The story behind the blonde Live Updates.

[tikay]

There's been some huffing & puffing about these recently, so I thought I'd set out what we designed them for, how, by whom, & when, & how we got where we are with them. And I'll include how YOU can help make them better, very simply, & address the criticisms that have been levelled recently during the Brighton & dtd Updates. And, I hope, I will let you know about the technical improvements we have in hand for the near future. But one things for sure, the irreverent style of the Updates is never - ever - gonna change, because that is exactly what I originally set out to achieve. My successors have all implemented that Policy, but 10 times better than I ever could, or dreamed we could. To them all, I doff my hat, for the hours & hours of pleasure & entertainment thay have given so many of us.

In two quite seperate Polls, the Live Updates were voted by blondes as the thing they most enjoy about blonde.

The story begins back in Copenhagen, in January 2005. I'll Post it in bite-size chunks, to aid readability & feedback.

I'd just been busted out of the EPT on Day One by Greg Raymer - I used to think EPT's were "value", & indeed I played two, & cashed in one, at Deauville a month later. These days, I don't see the value in them for a plodder like me, but that's another story.

So, what to do for the rest of the week?

blonde had been "on air" about a month, but our Forum only went Live that very day, as chance would have it.

I'd always found Live Updates on other Sites, as we knew them then, to be a tad dull. I used them to follow Thewy from time to time. They were not interactive, & I had this vision of an interactive, forum-based, Live Update, which was fun. blonde was a baby, & our motto was "Poker with a Smile", which, of course, exactly reflected my view on poker. It's just a game, & games are meant to be enjoyed.

Well, here was an opportunity. How best to seize it, I thought?.....

[tikay]

Downstairs at the Copenhagen Venue, there was an Internet Room, & I asked Rhow to show me how the blonde Forum worked - it had only started that day, or the day before, IIRC.

So I went onto one of the PC's - I had no Lappie - & started inputting Live Updates onto the Forum. (I expect it's still there now).

The PC cost €10 per 30 minutes (!), & after using it ten or twenty times, it started refusing my credit card. Given we were in Denmark, that was no surprise, the "security" systems thought it looked sussy.

So I rung AdamM - he was the first blonde Forum Member I think, & I knew him well from my Gala Notts days - & asked if he minded me texting him Updates. He obliged, until the early hours, when he had to get to bed.

Joe Beevers was there, & he was amazingly helpful to me, identifying players who I never knew - which was all of them. In return, I Posted the Updates on The Hendon Mob Forum, as well as blonde, fair's fair. Sadly, some tosser started spamming blonde on THM, & Joe was a bit cross with me, given how helpful he'd been. I denied all knowledge, & challenged him to check the IP Addy, try & trace the Poster, maybe that would prove something? Joe said he already had, & the Poster came from Derby. "Which is where you live, Tony" said Joe...Oops.

Anyway, Joe seemed to believe me, & set about tracing the IP addy further - my oh my, Joe Beevers is a magician with a computer, he can do unbelievable things -  & eventually, he traced the spammer. It was a William Hill addy - it appeared to be someone in a WH Shop in Derby. Well, I knew nothing of that, & luckily, Joe believed me. So began a lovely freiendship with Joe, & we have an unwritten rule never to mess with each others Fora, & to "look out" for shitty stuff on behalf of each other. I was a regular Poster on THM at the time, but I ceased after blonde began, as it seemed a bit spammy for me to Post across there, me being inexorably linked with blonde. THM was in a bit of turmoil at the time, one way & another, but they started to regulate & Moderate their Forum shortly after, & they soon became the Poker Forum Daddy again.

And so, that was our first ever Live Update, Credit cards, & texts, & a bit of a barney.

I must take a look at it one of these days. I do recall Thewy running deep, luckboxing everyone, Stu Fox duelling with Gus Hansen, &, if I'm not entirely mistaken, Bad Girl - sponsored by Wm Hill - going out in either 9th or 10th.

Our next Update was even more challenging....

[tikay]

It was at Walsall, & I don't recall how it came about, but I was there making the Pilot Show for what became Poker 425, & I decided to try & Update the Comp at the same time.

It was a corker. I well recall it was "Junior's" (Greg Hill) first Biggie - he'd won his seat I think, & he ran them ragged. Dave Colclough was in fine form, too, I recall him beating AK with Quad Eights, & we soon had an absolutely terrific Final.

I can remember some of the Finalists to this day - el blondie, Stu Fox, Greg Hill, Henning Gradstad, and Stu & DC clashed big time in a very odd hand, Stu calling with A-J or A-9 I think, & Dave had Nines. Eventually, it was Junior v el blondie, & they went at it hammer & tongs, before Dave, now chip Daddy - just - & Junior clashed in one of those two pairs v two bigger pairs affairs, with each ahead & then behind, & Dave took the Trophy, young Greg scoring over £37k.

