I don't know if this has been said but I cba to read through all of this :p

What bothers me about this story is how much attention it has got and how angry it has made people. What a waste of time, and what a fantastic scapegoat our government has found. Brexit going to shit, all sorts of social/economic problems and what is it that people have got all up in arms about? Some kid who none of us know, who will almost certainly affect none of our lives, and whether she should be allowed to come home or not, an issue that we have absolutely no say in. The majority have even managed to completely miss the issue here, which is that our government has decided to revoke her human rights as a citizen of the UK. Barely any discussion had on the ramifications of this, just a load of divisive fear-mongering hatred. Why? Why are these people not getting angry about frozen public sector pay, for example, which affects fuck knows how many people on a daily basis and seems to be universally accepted is wrong by everyone except the people who make that decision? Makes me despair for the human race, that we are this fickle, this determined to allow ourselves to be divided, this easily manipulated.

Resorts is absolutely killing it right now as has been said, they seem to have very aggressively moved in on the business previously held by Bham Hill St, Walsall and Coventry. This is how I see it:

So brand loyalty is stupid, right? I shopped exclusively at Tesco for years for no good reason, until they discontinued my favourite Chicken Tikka Pasty and I rage quit to Morrisons. I now exclusively shop there. There are lots of people around the Notts area that will only go to DtD, and have never been to either of the other two options in Notts/haven't given them a chance. I also know several people who exclusively play at the Notts Grosvenor. Most of these people are not interested in the competition, and believe they're in the best place for them, even though they have extremely limited experience of the alternatives and have no interest in considering them. I tend to swap between the G and DTD at the moment and it takes something attractive to convince me to go somewhere else, even for just one evening.

Resorts seem to get that, and so they've put on some really great promotions. The cash game giveaway thing where they're giving away £500 every hour and some of the tournaments they've been putting on, coupled with how easy it is to get there, has got people talking. It's been enough to convince a lot of people, including me, to give them a shot. And when you get there, you find a really well organised card room. All the staff seem to actually want to be there as well as being good at their jobs. The food isn't completely awful, they're not slaughtering anyone with rake and all this creates an atmosphere where even the majority of the regulars aren't miserable. So they're not just doing things to get you through the door, once you're there they're showing you that they have a really slick set up to offer and they're trying hard to make sure you come away with a good impression. They're also clever enough to avoid running these promotions/tournaments too often so they become boring and lose the novelty aspect, and so people don't do their money too fast chasing them.

So that's what Resorts are doing right, but what about Grosvenor's response? They've smashed up the rake in their tournaments, which not only looks bad to the regs but it means that everyone who is losing in their games is doing their money that much faster. This vouchers thing is ridiculous - most people will do their money in the casino anyway, and they know it, but they don't want it rammed down their throats. They also seem to have gone back on their assertion that this was only for the little daily tournaments since they paid out the overlay in that deepstack in vouchers.

G have been running some good looking stuff. The Goliath killed it again, they're running some cash game promos, and I even managed to accidentally qualify for the Titan last year through one of these promotions. But when they get people through the door, what have they done with them? I'm going to use my experiences at the Ricoh last year as the example, because it's where they hold the Goliath and where they've been holding the final days of tournaments like the Titan so I assume it's a cardroom that's on the upper end in Grosvenor's eyes. The Goliath was a fucking mess. The cash games were split all over the place, the electronic list system just didn't work, staff were either rude af or clearly shattered and no-one seemed to have control over what as going on. The dealers got put up in the hotel overlooking the football pitch and they all got kicked out of their rooms at 9am on the Saturday because of a football match. Some of them had come off 12 hour plus shifts at 6am. Absolutely disgusting way to treat your staff. I can't speak for the tournaments, but I sure hope they were run a hell of a lot better given the rake they've been charging.

