blonde poker forum

Background

DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/) has now been open for nearly 8 months. After the exhausting 2 year fight to legally open the UK’s first poker club, I was finally looking forward to relaxing and enjoying playing a bit of poker with my friends.  However, everything has run at a million miles per hour and DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/) 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.

I do not want to take anything away from the achievements of the DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/) team, they have expanded the operation to 7 days, established the monthly 321 weekend and already hosted 6 major festivals including the Norwegian Championships which broke the UK record with 514 runners.

However, running another “large business” is never what I wanted; my goal was to create a unique poker experience based on the personal approach, high quality service and something very different from the casino poker model.

Problems with Expansion

•   We now employ over 100 staff - we have even had to employ agency staff who do not know our customers from Adam

•   We have evolved into an impersonal  “casino style management structure”

•   We have recently been doing “casino style re-buy events” to fill extra days

•   Myself and Nick have no time to play at the club ourselves which is a joke considering that was the initial driving force behind starting this venture

•   The club is open for 80 hours a week and we don’t even get time to get to know half the people that come in

•   The service has become less personal and the original DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/) concept has been diluted

•   The behaviour of some customers has deteriorated as has the overall attitude of the card room staff who are overworked

•   The quality of the dealing and other areas has dropped


Changes

In a nutshell, DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/) has turned into a REAL GRIND and I have decided to make the following changes from Monday 4th August

•   We will only be opening 5 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 2 days off a week and have better work/life balance- plus they can now all attend my Xmas 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 re-buys, I have brought back the £75 Friday freezeout to replace the £20 re-buy

•    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”

•   Of course the monthly 321’ will continue and we will throw in a few major events with good structures but we will have more time to make these occasions a better and higher quality experience

I only made this decision over the weekend after my Mum asked me why I don’t go to the club anymore.

Whilst I appreciate this is short notice - if I had wanted a 7 day casino, I would have purchased one in the first place.

DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/) already has over 8,000 members who visit 1,000 times per week, this is quite amazing but I am putting the brakes on, it has always been public knowledge that I only ever wanted to open 4/5 days per week, with no re-buy comps and run DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/) as a relaxed, enjoyable and niche business.


New Weekly Schedule

Below is the new schedule effective from next week, Monday 4th August;

Monday   Closed

Tuesday    Closed

Wednesday   7.30pm   3.30pm      8.00pm   £25 NL Freezeout

Thursday     7.30pm   3.30pm      8.00pm   £50 NL Freezeout

Friday      7.30pm   3.30pm      8.00pm   £75 NL Freezeout

Saturday   7.30pm   3.30pm      8.00pm   £50 NL Freezeout

Sunday   7.30pm   3.30pm      8.00pm   £100 NL Freezout

                                     8.15pm   £30 NL Scalp

When the card room software has been tested, we intend to introduce 6 handed NL comps


People who know me won’t be surprised by this; my attendance at the club has become less and less frequent as DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/) has expanded and become more “successful” from a business point of view. I virtually play no poker now as it has become work and that is definitely not what was intended.

I can’t blame the DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/) team for wanting to drive things forward and be ambitious but as Delboy said to me over the weekend on UK Gold, “lovely jubbly - you know it makes sense”.

Cheers Rob


 

Brave move Rob. Well played.

Hi Rob,

We havent met as I have not yet had the opportunity to visit DTD, (the drawbacks to living in Jersey, sigh).

I am quite suprised your post has not received more replies (positive ones) so far.

Having followed the original DTD thread closely I think you are making the right decision here on the basis of what you want from the club.

Good luck, and I hope to get up there soon. (note to self, dont visit on a Monday or Tuesday).

Alex

p.s. yes I know the thread is only an hour old but it has been read many times so far !!

+1

Makes Sense Rob, Good Move.......

Knowing full well what the base thought was for wanting to open DTD in the first place, I am not in the least bit surprised by the decision taken. Rob always put Customer experience at the very top of his wish list, and if the team feels that this is waning due to pressure on staff, then its a no brainer. unhappy/overworked/under pressure staff spreads a mood ... and as the atmosphere at DTD is so unique, it deserves protecting.

