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Team has been involved in a substantial number of the digital media, sports, entertainment, leisure and gaming industries’ most significant merger and acquisition transactions, holding key positions at, and transacting with Scientific Games Corp, Inspired Gaming Group, FOX Bets, Ocean Casino Resort, Resorts International Holdings, PokerStars, DraftKings, Mohegan Sun, Caesars Entertainment Corporation, Harrah’s Entertainment, Tropicana Entertainment, Inc., TSG/Sky Betting & Gaming, Facebook, Inc, Wynn Resorts, Dubai World/MGM Resorts
Here's all the Bios. These guys are stellar! TEKK closed at $10.30 today. Still cheap!
If you don't like to read... you don't like to make money!!!!
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Matthew Davey — Chief Executive Officer and Director
Mr. Davey has over 25 years of experience within the digital media, sports, entertainment, leisure and gaming ecosystems, as well as experience in the public sector. He is an experienced public company executive officer and board member. He has served in executive management positions across the gaming technology arena. Over the course of Mr. Davey’s career, he oversaw more than ten mergers and acquisitions and over $1.2 billion in debt and equity capital raised to support the companies he has led.
Most recently, Mr. Davey was Chief Executive Officer of SG Digital, the Digital Division of Scientific Games Corp. (“Scientific Games”) (Nasdaq: SGMS). SG Digital was established following the purchase by Scientific Games of NYX Gaming Group Limited (“NYX”) (formerly TSXV: NYX), where Mr. Davey served as Chief Executive Officer and Director. The NYX acquisition provided Scientific Games with a vehicle to significantly accelerate the scale and breadth of its existing digital gaming business, including the strategic expansion into sports betting. In his capacity as Chief Executive Officer of NYX, Mr. Davey developed and implemented a corporate strategy that generated strong revenue growth. Mr. Davey shaped company strategy to focus on digital gaming supplier platforms and content that provided various gaming operators with the underlying gaming and sports betting systems for their online gaming business. In 2014, Mr. Davey oversaw the initial public offering of NYX, and his experience in the digital media, sports, entertainment, leisure and gaming industries helped NYX recognize momentum as a public company. After the public offering, from 2014 to 2018, Mr. Davey oversaw seven acquisitions which helped establish NYX as one of the fastest growing global B2B real-money digital gaming and sports betting platforms. These acquisitions included:
• OpenBet: In 2016, NYX completed the $385 million acquisition of OpenBet. This was one of the more complex and transformative acquisitions that Mr. Davey oversaw at NYX. Through securing co-investments from William Hill (LSE: WMH), Sky Betting & Gaming and The Stars Group (formerly Nasdaq: TSG, TSX: TSGI), Mr. Davey was able to get the acquisition from Vitruvian Partners completed successfully, winning the deal against much larger and well capitalized competitors. By combining two established and proven B2B betting and gaming suppliers, NYX was well positioned to provide customers with exciting player-driven solutions across all major product verticals and distribution channels. This allowed NYX to become the leading B2B omni-channel sportsbook platform in the market and the supplier to over 300 gaming operators globally with an extensive library of desktop and mobile game titles, including more than 700 on NYX platforms and more than 2,000 on the OpenBet platform.
• Cryptologic/Chartwell: In 2015, NYX completed the $119 million acquisition of Cryptologic and Chartwell. The acquisition provided NYX with more than 400 titles of additional leading gaming content, a broader customer base, and direct exposure to PokerStars and Intercasino, part of the Gamesys Group (LSE: GYS) — two of the world’s largest online casino offerings.
• OnGame: In 2014, NYX completed the distressed acquisition of OnGame, a premier poker content, platform and service provider. This acquisition provided NYX with one of the best poker products in the industry, access to several regulated jurisdictions, and a valuable talent pool that was instrumental in the growth of NYX. The addition of OnGame further established a path for NYX to continue its growth in both European and U.S. markets.
These acquisitions, together with meaningful organic growth, increased NYX’s revenue from $24 million in 2014 to $184 million annualized in 2017. During that time, Mr. Davey helped build NYX to have over 200 customers in the global gaming industry and a team of 1,000 employees. Mr. Davey’s success at NYX ultimately led to its sale to Scientific Games for $631 million in 2018.
Mr. Davey joined Next Gen Gaming, the predecessor to NYX, in 2000 as the Vice President of Technology, was appointed as Executive Director in 2003 and named Chief Executive Officer in 2005. Prior to that, he was the Senior Consultant for Access Systems, a company that specializes in the provision of back-end software for licensed online casinos. Prior to joining Access, Mr. Davey worked for the Northern Territory Government specializing in matters pertaining to the internet and e-commerce along with roles in the Department of Racing and Gaming. Mr. Davey received a Bachelor of Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Northern Territory University, Australia (also known as Charles Darwin University).
