We had our first project meeting at my sf group offices on Wednesday. It started at 2pm and we did not finish till 10pm due to the amount of stuff we had to get through. It was the first time that all 6 people that I've recruited have been together and I tried to make sure that everyone felt comfortable. We all had plenty to say and sometimes this made it difficult to remain focused on the key points that need addressing now. However, the enthusiam is high and everyone seems really motivated. Aces (Mr Trumper) and Nighfly has some really good ideas about how poker should be carried out it the club, and Darren has discovered some great system that uses membership cards for payment instead of cash.
[51] 19th February 2006 15:38
[50] 15th February 2006 10:51
Paul "The Marbaya Kid" Zimbler popped in to my house yesterday as he is in England for a few days. I showed him round the premises as he was one of the first people to set a card room up in Spain, so it was definately worth getting his opinion.
[49] 10th February 2006 18:43
Chubbs and me have spent all week speaking to various online poker rooms and all the feedback has been very positive. We sent them all a written specification of the DTD requirements and they sent us their answers back. What was surprising was the differences in their charges. Some rooms want to charge you a helfty price for the set up of the site, some charge a support monthly fee, othes just charge a % of rake and there are numerous scales of rake splits etc. It's a minefield of information that needs disecting and analysing before we make any further decisions. It may be necessary to get on a plane and meet some of these people but we'll cross that bridge when we have narrowed down the shortlist.
[48] 6th February 2006 16:25
Chubbs has come down Nottingham for this week so we can concentrate on sorting out the online side of the business. Me, Pete (poker name Shrek) and Chubbs had lunch with Paul "No Action" Jack in Birmingham to get some advice out of him as it's a bit of a mine field. Trouble is every time we asked him a question he told us another poker story. When the UK online guru, Action Jack, plays live poker, he told us he gets a bit nervous so he takes his mouse from his PC and keeps it in his pocket, what an honest guy. Apparently it ran out of batteries when he was head-up against Phil Ivey in the Monte Carlo Millions.
[47] 3rd February 2006 03:29
Well, it looks like my short relationship with the nicest decked out casino in the UK is over. One of the guys who I got asked to leave with called my today as said he had a letter saying that he was "no longer welcome as a member or guest".
[46] 1st February 2006 13:16
It was really dissapointing to hear another Card Club, The Cavendish, is being procecuted. When I met with the Gaming Board they did tell me that they will shut every single card club down that falls within UK laws so I shouldn't be surprised. However, I do believe that by 2009 (after the 2007 gaming review), there will be new laws for Card Clubs which make it practical for them to run at a modest profit whilst not operating illegally. Unfortnately these laws will not come soon enough for DTD. In real terms these are the rough costs of being legal in the UK:
[45] 31st January 2006 01:56
We have now instructed 3 fit out contacting firms to come up with their best design and ball park costings for the refurbishment. After the visit to the casino exibition we should now be able to to begin negotiating on prices for the card room fixtures such as chips and tables. This mean at the end of February we should have a more accurate "total pre opening investment" cost broken down into:
[44] 28th January 2006 21:35
I managed to get kicked out of the Broadway Casino this afternoon, I was having a meeting and I think the Manager overheard me talking about casino licences and a poker club and asked us to leave, I'm not sure if this means that I cannot play in their festival in 2 weeks time, guess I'll find out if I try to get in.
[43] 24th January 2006 02:37
I read the full thread on the Luton main event final and see again that a deal was done. Most of us have been in positions when a deal has been done, personally I have never wanted to do a deal, but for one reason or another I've have agreed to it. Whether it be that I was being colluded against, made to feel guilty, or the majority wanted it...............most of the time I agreed, to reduce the "hassle factor".
[42] 20th January 2006 23:38
I went to Luton yesterday to have a meeting about the club with a poker table supplier. I had told myself that I would not play the £750 NL event and purposely did not take an overnight bag. However, I ended up playing and going out 11th, typical. I was 2nd chip cleader and clashed with Geoff Duvall, the chip leader, getting all my chips in with a set of 5's v top pair only for him to hit runner runner gutshut straight and knock me out. I think I was around 96% favourire when all the money went in on the flop and I'm gutted. On the positive side it shows me how much the game still means to me although the club has sort of taken over most of my time the last 6 months. God to play with a few blondites aswell.