Come on Blondeites, lets be having you.........

[tikay]

Admittedly BSQ has the advantage of grovsenor sats..... maybe blonde can work on this

No, they belong on Blue Square. Blue Square, via Jonathan Raab (Alright Jack) have been hugely supportive of blonde, & I intend that we behave properly to them in return, & not try & nick their niche.

We will always be an "Open Site". I still play on Blue Square for certain Tourneys (when time permits, not played online for 3 weeks though!) and openly admit it, Laddies & Stars too, but unless there is a special reason, blonde is my default site. Surely most players hop around for certain comps? That's the whole ethos of this place - it's free & open.

[tikay]

is kev classed as a huge star player?

Player? No.

Star? No.

Huge? Yes.

[bobby1]

This has probably been asked a few times ... but I can't recall coming across it ... does blonde do rakeback?

Not really, except for the really huge players.

The way the blonde Cardroom deal was done, we just can't afford to mix it with the big sites, & I don't wish or intend to. It's designed around the blonde Community, & we are really smallish players on the whole. For sure, you can get better rakeback almost anywhere.

But it's not a one-way street. I have pledged that the blonde Live Updates, & Forum of course, will always remain free-to-air, & these cost a fortune to run. We've done Vegas, & we will do the entire EPT Series, properly too. Jen & snoops are off to Barcelona in the morning for 5 days, followed by London, Baden, Copenhagen, Deauville & Monte Carlo, I won't see much change out of £10k for that lot. We also cover all the Majors on the Domestic Circuit.

blonde Bashes don't come cheap either, we spent well over a grand last week (excluding Staff/Labour, which was all voluntary), & with, what, 175 attendees, that's £6 a head we paid. blonde Bashes will always be free, & we hope to have a minimum of 3 per year, so that adds up.

The Home Page is a cracker now, as good as most, & that costs money too.

So, yes, we want players to play on blonde, but we ain't begging, as we think it's a two-way affair. And, if we can help it, we want to avoid being dragged into the Rakeback war. Players are fickle, & jump from site to site chasing Rake, & who can blame them?

But I'm adamant about this - blonde is a community, & the blondes come first, so offering Rake to what will be, in many cases, complete strangers, does not really fit with me.

I should add, though I can't divulge names, we have some hugely supportive blondes playing BPL regularly, for massive amounts, simply to support blonde. How good is that?

I hope that answes the question fairly, & it was a good & fair question.

Dont ever change it guvnor.

[Colchester Kev]

is kev classed as a huge star player?

Just huge ... and tikay , I liked you better when you were on that fence !!

I hope that has pride of place in your office... all those signatures need to be displayed.

[tikay]

is kev classed as a huge star player?

Just huge ... and tikay , I liked you better when you were on that fence !!

I hope that has pride of place in your office... all those signatures need to be displayed.

I've not even got round to thanking everyone yet, where has the time gone lately?

Anyway, now you've rrived, I'll get back on my fence. I need a Fence Smiley.

[mikkyT]

tikay and the crew you really do a stirling job. I hope the 400$ rake i've accumulated so far goes a tiny tiny way to saying thank you for creating what has to be the best community i've come accross on the net, not counting my gaming clan (but many knew each other before t'internet so that doesn't count really). The standard of post, whilst we do have our hiccups, is second to none. And that INCLUDES the bad ones!!!

As to rakeback, I think whilst there are better deals out there, at the black (highest) level you are still getting what amount to a 20-25% deal if you use the points for buyins at major events. Haven't worked out the prices of some of the other items in the shop, but they seem to be around that level. Thats good enough for me.

As for the standard of the site, its bloody brilliant. But it should be for the amount you fork out for it. I'm sure that there are many willing volunteers from the blonde membership with the skills to do something on a similar scale for a fraction of the price. But then you ask why should they give up their time for free? And I suppose in the business world that yourself and some of the mod team come from, you are right. You do get what you pay for, and being an internet/software programmer myself I know the fees are quite (unjustly! Ahem) high. But, c'est la vie. Webhosting as well doesn't always come cheaply, and you do get what you pay for. But, flip the coin over, I've created large sites for clients that set me back time plus resources. Those resources probably won't even touch the £100 mark and yet you can charge 1k, plus the time and get it, and its considered cheap. Obviously you've factored in all those fiddly elements such as up time and service level and these push up the price. I've not known a forum to be up as much as blonde. And we don't have to pay a dime.

You're right about the BSQ, every site needs its perk and theres nothing wrong with shopping around. And blonde does a great service by allowing "adverts" for other site. By that I mean posts that detail information about all the guaranteed comps that are around, and asking for PROs etc. Having you're own cardroom, you really don't need to be doing that - but the community is what its all about.

I didn't realise the cost of blonde bashes are so much - so once again, you have my thanks and I know I speak for the rest of blonde on this aswell. I do hope the cardroom will go some way to paying this back. And since we have a choice, there really isn't a reason to play at any other tribeca site other than for the satellites they have to offer

Right enough of this sucking up your arses, I'm going back to being mikkyT

[Jonboy]

This has probably been asked a few times ... but I can't recall coming across it ... does blonde do rakeback?