Robin Chhabra — President
Mr. Chhabra has been at the forefront of corporate acquisition activity within the digital gaming landscape for over a decade. His prior experience includes leading corporate strategy, M&A, and business development at two of the global leaders in the digital gaming industry, The Stars Group (“TSG”) and William Hill, and a leading supplier, Inspired Gaming Group (Nasdaq: INSE). Mr. Chhabra served on the Group Executive Committees of each of these companies. From 2017 to May 2020, Mr. Chhabra served as Chief Corporate Development Officer at TSG and, from 2019 to August 2020, he also served as the Chief Executive Officer of Fox Bet, a leading U.S. online gaming business which is the product of a landmark partnership between TSG and FOX Sports, a transaction which he led. During that period, Mr. Chhabra led several transactions which transformed TSG into the largest publicly listed online gambling operator in the world by both revenue and market capitalization and one of the most diversified from a product and geographic perspective with revenues of over $2.5 billion. Mr. Chhabra’s M&A experience is extensive and covers multiple global geographies across the digital gaming value chain and includes the following:
• TSG/Flutter Entertainment Merger: In 2019, Mr. Chhabra led the TSG M&A team that was responsible for TSG’s $12.2 billion merger with Flutter Entertainment (LSE: FLTR). The merger between TSG and Flutter Entertainment is the largest transaction in the digital gaming industry to date. The combination created the largest publicly listed online gaming company with approximately 13 million active customers and leading product offerings, which include sports betting, online casino, fantasy sports and poker. The combined entity includes some of the world’s most iconic digital gaming brands such as Fanduel, Fox Bet, Sky Bet, PaddyPower, Betfair, PokerStars and SportsBet. TSG/Flutter Entertainment is one of the most geographically diverse digital gaming and media companies with leading positions in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Germany and Georgia.
• TSG/Sky Betting and Gaming (“SBG”): In 2018, Mr. Chhabra led the acquisition of SBG from CVC Capital Partners and Sky plc, Europe’s largest media company, in a transaction valued at $4.7 billion. At the time of the acquisition SBG was the largest mobile gambling operator in the United Kingdom and one of the fastest growing of the major operators having doubled its online market share in three years. The acquisition of SBG provided TSG with (a) greater revenue diversification, significantly enhanced expertise and exposure to sports betting just ahead of the judicial overturn of The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) by the U.S. Supreme Court, (b) a leading position within the United Kingdom, the world’s largest regulated online gaming market, (c) improved products and technology as a result of the addition of SBG’s innovative casino and sports book offerings and a portfolio of popular mobile apps, and (d) expertise in deeply integrating sports betting with leading sports media companies, positioning TSG to create more engaging content, deliver faster growth and decrease customer acquisition costs.
• William Hill (LSE: WMH): At William Hill, from 2010 to 2017, Mr. Chhabra served as Group Director of Strategy and Corporate Development where he led several transactions which contributed to William Hill’s transformation from a land-based gambling operator in the United Kingdom to a leading online-led international business. Mr. Chhabra led William Hill’s entry into the U.S. sports betting and online lottery markets with the acquisition of four businesses, including the simultaneous acquisitions of three U.S. sportsbooks, Cal Neva, American Wagering and Brandywine Bookmaking, in 2011 for an aggregate purchase price of $55 million. These businesses ultimately led William Hill to achieve a leading position in the U.S. sports betting market with a market share of 24% in 2019. Additionally, Mr. Chhabra played a key role in structuring William Hill’s successful joint venture with PlayTech Plc (LSE: PTEC) in 2008. The combined entity created one of the largest online gambling businesses in Europe at the time of its formation and led to William Hill’s buyout of Playtech’s interest for $637 million in 2013. Prior to the transaction, William Hill had struggled in its attempt to establish a strong online gaming platform and a meaningful presence outside the United Kingdom.
Mr. Chhabra has also successfully completed four transactions worth over $1.2 billion in Australia, the world’s second largest regulated online gambling market, and various partnerships in Asia. Additionally, he completed several technology and media related transactions, including William Hill’s investment in NYX, where he worked with Mr. Davey on NYX’s transformational acquisition of OpenBet.
Prior to working in the gaming sector, Mr. Chhabra was an equities analyst and a management consultant. Mr. Chhabra received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Eric Matejevich — Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Matejevich is a seasoned gaming executive with extensive experience in both the online gaming and traditional casino industries. From February to August 2019, he served as Trustee and Interim-Chief Executive Officer of Ocean Casino Resort (“Ocean”) (formerly Revel Casino, which had a construction cost of $2.4 billion) in Atlantic City, where he successfully led the management team through an ownership change and operational turnaround effort. Over the course of seven months, Mr. Matejevich managed to reduce the property’s weekly cash burn of $1.5 million to an annualized cash flow run rate in excess of $20 million.
Prior to Ocean, from 2016 to 2018, Mr. Matejevich served as the Chief Financial Officer of NYX. At NYX, he focused his efforts on integrating the company’s many acquisitions and multiple debt refinancings to simplify its capital structure and provided liquidity for growth initiatives. Additionally, Mr. Matejevich was instrumental to the executive team that sold NYX to Scientific Games for $631 million.
