As you probably already know, Rob Yong is the force behind DTD, the new poker club planning to open in Nottingham. Readers of Rob's diary on blonde will have noted the huge swings of fortune that the club has had over the past year and a half. 
Here, Rob takes out some time from his schedule to talk a little about the club, the new gambling laws and who he thinks is the best player he's ever played against...
Chris: Your diary about DTD on Blonde started nearly 18 months ago, has had almost 1500 replies and over 50,000 views, why do you think it's been so popular?
Rob: I was one of the first people to join BP as I knew DC and TK pretty well, so I guess people knew me. After reading my WSOP diary, I sort of bonded with a few of the BP readers, but I do sometimes find it a bit surprising how many people actually do read the diary who are “guests” and “non posters”, when I have played at a casino that has not banned me, I get a lot of people telling me much they enjoy my honest approach. However, above all, the main reason why the diary is so popular is that everyone likes a story about the “little guy” versus “the big boys”, most people root for the underdog.
Chris: Obviously the diary has had many ups and downs over this long period of time, how do you personally feel at the moment with regards to club and getting a license?
Rob: The club makes me proud; Nick has done a great job on the building, assisted by Lee, our site manager. All three of us were in the same class at primary school and born on the same road, so I think its cool how we have ended up doing this. In terms of the license, we have the UK Consent, which had always been the key element for me, we had to pass so many checks to get this. The delay in the local license is very irritating, but I think even the objectors would agree that it is only a matter of “when”, not “will”, we get the local license. After having a couple of weeks to review what happened at Nottingham Magistrates Court, my view has changed, and I don’t really blame the casinos or authorities, they are all just doing their job, no one forced me to do this, so I have to take this a compulsory adjournment on the chin.
Chris: Could you see an alliance between the smaller clubs being formed against the casino giants?
Rob: I believe there has already been one formed, spearheaded by The Gutshot and The Western. However, I really fear for all of these clubs after the September 2007 Gambling Act. There are 2 key changes, one that gives the Gambling Commission the power to close a venue (instead of the police), and the other that restricts the prize money that can be played for in a private members club (currently there is no limit), basically these clubs will be under the same laws as “poker in the pub” and even if they find a loophole for charging players, a 100 runner £20 tournament will take up their weekly prize money limit. So, I see an alliance, but I fear for its effectiveness fighting against the government, especially with all the current negative opinion on problem gambling in the UK.
Chris: Due to the club, you're now unable to set foot in most casinos in the UK, do you miss the live scene much? And if so, can online poker be enough of an alternative?
Rob: I really miss the Grosvenor festivals, especially in
Luton and Blackpool, I have a lot of friends on the UK circuit and these events were always nice due to the buy-ins being reasonable. I haven’t played a major event since the EPT Dublin last year, my mind is not on playing at the moment but maybe in 12 months I can get back to playing some tournaments. I’ve also had some family problems so this has restricted my travelling. I have actually always been more of an online NL cash player than a live player, and I still play for 2/3 hours every night between 12am and 3am, I find it relaxing.. I was a winner last year, over £350k, but in 2007 I am just managing to break even, I just don’t think my mind is on playing poker at the moment, I know I’m making some bad decisions with hands that I would have got away from last year. Overall though, I want to play live and online, both complement each other in my view. I’m sure I could win a major tournament if I concentrated more, now I’m nearly broke it means the prize money will mean more!
Chris: Knowing everything you do now, would you still do it all over again? And would there be anything you'd do differently?
Rob: I would definitely not do it again, it was a rash decision to begin this project. I stopped working 4 years ago and spend 2 years travelling round the world gambling. When I decided to spend more time in the UK, I found that my businesses were actually running better without me, so I think I was at a loose end and that’s when DTD started. On the plus side I have made new friends, created some jobs and kept myself busy, but being honest, I really underestimated how difficult the licensing side of this venture was, and clearly this has come back to bite me. In terms of doing things differently, I guess I would be more responsible financially and have treated DTD as a business, just being generally more professional. I don’t have many regrets in my life, I know I’m a lucky person and I’m sure I won’t regret DTD when the club opens and I have some good times there. Its just a tough time at the moment, but I have found myself dealing with all the problems pretty well. I worked really hard till I was 30, and I think I was a quite rusty when I started this venture and made a few basic mistakes, but I feel sharp again now.
Chris: With Michael Greco winning the Cardiff GUKPT, and Dave Colclough winning the following one in Manchester plus Richard Ashby also making the final table, have the DTD players exceeded expectations?
Rob: We’ve not really performed as well at the EPT’s, especially Monte Carlo, but to be honest, I think this is because many of us are too busy to play at the moment. For example, I rate Actionjack highly, but he has not had the time to play, hopefully this will change in 2008, I hope that all of our poker players will get more chances to play and represent DTD. We are very happy with the GUKPT wins by Dave and Michael; they have got us good publicity in magazines etc. I’ll review the benefits that sponsoring players has given DTD at the end of the year, I know its something that will continue, but I’m sure we can improve the way that we do it and get better value.
Chris: Is the structure for the GUKPT events the sort of style you would like to see implemented for festivals at your club?
Rob: I think the GUKPT was an excellent idea and would love to play them myself, maybe Grovsvenor will re-consider their position on this when they see that DTD will work with them, not against them. I envisage DTD holding tournaments to suit all pockets, £1000 is a good level, it's easy to generate online qualifiers and it's not so expensive that it prices out the “non professional player”. From what I have heard the structures are good as well, so certainly we will hope to hold similar events, but it's important not to compete by offering the same product.
Chris: Despite the delay in opening the live club, has the online site been able to offset some of the costs?
Rob: No in short. DTDPOKER gives all players rakeback plus other benefits as well as holding DTD special added value tournaments. Consequently, our margins are very low, we have lost money on the online business every month so far, although I guess costs could have been kept lower but I think marketing is very important in this sector, so maybe the benefits will be more long term. I know quite a few people who are in the online poker industry, times are very tough at the moment, it is no longer the gravy train of 2/3 years ago, many online poker skins are losing money every month, even those that are more established that DTDPOKER. Poker players think that these online rooms are making a fortune, generally, its actually not the case, but I find that businesses don’t like to admit they are losing money, its never been a problem for me, I’m used to it. I never made a profit in my first 5 years in business.
Chris: Harrah's have recently announced a European-based WSOP, is that something that DTD would look to get involved with in the future?
Rob: It was only a matter of time before WSOP and WPT moved into Europe. I just hope that the market is not over saturated with large buy-in poker tournaments. I think the EPT more than caters for the European market, their only constraint is finding venues and I think the EPM and other tours showed us how hard the EPT is to compete with. Dusk Till Dawn would be a great venue for an EPT, WSOP or WPT event, 
but I think the location (not being in London) will be a problem. We have talked to plenty of people, I’d like to hold a variety of events for all pockets.
Chris: Finally, on a more personal level, who is the best player you've ever faced and why?
Rob: I have played with most of the “names” but the best player that I have ever faced is Gus Hansen, based on one hand he played at the Amsterdam Master Classics on my table. He called a raise with 77 from the BB and the flop came T73 rainbow. He check-called the flop and turn but when the river paired the board, he checked and took 2 minutes to call his opponents river bet, he finally said “I think I am beat, but I just can’t fold this hand”, before flipping over his full house and losing to his opponent's TT full house. How many players can lose the minimum here, he went on to make Day 2, but turned up 2 hours late and had been anted away to the felt!