Still the best place in the UK to go for a night of poker, and I would rather go there on a monday and tuesday night and sit in the car park than go to some other venues when they are open !!

PS. Franchise and get one open in Portsmouth ffs ;)

Nice to see the principle of the club is more important than the commercial aspect.

For what its worth i had a great weekend when i was up for the 750, the dealing staff in the cash game i was playing were all top notch, the valets were good as was the food and i felt very welcomed by both Simon's.

Most of the punters were top notch as well, however there were a few who i felt acted in a way i never expected in DTD, i remember the club was going to be very strict on its members behaviour in an effort to keep a certain ethos, i felt this was lacking a bit over the weekend.

Good luck Rob and team

For someone who fought so hard and invested so much time, money & effort into getting the club up and running including the battle for the license Rob definetely has the right to run the club as he sees fit. Much kudos to him that he has decided it isn't going in the direction he wanted when he set out on the long road and he is prepared to sacrifice financial gain to reach his goals. I take my hat off to you Rob and hopefully you can get DTD back to the dream you had all those years ago.

Perfectly understandable and I wish you good luck in the future. However, I'm not sure why rebuys have been canned. I think there is more skill to them than people think, and they can provide players with a thoroughly entertaining night's worth of poker. Perhaps I have the wrong end of the stick of that one though.

Freezeouts>>>>>>>>>>>Crazy Rebuys...

Enjoyment/Happiness>>>>>>>>>>>Business/Money


Thanks Rob...   ;applause;    :)up

As a member of staff that was losing faith, I applaude you greatly at stepping back and going back to the original concept of DTD.

Faith Restored!!!

And I hope you now can enjoy your club.

DTD is still IMO the premier poker venue in the UK and the more places I visit the more I agree. I have always found the quality superb and the big events that I have attended have been to (Blonde Bash and Virgin Festival) were both very well managed and a credit to the club.

Its a shame about losing the Holdem/Omaha double chance game as I was looking forward to that, but I am sure that the games on offer will continue to evolve and change to keep things interesting.

I hope that the next time I see Rob at DTD he is sat in a game with a monster stack enjoying himself.

Very cool that a decision like this taken after a conversation with mum and noticing the team at DTD losing some interest (through overwork).

A great lesson in getting the right perspective on things.

+1

Nicely done sir, I only have one tiny challenge with your decision.

After some real wrangling I got my employer to pay for an overnight at Eastmids next month on the 18th for a conference on the 19th, My cunning play was to get to DtD at long last...... and you go and close on a MONDAY!!!!

NOOOOOOO!!!

Back to the drawing board.

I really do salute the decision though Rob, Great to see you won't allow the standards to slip.

why has no one appreciated this yet? world class.

ldfo, would be incred.

+1

I have to say a few months ago when I was at DtD it was by a mile the best place I have ever played poker. Dealers were top class and good fun as well. Nice to see you sticking to your guns, Rob...well played.

Nice to see an employer encouraging a better work / life balance for his staff.   ;applause;

I hope you don't mind I posted your message on EMS in its entirety Rob so that it's your words explaining the changes.

Good choices Rob, following good reasoning.

Loads of respect Rob, a principled & enlightened employer  ;hattip;

Yep, as someone who never goes on a Monday or Tuesday, I think its a great idea.

Quality over Quantity, happy staff when we are there, gotta big that up

+2

A brave decision, but undoubtedly the right one. Well done Rob for remembering why you set it up in the first place.

I am a regular visitor to DTD and always enjoy it immensely, but I felt that things started to make a major turn for the worse once it started running rebuys. These are for bingo playing casino punters and DTD is a proper poker club, so it never seemed right.

Opening on a Monday and Tuesday just seemed to serve no purpose either, other than drastically cutting tournament fields and exhausting the poor old staff, a lot of whom seemed to be rapidly losing the will to live.

