Bond18 - Around the World in 90 Days

Posted by Bond18 | Filed under Bond18

I was asked to write an intro post for the trip I am taking. Instead of giving you the usual BS, I’ve decided to drop some Q&A knowledge on everyone to let you know what I’m all about. Enjoy…

Q. What is it?

A. I go on a trip starting from Melbourne and ending in Melbourne within 90 days to play high-stakes poker tournaments around the globe. The stops include the Party Poker Million cruise in the Mediterranean, the Grand Prix de Paris in France, WPT Barcelona in Spain, the WSOP and Bellagio Cup in Las Vegas, and a stopover in Wisconsin so I can see my friends and family for the first time in a year. At the end of every day I come home to my laptop and write up what happened over the course of the day and in the tournaments.

Q. Why?

A. Because I’m kind of bored sitting in front of my computer 10-tabling for nine hours every day. Live poker is fun in a makes you wish you were doing anything in the world but playing live poker sort of way, and skipping the WSOP is equity suicide. I’ve never been to Europe and this seemed like the perfect excuse to go. It also seemed like a good opportunity to do a lot of writing. Most of all, it just seemed like a fun and memorable thing to do with my time. You know, the kind of thing I’ll brag about to make other people feel bad when I get older and can’t compete anymore; “I’ve seen the world and you haven’t. Look how cool I am.”

Q. Who are you?

A. My legal name is George Anthony Dunst but most people call me Tony. Online I’m known as Bond18. In Australia they call me Lucky Tony D (and then laugh at me). I play about 15-20 tournaments online every day and post as well as moderate in the MTT forums at Two Plus Two, which is where I learned the majority of my poker ability. I also write articles for PocketFives and Poker News and keep an often updated blog at Two Rags.

Q. How many tournaments will you play?

A. I’ve been trying to figure this out lately; I think it’s going to be in the area of 50. Last year I did just the WSOP and Bellagio Cup and I ended up playing 30 events, so I figure playing another month live and going even harder in Vegas this time around should result in about 50.

Q. How much will that cost?

A. The travel expenses and everything will likely cost around $15,000. The tournament buy ins will cost around $100,000 in total, though I think it might be higher this time around considering I’m playing some events in Euro’s, and one Euro is worth like $32,000 now.

Q. How are you paying for this?

A. I’m backed my Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald. AKA “Rich Uncle Timex”. AKA “Richie Rich”. AKA “Sugardaddy”. I’ve been playing my serious live poker under Timex for about a year now and at the moment I’m in make up for about $90,000, though it’s been as high as $125,000. We operate under a 60 to him 40 to me with make up deal, which is pretty much the standard in the industry for long-term deals.

Q. Will Timex be coming with you to any of these?

A. He will indeed, as well as a number of other fairly well known online players for certain portions of the trip. Timex will be there for the whole of the European section of the trip, steering the wheel of the Hindenburg that is my career.

Q. How do you stay motivated through all these live tournaments?

A. You don’t, you really don’t. You wake up crying every day, but you suck down three Red Bulls, two coffees and tell yourself the money is already lost then go in there and give it everything you got. Despite all of this, I normally only last about twice as long as in a tournament as I do in the sack − so about 4 minutes.

Q. Why are you doing this through/with Full Tilt?

A. Because I like their tournaments and because they paid me.

Q. Do you think you’ll win anything?

A. Win in totality? Hell no. The fields in most of these will be huge, so the variance is enormous for this kind of thing. I’ll be happy if I final table just one tournament on the whole trip and don’t end the entire thing down $60,000 like I did last year.

Q. Wouldn’t it make more sense to just play online instead, monetarily?

A. Well sure, but when you consider that its Timex’s money I’m lighting on fire it’s not that risky, now is it?

Q. What made you want to write the whole trip?

A. I did something less formal last year for the WSOP, and all jokes aside getting, the support of everyone really does help the motivation. I also find the writing very cathartic at the end of my day, and putting it all down on paper helps me relax and clear my head before I sleep. Also, I’m getting paid for it this time, which is pretty awesome.

Q. Is it true that when it comes to poker, you’re the baddest mother fucker of all time?

A. Would I shout it at everyone I meet if it weren’t?

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