The Stanley's staff all seemed to know who I was aswell, it was all a bit wierd. Anyone, I think the Stanley' card room was great, dealer all dealt, firm but fair management and really nice comfortable surroundings, I really enjoyed it and am crossing my fingers that I don't get a letter in the post barring me.
When LCI open, there will be 3 ten table card rooms in Nottingham, hopefully poker will grow rather than be spread around the card rooms. However, I expect players will get some great deals with the increased competition. I have to be honest, I can see a strong argument that we have enough casino choices in Nottingham now, but Dusk Till Dawn is not a casino (as I keep saying to anyone that will listen), we will be targeting a different clientele, athough I'm not saying casino players are not welcome.
A magazine emailed me some questions yesterday, one was "what do you want Dusk Till Dawn to be?", its a bit of an open question, but an important one. Hear is my answer, as always, broken down into 10 bulllet points, but in no particular order
1. Quite small fields (40-80) in the daily comps, deeper stack freezouts, maybe 1 beginners night for £10, but the rest ranging from £50 to £200, pre dominatley NL hold'em
2. A "select" membership, serious poker players (by "serious", this can include beginners who aspire to be Phil Helmuth"
3. Respect for the facilties and eachother, dress smart but feel comfortable
4. A "community" feel, not a "public" feel
5. Hold the biggest field in Europe within the first 18 months of opening - 1000+ runners
6. A monthly £500+ comp which gets 200+ runners
7. Non-dtd major comps such as APAT, EPT etc to be able to use DTD's facilites
8. To be the centre of cash games in the UK, and host the highest stakes in a safe enviroment
9. To replicate the "internet" experience in a live environment eg. more 6 handed cash games/STT's
10. To stop losing money lol
To develop this club, I want to start small, I definatley do not want all of Gala, Stanleys and LCI's poker players piling into DTD, nor do I want late drinkers dropping in after night on the town (or from the lap dancing club next door) to take advantage of our 24hour licence. I want DTD to have some exclusivity, for members to feel it is their club, not "jo public's". This is what my mind if focussing on now, how to do this, how to acheive this environment, how to make sure its a poker players club, safe and comfortable. When people say to me "that club is going to be packed full every night", I'm thinking, "No, it won't be".
How to do this needs to be worked out over the next 12 weeks, maybe put a sigh up saying "genuine poker players only", but can't see that working somehow.