It is refreshing to see an entrepeneur such as yourself take a proper, honest look at how things were progressing, and then have the balls to actually do something about it.

DTD was already excellent - this development has now secured it's place at the altar of poker nirvana.

Bravo!

..oh yes, and the round of each £30 Pot Limit Tournament was a good idea - please keep it in the schedule!!

nice one rob, hope to see you at the weekend and at the deepstack festival yo.

Respectaaaaaaaa!

Glory be - we've been Robbed!

A terrific decision, & a brave one. And the Bonus of no more Rebuys - perfect!

DTD remains, by a country mile, the World's best Poker Club.

Nice one Rob.

I meant to ask, why are there no more rebuys?

Leave the rebuy crapshoots to Gala to sort out! I think shortening the opening times and days will get the place back buzzing again in a way that hasnt really been seen since the norweigans left. Still the best place around to play poker :)
Nice one Rob.

Rob

There are not very many people who would do what you are doing around slowing down the commercial gain and I respect that a great deal. You have the insight to step back and see your club was turning into something you did not intend and are obviously the kind of man who can be self critical and balanced. Its a very credible thing to do.

I visited DTD and loved it. It was pretty anonymous- some people like that but that can create the behaviour problems you desribed. I take my hat off to you because sometimes it feels like the world is a greedy place and I glad your dream doesnt subscribe to that. Maybe the next time I visit I can get a masterclass from Aces as Fran says hes pretty good :)

All the best to you for the future and DTD can only be better for what you are doing.

Mad

Re-buys I can take them or leave them (ditto live poker) but I don’t agree that they’re crapshoots. Re-buys generally create deeper stacks in the freezeout period which should make the game less or a crapshoot and also should give a greater edge to a ‘better’ player. I guess the main drawback of re-buys is that they kinda go against poker’s ethos in the sense that someone can in essence buy a stack if their pockets are deep enough, whereas  in a freezeout the only edge a good player has on a inferior player is his skill not his wallet.

[ ] £20 unlimited rebuy is a good tournament

• The return of £75 freezeout on a friday has made my week

Nice one Rob!

There are plenty of rebuys which are crapshoots, but generally I'd agree with you here.

In a freezeout you have an edge with greater skill
In a rebuy you have an edge with greater skill and a larger bankroll

True I used to play in one such crapshoot at a casino in Bristol every once in a while. Not to de-rail this thread but since the 2005 gambling act did DTD (and do other poker rooms for that matter) allow you to re-buy straight away or did you still have to reach half your starting stack or below to re-buy?

[  ] It's fun travelling all the way to a casino/card club to play a recreational tournament and then getting knocked out on the first hand
[X] Rebuys make better 'play for fun' tournaments

I love rebuys and don't get all the "there is no skill in it" nonsense. Given the choice between a 50£ freezeout or a tenner rebuy the rebuy wins every time for me.

The players who frequent DTD voted with their feet.

£50 freezeouts get up to 150+ runners, £30R/£50LR/£100R were struggling to get over 30/40.

I'm sure they do well...I am just saying, I love a good rebuy :)

Is that not more to do with the amount of the buy-in rather than whether rebuy/freezeout?  For someone who has a budget of £50 per week/month whatever for poker, those rebuys are all prohibitive.  I'll bet a £10 rebuy would easily make 150+

The lack of numbers in the £50 re-buy was having a major effect on the cash games aswell. Last tuesday by midnight there was only a 50/1 table and 2/2 omaha which is a big dissapointment if people are going down specifically for cash games.

Hi,  does anyone know if the omaha/holdem game is still on tonight? tnx.

Yes it is. The new five day schedule will begin after the 3-2-1 this weekend.

Give the club a ring, very helpful.  Number is on their website - www.dtdpoker.com

Only ever cashed in one DTD event .... that was the £20 rebuy :D

I only ever played 2 though ;)

we went to DTD for the blonde bash and were more than impressed with all aspects of the club.  so for me the worry is that the club is now going to close at 3.30?
this i think is a VERY big mistake.  will this not lead to the old "crapshoots" and no time for people to enjoy the cash games after the tournament.  while i understand the principal of cutting down,making it 50 hours a week till 5.30 might be better in the long run.