Not really, except for the really huge players.

The way the blonde Cardroom deal was done, we just can't afford to mix it with the big sites, & I don't wish or intend to. It's designed around the blonde Community, & we are really smallish players on the whole. For sure, you can get better rakeback almost anywhere.

But it's not a one-way street. I have pledged that the blonde Live Updates, & Forum of course, will always remain free-to-air, & these cost a fortune to run. We've done Vegas, & we will do the entire EPT Series, properly too. Jen & snoops are off to Barcelona in the morning for 5 days, followed by London, Baden, Copenhagen, Deauville & Monte Carlo, I won't see much change out of £10k for that lot. We also cover all the Majors on the Domestic Circuit.

blonde Bashes don't come cheap either, we spent well over a grand last week (excluding Staff/Labour, which was all voluntary), & with, what, 175 attendees, that's £6 a head we paid. blonde Bashes will always be free, & we hope to have a minimum of 3 per year, so that adds up.

The Home Page is a cracker now, as good as most, & that costs money too.

So, yes, we want players to play on blonde, but we ain't begging, as we think it's a two-way affair. And, if we can help it, we want to avoid being dragged into the Rakeback war. Players are fickle, & jump from site to site chasing Rake, & who can blame them?

But I'm adamant about this - blonde is a community, & the blondes come first, so offering Rake to what will be, in many cases, complete strangers, does not really fit with me.

I should add, though I can't divulge names, we have some hugely supportive blondes playing BPL regularly, for massive amounts, simply to support blonde. How good is that?

I hope that answes the question fairly, & it was a good & fair question.

In hindsight mine was a bit of a shallow post given the opening comments in the thread. (that's the trouble with multitabling and posting at the same time!?)

My intention was not to suggest that rakeback should be available, or that blonde should enter a rake war with other sites, or that it should be aimng to attract 'complete strangers' in order to generate more profit. Having other Tribeca accounts I would have quite happily moved my bankrolls to blonde for a lesser %, preffering to support what has grown into an excellent site, forum and community.

That said I will still open a blonde poker account later in the week and put a few hours in each month at the cash tables, considering it a worthy investment in what has become one of the best poker forums/sites on the web (If not THE best ... especially when it comes to live updates!)

One of the greatest things about blonde is the range of players, both in ability and levels of play, from freeroll seekers to main event finalists. You mention a number of 'unamed' players that generate massive amounts, I am sure Rob Young is amongst these and I for one will be transfering my activity on the crypto network to his DTD site when it goes live. In my opinion his project, and the way it is being setup, reflects the 'blonde ethos' of poker for poker players. I wish him every success and am glad blonde and DTD continue to support each other.

Thanks Tikay for an honest and fair response, your commitment to the site, and more importantly doing it the right way and for the right reasons is highly commendable. Long may it continue, you are a credit to the game.

Look forward to seeing you all at the tables

Jon.

P.S. From what I've heard any loss in rake can easily be offset by sitting with Tikay at a blonde bash cash table ... so sign me up for number four!

[Gamblor21]

I can officially say i am mostly donating all in the name of blonde! Possibly the worst ever $5 extended player in the world...

[scottm]

I can officially say i am mostly donating all in the name of blonde! Possibly the worst ever $5 extended player in the world...

Not quite, Colch " I will be 1st out" Kev is surely worse    

[ifm]

I can officially say i am mostly donating all in the name of blonde! Possibly the worst ever $5 extended player in the world...

Not quite, Colch " I will be 1st out" Kev is surely worse    

Erm nope, Gamblor is actually (you will find this hard to believe) than Robertfish!!!

[Snatiramas]

Just spent 15 mins reactivating live account. You will be seeing the rebirth of Natty Snatty.............Snatiramas2.....a man with a trophy

[The Baron]

I've been a member of blonde nearly from the start. I've always enjoyed surfing here for alot of my poker info, the general banter, and of course the live updates we get are superb.

Since the Blonde poker room started, whilst the guys here have tried their best to sign people up without badgering people I only put in an initial deposit of about $200 which disappeared fairly quickly. Since then to be quite frank I couldn't be arsed transferring any more.

It occured to be last week that because I get alot of enjoyment from this site it was only fair if my Tribecca bankroll was in the Blonde poker room instead of elsewhere. So I've done it I've transferred over $1k to blonde and will start playing more there.

So come on the rest of you, I think its fair if we help out our good friends here and make sure they are taken care of, in my view it makes no difference to you if your Tribecca bankroll is on blonde or elsewhere, so get it on blonde. I bet many of you are pretty much like I was and can't be arsed, but it takes very little effort indeed.

I'm sure I'll attract the usual 'its spam' posts, but I'm only writing what I think personally, and like I said it makes no difference to you. By the way whilst I'm a regular at Notts I don't know Tikay or any of the other mods, I have shared a table with Tikay a few times and passed the odd comment across the table but don't know the guy, I just wanted to say this because I felt it was right.

So in the words of Delia.............

Really amazing stuff.

It's posts and posters like this that make blonde tick. Muchos respeck to you sir! I owe you a beer.

[Karabiner]

My entire, but rather small Tribecca bankroll is on blondepoker.