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Those juicy cash games I was enjoying so much this spring unfortunately dried up. After a few more weeks of great action, a lot of the players moved on to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker. I traveled there myself in the middle of June to play a few events, but unfortunately I had to skip the Main Event. I had a pretty good reason, though. I was taking a trip to Russia.

Why Russia? I have a friend who has been living in Moscow for the last six months. He's a Mexican chef and was hired to come over there and open a restaurant. He adapted really well to the country and is already planning a second restaurant. Since moving there, he's been urging me and our group of friends to come over and visit him. However, our time was running out to take this trip because my roommate is getting married in a few months. So we found a perfect solution. We decided to have his bachelor party in Moscow!

This is not Russia.

Even though the timing conflicted with the Main Event, I really wanted to go. I thought I might get to visit Moscow someday, but never with a friend who is living there. Having a 'local' guide would make it much easier to get around and I'd also have someone there who spoke the same language as me. All the street signs in Moscow are in that funky alphabet and without him I think I'd get lost pretty quickly!

I also had the opportunity to spend a week in London after EPT Monte Carlo. My girlfriend is studying art history and she was about to start a three-month contemporary art program there. When it comes to art, I'm kind of a donk. I love looking at it, but when I'm at a museum, I never know where to go. So having her as my tour guide was perfect. My favorite place we visited in London was the Tate Modern. They had a special exhibit going on, a Lichtenstein retrospective. I really enjoyed it and learned so much. My girlfriend loves to tell me about all the different artists, their backgrounds, what their process is like, and the meanings behind their work. Before I was just looking at paintings on a wall. Now I have some deeper understanding and it makes the whole museum experience so much more interesting. So far, the Impressionists are my favorite.

Next time, I'll make sure to tell you guys all about our little Mexican invasion of Russia!

Christian 'el grillo' de León is a member of Team PokerStars Pro.

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