Maybe it's just that the Goliath was way busier than they expected, maybe it's better at different times? Well, when I went for the final day of the Titan (brags), they knew in advance how many people they'd have. About 100 odd people made it through, having qualified from different locations around the midlands. Started at 14:00, so a lot of those people (me included) would be driving through lunch time and want to grab food at the venue. There was one waiter working in the entire building. After an hour of waiting for service whilst playing the tournament, I decided to just go up to the bar and order. When I asked the lass there for a menu, she gave me the 24 hour one. I knew this wasn't the right menu for the time, so I asked if they were doing anything off the main menu. She then produced a main menu that was so faded you could barely see the names of the food or the prices on there, but fine whatever at least we were getting somewhere. I ordered a hot dog, and waited for her to find this option on the till. She couldn't. She apologised and asked a manager who was walking past if she knew where it was. Without looking or attempting to help in any way, she kept on walking past and just said "no, no idea". Waitress behind the till was getting pretty flustered and I wasn't exactly happy, so I said don't worry about it and went back to the cardroom (this wasn't a tournament break, I was missing hands while this was going on.) The one waiter was still nowhere to be seen, so I went to complain to the cardroom manager. He apologised and said he'd send someone over. Nearly an hour later I managed to collar this same waiter and get some food ordered. The regs just laughed when I mentioned this to them and said that's how it always is. The awful service was literally a joke to them.

Now I will say at this point that I think the Nottingham G is absolutely fantastic, but this seems to be an exception and even they are experiencing cuts in staff numbers and the quality of the food there has tanked in the last year or so.

Bottom line is if I want to go somewhere that I feel welcome and valued, I won't be going to a Grosvenor. Despite being well established after years of business, the Gs around Resorts are finding their regulars jumping ship. I think it's got nothing really to do with the guarantees or the promotions, or even the rake. I think it's because if you go to Resorts, you're going to be looked after.

What a list of names you've found there Tikay!

I'm glad to see this diary back and I'm even more glad to see someone else doesn't like 6PLO!

So BRS no longer exists ?

Is that because of the controversy ?

Or will it just re brand and basically carry on under a different name ?

It was downsizing before the controversy, and I think (although I don't know) that it's gone now because this latest drama made PJ realise that the business can't go anywhere. The name is such trash that it can't ever grow and is just going to decline amidst more drama. I don't know why it's gone and I'm not exactly happy about it, but that's what I think has happened. As far as I know BRS isn't going to continue under a new name, I've been with them for years as a player, coach and manager and I didn't get offered anything by PJ or by a company taking over from BRS, I'm now backed privately.

UgotNuts is right in thinking a bunch of the chats still exist, but these aren't anything more than groups of friends chatting on Facebook or WhatsApp or whatever. BRS is not still going.

I actually am not that fussed by this and maybe I should be.

They havnt seen my hole cards or anything, they just are staked into the games and instead of a random backer getting it the company does. Ive gone deep and even won some of the non live party events and Im pretty happy that the guarentees are artifically inflated!

How can you not be concerned by effectively having a team of players all allegedly under the instruction to play as a team?

What do you mean as a team? They are playing individually right? They aren’t showing each other their cards and if they are then it doesn’t have anything about being in a stable or whatever. There has been cheats, there are cheats and there will be cheats in the future. Just because somebody is staked doesn’t mean they are cheats. When Cos and the guys were staked by Blatchly you guys didn’t think they would cheat together right? It’s the same thing here.

I was referring to the posts on 2+2 from BRS players saying they were berated and intimidated by Paul Jackson if they knocked each other out of tournaments and that they received messages if they were on the same table as another BRS player around the bubble.

Yh this never happened.

Thanks for that impartial clarification Rexas

 

I was there, heavily involved in managing players at various points in my time with BRS, have nothing to protect now that BRS doesn't exist anymore, and am not hiding behind a fake account. We fired people for collusion, we didn't encourage it and we certainly never made anyone do it, it's a completely baseless accusation that I find pretty insulting and (shocker) noone has provided anything in the way of proof. Please don't believe what you read on 2+2, especially since the moderators seem outrageously bias against BRS.

I actually am not that fussed by this and maybe I should be.

They havnt seen my hole cards or anything, they just are staked into the games and instead of a random backer getting it the company does. Ive gone deep and even won some of the non live party events and Im pretty happy that the guarentees are artifically inflated!

How can you not be concerned by effectively having a team of players all allegedly under the instruction to play as a team?

What do you mean as a team? They are playing individually right? They aren’t showing each other their cards and if they are then it doesn’t have anything about being in a stable or whatever. There has been cheats, there are cheats and there will be cheats in the future. Just because somebody is staked doesn’t mean they are cheats. When Cos and the guys were staked by Blatchly you guys didn’t think they would cheat together right? It’s the same thing here.

I was referring to the posts on 2+2 from BRS players saying they were berated and intimidated by Paul Jackson if they knocked each other out of tournaments and that they received messages if they were on the same table as another BRS player around the bubble.

Yh this never happened.

Is he a qualified lawyer?  Does anyone actually know 100% first hand that he is?  Everything about him and his behaviour over a decade makes it hard to believe he is a lawyer for me and several others i have spoke to about this in the game.