Prior to NYX, from 2004 to 2014, Mr. Matejevich was the Chief Financial Officer of Resorts International Holdings and later, from 2011, also the Chief Operating Officer of the Atlantic Club Casino, a property under the Resorts International Holdings umbrella — a Colony Capital (NYSE: CLNY) entity. As Chief Financial Officer, he provided managerial oversight for all finance functions for a six-property casino company with annual gaming revenue exceeding $1.3 billion, 10,000 gaming positions, 7,000 hotel rooms and over 11,000 staff members during his tenure. Mr. Matejevich led the transition effort to integrate a four-casino, $1.3 billion acquisition from Harrah’s Entertainment and Caesars Entertainment (Nasdaq: CZR). As Chief Operating Officer of Atlantic Club, he lobbied for and was successful in obtaining the first internet gaming legislation passed in the United States. The Atlantic Club was the sole New Jersey casino proponent of the legislation.
Prior to serving in various gaming positions, Mr. Matejevich was a Vice President of High Yield Research for Merrill Lynch, where he managed the corporate bond research effort for the gaming and leisure sectors and marketed high yield and other debt transactions totaling $4.8 billion. Mr. Matejevich received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from The Wharton School and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from The College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.
Our Board of Directors
Morris Bailey — Chairman
Over the past 10 years, Mr. Bailey has been a leader in turning around Atlantic City, as well as being among the first gaming executives to embrace online gaming and sports betting in the United States. In his efforts, Mr. Bailey partnered with two of the largest digital gaming companies in the world, PokerStars, part of the Stars Group, and DraftKings (Nasdaq: DKNG). In 2010, Mr. Bailey bought Resorts Atlantic City (“Resorts”) and initiated a comprehensive renovation which allowed for the property to be rebranded and repositioned. In 2012, Mr. Bailey signed an agreement with Mohegan Sun to manage the day-to-day operations of the casino. In addition to Mohegan Sun’s operational expertise and ability to reduce costs via economies of scale, Resorts gained access to their robust customer database. Soon thereafter, Mr. Bailey and his team focused on bringing online gaming to the property. In 2015, Resorts established a platform to engage in online gaming by partnering with PokerStars, now part of the $24 billion Flutter Entertainment, PLC (LSE: FLTR), to operate an online poker room in Atlantic City. In 2018, Resorts announced deals with DraftKings and SBTech to open a sportsbook on-property and online. For 2020 year-to-date, Resorts has performed in the top quartile in internet gross gaming revenue in New Jersey. Mr. Bailey’s efforts in New Jersey helped set the framework for expansion of online sports and gaming throughout the United States.
In addition to his gaming interests, Mr. Bailey has over 50 years of experience in all facets of real estate development, asset M&A, capital markets and operations and is the founder, Chief Executive Officer and Principal of JEMB Realty, a leading real estate development, investment and management organization. Mr. Bailey has notable investment experience within the energy, finance and telecommunications sectors through investments in the Astoria Energy Plant, Basis Investment Group and Xentris Wireless.
Tony Rodio — Director Nominee
Mr. Rodio has nearly four decades of experience in the gaming industry. Most recently, Mr. Rodio served as the Chief Executive Officer and director of Caesars Entertainment Corporation (“Caesars”) (Nasdaq: CZR), one of the world’s most diversified casino-entertainment providers and the most geographically diverse U.S. casino-entertainment company, from April 2019 until its acquisition by Eldorado Resorts, Inc. in July 2020. Mr. Rodio led Caesars through its $17.3 billion merger with Eldorado Resorts, one of the largest transactions in the gaming industry to date. Additionally, Mr. Rodio was instrumental to Caesars’ expansion into the digital gaming industry and oversaw the implementation of new digital segments such as its Scientific Games powered retail sportsbook solution that now operates in various states throughout the U.S. From October 2018 to May 2019, Mr. Rodio served as Chief Executive Officer of Affinity Gaming. Prior to Affinity Gaming, he served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of Tropicana Entertainment, Inc. (“Tropicana”) for over seven years, where he was responsible for the operation of eight casino properties in seven different jurisdictions. During his time at Tropicana, Mr. Rodio oversaw a period of unprecedented growth at the company, improving overall financial results with net revenue that increased more than 50% driven by both operational improvements and expansion across regional markets. Mr. Rodio led major capital projects, including the complete renovation of Tropicana Atlantic City and Tropicana’s move to land-based operations in Evansville, Indiana. Each of these initiatives, among others, generated substantial value for Tropicana. Ultimately, Mr. Rodio’s efforts at Tropicana led to its sale to Eldorado Resorts in 2018 for $1.85 billion. Prior to Tropicana, Mr. Rodio held a succession of executive positions in Atlantic City for casino brands, including Trump Marina Hotel Casino, Harrah’s Entertainment (predecessor to Caesars), the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort and Penn National Gaming. He has also served as a director of several professional and charitable organizations, including Atlantic City Alliance, United Way of Atlantic County, the Casino Associations of New Jersey and Indiana, AtlantiCare Charitable Foundation and the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming Hospitality & Tourism. Mr. Rodio brings extensive knowledge of and experience in the gaming industry, operational expertise, and a demonstrated ability to effectively design and implement company strategy. Mr. Rodio received a Bachelor of Science from Rider University and a Master of Business Administration from Monmouth University.
