The life of David dhilton12Hilton (pictured) has been quite a roller coaster over the last 18 months. Hilton, like other Americans, was uprooted on Black Friday and had to move to another country in order to continue playing online poker. He ultimately wound up in Costa Rica sans his family, but through the help of the Poker Refugees relocation service, recently reunited. Now, he’s headed straight north to Toronto, Canada.

PocketFives caught up with Hilton, who sits at #48 in the PocketFives Poker Rankings, to talk about his post-Black Friday saga.

PocketFives: Catch us up on your decision to move to Costa Rica to play poker.

David Hilton: After Black Friday, which was a disaster, I hit the live scene and lost 60% of my bankroll that summer. So, I decided to try to start grinding online again. Having a family and everything, poker was our livelihood, so my brothers and I decided to move to Costa Rica to start playing again.

PocketFives: Did your family come with you to Costa Rica initially?

David Hilton: They had to stay behind in the United States because I had no idea what I was getting myself into in another county with online poker. This was right before I heard about Poker Refugees. It took us nearly a month before we were online again.

PocketFives: When did your family initially come down? How did that relocation go?

David Hilton: After I got back online, I found out about Poker Refugees and used them to relocate us to a better part of Costa Rica, Jaco Beach (pictured), and they helped get us bank accounts and a nicer place to stay with a million times better internet. After about a month, I decided to move my wife and daughter down here for the upcoming year and they helped me get a passport for my little girl while I was here and my wife was at home. Poker Refugees definitely made living in another country much easier.

PocketFives: How frustrating was it to go through all of that after Black Friday? Did you ever think of leaving the industry entirely?

David Hilton: It was probably the most difficult thing I’ve been through. Leaving my kids and wife was horrible, but I never thought about leaving the industry because it is our livelihood and I know in the long-run it’s going to pay off. It just makes me hungrier to play my best and get better every day so I can keep providing for my family.

PocketFives: Did your poker career change after being in Costa Rica? You’re at over $2.2 million in tracked cashes in your PocketFives profile.

David Hilton: I travel a lot. I have been in and out of Costa Rica at least 12 times since I moved there. My poker career has changed a lot too in terms of my results. I’m currently #1 in the TLB for PokerStars, so that calls for a demanding grind schedule, and it has been really hard trying to keep up between traveling home and grinding.

PocketFives: What piece of advice would you give to someone relocating?

David Hilton: I would definitely go through Poker Refugees if you are going to move. I’m currently in Toronto and if I would have gone through Poker Refugees from the beginning, it would have saved me a couple thousand dollars and a lot of time. I know some of the guys who went through them from the beginning and they were up and running with in a week.

PocketFives: The hot topic right now is the return of Full Tilt on November 6. Talk about the possibility of playing on Full Tilt again and what you thought of the PokerStars takeover in general.

David Hilton: Fortunately, I didn’t play on Full Tilt as much and won’t be playing on there because of the TLB race on PokerStars, at least until after the first of the year. But, I think it’s exciting and it keeps hope alive that poker will come back to the U.S. PokerStars took it over, so if online poker does get regulated, they can get a license right away, which would be a dream come true for me personally.