When poker pros have been recruited into other poker businesses, I have often felt that certain poker pros could have contributed a lot more than just wearing the logos and playing poker(if the business had asked them to), and often this has resulted in deals coming to a premature end, when the "business people" feel they have not received enough "value" for their outlay.
On the flip side, I have also come accross certain pros who have no interest in promoting the business that they are represnting and are simply happy to "make the most of it" while it lasts. As far as I am concerned, everyone must more than pay for themselves to work with DTD, but DTD must also provide support and give clear targets to all of the individuals involved.
I was supposed go to Tenerife today on business with Nick, but true to form, I lost my passport last night, so I missed the 2pm flight today. I only realised after the "home game" that was flimed by Channel 4 last night in my pub, the presenter joined me, Chubbs, Actionjack, Kev O'Connell, Nick, Mpower, Chunkymick, Tony Minnis and Nick Singh for a £100 NL cash game, it was good fun until 1am when Nick said "don't forget your passport tomorrow!". Life, eh......what a plonker!
It looks like I'll miss the next 2 EPT's in Barcelona and London due to work and family commitments. I really miss playing live poker, but my mind is just not on it at the moment. I am still playing online a couple of hours a night (6 tables though) and managed to win $67,000 in August according to my Poker Tracker. What I can't understand is that I although I had transferred all of my winnings into my back account during the month, I only have £1,600 in my current account today! A lot of the DTD expenses seem to be paid in cash, so I guess that must be it. Every phone call or email I get at the moment seems to be reducing my cashflow, but I can stretch to the £30 freezout at the Blondebash this Saturday, altough I may need to get draw there..seriously, my personal finances are depleted to say the least.
It was sad to hear the news about DC leaving Blondepoker, I remember when he first told me of the BP concept at the WPT 5 Diamonds a couple of years ago. He was very exited about working with TK and creating a genuine poker community. In my view an excellent job was done over the first 12 - 18 months, creating easily the best poker forum in the UK, and attracting poker players of all levels to post on the site.
There was without doubt a window of opportunity to take BP to the next "commerical level", but I don't think the vast majority of the members actually wanted this, and consequently, it did not happen as successfully as was hoped. Nevertheless, these is a very strong community of people here, and I am sure that if everyone shows their loyalty and support to the site (ie. playing in the BP card room), it will continue to be the best forum around. Certainly these are lots of synergies that I hope DTD can have with BP in the future, both in terms of the social and business side, and we will do everything we can to support the BP site and community as DC and TK have helped DTD a lot over the last 12 months.
I feel a bit sorry for Nightfly, Yogi Bear and Aces Trumper. The delays in the licencing process for the Dusk Till Dawn Club have meant they have been left kicking there heals while the rest of us we have been focussing on the online side. However, short of saying "screw the licence", this has been unavoidable. Hopefully they can become more invloved as we commence the re-fit on the 1st October and feel more part of things. There is a lot of planning and work to be done for the club, and I am meeting with Aces next week to start toi kick this process off.
This project just gets bigger and bigger for me, I am truly finding it equally as diffilcult as when I was the full time MD of sfgroup, maybe because I have little experience in this field. I do find some parts of the project enjoyable, but most of it is very time consuming and tedius. I can't wait till I can see the wood from the trees, relax in the VIP room with my friends and log onto dtdpoker.com after a few beers when I return home from the club! I guess we are 6 months away from this, but I have good people to help me deliver this.
See you all at the Blondebash - I want £1 for my charity for evey person who asks me those fatal words, "so when is the club opening, Rob?"
