It may not be November 5th, but it’s been fireworks a plenty over the last several days at highly acclaimed poker club Dusk Till Dawn as owner Rob Yong announced a few surprise changes to the weekly schedule.
“I was finally looking forward to relaxing and enjoying playing a bit of poker with my friends,” said Rob. “However, everything has run at a million miles per hour and DTD just feels like ‘another one of my businesses’, rather than the type of ‘escape’ from the business world that my football club provides me with.”
Rob then went on to say that in order to maintain the club’s exceptionally high standards, he felt obliged to make the following changes which will be effective as of today, Monday 4th August:
• We will only be opening five days a week to allow us time to be more organised and focus on quality rather than quantity – and have a break
• Opening hours have been reduced from 80 to 40 so that we can provide a higher quality of service with much more of a personal approach
• Staff will get two days off a week and have better work/life balance - plus they can now all attend my Christmas do instead of having to work
• Every night, either Simon Trumper, myself or Nick will be in the card room to liaise with customers and staff – and maybe play a bit as well
• No more rebuys, I have brought back the £75 Friday freezeout to replace the £20 rebuy
• The Tuesday £30 re-buy has also been canned
• We averaged 100 runners for the £30 Scalp so I have kept this but moved it to Sunday evenings, I hope this will be okay for ‘scalpers’
Thus, the new weekly schedule looks as such:
Mondays: Closed
Tuesdays: Closed
Wednesdays: (8pm) £25 NLH F/O
Thursdays: (8pm) £50 NLH F/O
Fridays: (8pm) £75 NLH F/O
Saturdays: (8pm) £50 NLH F/O
Sundays: (8pm) £100 NLH F/O & (8.15pm) £30 NLH Scalp F/O
Although Rob is constantly emphasising that this is a poker club for him and his friends, he still receives criticism from all angles. Comments on various blogs and forums led to Rob posting the following on the blonde poker forum:
“My friends are not gonna criticise DTD in public and the club has been built for them. If you criticise DTD and I don't know you or don't like you, you will get barred if I get to see it. We have a suggestions box for our members and I personally read every comment, so anyone that decides to criticise DTD publicly is doing it to be malicious.”
One change that may have come to the surprise of many poker enthusiasts is the sudden departure of Paul Jackson. A defining presence since its construction two years ago, 'Actionjack' was one of the most popular players at the Club with his Masterclass being well received by all who attended. With so many members of staff falling by the wayside of late, it was hoped that Paul would be a firm fixture at the club for years to come, but sadly it wasn't to be.
Inevitably, the two parties agreed to go their separate ways with Rob releasing the following announcement: "I sat down personally with Paul Jackson and we came to an agreement for him to leave DTD. Details will remain private, I have the utmost respect for Paul and that will remain so."
Of course, the monthly 3-2-1 has continued as normal, and this weekend was met with respectable attendances as 115 turned up for the £300 main event. Of those notable in their presence were circuit regulars Nick Slade, Dave Smith, Julian Thew and Steve Jelinek as well as a host of blondeites that included Rick ‘Action Man’ Trigg, Jen ‘Djinn’ Mason, Brent ‘Horneris’ Horner and TV’s own Tony ‘tikay’ Kendall.Michael Humphries (left) may have held a sumptuous lead with 92,300, Paul Hardy leading the chasing pack in second with 68,000, but the story of the day was an incredible hand involving poker legend Lucy Rokach. Having called an all-in from the big blind, and then again after Paul Lammas had pushed behind, Lucy’s 7-2 managed to hit a dramatic A-Q-2-x-2 board against A-9 and K-Q respectively. To say her two opponents were disgruntled would be an understatement.
Nevertheless, and perhaps in the absence of serial victor Chris Bruce, Michael Humphries would transform his overnight lead into a win of £10,375 as he chopped heads up with Thomas Grundy. Mickey Wernick also performed well in fourth, and Tony Salmon will no doubt be tickled pink to be taking home £4,696 for third.
1st Michael Humphries -- £10,375
2nd Thomas Grundy -- £8,939
3rd Tony Salmon -- £4,698
4th Mickey Wernick -- £3,132
5th Matthew Wadham -- £2,262
6th Chris Cancelliere -- £1,566
7th Lee Rawson -- £1,218
8th Daniel Ward -- £870
9th Stuart Langford -- £696
However, the big news of the week was perhaps Rob Yong’s announcements. Only time will tell if his changes will have the desired effect, but if they do, you can rest assured that Dusk Till Dawn will retain its post as the UK’s finest poker venue.