Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Big_D]

When will you be putting up your Vegas staking thread Gramps?

[tikay]

When will you be putting up your Vegas staking thread Gramps?

Imminent, Mr Golden Bollox, within the next 48 hours.

You have a bit reserved. Not by choice, mind, it's compulsory for you.

#dullan

[Big_D]

When will you be putting up your Vegas staking thread Gramps?

Imminent, Mr Golden Bollox, within the next 48 hours.

You have a bit reserved. Not by choice, mind, it's compulsory for you.

#dullan

Haha, yes indeed sir. Just wanted to know in order to find out how much money I would be losing ;-)

[tikay]

When will you be putting up your Vegas staking thread Gramps?

Imminent, Mr Golden Bollox, within the next 48 hours.

You have a bit reserved. Not by choice, mind, it's compulsory for you.

#dullan

Haha, yes indeed sir. Just wanted to know in order to find out how much money I would be losing ;-)

You came to the right place, sonny Jim.

[AlunB]

I seem to upset folks when I mention this elsewhere on blonde, "la la la, I'm not listening", but it needs saying.
Here's an extract from the Poker Scout weekly Update this week.

Online poker traffic rose 0.1% last week, the second consecutive increase following an 11-week losing streak.

Overall, the worldwide market is down 8% from this time last year. That number, which held steady from last week, represents an improvement over the previous downtrend of about 10%, giving hope that the industry's decline may be slowing.


The cliffs.

An 11 week run of decline, that can't be good, & we should not ignore it, even though we all have differing views on why, & what needs to be done. Finger-pointing is not the route, imo.

A 0.1 increase is not much to shout about, but at least it stopped the rot. The increase probably arose from SCOOP. 'Stars have well over 80% of the online poker market. Globally, in Online Poker, I think the cake is split 17.5% MTT's, 17.5% SNG's, & 65% cash, give or take a bit. So once SCOOP is over, it'll be interesting to see how the numbers progress.

A near 20% decline in 2 years ought to ring alarm bells. Another 2 years like that, & the decline feeds upon itself.

It's a bit odd that an 8% decline is seen as a good thing, because the prior year saw a 10% decline.

Fingers crossed things change soon. 

DTD are moving mountains with their innovative ideas as to Live Poker, & it IS making a difference to the Live scene. We just need the Online world to do the same now. 

Pokerscout monitors cash game traffic no? Although this statement is probably still true.

Poker has not shown any real signs of growth for some time now and really seems unlikely to in future. At some point, perhaps, the industry needs to accept it's just managing decline.

Why would it do this?

Theres no real reason why poker cannot grow, its a great game that we all love and there will always be more people coming through that could learn to love the game. Gambling as a whole seems to be growing so why can poker not eek out some of that market. Something is going wrong at the minute for me its lack of big cash games on tv with characters like Late night poker etc. This is what got sooo many people into the game its exciting seeing wads of cash fly around a table.

For me i dont care if they multiply the numbers by 10 for TV purposes to get the audience interested. yeah EPT,s UKIPTs, UKPCs are ok for me to watch on TV (tbh i find these pretty boring anyway). But a new player must be bored out of there skull. Cash games are where the exciting TV is at £100k won or lost on the flip of a card. Where have these big televised games gone? have a game of £25/£50 televised and just say the blinds are £250/£500 etc. BOOM

Conversely there is no real reason why poker should grow. You would struggle to find anyone in the UK for example who isn't aware of poker and has made up their mind as to whether they want to play by now. The game hasn't changed, the online game is if anything less attractive to them, so why should they change their mind because of a TV show?

If the Olympics can't encourage people to play sport http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/dec/12/london-2012-olympic-legacy-young-people-shun-sport then good luck getting a few loudmouths slinging some cash around getting people to play poker.

Most of the online poker companies already realise this and efforts to grow their revenues are in new countries and regions. In the more mature market it's more about maintaining market share and stealing players from the competition.

That's not to say poker couldn't grow, but there needs to be some quite radical changes in the current environment for it to do so. And there is neither a will nor an obvious way to do this as far as I can tell.

[AlunB]

I seem to upset folks when I mention this elsewhere on blonde, "la la la, I'm not listening", but it needs saying.
Here's an extract from the Poker Scout weekly Update this week.

Online poker traffic rose 0.1% last week, the second consecutive increase following an 11-week losing streak.

Overall, the worldwide market is down 8% from this time last year. That number, which held steady from last week, represents an improvement over the previous downtrend of about 10%, giving hope that the industry's decline may be slowing.


The cliffs.

An 11 week run of decline, that can't be good, & we should not ignore it, even though we all have differing views on why, & what needs to be done. Finger-pointing is not the route, imo.

