If people did pay how would they feel if that content was then cut and pasted elsewhere and people got to read it for free - would that be an issue - as it almost certainly would happen.

How could/would Blonde be expected to police that?

Ariston - I don't play a lot of online poker but I play a bit on Blonde just to help out. How about you signing up depositing and, if you would be happy to pay for an update, do it another way by playing on Blonde or perhaps sponsoring some blonde members to play on the site where you may make some money at the same time?

Wouldn't bother me one little bit.

Snoopy is the best updater on any site period. Floppy, Jen (does she still do them?), Dana and Jungle Cat are way above average.

I know pokernews, awop, cardplayer etc etc are possibly more up to date with chip counts and hand histories etc.. but the fact is the writers on here are MUCH better than elsewhere.

agree totally with keith although I actually thought jen was the best (she had a way with words). the fact all the blonde updaters where the best at what they did is good for blonde.

ironside many thanks for your kind offer but I think I would prefer sofa to you doing updates

dont know about "better content" flushy. I personally think blonde have the best written updates on the net. The advent of the TV updates awop are doing may change my views on these updates being the best but only time will tell on those as they are still quite new.

17 - 4 for others in the early running. I'm surprised by that. If that continues i'm sure that'll ease the minds of those who made the tough decision.

I agree with The Camel regarding the updates but early indication would suggest they are not the huge asset to the site they once were and that the community that they helped create is now strong enough to withstand the loss.

Sandy

the question why did you come to blondepoker doesnt quite prove dropping the live updates is a good idea. Why do you continue visiting blonde or what aspect of blonde do you most commonly use may give you a better idea. I think a very high % of people who did the original blonde questionaire thing said the live updates were their favourite part of blonde. the fact many of us would happily pay for it should tell you how important they are.

I will be honest tracey. I hardly play poker anymore at all. I work full time in the poker industry now and have little time or motivation to play anymore. When I left geoff.cc in november after putting a lot of time and effort in I really didnt have any motivation to play anymore and that need/hunger hasnt come back. if/when it does I will certainly play blonde if it helps get the updates back on. Even if I wasnt playing on blonde I would still happily contribute to the fund to pay snoops and floppsy to continue with the updates- live updates without them are imo just cards and numbers and i get paid to look at those all day already.

followed tony from thm

liked the updates and the style which they were written (started by tikay himself).

now only visit frequently due to work commitments but always check the live updates to see if any mates are doing well.

I must say Blonde's updates are BY FAR the best available.

And that isn't a slight on other updaters.

It's just the interaction plus the skill of the updaters adds immensely to the pleasure of the reader.

I would definitely contribute to any fund.

and you wouldnt be the only one keith. the problem is we arent being given that option as the decision has already been made. i dont think tikay and tighty realise what an asset the updates and update team is. many would happily pay for them to continue. 

without the updates i wont have a reason to come here anymore, ok most will say thats no great loss but how many others will feel the same way?

i was not and am not trying to stick the boot in and i wish blonde all the best. I know this decision hasn't been taken lightly but I do feel in the months to come tony will regret it.

to use your analagy we have to lose the glitter and stick with the glue- whats to stop someone else nicking the glitter and everyone going to wherever the glitter goes? this will mean the glue no longer has anything to hold together.

when you have to cut costs in business it doesnt make sense imo to let your best assets go first. they are the thing that attracts most people to your business in the first place and if you let them go there isn't much left so its a false economy to cut costs like this.  

I agree that floppy snoops & all the updaters do a great job.However,your saying that the updates are the main part of the forum but in what sense ? Certainly not in a financial sense it would seem as they aren't providing much or any revenue from reading what's been said therefore i would suggest maybe they're not the greatest assets to blonde since that's who they've let go 1st,I'm pretty sure they didn't decide this lightly and maybe it's a bit patronising to rich/tikay to suggest they've made such a catastophic error which is how your post reads.Also most of the people who register on blonde to read the updates don't seem to provide anything else i.e playing on the cardroom,using the links so what does that provide to blonde financially ?

I hope,and fully expect that blonde will come through this difficult time.Also to compare blonde to trillion is just bs mate

i was not meaning to compare blonde to trillion and i apologise if thats the way it came across. I was saying they would go the way of trillion ie pop (being that is current in everyones mind). Trillion fcked everyone over and tony will confirm I warned him last july and also september what was happening there. Blonde has never tried to have anyone over so they are different in that respect.

just as a suggestion I think if live updates where offered to platinum members of blonde at $x per month transfered through the blonde card room I feel you would have no problem covering the costs. There is a blonde faithfull who definately wouldnt mind chipping x per month so they still get their updates. This would also increase traffic to your cardroom as many players who watch the updates would open blonde accounts to fund the updates and no doubt play a few hands there as well.

this is only a first idea but I feel many people on blonde would rather be given at least the option of funding the updates rather than losing them. Hell even I would open a blonde account and happily chip in if it means the updates are still available. I know you have always said you wanted to keep the updates free but now its clear you can't you should at least give the members here a choice of saving them

given a week to sort out another option would be to get a commercial partner to back the updates. Given the number of visitors you have to the updates this would not be a problem in the slightest for any half decent salesman. I have a company now that would happily cover snoops and flopsys wages and costs if you wouldnt mind whoring out certain aspects of your site. Its a matter of how much you really want the updates to carry on.

