"Dusk till Dawn" Poker Club In Nottingham Diary (by Rob Yong)

[Heid]

All the chips at Wynn have RFID technology in them now..but I imagine they have a lot more of the exotics in terms of chip sizes than a lot of places.

Must be interesting at the security checkpoints at Mcarran!

[dik9]

Rob, this is a MUST attend, to see the latest technology, if you order anything from the exhibition, it is usually heavily discounted.

http://www.ateonline.co.uk/104/203/

[way_too_tight]

All the chips at Wynn have RFID technology in them now..but I imagine they have a lot more of the exotics in terms of chip sizes than a lot of places.

Must be interesting at the security checkpoints at Mcarran!

Just FYI, I brought back some of the low denomination Wynn chips at the end of last year. No bother at LAS.

[Royal Flush]

so did i, and my card protector had a magnet in it, quite fun checking who uses what chips!

[robyong]

What a journey to Scotland, I borrowed my mums car, I knew it had been having a few starting problems (but did not mention this to Chubbs and Nick) and sure enough we broke, after we stopped for a break off the M6 at Kendall. Luckily Nick had his AA card and we were back on the road an hour later, and we rang DC to tell him that we wouild be late.

I had a good weekend at Cin Cins, its a nice friendly place and has a great mezanine floor where they play their biggest cash game. After 4 rebuys I managed to get knocked out with trip A's V a straight and the guy couldn't apologise enough. I resisted saying "how can you call a 5x BB raise with QT off" and said "nice hand". They had 77 runners in the comp (could have took 100) and by 12pm there were 3 cash tables running.

I got battered by DC in the Omaha cash game (6 cards!) and then he proceeded to batter me 2-0 at heads-up (my tactic was to hit a hand and get paid, as I knew it would be tough to bluff him after he called me with J high on one of the first hands!). Everything was in very good spirits and Chuubs gave him a heads-up lesson after me, coming out the winner 2-1. We ended up not leaving Cin Cins till 6am but there were still cash games going after that.

I'm glad we went, the jocks love the bantor with the english, and we gave them plenty of that. I wish Tony G and DC all the best in the new venture and I predict it will be a success, especially after they get their new poker tables and word spreads about the place.

Cheers Rob

[robyong]

Yesterday, I appointed a General Manager for the club to commence employment on July 1st. His name is Darren Whiten and he is Nick's brother who I have known for 25 years+. He as at my first home game "railbirding", so some of you will have met him.

Darren has experience of managiing 50+ staff in a customer focussed retail environment (we will have about 55) and I feel that he will look after the employees in the club. I've opted for this profile of person rather than the traditional "casino manager" because I need someone I can trust, a person that is hands-on, and most importantly, very good with people. I've never met as Casino Manager with this profile, most of them seem to me to wander round the casino like policemen casting suspicious looks at their staff and customers, or maybe I'm a bit paranoid.

Darren will manage the overall running of the premises BUT will not be able to make any gaming decisions, only the Card Room Managers are allowed to do this under the gaming act. So many regulations and restictions, do's and don'ts, its frustrating having all these shackles for a venture which bears no real resemblence to a "normal casino". I bet the laws get relaxed the day after I hand of the £37k for the gaming licence..........

I have always surrounded myself with people that I have a long history with, I'd rather have someone I trust than a person who has excellent experience BUt I do not know. Many people have said to me over the years, "do not mix business with your friends etc etc" but I've continued to do it and so far it hasn't backfired to much, but I admit, its is sometimes not easy to give one of your mates a hard time and then have a few beers straight afterwards.

Okay, only a couple more key appointments left (including a Poker Host) and we'll have a full project team to work on the set-up of the club. We've really got to get our skates on and spec out the club in minute detail now, these plans have to be approved by the owners of the premises before we sign the lease, so I'm looking to have everything pulled together by Week 1 Feb. Nick is working on this as its more his cup of tea, I'm not very practical unfortunatley.

In the meantime, maybe see some of you guys in Luton at the weekend. Hoping to see a prototype of our web site later today, Mr Nowab's "new improved" version..............


Cheers Rob

[Scottish Dave]

Rob if you want ill be your face of poker for the club, a club of your stature needs a handsome fella for the posters? 

[RED-DOG]

What's a "Poker host" Rob?

[mikkyT]

 I've never met as Casino Manager with this profile, most of them seem to me to wander round the casino like policemen casting suspicious looks at their staff and customers, or maybe I'm a bit paranoid.

Couldn't agree more!!

[Scottish Dave]

Rob if you want ill be your face of poker for the club, a club of your stature needs a handsome fella for the posters? 

or i could just be your resident drunk Jock at the bar!