I'm certain that's what he did before his poker career kicked off, but can't prove it. Bunch of the pages related to him have gone, so they're not going to help.

He always seems to take great pleasure in belittling other other players and generally making them feel uncomfortable. Couple this with stealing and I struggle to see him as an asset.

I'll agree with this, imagine if everyone at every poker table behaved like him. Now I'm not a fan of the hoodies and headphones silent treatment stuff, but it's got to be preferable to having an aim of annoying and upsetting the whole table each time you sit down.

When something like this happens it always begs the question of "has this happened before". I have been drunk many a time have been in positions to take advantage of others in similar conditions, as I'm sure most of us have. Never once has it seriously crossed my mind to steal my friends' money, in the same way as it's never crossed my mind to stab someone or spike their drink. Drinking alcohol doesn't completely change your character, I mean the guy is/was a lawyer ffs, you'd expect that to denote a reasonable level of intelligence and responsibility. And if it really does have that much of an affect on you then surely, as a professional sponsored player, you have to have the sense to not get that drunk in what is essentially your place of work.

I was never a Kassouf fan but did not expect him to join this list. What a tit.

Click to see full-size image.

That's an odd word. Who would use a word like that?

Had to google that one Mint, for anyone as uneducated as me:

"A star that is used to guide the course of a ship, especially the pole star."

I know I am guilty of confirmation bias but when you get results like this I do think the next
President will be a woman.

Trump has energised more and more women to get involved in politics and have their say.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/04/politics/massachusetts-primary-democratic-direction/index.html

I think this is a strong prediction, will depend on who runs. If Michelle Obama runs I think she's got a reasonable shout, I'd think it's too soon for her to have a shot but she might just be riled by Trump enough to have a crack at it. If it's another Hilary Clinton type candidate I think it will be much closer, and by Hilary Clinton type candidate I mean openly smug, arrogant, out of touch and openly representative of "the system".

I really can't see Trump lasting the full term.

Mueller investigation must be nearing it's conclusions and if the mid terms go the way of
the Democrats he's not going to get anything of consequence passed.

There are so many lawsuits surrounding the Donald surely at least one is going to push
him over the cliff.

Correct me if this sounds like bollocks, but I feel like it might not be in the best interests of the Democrats to get rid of Trump if they win the mid-terms. Trump isn't just driving himself into the dirt, he's dragging his whole party down with him and is providing ammunition to the opposition for a long time to come. I think it would make more sense to let him stay, just block a bunch of the crazier shit that he comes up with but keep a record of it and then hide behind something like "it's hard to impeach a president, but we stopped him from ruining everything. The republicans nominated him, supported him, didn't get rid of him, they're responsible..."

If the republicans take the mid terms i think it's more interesting, and perhaps makes more sense for them to move to get rid of him. Either way they're going to look bad, but at least then they get to come out and see we got rid of him when we realised how crazy he was. Keep him in and you risk continuing to alienate a chunk of the voters, and giving the opposition a huge list of things to say at the next set of elections that will all be fresh in the public eye because Trump is still sitting.

If you're trying to talk any type of poker strategy at any point that's probably the problem, got to be one of the worst topics at a poker table. Almost always divisive, alienates people and can put others on the defensive or make them feel stupid, nothing good can come out of it. Much better to talk about things that people have an opinion on but not one that will create problems, especially if its something they can take the piss about a bit. My first concert was a steps gig for example and I can still remember most of the words to their more popular songs :p

Seen this story, is anything actually confirmed yet?

Trump took it to the world stage so put Kim under big pressure to follow through vs standard agreement.

Figure he also ran some very alluring numbers. Let's be honest N Korea looks well shit, people digging in the mud for meagre crops, all those sanctions, depressing. Kim could be rich beyond his wildest dreams and a hero to the people with some capital injection. Kim seems like a big ego, like all the crazies, wanted to be taken seriously and have a place at top table. In that regard I think Trump has really delivered. I mean he did that good cop bad cop thing all on his own.

This is the first actual answer to my question about what he's actually done (only took a few pages and one person somehow making out I was being anti Trump by just asking what he's done, impressive work guys!). This standpoint makes a fair bit of logical sense and it fits with how batshit crazy the man seems to be. Anyone got any counter to this? I mean I know the second bit is speculation but it does fit imo, the first bit I think it was already on the world stage but Trump certainly made a huge amount of noise about it.