Tourneys are always finished by 3.30am anyway. I didn't notice the closing time change actually, I think I'd prefer it to be open a touch later on a friday and Sat for sure aswell, even and hour or so later would be better. Having said that there is never really more than 20 players left in after 5 am at weekends anyway.

The thing to remember is that nothing is set in stone. Eight months on and still fine-tuning.

If Rob and the crew see staying open longer as a benefit to the DTD experience, then I am sure that it will happen.

QFT

I run so bad..... Have Tuesday 5th off work (my birthday) and was going to give the scalp tourney a spin for the first time knowing I didn't have to get up for work in the morning.

Now I have to find some dump to play at where the dealers have no clue, there's no antes, the chips aren't as beautiful, the cash games are self dealt and the breaks are 30 mins instead of 10

gg life.

whats that got to do with owt you chirping one bullet fish x

Hi,

I have been to the club tonight (the last Tuesday we will open!) and spoke to a lot of people, we had 62 runners for the comp plus another 48 people come for cash games/drinks etc, I have also read the posts on this thread, so I thought it would be approriate to reply, so here goes:

1. Opening Days -  these are set in stone, these extra 2 days will really allow us to plan and organise DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/) a lot better, the quality of service has dipped below what I consider to be acceptable even though we still get plenty of compliments, myself and Nick have "other jobs" as well as DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/) and the strain on the other members of the management team of supporting a 7 day operation + planning 3rd party events + planning festivals  has been way too much. I do not want to recruit more people into the management team as this will dilute the passion, In 2009 we will have 12 3rd party events, 12 321's weekends and 4 DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/) festivals, we need those extra 2 days to get things right. Also, when we were open 4 days we would use the other 3 days to train the staff, the 7 day schedule has made this impossible. Maggie and Yogi both did over 80 hours last week - thats is too much to be effective and happy working at DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/).

2. Opening/Closing Hours : These are not set in stone, when we first opened for 4 days, we said 4am closing but on Fridays and Saturdays we ended up closing at 6am because a lot of players wanted to stay later, we are licenced till 6am so we can review the closing hours on a weekly basis and make the correct tweaks to satisfy our customers.

3. Re-Buys - We get 80-100 runners on the Friday £20 RB and plenty of cash game players - but you can get this type of comp in most casinos across the country, we set DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/) up to offer a different product and I played this comp one night and the whole table went all-in first hand after a player had raised with AA, of course, he got busted and left the club 5 minutes later, I felt bad - I don't want to feel bad. I never wanted re-buys at DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/) as I wrote in my diary thread, and I want to be true to my word.

4. DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/) as a Business - I have 2 types of businesses in my portfolio, "commercial" and "lifestyle", DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/) is the latter, like my Pub and Football Club, this means it should be a pleasure to operate even I don't get any "wages" from it (yes - believe it or not "dealers choice crew" - we have not made 1p of profit since we opened), the enjoyment should outweigh the financial benefits. It has not been "pleasureble" to run a 7 days poker club, so I have made these changes. If DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/) was a "commerical" business I would stick machines and casino tables in the club, therefore, I want a smaller, more exclusive and easier to manage operation.

Thanks for your comments,

Cheers

Rob

Any chance of a job?

 doing what? theres a hundred of us ya know ;)

That pretty much sums up the reason why I don't like rebuys.

?

What do you have against a one in three chance of nontupling up first hand?

The thing which causes many people to be against rebuys is that they play them as if they are freezeouts.

As started elsewhere in the thread, the problem with the rebuys is the cost. Many player seem to think of rebuys (especially £10 ones) as bingo. They generally only are for that first hour. One the freezeout period has started, you will find a lot of chips in play and some quite deep stacks, allowing more play than you would get in a comparative freezeout.

