided with his friend and taking into account utilities, it's about 550 a month each? and food, about 500 a month if u dont cook? leaves u with a lot to save and for entertainment purposes too, if u get my drift.

to the original poster: Try living in an expensive third world country when your salary is bellow $1500, for example in Israel. LOL

I hear Afghanistan is the bomb...

gopnik885 said:

to the original poster: Try living in an expensive third world country when your salary is bellow $1500, for example in Israel. LOL

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Israel is not by any measure a third world country.

AceZWylD said:

LOL. I love this post.

I would never move to a country where $1500 is considered "rich". All this means to me is that I am living in a hay hut and feasting on field mice or road kill over a makeshift fire for dinner. I'm good living my modest lifestyle in a location where i'm comfortable and where there are all of the amenities that I could want and need. Gotta have my taco bell, micky d's, and charmin tp. no fig leaves for these butt cheeks!!!

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As you can't get charmin tp anymore I guess you might as well leave now. :willy:

I love this idea. My view was slightly different, as I thought if I could make a living from online poker then I could live anywhere I wanted, not just a cheaper place, but a better place than a cold, dull, expensive suburb.

BelgoSuisse said:

Israel is not by any measure a third world country.

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it was a joke, I live in Israel.

aikindoma said:

I live here in Bosnia 10 miles from the Croatian border.

I can just repeat that I pay 100$ monthly rent.
Bosnia is not a third world country, I am in the middle of Europe
and these times it's everything is very stable.

The only criminal thing here happened in the last 7-8 years was a robbery
on the street where a guy went to the police and told them so.
Later they found out he was playing in a private casino and lost all his money. He was afraid of his wife and made up this story...
That was all criminality we had here...LOL......

Here you can take a look where I live:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl&q=Bihac

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I think the main problem for players moving to central and eastern Europe is the language. They could live like king here with 1500-2000 dollars but they can't get rid of their accent (if they ever try to learn the local language lol).

Interesting that I found this thread. I'm kind of surprised at the amount of people knocking the OP's idea.

You should seriously consider your idea - not necessarily because it would be cheaper (although it certainly can be) - but because it's a good experience to get out of your comfort zone and immerse yourself in another culture.

If you have to grind 12 hour days to make the stated income, however, you might want to wait until you can survive on say, 4 to 6 hours of playing per day. Grinding out in some hot and humid shack just so you can say you pay $200 a month for rent doesn't sound like much fun.

Make sure you have a good amount of cash (in the bank, not PokerStars!) for emergencies.

There's also the issue of staying in a country legally. It seems that most countries that I've researched make it easy to stay for up to 90 days at a time. Getting permanent residency generally requires a decent amount of cash in a local bank account (I believe it's $50k in Costa Rica) and a bunch of red tape.

I would research some locations, pick a spot that suits you, and plan on going for 3 months or so. If you love it you can work on getting residency, there are always ways. Otherwise, go home and take the experience with you.

I'm spending 3 months in Phuket, Thailand next year. I was able to find a modern condo with a pool and ocean views for $650 a month. You can find something simple but decent for half that. Another place I was considering was Belize, which I might do a year or so after I return from Thailand.

Having the ability to support yourself playing online poker is an incredible thing, don't waste the opportunity by doing what everyone else does.

OP said this

Size does matter

Xavier said:

Would you consider moving to a poor country where everything is ridiculously cheap?

At the moment I am making roughly $1500 a month on online poker.
In the UK that doesn't amount to much but if I moved to some countries and earnt that I would be considered rich.

It could be interesting to move somewhere for a year or two.

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well folks I personally have lived in a third world country and if you like not having your bare necessities then by all means be my guest

Money11Charlie said:

well folks I personally have lived in a third world country and if you like not having your bare necessities then by all means be my guest

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What kind of "bare necessities" were you missing? I don't think the OP is suggesting that he move to Afghanistan or Ethiopia...




If this is "third world", sign me up.

Its a fantastic idea. I spent about 5 years traveling mostly in "third world" countries. With a little research about poker legality, customs, etc you will have an awesome experience. Most of the places that have internet access will have everything you need, though it may take some adjusting to the local culture.
Not sure if it was already covered, but your player points on most sites can be used to buy little gadgets that most of us take for granted. If you grind enough hours, it'd be a nice little side gig to get some stuff from the points shipped to you then you can sell them to some local elctronic shop or whatever.
Its a creative and FUN idea. Do it.

Here in the Philippines $1500 a month is well above average income. Most people earn about half that in regular office jobs etc. I only earn about $850 a month in my current job and its about enough to pay the bills, I could probably save a little too if I wasn't terrible at managing money!

An airline pilot here earns $2000-$5000 depending on seniority and experience n stuff and thats probably one of the best paid jobs here without owning and running your own business

Quackpot said:

I think I'd rather find a more affordable place and take a part time job flipping burgers or something than go somewhere where 1500 is considered rich. That just means you are a target to be ripped off, and are not very likely to gain sympathy from the local authorities when you are robbed.

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Come on, don't be such a puss.

In fact it's a good decision but be shore that you have the net connection to be online.