A 0.1 increase is not much to shout about, but at least it stopped the rot. The increase probably arose from SCOOP. 'Stars have well over 80% of the online poker market. Globally, in Online Poker, I think the cake is split 17.5% MTT's, 17.5% SNG's, & 65% cash, give or take a bit. So once SCOOP is over, it'll be interesting to see how the numbers progress.

A near 20% decline in 2 years ought to ring alarm bells. Another 2 years like that, & the decline feeds upon itself.

It's a bit odd that an 8% decline is seen as a good thing, because the prior year saw a 10% decline.

Fingers crossed things change soon. 

DTD are moving mountains with their innovative ideas as to Live Poker, & it IS making a difference to the Live scene. We just need the Online world to do the same now. 

Pokerscout monitors cash game traffic no? Although this statement is probably still true.

Poker has not shown any real signs of growth for some time now and really seems unlikely to in future. At some point, perhaps, the industry needs to accept it's just managing decline.

Yes, it measures all traffic, as far as I know.

I was just trying to put the increase in perspective by mentioning the SCOOP boost. SCOOP would have boosted MTT traffic globally by 5% or more, I'd guess, which netted down to a small increase overall.

You are probably right as to "managing the decline" of course. I find it a bit worrysome that so many seem to be in denial. If we can manage that decline better, or even arrest it, then we ought to at least try.

Cue, I gurantee, I'll be called "a doom-monger" again.

Ah well, so be it.

There really isn't anything wrong with managing decline either. Or even as you say to arrest it. If you start off with a large profitable business and manage to maintain a slightly smaller but just as profitable business I don't really see why that's a problem for anyone. The problem, as I see it, is the game is still dictated to by the few and not the many.

[redarmi]

BBC:


Alan Pardew will remain as the manager of Newcastle United, according to the minutes of a fans' forum meeting released by the club

How is this news? That the club are pretending to communicate with fans?

The same fans forum they stopped doing when they didn't like some questions?

I think Mr Posh Bloke was just being a little ironic as to fans running football.

I'd like add my own views, but I fear that football fans generally might not share my views, and might even get a little uppity. I am, as you may already know, quite an admirer of Mr Ashley.

I remember asking you a number of questions on your admiration for Ashley on your diary. You started with about point 5, some might say the easiest to answer, then ignored the rest. I stopped reading your diary about a week after that....

Bugger, you were 50% of my readership.

I don't even recall that, apologies.

Were they "pointed" questions?

Can't say I understand why all the hate towards people involved in football, or any sport for that matter.  If Mr A owns the Club, it seems to me he can do as he wishes. If I owned something and people started telling me what I should or should not do, or how I spent my money, think I'd spite ignore them.

Post the questions again on my Diary please, and I'll try harder this time.

You doing Vegas this year?

I've recently sneaked back in but refuse to participate fully! Not sure how I find the questions again, but you took the easy way out.

I agree completely about owning 'something', but football clubs are different to other businesses, otherwise presumably you'd be confused why people would be up in arms if you, say, bought Liverpool FC for £300m and asset stripped the club and ground for £500m and closed it? You can't actually do that, but you get my drift. That's how other businesses work, just not football.

I seem to recall u having similar admiration for Mr O'Leary and his Ryanair firm....before their succession of profit warnings and admission that they had to ditch the way they do things and change, refocus on major airports, stop charging for all the extra etc etc after coming last in the Which survey of top 100 British companies for customer service. I did think of u when paying extra to fly to the Irish Open in order to avoid using Ryanair, amazing u can click a box and the search takes out all Ryanair services.

Vegas not sure, would love to but still undecided, looking less likely, can be such an expensive town.

This is the sort of stuff that should be on a diary....it would be if I wasn't on strike!

Rofl, don't think we had better continue this here, as you say, better we do it on my Diary, because I don't buy that standard get out of "but football clubs are different".

No more here though, it's probably a bit out of order.

Shame you won't be doing Vegas though.

There you go fellas - kick on....(I'll take my affiliate fee later)

[MANTIS01]

Interesting piece about Sports Direct on Watchdog last night. Our friend Mike Ashley obviously doesn't think his customers are the sharpest tools in the box. If his business offers a discount of upto 50% the item will indeed be half price, cos it's a simple sum to work out see? However, items that are offered upto 80% off are actually priced nowhere near that figure, cos that takes a bit more working out see? Is this strategy good business or poor ethics?

Incidentally I do not believe football clubs have owners, merely custodians. Football clubs are historical entities that belong to the people. It's like saying somebody owns Stonehenge. I'm sure they do on paper but in reality it belongs to all of us.

