CHANGES TO DTD

[robyong]

Background

DTD 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 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.

I do not want to take anything away from the achievements of the DTD 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 DTD 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, DTD 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.

DTD 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 DTD 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 DTD 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 DTD 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


 

[ericstoner]

Brave move Rob. Well played.

[ItsMrAlex2u]

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

[ItsMrAlex2u]

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

[booder]

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

+1

[Woodsey]

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

[Colchester Kev]

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

[Royal Flush]

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

[LLevan]

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.

[snoopy1239]

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.

[TheChipPrince]

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

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


Thanks Rob...      

[dik9]

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.

[Grier78]

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.

[nirvana]

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.

[kinboshi]

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