I don't post on this forum as often as i would like but i'd like to add the following..

I play DTD normally at least once a week. myself and a number of poker friends make the 90 mile round trip from Sheffield ( normally in my car lol ) and we select to make this trip rather than the 10/15 minute drive to our local casino ( Naps Owlerton ) now i don't mind this because of the range of comps available.

When you first opened i generally played the £75 and £100 freezeouts cause thats what was on offer the nights i could attend ( fridays and saturdays ) and after bubbling the first 2 tournys i played i made a few finals ( yet to win one ).

when you changed to the £20 rebuy comp on a friday i wasn't very happy, but continued to play because of the professionalism on the dealers, staff and management but didn't get down as much as i'd have liked too.

Now this is music to my ears that you are reverting back to freezeout comps. This is proper poker.. if i want to play bingo bango poker i can do that 15 minutes away from me with the local " more money than sense" players but is there any chance of making it 5000 chips instead of 4000 for that little extra play

the only point i would disagree with you Rob is that it's impersonal... personally i feel i could go to the club alone and not feel that way.. not just because of the players that i have got to know but also the staff.. and thats all staff they always seem to have time for you.

I know I will continue to support DTD with my presence even if you only opened 1 day a week for 2 hours... it's what we all wanted, we got what we wanted.. now we need to respect your wishes on how you want to run the club.

so Finally i'll say this ... ROB ! It's YOURS and your STAFFS club.. you run it how you like.. We will support it in what ever format you think is best.

Mark

 

Yes and once I've got to the freezeout stages in tournaments I've generally been happy with all the chips I have to play with.

But to get there you have to either be lucky (like nontupling up first hand) or avoid being unlucky to a much greater degree than in a freezeout.
Therefore there is a higher ratio of luck to skill needed in rebuys than freezeouts - that's what I don't like.

I travelled up to DTD once from London to play for 3 or 4 days over a long weekend and planning to come up again very soon. I'm not too bothered about the comps as I like rebuys and freezeouts.

However, it would be a big factor in my decision to come up especially to play at the club knowing that I could play that much longer til 6am rather than 3.30.

No, because in a rebuy you can be unlucky lots of times and yet still win. In a freezeout you get unlucky once and you are out. Therefore luck has more of a chance to revert to mean in a rebuy.

I find myself agreeing with young master Andrew on this one.......plus you can have a bit of fun with a much broader range of hands.........the occassional rebuy should be in the diet of most players

I think most players like to 'know' exactly what they're going to spend beforehand on a comp, in a rebuy you can never be sure of course...

buy in times 5 should do it generally

From my point of view:

1. 1 day re-buys have to have a shorter clock due to the amount of chips in play after the re-buy period to get the comp finished on time
2. 1 day re-buys have less people are knocked out within the re-buy period than a freezoeut so the clock has to be shortened for this comp to finish on time
3. The more uncontrollable variables that you introduce into any poker game - the more the luck element increases and a good players edge decreases (eg. 6 card omaha v 4 card omaha) allowing people to purchase extra chips substancially increases the amount of uncontrollable variables on the table, therefore the luck element increase (eg. the effectiveness of bluffing as a poker weapin is decreased)
 
When I play my £500 heads-up challenge at the club I play 100bb freezout with no re-buy, I do this to make sure I have the best chance of winning against players who I have an edge over, I also expect to lose with this structure versus players that have an edge over me. Poker is of course about opinions, but I am absolutley mathematically sure that there is more skill in a £75 freezout starting with 100bb+ that a £20 unlimited RB starting with 30BB.

 

'generally' yes, but its never exact...  A couple of unlucky moves and its more, a couple of good hands and its less... For example the £75 freeze, ppl can budget ''right its £85 for the comp, plus £15 for food/drinks etc, now I know tonight will cost me £100''

I think most ppl think like that...

Hi mate as I said, closing hours will be tweaked to suit the new 5 day operation, cheers mate Rob

Excellent post Rob.