[4dam]

Hi rob, Hope all is going well with your venture. Been reading your diary with alot of excitement.

Just a quick couple of quick questions.

1. Do you plan to do a lot of poker playing tournies ie freezeouts/double chance with big starting stacks and decent clocks. Or will it be alot of bingo rebuys ie small stacks quick clock? (i dont excpect you have got this far forward with your planning yet)

2. How bloody quick can you get the place open? Cant wait to get there and get my membership

[robyong]

Red Dog - an "Poker Host" is a professional player who will be the face of the live club. This person will advise on how the card room should be run for the best interests of players (eg. structures, comps etc). They will also do a "poker school" at the club for beginners and be involved in the planning and management of major festivales. I suppose a bit like what DC is doing for the Cincinatti Club. Anthing to do with Live Poker basically.


We will be avoiding rebuy comps to enable a level playing field and ensure we do not get crapshoot poker

Membership should be available from February by registering online through our web site.

We are targeting a Dec 06 opening party for all people who have joined up as members. To join all you will have to do is supply your details, then being photo ID on your first visit. After your first free visit the next time you come you can choose which membership scheme is most suitable to you. Fees work out between £1-2.50 depending on frequency of use.

VIP membership is about 4x more expensive that standard and a benefits package including airport and train station pick up etc

Cheers Rob

[robyong]

I went to Luton yesterday to have a meeting about the club with a poker table supplier. I had told myself that I would not play the £750 NL event and purposely did not take an overnight bag. However, I ended up playing and going out 11th, typical. I was 2nd chip cleader and clashed with Geoff Duvall, the chip leader, getting all my chips in with a set of 5's v top pair only for him to hit runner runner gutshut straight and knock me out. I think I was around 96% favourire when all the money went in on the flop and I'm gutted. On the positive side it shows me how much the game still means to me although the club has sort of taken over most of my time the last 6 months. God to play with a few blondites aswell.

Tournaments at Dusk Till Dawn will be significantly different from the current structures and rules that exist at the current festivals. In fact, some of the rules may be quite controversial, but we'll make the brave decisions to implement them. I'm not knocking what is currently out there, I think Blackpool, Luton, The Vic and Walsall do a great job in their festivals, but we will be looking at what is best for the poker player in the long term and although there will always be luck in a card game, we must try and make the outright winner of the tournamant most likely to be the best player in the long run.

For example, if Dave Coleclough and 8 random players played 10 final tables, I do not believe that the current structures would yield an accurate result of the % differences in poker ability. There are a number of variables that effect the outcome of the winner, the clock, the blinds and the possibility of a deal being done.

We will have our own club rules. Dare we say "NO DEALS ALLOWED or you are BANNED FOR LIFE" Who knows, we may not have the guts to do that, but anything is a possibility with a blank sheet of paper. In other sports do deals happen? Could you image Stephen Hendy saying to mark Williams when he is wining 11 - 8 (first to 13), "hey Mark, you take £20K and I'll take £27K" and we'll play for the £3k, okay?"

I can here you say "but deals always go on, you'll never stop it". Thats rubbish, it CAN be stopped, but only if the payout structures are adjusted to disincentive deals being done, and once we have the balls to ban 1 person for life (some poor souls would have to be made an example of), believe me, the deals will reduce by over 95%. I can also hear "but you'll never be able to prove it". Thats the same with many other rules, BUt we still have them. Hey, these are just thoughts, everything will be up for debate.

On a very positive note, I had a phone call from a professional poker player who I have offered the job of "Poker Host" to. This is a person that I have been speaking to for over 9 months, and we have now managed to agree for him to join the Dusk Till Dawn team, on a part time basis in 2006, and full time when the club opens. He will be ensuring that the Card Room is run for the PLAYERS, arranging major festivals, running a poker school for beginners, teaching all forms of poker, doing seminars and much much much more. He will be the "face" of our Card Room and should be a great help to our card room managers. "Who is this person?" - I can't say at the moment but as soon as I can, I'll let you guys know.  He's not really a guy who Blondites will know that well, but I know he'll do a good job in this role.

Anyway, main event at Luton tomorrow, maybe do a little better in that. Spoke to Nick today and he said the meetings with the refurb contractors went really well, so overall, not such a bad day (how the hell can you hit a runner runner gutshot with top pair top kicker?)

Cheers Rob

[RED-DOG]

You can't ban one unfortunate person for doing a deal, there has to be at least two

[robyong]

You can't ban one unfortunate person for doing a deal, there has to be at least two

but you get the point, numpty.(ps. nice photo)