I have no idea how this happened, but I updated the whole of the last two Tables by Text. To a friend - jbsc7769 - who lived in Greece! Simon - jbsc7769 - is a big suit st PokerStars these days, & he is a terrific guy, his lovely sister Justine was a great kid, too. My thumb ached for weeks after, & my Text Bill was obscene.

The Update got - for little, baby, blonde - great traffic, & the word began to spread, so I started Updating Events all over the place, most weekends. There was no other sites Updating, as THM had ceased by then, & AWOP had not started.

So I needed to find a fellow-updater, as I could not cope alone, it's way too much for two Updaters, never mind one, & it was killing me.

And it was then that I had a huge slice of luck......

[tikay]

Jen was recommended to me. I barely knew her - I'd seen her deal at Gutshot, but we'd never spoke. But I was in a hole, I needed help badly, & so she got the job, after we'd exchanged an e-Mail or two.

She came up to Walsall for her first ever Live Update, & the first few hours, until I got to know her "style", & way of doing things, was a bit awkward. You don't tell Jen what to do - ever - you simply tell her what the idea is, then leave her to it. I soon learned that.......

And she was just extraordinarily good at Updating, a born genuis.

The Update went fine, we'd been lucky to find a real gem, & so that was that, tyvm Jen.

I was busy rushing hither & thither, Poker 425 was in it's infancy, this was my first TV job, blonde was growing, & I was a bit overwhelmed by everything that was happening. Poker 425 were sending Rhow & me to Vegas, for the WSOP, & Dave & I decided, almost on a whim, that blonde would try Updating over there. As ever, I was totally disorganised, & on the Friday - as the WSOP began on Saturday, I rung Jen.

"How are you Jen, it's Tony. Would you like to Update for blonde in Vegas?".

"Of course, I'd love to. When do you want me there?"

"err....umm, well,....tomorrow?"

"Can't do tomorrow, I'll be there the day after - my Birthday".

Phew. I met her off the 'plane at McArrthur Airport, & she dropped her stuff off at The Orleans, & we started Updating from The Rio instantly, on a corking Omaha Final.

Now we needed money, & blonde had none. Dave paid for Jen's Hotel, & me for her fllight - or vice-versa, I can't recall - & I gave her some spending money - not much, $1,000 I think. And Wm Hill chipped in with the start of their blonde Forum Sponsorship, I think, about then. I had agreed to write Daily Reports for the Wm Hill's website, Update for 14 hours a day for 2 weeks, & do my TV stuff as well. Never again, I nearly killed myelf, & I recall falling asleep at my keyboard several times. But that was nothing compared to Jen, who worked like a Trojan, untul she dropped. We Updated fom the Rio Corridor, on a bench Seat - no Press Access in those days - & Jen often just fell asleep where she was. I recall Barry Neville ran well, & had his cap on backwards, & he had that exchange with Vinny Vihn after Vinny queried who this big ugly sod was. "I'm Big Bazza from Sheffield, WTF are you".....

Gutshot were there, too, & had proper Press Access, but we (blonde) did not, because organising it was down to me, & I just never got it sorted. Poker 425 had access though, & we eventually sneaked access into the Press Room. We only had one Press Pass, with my name on it, & Jen & I swapped it back & forth. She never once got caught, either.

And so began the Jen-blonde Live Update Story. Jen & I Updated from Vegas, Paris WPT (oh, what fun), & the Season One & Two EPT's, from Barca, London, Dublin, all over. The first ever Barca EPT was a shambles, with 10 players crammed onto little "heads-up" Tables, & no Press Access. Nowadays the Press Room is as big as a football pitch, with scores of Sites Updating. The EPT has grown superbly, fair play to Mr Duthie. My other committments made it impossible for me to cope, & it was then that our second huge slice of luck arrived, in the form of snoops. Jen & snoops were just made to Update together, & they were the blonde Dream Team for 2 years or more, & gave us so much credibility. I helped out from time to time, but it became too much for me, physically, to cope, & I had other stuff going off, too. I was Updating at Bolton with snoops one day, & I just sort of gave up, halfway through, & watched, in shame, as snoops carried on. I never Updated again, my time had passed.

snoops was - is - also the blonde Home Page Editor & Content Provider, & he works his socks off, & soon, we needed someone to "cover" for him.

Enter Floppy, another stunning piece of luck, & so the Team grew - Junglecat, Dana, Chili, Tighty now & then, Dingdell ditto, & others I'm sure I've forgotten. But all had the same style - Fun Updates were more important than just "dry as paint" CardPlayer type Updates. 

Eventually, Jen, who was "Update Boss" needed more time to concentrate on other things - her playing career for one, freelance writing for another - & so she asked to become just a regular Team-Member. Snoops is a workhorse, he runs for ever, but it was not fair on him, he had too much on his plate, so Floppy took over as Update Bosss, & that's where we are now.

In Update Terms, Poker News are the dogs bollocks, technically, these days, but they only Update very big Events, & I'm convinced there remains a market for blonde-style Live Updates. We introduced "At-A-Glance" Updates to satisfy those who wanted no interaction or humour, & they remain to this day.