We are so lucky on blonde, we have a person who has arguably built the best poker venue in Europe(disclaimer not played outside UK) and has the time to come onto the forum to openly discuss what HE wants from the club and also listens to feedback from poker players and involves them in the discussion. He wont be able to please all poker players, some want to play re-buys, some want freezeouts, but he has spent and invested a lot of money and time in getting his club up and running, and he is going have the club run the way that he wants poker in his club to run..

 ;hattip; to you Rob, you are putting pleasure before business, and also looking after your most loyal people the staff, and at the same time providing a excellent service to members/players. I bet there are no complaints in that suggestion box..

Really enjoyed the round of each tournament last night, im the first to admit my omaha game is pretty mediocre, and its the first time ive played PL hold em ever, but the atmosphere was superb, the low buy in created a friendly learning atmosphere and good times were had by all.

I believe the intention was announced last night to start running this along side a 6 max £50 on a thursday when computer software was sorted? Surely this is just going to dilute both comps? I for one will have no idea which comp to play, and may just alternate weeks.

I also think having Rob and Simon playing (Simon in the comp, Rob at cash) adds something to the whole experience. Obviously there always around, but having the chance to actually play against them in the standard tourneys is a great experience.

Where else can you share a table with Simon Trumper and Dave Smith in a £25 comp? Err..... No Where!

  Jh 5d is the new nuts  ::)

he speaks a lot of sense this andrew dude.

I'm glad to hear its not set in stone, I definitely think the demand is there for later opening hours on the weekend.

I just like to know how much my buy in will be and how much the starting stacks will be.

A £10 re-buy is essentially a £50 freeze-out at least from a cost point of view, but with the added disadvantage of not necessarily having the min of 5000 chips you'd be guaranteed if it were a straight freeze-out, if that makes sense.

Someone with deep pockets going all-in every hand can make the whole thing a little tedious if you never pick up the hands to play back at him/her. 

Who says there is more luck and less skill inolved in 4 card omaha than 6 card.

I lol hard at the rebuy freezeout debate, there is clearly more skill in a rebuy.

Apart from anything you get a 2nd chance if your AA gets cracked by some lemon with 77, secondly there is a whole new dimension of wider pre flop ranges and post flop ranges. You have to adjust your ranges during rebuys and then post, how is that LESS skillfull?

The only time i would say a freezeout is more skillfull is when you have deepstacks to start as IMO playing deep NLHE is harder than adjusting ranges in short stack events, so unless you have 10k chips and 1hr levels @ 25-50 its a rebuy all day long!

Yes but that kind of spot is pretty profitable, and don't forget the people who will not rebuy who are basically giving free money away and similar with people who will only rebuy once.

Yes, in hindsight rebuys do sound very skillful.

And players never go fishing in freezeouts

indeed..Good and bad players in every tourney you play.

I much prefer rebuys myself..I think they allow for more play in the first few levels and they revert to a freeze-out later anyways..I can't believe people think there is only skill involved in a freeze-out.

And the more luck in 6 O rather than 4 O...I believe a young Mr Colclough posted a while back that he thought there was more skill in 6 O

I don't think anybody has suggested that, only that there is a  higher ratio of skill to luck in freeze-outs.

You can overcome a player or two fishing for draws in a freeze-out, it gets a bit harder in rebuys when over half the table are fishing.

Obviously, there's skill in both freezeouts and rebuys - and there's luck in both (anyone see boldie last night in the donkathon?).

Rob's point is interesting though.  If you have a limited amount of time (as you do with tournaments run over one evening), and so the same start/finish times, aren't the skill levels of the two tournaments going to be roughly equal?

You start a freezeout at 8pm and it finishes at 3am will it have a similar skill level to a rebuy that starts and finishes at the same time?

I will be happier to go to DTD knowing that if I get to the final it's not such a late night. I have a business to run which interferes significantly with playing poker.

Ah, stick it up yer....erm..oh wait..forgot whom I was talking to ;)

I understand that point of view, and it's particularly important on a school night for many players.