Marlon Goldstein — Director Nominee
Mr. Goldstein is a licensed attorney with nearly 20 years of experience in the gaming space. He joined The Stars Group (Nasdaq: TSG)(TSX: TSGI) in January 2014 as its Executive Vice-President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary until his retirement from the company in July 2020 following the merger of TSG with Flutter Entertainment, PLC (LSE: FLTR). Mr. Goldstein also previously served as the Executive Vice-President, Corporate Development and General Counsel of TSG. Mr. Goldstein was also the senior TSG executive based in the United States and was one of the primary architects of TSG’s strategic vision for its U.S.-facing business. During his tenure, TSG grew from an approximately $500 million market-cap company to an approximately $7 billion market-cap company through a combination of organic growth and strategic mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Goldstein participated in numerous M&A transactions and capital markets offerings at TSG, including several transformational transactions in the digital gaming industry. Notable transactions in which Mr. Goldstein was involved include:
• TSG/Flutter Merger: In 2019, TSG merged with Flutter for a $12.2 billion transaction value, the largest transaction in the digital gaming industry to date.
• TSG/Fox Bet Partnership: In 2019, TSG entered into a partnership with FOX Sports to create FOX Bet in the U.S., a leading U.S. online gaming business. Wall Street Research estimates an approximate $1.1 billion valuation for Fox Bet post-partnership with The Stars Group.
• TSG/Sky Betting & Gaming: In 2018, TSG acquired Sky Betting & Gaming, the largest mobile gambling operator in the United Kingdom at the time, for $4.7 billion.
• TSG/CrownBet and William Hill: In 2018, TSG simultaneously acquired CrownBet and William Hill, two Australian operators, for a total of $621 million in a multi-part transaction.
• TSG/PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker: In 2014, TSG acquired The Rational Group, which operated PokerStars and Full Tilt and was the world’s largest poker business, for $4.9 billion.
Through his ability to legally structure large and complex transactions, Mr. Goldstein was integral to TSG’s vision of becoming a full-service online gaming company. Additionally, he assisted in structuring TSG’s capital markets activity, which generated liquidity for acquisitions and strengthened its balance sheet.
Prior to joining TSG, Mr. Goldstein was a principal shareholder in the corporate and securities practice at the international law firm of Greenberg Traurig P.A., where he practiced for almost 13 years. Mr. Goldstein’s practice focused on corporate and securities matters, including mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, and financing transactions. Additionally, Mr. Goldstein was the founder and co-chair of the firm’s Gaming Practice, a multi-disciplinary team of attorneys representing owners, operators and developers of gaming facilities, manufacturers and suppliers of gaming devices, investment banks and lenders in financing transactions, and Indian tribes in the development and financing of gaming facilities.
Mr. Goldstein brings experience and insight that we believe will be valuable to a potential initial business combination target business. Mr. Goldstein received a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in accounting from Emory University and a Juris Doctorate with highest honors from the University of Florida, College of Law.
Sean Ryan — Director Nominee
Mr. Ryan is a digital media and technology operator with extensive global experience in online payments, e-commerce, marketplaces, mobile ad networks, digital games, enterprise collaboration platforms, blockchain, real money gaming and online music. Since 2014, Mr. Ryan has been serving as Vice President of Business Platform Partnerships at Facebook, Inc. (“Facebook”) (Nasdaq: FB), where he leads a more than 500 person global organization that manages the Payments, Commerce, Novi/Blockhain, Workplace and Audience Network businesses. Prior to his current role, Mr. Ryan was hired in 2011 as the Director of Games Partnerships to lead and grow the global Games business at Facebook. While the Director of Games Partnerships, Mr. Ryan focused on re-shaping Facebook’s games and monetization strategies to derive more value for Facebook, its users and its partners, including the addition of a Real Money Gaming offering in regulated markets. Mr. Ryan’s team helped accelerate a major trend in engagement through cross-platform games and therefore the opportunity to increase users through establishing games on multiple platforms. Prior to joining Facebook, Mr. Ryan created the new social and mobile games division at News Corp, an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by Rupert Murdoch. While at News Corp, Mr. Ryan led the acquisition of Making Fun, a San Francisco social-game start-up, that created News Corp’s games publishing division.
Before joining News Corp., Mr. Ryan founded multiple digital businesses such as Twofish, Meez, Open Wager and SingShot Media. Mr. Ryan co-founded Twofish in 2009, a virtual goods and services platform that provided developers with data analytics and insights for individual application’s digital economies. Twofish was later sold to online payments provider Live Gamer, where Mr. Ryan served on the board of directors. From 2005 to 2008, Mr. Ryan founded and led Meez.com, a social entertainment service combining avatars, web games and virtual worlds. The white label social casino gaming company Open Wager was spun out of Meez and was later sold to VGW Holdings, Mr. Ryan also co-founded SingShot Media, an online karaoke community, which was sold to Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: EA) and merged into its Sims division.