NB: If this post offends you perhaps just delete the post rather than the entire thread. Would hate to see your whole diary removed from Blonde because of one comment

[tikay]

Interesting piece about Sports Direct on Watchdog last night. Our friend Mike Ashley obviously doesn't think his customers are the sharpest tools in the box. If his business offers a discount of upto 50% the item will indeed be half price, cos it's a simple sum to work out see? However, items that are offered upto 80% off are actually priced nowhere near that figure, cos that takes a bit more working out see? Is this strategy good business or poor ethics?

Incidentally I do not believe football clubs have owners, merely custodians. Football clubs are historical entities that belong to the people. It's like saying somebody owns Stonehenge. I'm sure they do on paper but in reality it belongs to all of us.

NB: If this post offends you perhaps just delete the post rather than the entire thread. Would hate to see your whole diary removed from Blonde because of one comment

Lol, behave. I think we ought to give you a test run as a Mod, it ain't as easy as you seem to believe.

1) Good business. We are grown-ups. caveot emptor

2) Wrong. Football Clubs have Shareholders &/or owners, who pay good money for that right. They are not custodians, they buy the thing & can do as they like. Fans don't have rights as such, not at all. It's no different to moaning about Tesco. Don't like how Tesco does business? Easy, go to Sainsburys. The notion that a Customer has a say in running a business is ludicrous. Whatever put that idea into football supporters heads? It IS much repeated, but that does not make it any more valid.

All IMO, of course.

Why on earth would your Post offend me? Just because we hold different views, does not mean I'd take offence. If you read some of the threads on the Betting Board, then yes, it seems holding an opposing view means you have to fall out, & go round making snide remarks. Seems all a bit childish to me.

How is your Golf business thing working out? Satisfying? Enjoying it?

[tikay]

LOVED this story, loved it to bits.


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dr-richard-hughes-patients-queue-3536078

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

After a televised horse race yesterday, they interviewed the owner, & she so impressed, that & I ended up spending all evening researching her background.

Her horse, "Madame Chiang" had won a Group 3 Race (Group Races are VERY important in horse race breeding, they give "Black Type" on the CV which is crucial). She owns a Stud, & the winner was bred by her, as was, most unusually, the 2nd horse home. And she knew the "family" of her horse going back through 40 years, every nitty bitty detail.

She spoke with great authority & deep insight, it was wonderful to see & hear. She seemed a little - well a lot - aloof & arrogant, too, but no less impressive because of that. In fact, she reminded me a little of Lady Thatcher.

She struck me as not a woman to cross, but when I finished a-googling, it was easy to see where her air of authority arose from - she is worth, give or take a billi, £4 billion, & is the 4th richest woman in the UK, allegedly.

I give you Miss Kirsten Rausing.

[tikay]

It emerged that Miss Rausing is a member of the famous family who founded, & still run, Tetra Pak.

Tetra Pak are HUGE, employ 25,000 people in 170 countries.

And these days, Kirsten appears to be running Tetra Pak. Oh my.

The family are a right mixed bunch, & includes a few wrong 'uns, some of whom have had a few problems with drug use, & one of whom (her brother I think) was originally charged with murdering his wife a few years ago, later reduced to "delaying the proper burial" of her. I think he was then sent to an institution for the mentally unstable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Rausing

Tetra Pak began their business with the invention of the tetrahedron food package.....

Click to see full-size image.

From that little acorn, one of the world's most successful products - flexible food packaging - began.

If you buy milk, orange juice or whatever in a flexible package, chances are it is a Tetra Pak thing.







That milk carton does not look special, but.....


Upon visiting the Tetra Pak factory in Lund in the 1950s, Danish physics professor and Nobel Prize laureate Niels Bohr allegedly claimed to "never have seen such an adequate practical application of a mathematical problem" as the tetrahedron package and the innovation of the milk tetrahedron,

Simply, but devestatingly successful.

I'm sure most of you are yawning now - carry on - but what a story, & I learned all that from seeing the woman interviewed yesterday, & the greatest miracle of life as we know it - the internet.

OK, poker next, just for a change.

[tikay]

Oh, & here's the Tetra Pak wiki page.

Breathtaking stuff.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetra_Pak

[horseplayer]

She also has the best strike rate at Southwell of any owner

[MANTIS01]

2) Wrong. Football Clubs have Shareholders &/or owners, who pay good money for that right. They are not custodians, they buy the thing & can do as they like

You buy a grade II listed house. You are the owner and you pay good money for the property. You can do as you like right? Wrong, you can't put a dirty great conservatory on the back cos you have an obligation to the heritage of the property and an obligation to the community. Hence you are a custodian of the property not an outright owner imo.

Oh and only winding you up Teeks. Just thought with the habit of deleting entire threads if somebody steps out of line I was worried your diary would end up in the delete bin if I said the wrong thing. I mean my view just like above is that the community who contribute to a thread own it. Must get used to the fact that an individual who paid good money owns all these threads and they can do with them what they like.

Don't forget to save me Vegas staking now!!