On the other side of the coin is that many people travel a fair distance to play at DTD - so they want to make sure they can get a good session there.  I really only get the chance to play at weekends - usually only one or two nights a week.  So on those nights I'd prefer it to be open later, but to be honest even on a Friday or Saturday night there are only a handful of cash tables still running beyond 4am.

Whilst we have to believe the reasons behind Robs decision to revert back to a 5 night a week club it must also be noted that attendances generally everywhere over the last three months have been down by as much as 75% compared to last years figures. The last three festivals that I can recall good figures for were GCBT Nottingham, Norwegian Poker Championships - DTD and GCBT Bristol. Manchester GUKPT, Liverpool Leo's in May, GUKPT - Newcastle, DTD festival in July and Broadway last week have all suffered greatly with very little value for the player to justify playing the main event unless you satellite into one.

A lot of poker players have all been pissing into the same pot at the end of that elusive rainbow looking for a quick fix to the financial burdens that a poker player has and there are so many games every week now up and down the country or a short flight away that players have to choose a venue where they believe they will get value for money within their budget, with ever increasing fuel costs, mortgage rates and the inevitable strain on a player to deliver the goods and get a result. With all these games and festivals taking place there is oh so much money going out of the game (reg fee's, valets, food and drink, cash tables and rake when busted out of the competition) that eventually you get meltdown and that's where we are at the moment, no ones got any money ,ffs - look around and see whats happening.

More and more casinos are seeing less people at the house games roulette and black jack and their profits are being hit so they start inducing people into their card rooms with games like a £20 deepstack freezeout 10k starting stack and are attracting 130 players or a casino in stockport (not been there yet) but I'm told that the games are good value and the FREE buffets are better than those served up by Ian Beale with fresh lobster and crab served and no charge for ANY drinks (must get up there soon - for the lobster). With Vegas just two weeks behind us now and with 98% of returning players coming back out of pocket there is so much less money out there now.

The decision to halve the hours and revert back to freezeouts I think personally is a good decision and one that has to be taken, it is also a way of reducing the staff hours and overall costs as with less feet coming through the doors Rob has to make this decision in the present climate and I don't think that it's been made just so he can sit down and have a game of poker, standards have slipped lately at DTD and this is probally down to fatigue and tiredness,  Rob is no doubt aware of this perhaps he could also look at not charging for non alcoholic drinks, DTD has been a massive success story over the last 12 months and I'm sure that it wont be long before it's hosting a WSOPE or an EPT because at the end of the day it is a fantastic venue and more importantly it would be the correct venue to host either of the above events.

I personally have Broadway, Walsall J10 and Star City all within a 20 minute drive of my house while DTD is approx 1 hour and 49 miles away but I will continue to go to where I believe I am getting the best value for my hard earned dollar. I wish Rob all the best in his efforts to get DTD back to the pleasurable poker palace that is was just 6 months ago and hope to see you at the table playing in one of your evening freezeouts. ;-)

I also understand that Paul Jackson is no longer with DTD, is this correct? was this Paul's decision to leave DTD and what was the reasons behind that?. Paul has and still is regarded as one of Europe's premier poker players who is much respected on and off the table and I send my best wishes for his future.

Steve Holden

Yes that is correct. Great player, great mentor. He's playing GUKPT at Luton next week.

            steve regarding you say on stockport ,when and if you get to the final its a proper crap shoot,
with a maximum of 10 big blinds no play what so ever.
             as for having to pay for your drinks dtd i dont mind ,when you see how many staff he has to employ
and all stunning ,it would cost him a small fortune to pay them .no one forces any one to drink or eat.

  good luck for the future rob .







                                        barry

People only provide free drinks when they are getting that money from elsewhere.

THAT IS A GREAT QUOTE FROM A TRUE POKER PLAYER.

Someone not so hardcore might have says playing poker interferes with the running of my business.

I've only been to DtD during one week but I definitely didn't mind paying for my drinks..the service is of such a high standard that I'd happily pay for it in fact.