We believe Mr. Ryan’s experience will be valuable to a potential initial business combination target and would provide an expanded perspective on the digital gaming landscape. Mr. Ryan received a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Tom Roche — Director Nominee
Mr. Roche has more than 40 years of experience in the gaming industry as a regulator, advisor and independent auditor. Mr. Roche joined Ernst & Young (“EY”) as a partner in 2003 and opened its Las Vegas office. He was subsequently appointed as the Office Managing Partner and Global Gaming Industry Market Leader. In 2016, Mr. Roche relocated to the EY Hong Kong office to supervise the expansion of the EY Global Gaming Industry practice in the Asia Pacific region. Mr. Roche has been integral to numerous transactions that have shaped the current gaming landscape, including:
• Wynn Resorts (Nasdaq: WYNN) initial public offering: Mr. Roche was the lead partner on Wynn Resort’s initial public offering, which raised $450 million in 2002.
• Harrah’s Entertainment/Apollo Management Group & Texas Pacific Group: Mr. Roche headed the regulatory advisory services on the buyout of Harrah’s Entertainment, the world’s largest casino company at the time, for $17.1 billion.
• Dubai World/MGM Resorts: Mr. Roche headed the regulatory and due diligence advisory services to Dubai World in its approximately $5.1 billion investment in MGM. Dubai World bought 28.4 million MGM shares, or 9.5 percent of the casino operator, for $2.4 billion. It then invested $2.7 billion to acquire a 50% stake in MGM’s CityCenter Project, a $7.4 billion 76-acre Las Vegas development of hotels, condos and retail outlets.
• MGM Growth Properties (NYSE: MGP) initial public offering: Mr. Roche provided tax and structural transaction services to MGM Resorts in the creation of MGM Growth Properties, a publicly traded REIT engaged in the acquisition, ownership and leasing of large-scale destination entertainment and leisure resorts. MGM Growth Properties raised $1.05 billion in its 2016 initial public offering.
Mr. Roche also directed EY advisory services to boards and management teams for profit improvement and technology related initiatives. In addition, Mr. Roche provided advisory support to the American Gaming Association on several research projects, including those specifically related to sports betting, the revocation of The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) and anti-money laundering best practices in the gaming industry. Equally, he has assisted government agencies in numerous international locations with enhancing their regulatory approach to governing the industry especially in the online gambling sector.
Prior to joining Ernst & Young, Mr. Roche served as Deloitte’s National Gaming Industry Leader and as the co-head of Andersen’s Gaming Industry Practice in Las Vegas. In 1989, Mr. Roche was appointed by then Governor of the State of Nevada, Robert Miller, to serve as one of three members of the Nevada State Gaming Control Board for a four-year term, where he was directly responsible for the Audit and New Games Lab Divisions. As a board member, he spent a substantial amount of time assisting global jurisdiction regulators enact gaming legislation in the design of their regulatory structure. During his career, Roche has been involved in numerous public and private offerings of equity and debt securities. His background includes providing casino regulatory consulting services to casino licensees and to federal and state agencies including the National Indian Gaming Commission and the Nevada State Gaming Control Board, and industry associations such as the Nevada Resort Association and the American Gaming Association.
We believe Mr. Roche’s highly regarded reputation as a gaming auditor and advisor in the gaming industry will be valuable for us and a potential business combination target. Mr. Roche is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and is licensed by the Nevada State Board of Accountancy and Mississippi State Board of Public Accountancy. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Southern California.