save snoops and flops campaign starts here

i was not and am not trying to stick the boot in and i wish blonde all the best. I know this decision hasn't been taken lightly but I do feel in the months to come tony will regret it.

to use your analagy we have to lose the glitter and stick with the glue- whats to stop someone else nicking the glitter and everyone going to wherever the glitter goes? this will mean the glue no longer has anything to hold together.

when you have to cut costs in business it doesnt make sense imo to let your best assets go first. they are the thing that attracts most people to your business in the first place and if you let them go there isn't much left so its a false economy to cut costs like this.  

hate to say this but I am sure a lot of the readers on here will agree. Without live updates you will go the way of poker trillion. They are the number one reason people come here. Ok they may not generate revenue directly but without them you will never get any new players onto your card room and unique user hits to your site will drop massively which will effect the banner advertising revenue (be it pay per click/affiliate or direct sponsorship).

letting snoops and no flops go imo will prove to be the biggest mistake blonde have ever made as you have rightly said they both ARE blonde. God help you if awop or any other firm snap them up as they are both updating gods and huge assets.

I am not trying to inflame things here as I am sure this really hurts you to do but by letting these two go I feel its only a matter of time before the last one to leave should please turn the lights out. Its a shame to see but if AWOP/pokernews/cardplayer etc all run better business models then you then you should be looking at the people who run the business/generate revenue for the site before getting rid of the real assets- snoops and floppy always did their jobs very well and its obviously other peoples fault that blonde is in the state it is currently.

without live updates you are just another poker forum (of which there are many). Your updates were unique because of the ones who are now being punished due to other peoples failed business acumen.

The situation with Paul King at Brighton was this.... 6 players left and 4 seats and £660 for 5th. Paul was chip leader by quite a way and a few of the players wanted to split the £660 between 5th & 6th. Paul didn't want this to happen as it changes the way the short stacks would play. The other players then decided amongst themselves that they would just chop the £660 between 5th & 6th regardless of what Paul wanted, and if Paul finished 6th he wouldn't be entitled to the any of the money as he didn't want to do a saver. sure enough the short stacks started pushing and all of a sudden Paul was no longer chip leader. Then Paul was back in on the saver. ( i think the other players invited him back in rather than him asking to be put back) I think he went out 5th and got £330.

if thats the way it happened its disgracefull. If one player objects to a deal then no deal can be done.

If the others all decide to deal anyway its collusion and a precident was set a few years ago in blackpool when something happened similar. 5 players left in blackpool event and a deal is discussed but turned down by chip leader- both shorties then agree they will split whatever they get. TD rules both must do a deal now or be disqualified so the cl agrees new deal where he asks for silly money and shorties get 5th and 4th between them without any chance to push.

in this scenario i think paul should have been automatically awarded 1st prize (one of the seats) as the other 5 players have technically colluded by doing the deal anyway. This would mean they are now playing for 3 seats and the 2 prizes- up to them if they want to do the same deal now with the remaining cash.

Anyone wanna sell some? I believe the rate is somewhere around £1=$2 but we can discuss that imo.

sure it will be an interesting discussion trying to get $2 for a £ lol. I will happily take as many as any of you have at 1.8

IMO Speech play is between players and NOT binding.

The dealer is listening for the player to say check, bet, raise, fold, all-in etc, then the dealer has been told the action and is binding.

Think of it as online play, you can press one of three options, bet, check/call or fold. You can auto click these options too as you all know. If action before you changes then it becomes unchecked (unless playing limit) In both instances of the OP the player would have the options open to them.

Speech play is what happens in the chat box and is not binding. However if someone attempts to collude, speaks foreign etc then you would contact the site (which in live games would be the TD)

I have never heard of someone contacting a site because someone had typed into the chat box, - if I go all-in will you call? -    - Yes-   And if someone did type that into a chat box and complain, do you think the site would uphold that??

this isnt online and the rules are available for everyone to read for the gukpt. if an online site had a rule saying and verbal declaration is binding then I would expect them to uphold it

. I stand by my original stance that the OP is a dog/angle shooter and the player he was against was foolish. I wouldve made the player call and asked for a ruling before he mucked his hand so he at least had chance to outdraw me- I would not have allowed his hand to be folded then tried to claim his chips- thats just plain wrong imo.

the ace of clubs stands for me. if it was the burn card then it still is the burn card- using the old 3rd card from the bottom wont change anything as its still the burn card. nothing changes and no action can be effected as it was an allin preflop scenario. imo get a dealer who doesnt box the cards. if action was still to take place the a clubs still stands unless its the burn card. in this scenario the ace of clubs must be put back into the deck and the deck reshuffled giving it the chance to still be the burn card. this would also mean the information given by knowing the burn card () is useless as its still part of the deck.

the difference is me flushy or even mick mccool wouldnt have been daft enough to make such a comment- we also dont muck or even try to as we know we have to call. if we did make a comment we wouldve been letting you hang yourself as we wouldve been sat with aces. Even how you told the story you have come across as an angle shooter. I dont know you from adam but I think you were out of order the way you did things.