Diary of a retired internet policeman.

[GreekStein]

Great update,Cos.

Take it you're building a house for that bear in the picture?  No way that can share with you lot

Post was very braggy, and quite right, too! Glad you're doing so well.

Agree with all of this. So great that a forum legend is doing so well!

Ditto

thanks Boo!

[George2Loose]

Nice update Cossy Wossy- congrats mate. You lived the dream and made it

[Marky147]

Great update,Cos.

Take it you're building a house for that bear in the picture?  No way that can share with you lot

Post was very braggy, and quite right, too! Glad you're doing so well.

He's a puppy at the moment. That's actually the father but he will be as big.

We are in a big house right now with a big garden so plenty of space for them!

Thanks mate, hope youre keeping well.

Mental, we have a cocker spaniel that manages to cause chaos. Wants to be big, with a lump like that floating about, especially if that's not the big one!

I'm almost the same weight I was when I last saw you in 2011, having given myself a trip up to 275 in between, so all good thanks

[sovietsong]

great to hear from you mate, lovely posts & pleased you're doing well & are happy. 

I would restart my blog about my love of cos, but i don't think the people are ready for it yet.

[tikay]

Abso superb update Mr Cos, loved every word of it.

Loved the story of owning the PLO games. Have you had any coaching, or just self-improved? You were always handy enough, not suggesting otherwise, but it sounds like you have gone up a few gears.

Your little girl is gorgeous.

So nice to read a story like this, where everything has clicked into place.

Do you think your character & personality has changed much since the days when you were, well, you know, a bit confrontational & Mr Angry-ish?

[Woodsey]

Great stuff, always glad to hear of people having a pair of bollox, taking life by the horns coming out on top and being happy as a result, really pleased for you  

[mondatoo]

Nice one Cos, keep crushing life!

[marcro]

Like the others say, really good to see things have gone so well for you.

Where abouts are your based in Thailand?

Thankyou!

I'm now based in central Bangkok, a place I never thought I would be. The first 3-4 times I came here I absolutely hated it.

All my friends from Phuket started moving and the community for me was one of the coolest things about my time there. One of my mates persuaded me to come and stay with him and he showed me a different side of Bangkok and I enjoyed it. It's been great for me in terms of my friends, networking, etc etc but I'm definitely less healthy and active here than I was in Phuket but neither are places I can see myself long term. For right now I don't want to be anywhere else.

There's a lot more I can rabbit on about this subject.

"he showed me a different side of Bangkok and I enjoyed it".....  I think most peoples initial view on living in Bangkok would be the same as your intial view, can you elaborate on what you discovered to change your mind?

[Kev B]

Great up date Cos. Beautiful baby daughter.

[GreekStein]

Bravo re Cos. So glad it’s going so well for you fam then poker obv.

Thankyou.

One thing that's gotten a little harder for me as time has gone on is being so far from my family. I wish more than anything that my parents could be closer to Natalie. You understand what us Greeks are like. It's very tough, particularly for my mum that I'm so far away (and this year my sister is studying in Spain which makes it a tiny bit worse) but now she's just had her first Grandchild she really finds it difficult not being here to witness every week of her growth and development.

This is something which could make me move back to the UK in a few years time. I've not experienced a winter in 7 years or and that's just lovely.

When Natalie was a month old I flew my parents out here. They were mentioning how the flight is tiring and uncomfortable in the run up to the trip so I surprised them by flying them over in Business which they loved but my poor mum who is just the loveliest person ever was very upset to have to leave. It would be great for Natalie to grow up in Thailand for everything it has to offer but it would be just as great for her to grow up around my big family too. Mulling all this over a lot lately.

[GreekStein]

Nice update Cossy Wossy- congrats mate. You lived the dream and made it

Thankyou!

Haven't quite 'made it' yet but after falling a bit behind where I would have liked to be poker wise, I'm happy now that I'm on a better path for want of a better word.

[GreekStein]

great to hear from you mate, lovely posts & pleased you're doing well & are happy. 

I would restart my blog about my love of cos, but i don't think the people are ready for it yet.

Thanks CTV.

I definitely think people are ready.

What are you upto these days? It's been a long long time since we chatted.

[GreekStein]

Abso superb update Mr Cos, loved every word of it.

Loved the story of owning the PLO games. Have you had any coaching, or just self-improved? You were always handy enough, not suggesting otherwise, but it sounds like you have gone up a few gears.

Your little girl is gorgeous.

So nice to read a story like this, where everything has clicked into place.

Do you think your character & personality has changed much since the days when you were, well, you know, a bit confrontational & Mr Angry-ish?

Thanks Teeks. How are you doin? I've massively slumped off with reading diaries these days.

I'm still certainly far from great at PLO. I've no doubt they'd bash me right up if I was to play $5/10 PLO on stars for example. I had 3-4 coaching sessions with a guy which helped a little and 2 sessions with a mindset coach. The mindset coaching i found a bit of a waste of money. Maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance but the coach telling me to imagine myself on a beach being calm etc seemed like nonsense to me. How does that help me when I'm in a casino and just lost a 1500bb pot and am trying to not tilt my hairy greek gonads off? Ahhh yeah I'll close my eyes, pretend im making a f*cking sandcastle covered in factor 30 somewhere in the Caribbean and then move onto the next hand. I know I'm being a bit sceptical but really I think it was a gradual process to get better at not tilting and maintaining a good temperament. Don't get me wrong, I still look at certain friends who have a bit of a robotic approach and think of how much money it must save/make them by never tilting, but I've improved so much.

The majority of my learning has been done through my friends. Whilst there's not much poker talk these days, a few years ago it was constant and the group of guys I'm friends with have all had good success both live and online. Most rewardingly for me, everyone of my friends plays so differently and I think we all took valuable things from each other.

All that said, most important is I have much much less ego now. I realise I'm no Ben86 and never ever will be. I just play to my strengths well and get myself in good games. The fact that I'm one of the looser pros you'll find is definitely a huge help too. Just over 6 months ago I played one of the best private games I'm ever likely to play in. The organiser was taking a piece of any pro playing as is pretty standard for private games. However, at the last minute the VIP said he didn't want more than 1 pro at the table at a time. I was given the nod to play first because the VIP liked me best. I'm happy to give action, I will talk, do flips, not lock it up when winning etc etc. A lot of these things a lot of pros won't do. Fortunately I'm happy to do things like this and add value in other ways and whilst I do it because it's just the way I am, it also equates to extra $$$ in the end.

I will answer your last question later! That will be quite a topic to try and tackle.

[GreekStein]

Great stuff, always glad to hear of people having a pair of bollox, taking life by the horns coming out on top and being happy as a result, really pleased for you  

Thanks Woodsey.

I definitely went about so many things in the wrong way and whilst I still enjoy the game, I used to be so obsessed by it and want to do nothing else. I knew I had to give it a shot. We only live once and I wanted to try and do what I loved. Fortunately I was at the right age where I didn't need for much, had a lot of energy to grind and most importantly the poker games were always good. I think back to how bad I was 7 years ago but still able to churn out a living.

When are you back to Asia?

[GreekStein]

Nice one Cos, keep crushing life!

Thankyou mate - post an update to your diary every few months or so if you can. I always enjoyed reading it and keeping up with what you were up to in the format easiest to understand you in... writing!