Hello there, quite glad i find this sub and even though you probably cannot give me all the information i need to know i might get at least some. I'm 29 years old with a bachlor degree in business information systems. However 5 years ago i was stupid (or clever) enough to quit my job and germany and search for something new. After not finding anything appropriate i ended up playing online poker during my time of unemployment until i realized that with that profession i'm able to make 5-10times the money i made in my fairly well paid job in a big chemical company before and decided to go for it. Still a lifechanging decision which i haven't regret a single day so far and online poker is my only source of income for over 5 years by now. Because of tax issues which might have occured while staying in Germany i pretty much directly packed my stuff and moved to Malta where you don't have to pay taxes on income from (Online-)Poker. During the last years i spent appr. 75% of my time in Malta, but was travelling alot in winter and lived in London for 6 month as well which wasn't for me though. During my travels beginning of the year i visited Dubai for a week and realized pretty quickly that this might be the right place to go next for longterm. So far so good, now to the tricky part: 1. I know even though Dubai seems fairly western it still is an arabic country and gambling is forbidden, so there are no casinos and such. However i exclusively play online and the servers of my provider (pokerstars) are located at the isle of man. Does anybody know how the government stands towards playing online from Dubai?! Does this even get controlled? If it is forbidden and they would catch me for any reason (which is still unlikely if playing with a VPN) what would happen? Would they just ban me from the country or worse put me straight away into jail? I saw some other players against whom i played who were registered in UAE so it cannot be completely forbidden in my opinion bc otherwise i would expect pokerstars to not allow them to play at all... but what do i know? 2. Because i'm playing poker i obvsiouly don't have any sort of employer. Pokerstars is my provider but i don't work for them so the next very big and maybe even bigger issue than legality is the visa. - is there any way for me to get/buy a longterm visa. I would be willing to spent decent amount of money for such a thing but have no clue if that is even a possibilty. - what about if i go for a visa run like each month? If i would move to dubai i very likely would spent 7-9months in dubai and the rest abroad but i would assume it might get tricky once they see 15 stamps in my passport and then start asking questions - or are there other people who do so as well? Can i even rent a flat for longterm without a longterm visa? - fake employment: would it be an option to pay of a company to fake-employ me in order to get a visa? but i would assume that is probably the worst and most illegal option and i definitely rather play this one safe 3. I'm 29 and single, i still like going to nightclubs alot and i rarely cook, order alot from deliveries and get takeaway from restaurant, i also wouldn't mind a beach closeby even though that's not mandatory. What would be the best place for me to live in Dubai? Moneywise it would be no problem to spend up to 3k$ for a 1-2br. When i was staying there i was living close to Dubai mall and i liked it but i still assume there might be places better suited for me?! 4. Currently i have a car in Malta. Would it be a big hassle to get that one shipped and registered into Dubai or should i rather buy a new one when i'm down there? Thanks alot in advance, point 1+2 are the important ones, 3+4 would be nice to know but thats all. cheers and best rgds from Malta! :)

(you can find a TL;DR at the end of this post, containing my yearly results and my goals for next year)
My first contact with gambling started with the famous "use this strategy to get rich at XY" (XY being mostly blackjack or roulette). As i was still very young i believed these stupid things. I didnt know better. Hours after hours i played for playmoney online, and i got fascinated having the idea to win money by playing a game. After a while i finally learned that in every gambling game the edge is on the side of the casino.
Every game? No. There is poker, a game of skill and psychology. A game where the better player can be a winner. I HAD to learn this game. So i bought a few books, and started learning. I only learned the very very basic stuff, but i thought that was enough. I deposited 10 bucks and started playing 2NL, with the occasional 5NL or 10NL mixed in because i was on tilt or "trying to win my money back". Obviously i was a total fish. I lost my money very fast, and got frustrated. Every now and then i came back to try but, who wouldve guessed, i lost over and over again.
I am a very competetive person, but my competetive drive was focused on other computergames. After i peaked and plateaued in the games i grinded for hours and hours each day for years (at first CoD, then League of Legends where my best ranking was Diamond 3), i started looking for a new challenge. And then it hit me. POKER! But this time i would take it more serious. This time i would be a winner! So the journey began...
On the 1st of january i created my account on pokerstars. This time i deposited 50 bucks. I was still in school, so i couldnt play it fulltime, but i used every free minute i had to play and learn the game. I taught the game to myself by reading through articles online, learned the basics from pokerstrategy.com, and started playing 2NL with proper BRM. For christmas i got money to buy Pokertracker4, so i could finally track my results aswell. After a bit of trying everything out i decided that 6max Zoom was the game made for me. Action all the time and the ability to grind for hours without getting bored. Perfect. So i did. And i was winning, what a great feeling. With the things i learned i was able to beat 2NLz all by myself. I didnt care about the amount of money, which obviously was nothing, but i was making money all by myself, with a thing i loved doing. My passion grew with each and every day. At first my mother was against this whole thing. She didnt like it if i "gambled". Obviously she had no clue about poker not being gambling, but i was far away from being able to correctly explain it to her, as i was still a noob too, so i cant blame her. This is the 2NLz graph for the whole year: http://i.imgur.com/iKHbI6W.png
