blonde poker forum

http://uk.pokernews.com/news/2014/02/sad-day-as-black-belt-poker-closes-for-business-13187.htm





I would also like to wish Mr Channing all the best for his future endeavours, good luck sir.

Really enjoyed playing in the blackbelt tourney at dtd, it was clear that Neil worked hard to promote his company. Its a tough nut to crack, and is a shame that it hasnt worked out.

There ain't no doubt that Channing & Co have put money, enthusiasm, effort, blood, sweat and tears into UK poker. He also gave the poker world Sam Razavi. Hope it goes well for all involved in future endeavours.

Hi Neil.

You don't know me, but I feel that I've come to know you fairly well over the years. Not in person, but by deed,  by reputation, and from your excellent musings.

I admire what you tried to do with Black Belt poker and I'm sorry that it failed, but I'm sure you realise that the only real failure lies in not trying.

Good luck for the future.

I was one of the initial wave of Black Belt Poker players to go through the 'grading process' (/thin brag). I felt at the time that it was one of the most pioneering approaches to the poker industry worldwide, yet alone in the UK, and it is indeed sad news that this didn't work out. I know Neil put in a lot of work into this and he's had some fantastic people work alongside him.

Best of luck in your future endeavours Mr C.

never played on that skin.... but its sad.  did channing leave with any asset value or has he done is money in this process??  seems unfair that he leaves with nothing??

The perfect thread title. Very sad indeed.

I wish I could write as eloquently as Tom did, but those are pretty much my sentiments.

I don'ty know if the article on PokerNerws was completely accurate, but this really caught the eye.....

The first major issue is that Black Belt Poker was on the lower tier of the iPoker Network and therefore had lower cash game and sit ‘n’ go traffic than other iPoker Network rivals. When Playtech split its network in half, it was a massive blow for Black Belt Poker as it meant they would not have full liquidity in heads-up cash games, six-max No Limit Hold’em up to NL200 and full ring NL Hold’em up to NL100. This left them competing with similarly sized skins, almost all of whom offered and still offer substantial under-the-table rakeback deals (I receive 55% rakeback at one such skin for example) that were difficult to match. The split more than halved traffic for the skins who were placed in the lower tier of the network. Quite ironic that the system that many believe was created to kill off some of the sites that offer the network little in terms of value has actually contributed to one of its prize assets closing for business.[/i]

How ironic is that?

Anyway, he tried & failed, which is at least something.

I'm a huge believer in "Community Poker", & I still think it could work, but clearly, on i-Poker, it is a bit uphill.

At least Neil left nothing behind, he spared no efforts to make it work, with serial tweets & spammage, Live Events, regular articles, coaching schemes, the whole works. If that lot did not get the job done, nothing will. God knows how many hours he invested in BBP.

Anyway, it is what it is.

A great shame, imo.

Sorry to read this, Neil comes across as a really engaging, modest man. He's been candid in the past regarding his early financial troubles and I'm sure he'll bounce back again.

Reckon he would make a decent sky poker pro.

Just sayin

Sad to see but channing had great intentions!

Seems odd that they haven't emailed the database so far. Not everyone who has money on there is a regular user of poker forums.

They have (I got mine).... Check your junk folder?

Yeah, it's in the Junk folder, although no other emails from Black Belt went there. Apologies.

gl Neil, hope everything gets back on track for Cheltenham :P

Wishing u all the best Neil + BBP crew - you really have given it a go with London Live and Nottingham live and the BBP reward schemes. It's just a tough tough market for us small independent businesses being surrounded by billion dollar gaming companies who have bottomless pockets to throw at marketing. It's hard to keep our heads above water - never mind paddle forwards and we can only survive with extra support and goodwill from the poker community. Hopefully you will have less stress and headaches now mate and thanks for always taking the time to support DTD.

Cheers, from a fan of yours of how you always do things 100% straight, Rob

Yeah not really.

System was created for the top tier not the bottom if that makes sense.

Definitely a real shame to see BBP close down though. In a poker world comprised of me-too sites, under the table deals and short-term thinking Neil was a breath of fresh air. He genuinely tried to do something different and I admire him for that. That he consistently got so much stick on Facebook for it used to baffle me.

 I was having a busy week when this thread went up and I forgot to reply.

 Just wanted to thank you guys for the kind words.

 I had obviously realised a while ago that things were just not working out for BBP and it was never really going to recover the investment of both money and time that had been put in. You can try and keep the dream going, hoping that things may turn, and that external factors may intervene and I did that for quite a while.

 The life-support machine in this case was me making another transfer from my bank account to the BBP one every single month. I just decided it was time to switch off the machine.

 Still a sad day when I finally announced it, but I'm relieved now and I'm enjoying doing other things. A big part of my life, lots of happy memories and they say you can't put a price on that. I can...it was pretty expensive.

 The skin is still there, you can log-in just to withdraw if you haven't already. Lots of people have between 1p and £10 in their account. If you don't get it Boyles will hang onto it for you, they have a list of everyone who is owed and they can send a cheque if you claim it in the future. I guess they keep it if you never do.

 I'm delighted that Karl and Poker Encore decided to step in and offer to give everyone the value of their BBP points in Encore Points. It means he gets some new players, people get the rewards they have earned and I didn't have to write out another large 5-figure cheque. Hopefully some people there will give it a spin.

 I have left the website up, even though it costs a fair bit each month to do so. There are lots of nice articles there and maybe people can get something out of it.

 I'd just like to finally thank all of those who supported the site over the years.

You really come across as a nice bloke, this from a random 'rec' type fellow. Better to have lived and love, and all that bollocks.. I hope your next venture is successful