Also, in a casino I ussually tip few every drink anyways so there is hardly any difference.

   I feel i must write this before the steam has gone .iv just read some ones blog ,
i dont want to mention his name .but i feel i must write with my disgust at what you have put ,
 and advise you to take this of as i feel really strong towards the subject of DTD .
in the current climate where people are struggling with the interests rates ect ,any one reading this will think twice about going to the holy grail of poker to spend there money.
                                    
                          I knew rob and nick well before they opened DTD and his plan was to let people play poker without getting ripped of ,he has spent an absolute fortune of his own money so people like you and me can play in luxurious surroundings ,and to stop all the cheating .so how dare you go on and slag the club down on your blog .
      There are ways and means to do things discreetly ,i advise you to delete your blog .



                                                         barry.

 PS I'm not brown nosing either.

I hate posts like that!!

I soooooooo want to read it now.

And another massive lol to the free drinks brigade.

If your bothered about spending a couple of quid on a coffee you obviously shouldnt be spending your limited finaces playing poker.

The beverages served at DTD arent the same as what casino's give out for free. Ive never seen DTD serve a piss coloured artificial orange drink, ive never seen them serving crappy cheap coffee.

If your so concerned about paying for your drinks wait till the final table starts then they will give you a pint for free.

my exact thoughts . Aspades Ahrt

+1

is this Mick McCools blog?

I would have thought so.

                Listen ,the man speaks his mind but sometimes steps over the line .
im not saying whos blog it is ,i just think there is better ways to slag something down ,
when it has been opened for us all .


                                                       barry.

Might just be the wording but it sounds like he's saying Paul left because DtD is shit...(I paraphrase obviously)...it's not a nice piece of writing.

Er....highly unlikely, but its got nothing to do with us lot anyway.

 Im sure paul and rob will tell you different ,i dont think pauls got a bad bone in his body .
only on the tables ,fish bones that is .lol.

I know, I am not saying that he's right or even close to being right..In fact I very much doubt that that's the reason.. I am saying that that's how it reads and I don't like the way that's written down very much.

Lets clear things up to avoid any silly specualtion:

1. I made the decision the go down to 5 nights over the weekend, for the precise reasons I have explained in detail, and only these reasons.

2. I sat down personally with Paul Jackson and we came to an agreement for him to leave DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/). Details will remain private, I have the upmost respect for Paul and that will remain so.

3. DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/) is a members only club, not a public place, 99% of our 8,000 members are great but the 1% of bad apples need to go back to Gala.


heres a couple of lines I made up


"Telling someone their front door needs painting is fine, but telling the whole world that their house is a 'cess pit' is disrespectful - it means you won't be ever invited round for a BBQ"

"When someone runs an orgsanisation and doesn't get paid any wages, he is a 'volunteer'. You can't make a volunteer come to work unless he enjoys it"

"The freedom of the internet has also given idiots an audience, before they had to shout on street corners to get anyone to listen"

Cheers Rob

Those two lines especially the last one, are top class.

thank goodness for the internet, eh Boldie? :D

I thought I'd leave that door wide open for someone :)

well said.


well said.




I've never played against or even met this Mick McCool fella but he doesn't seem 100% all there. Surely if he's a supporter of the club as he says he is he would speak to the management directly rather than bad mouth the place on his blog. Attention seeking issues imo

I don't think Mick is actually bad mouthing DT (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/)D (http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/). As far as criticism goes it may be harsh, but it is constructive in the main and most of the things he highlights are issues that Rob openly stated himself as things that need improving.

Rob has always said that he won't have moaners and whingers as members of his club, but there has to be a disctinction between criticism (for constructive reasons) and deliberately stirring things up for no good reason. While the tone may seem argumentative, that is just Mick's manner and I don't think he deserves to be slated for stating his opinions on this matter.

I tend to agree with this.  I went to read it after seeing the post on here and was expecting much worse.

I was expecting some paragraph breaks.

I thought the colours were quite pretty