As you can see i was a solid winner at 2NLz. But moving up was hard. I did take many shots, but the first 50k hands of 5NLz i was losing at it. I had all the typical problems: i was money scared, i thought villains were playing better, i just didnt play the gameplan i had established at 2NL. That is also the reason why i had such a big sample at 2NLz (100k hands), because i always had to move down again. I was getting more and more frustrated. And i was stubborn. I didnt even think about studying more to get better. I was just grinding and grinding each and every day, trying to finally get the succesfull shot. I was still somewhat active in the online community though. I started watching twitch streamers, and i even became mod in "KomodoDragonJesus"' stream. I started reading articles again and i recognized that if i wanted to beat 5NL i had to study again. So i did. And ca. in the middle of may i finally started winning. From one day to another i was good enough. It was like someone turned on a switch. The big thing i learned in these days was that i cant just grind the whole day, because i will be plateauing sooner or later. If i wanted to climb the ladder i needed to study all the time. I started reading more and more, most of it in the 2+2 forums. I started connecting with people, chatting with them over skype. It could be that that was the time where i started being active here on /poker. I was always a big fan of reddit, and i was happy that there was a sub for poker. Here you can see my 5NLz graph for the whole year: http://i.imgur.com/KWVQsPw.png - and this is the graph since i was winning: http://i.imgur.com/rTCiqrl.png
After grinding for some time i started taking shots at 10NLz, and history repeated itself. It was pretty much the same as when i wanted to move up from 2NL to 5NL. Not much to say to this situation tbh. BUT a big thing happened at 10NLz. My first BIG tiltingspree. This was the first time a major downswing hit me, and i got mad at the game, mad at myself for playing poorly, and so on. You cant miss it if you take a look at the graph: http://i.imgur.com/OIswdAg.png After a while i could stop myself from tilting though, and focused on improving again. As you can see in the graph i didnt win enough to move up yet though: http://i.imgur.com/evkw3Ef.png
I was always playing some MTTs on the side for fun. I never really took them serious, never really learned how to play them properly. But in august i had the luck to bink two of them. One was a 1.10 deepstacked MTT where i placed 3rd for 72$, and the other one was the Hot 1.10, where i got 4th for 243$. A MASSIVE boost for my bankroll. Suddenly i was rolled for 16NL, and i took the shot. It wasnt my first shot at it, but it was succesful. From here on its basically the same as always. I grinded, took shots at 25NLz, they didnt work out, i had to move back to 16NLz. Here you can see my lifetime 16NLz graph: http://i.imgur.com/Lsy12An.png and this is the graph since i was winning: http://i.imgur.com/4ZtzI7o.png
In the meantime many things in the reallife happened. I just finished school in summer, and since february i was living on my own in a small 1-room-appartment. I started working 39 hours a week (if you are interested in that you can ask, but its too long and irrelevant to put in this post), and didnt have that much time for poker anymore. I still devoted pretty much all of my free time to poker. Now that i had results and knowledge, i could also finally convince my parents that poker isn't gambling, and that its not bad to be a pokerplayer. My mother taught me to always have the right priorities in life, which i am very thankful for. I always made sure that i had enough time for my friends, my girlfriend, and school. Well maybe not school, but not because i couldnt. I simply decided that school wasnt worth my full attention anymore. My goal for the future was to study psychology, and even IF i put my full energy into school, i still wouldnt have been able to reach the grades i needed. And to get the spot at university it wouldnt matter if i was close to the requirements or more far away, i would need to wait the same time (or i would sue the university for a place, which i will try next year if they dont let me in. Yes, its possible to sue the university for a place to study, god i love my country sometimes :D) So it was irrelevant if i tried my hardest in school, or just made sure i could finish it and get my "abitur", which is german for the graduation from highschool. If i look back i can say for sure that i put more energy and time into poker and studying for poker than into learning for school. But because i already knew what i wanted and how i could get it i didnt regret this decision.
The second big thing that happened was the legalization of online poker in Schleswig-Holstein, the nothern part of germany where i live in. Before they gave out licenses it was a grey area, so not totally illegal. But following that we got an own client, "pokerstars.sh", and a few rules, eg. not more than 10 tables open at a time etc.. These changes didnt affect me that much though, as i was always only playing 4 tables of zoom anyway.
Then i had my first live poker experience. In september i decided to take a 50bb shot at 2/4 in my local casino. It was basically just meant for fun, because i never played live before and wanted to experience it. In my first night playing live i left with 1238€ profit. I decided this would be my live bankroll, and went to the casino about once per week. I grinded it up to 4.5k, then went down to 2.5k again. Here i chose to stop, because i needed money for next years vacation (me and my gf want to travel to japan, which will be very expensive). Also i felt like online lost the needed focus and dedication from me.
To give online poker my full dedication i needed to get better. But learning by myself just wasnt good enough for me anymore. I needed to learn more efficient. I needed to get a coach. And i found one. We had coaching roughly once per week, and i learned so much every single day. I got better and better every day, and finally the day came where i would take a succesful shot at 25NLz.
This is where i am right now. After exactly 1 year playing/studying i went from 2NLz to winning at 25NLz. And my current winrate is pretty impressive, even though i guess its only samplesize and not my real winrate :D here is the graph of my latest 25NLz shot, and hopefully the last one: http://i.imgur.com/Kt5tdYj.png - and this is my lifetime 25NLz graph, with all the shots that didnt work out: http://i.imgur.com/GLBQr0T.png
I hope this wall of text was at least somewhat interesting for you guys. The main reason i wrote this is to remember the year and be appreciative for how far ive come. I've had an awesome poker year, went through ups and downs, but i still managed to come out ahead.
Here are some final results of this year:
The cashgame graph of my whole year, including every cashgame ive played: http://i.imgur.com/QLQZ9Ku.png
And this is the graph only showing my zoom results: http://i.imgur.com/FMFf317.png
edit: HeyitsClay suggested to show the results in bb to show a clearer picture. Here is only the zoom results shown in bb: http://i.imgur.com/SHl8Mzc.png
My online bankroll went from 50€ (~55$) to 1400$.
My live bankroll went from 200€ to 2500€.
My passion for poker is more alive than ever before. My plan for 2016 is to beat 100NL, and maybe play live again with a proper bankroll. When i start going to university this fall i will hopefully be able to finance myself purely through poker. That is the dream...

DISCLAIMER: I copied this post from my blog: https://www.pokervip.com/forum/my-poker-journey/hakuna-matata-kinglylion-s-blog?nav=58692d0cd39043165f8b45ce
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At the start of this year i was playing on pokerstars. I was taking poker seriously for exactly a year, started at 2NLz, and at that point i was probably a small winner at 25NLz.
At the end of 2015 i wrote an excessive and detailed blog on reddit about my first real poker year, and i definetely recommend you checking it out!
https://www.reddit.com/pokecomments/3z1avx/2015_my_poker_yea
In that blog i set myself the goal to beat 100NL by the end of 2016. Lets see how far i've gotten...
So right at the start of the year (or sometime in the first part of it) i started losing my motivation. To be honest i cant remember the exact circumstances, but it had something to do with a downswing i had at 25NLz (had to drop to 16NLz), me being a lazy fuck and not working hard enough to get better. I got more interested in computergames, and grinded less and less.
My bankroll had dropped a lot within that timeframe. As stated in the blog above i ended 2015 with a BR of 1400$. At some point it got to around 700$ or so. But slowly i started to regain my motivation for the beautiful game that is poker. I was a bit short on cash, and the greedy my didn't want to start paying a lot of money for coaching again, so i got a subscription to run it once, and watched a few videos of them. I took the game, and especially the study part of it more serious again, and i began doing better. At that point i was probably around a 4bb/100 pre rakeback winner at 16NLz on stars.
And then something kind of big happened to the direction my poker game was going. A friend of mine (shoutout to CRS) suggested i should try out playing in the microgaming network, because the playerpool was softer, the software was decent, and the rakeback was good.
I always thought about leaving stars for another site. But up to that point there never seemed to be a good option for me. In my part of germany some sites just dont operate because of legal stuff, and i was very picky when it came to software, because i got used to the smoothness of stars'.
But i checked the microgaming sites out, and found out that a) Betvictor has a license for my part of Germany, and b) their software is acceptable even for my standards!
I withdrew all my money from stars, and started playing 20NL on Betvictor. That was also the point when i started this blog (10th October 2016), to force myself to share what i am doing, hoping to get some more motivation out of this while still entertaining some people.
While i was struggling at 25NLz on stars i was doing extremely well 20NL on BV (this is my whole 20NL sample:)
http://puu.sh/t7HqT/7db561d6a7.png
As soon as my motivation started to rise again i also contacted my coach w34z3l and we did some lessons. I definetely got a lot out of the lessons i took in the last months, and feel like i improved a ton in many aspects of the game.
Sadly my shots at 50NL didnt go well so far. I took 2 shots of 10BIs each already as soon as my bankroll was at 1500€ (i moved down earlier than -10BIs both times though), and i am currently in progress of taking my 3rd shot. Doing better than before, i definetely expect myself to be a small winner at the limit pre rakeback.
Here is my whole 50NL graph:
http://puu.sh/t7Hsb/e53d19a989.png
Because i enjoy playing on this site so much and it was already natural for me to advertise them, because i really meant it, i took an affiliate deal with PokerVIP (so if you are interested in any details about betvictor, or want to know more about the rakeback deal just let me know).
Anyway, so here i am, at the start of 2017. Lets take a look at the goals i had for this moment, and if i archieved them:
1) From my "2015 - My poker year" reddit post:
"My plan for 2016 is to beat 100NL"
... Who knows, if i wouldve powered through the whole year maybe this wouldve been possible. But definetely not archievable for me because i took such a long break.
2) From this blog, since i left stars:
"Grind up the bankroll, and start being a winning reg at 50nl."
I think i am close. The reg part of this didnt happen yet, there is still volume missing to back this up. But i think i can beat 50NL right now. So i think i got as close as it gets before archieving this goal!
All in all i am happy about how my last poker year went. Especially taking into account that i was absent from really trying for a few months, i definetely improved a lot over the course of the last months. Of course there is still room for improvement, but if i can keep up the pace of getting coached and grinding volume i should be able to get to a decent place in the poker world.
I decided to go with more general and archievable goals for the next year:

• Get good at 50NL. Like pretty good. Winning over 4bb/100 pre rakeback would be great. Over 5bb/100 would be fantastic.
  
• Dont forget about how important discipline is! Dont stop improving. Get coached, work on your game. Also keep improving your mental game, and dont lose your will to grind and put in the hours. 20k-30k hands per months should be a reasonable volume goal.
  
• If the goals above are done, maybe take some shots at 100NL. (optional)
  

Thats it guys. A big thank you to everyone who took the time to read through the mess that are my thoughts. I hope you took some enjoyment out of this, maybe some inspiration aswell. I am looking forward to a succesful year 2017, and i wish you all the best of luck at the tables!