Now, to Sponsors....

[tikay]

In the first half of year one, I paid for all the Live Updates I did out of my own pocket, & I've never claimed that money back. I also paid Jen when blonde did not have the readies, & a few others too, but that's all part of building a business. The Staff often had to wait for their greengages, & I'm grateful to all of them for thieir understanding, Their reward will come one day.

Poker 425 sponsored the Forum from mid 2005 until Channel 425 closed on October 2006.

Then Rob Yong recscued us, & gave us a handsome, 12 month deal, from January 2007. Never were we so grateful & we owe him a debt we won't renege on.

And over Christmas, we negotiated a 2008 deal with Wm Hill, big thanks to them, Thewy, & Tighty.

But to correct a frequent misunderstanding, Sponsors do NOT pay for Updates. They pay a monthly fee, for the right to Badge the Updates, which does not change from month to month. (The DTD deal was a bit different, they paid specifically to cover DTD Tour Events, as they were called, & they paid for plenty else besides. Rob, thank you).

Irrespective of whether we do one Update a month, or 10, we get the same fee from Sponsors It does not cover our costs, or even nearly so. Sending folks to Monte Carlo & Vegas, Dortmund & Barcelona, Helsinki & Paris, does not come cheap, even though the Updaters scrimp & save on Hotel Costs.

So, that's where we are, & how we got there.

Now, to address occasional concern with our Updates.....

[tikay]

I started a Thread a while back, along the lines of "Local, Domestic, UK, Updates, or Big Buck jobbies, all over Europe & elsewhere?"

The result was mixed, but most, if I read it correctly, plumped for Domestic Events as their Updates of choice, where they could follow players who they know. At the time, we were Updating an EPT from somewhere, full of names most of us did not recognize, & these, I'm afraid, don't do much for me - in fact, only the Updaters quirky humour makes the readable, to me, anyway. I barely recognize a name from this week's Dortmund EPT, but it's readable only thanks to Jen & 'Cats zany humour & brilliant prose.

And during the Bahamas Jobbie - & it don't get more expensive than that - the traffic from a scratch Update at DTD for a 60 runner £500 jobbie was more than double the daily totals fom the huge-runner Bahamas affair. Hard to argue with the facts.....

But we still needed EPT's & such-like, as it's from them that most new sign-Ups occur. And we need new sign-ups in the hope that they will migrate to the blonde Cardroom. To help pay for the Updates. It all goes round & round.....

Then it got solved for us, because the Wm Hill Deal requires us to Update from wheresoever Golden Boy Thewy goes. So there it is, job done, we continue with both Domestic & International Updates.

Do new sign-ups migrate to our, or our Sponsors, Cardrooms? Sadly, not really enough of them do. There is very low migration from Updates to blonde Cardroom, though we hope that plenty migrate to Wm Hill in 2008, for obvious reasons, but possibly, our (blonde) business model is flawed. But Live Updates are our Shop-Window, & I will defend them to the death. Which I've had to, quite reasonably too, with my fellow Shareholders, more times than enough. I'd just add that Richard & the current Team are highly supportive of them.

We were chuffed to bits when Wm Hill gave us the 2008 Deal, & in fact, it does not begin until Feb 1st, but we thought we may as well start it early, by way of a "thank you". And Thewy did his bit, by going on to win the thing, bless him. And the Wm Hill Big Suits, all of whom watched the whole Live Update, were mightily impressed. Until someone decided to let off steam, big time, & sour the entire Update, &, naturally, bring the wrath of the blonde community upon him. It's hardly a reaction which one could quarrel with. To say we were devestated would be an understatement, & I felt for Tighty, who'd worked so hard to cut the Deal. Never mind, we'll recover, & give them good value.

We did a DTD Update a few weeks back, & that caused some unrest too, & though originally, it began as well-intended, later, a whispering campaign began by PM, & it sort of simmered for a few weeks. The facts are we had to Staff it at very short notice, & whilst our Update Boss, Floppy, was over in the Bahamas, & thus not much able to help. Tighty came to the rescue, as did Bongo & Dingdell, & they did it voluntarily - that's for no money, just the care of blonde & it's Members.

It was our first ever DTD Update, & as such, we know the next will improve 500%. But a strange, new, Venue, full of local faces our crew did not know, is not the easiest way to do an Update. It was suggested we could have recruited - at 24 hours notice! - locals to help us. Good idea., If you know anyone local, who has the writing skills & humour of Jen, snoops, Flops, Dana, Cat, or Chili, who's available at 24 hours notice, & will work all weekend for free, just let us know.....!  Chili had hoped to do it, but was unavailable, & I know she was gutted that her local knowledge, which was unavoidably absent, could have saved Tighty & Bongo & Ding from all that criticism. Ah well, we'll do our best again this coming weekend, & with Flops & Kev on the keyboard, if anyone ain't happy, they can tell them. Rather you than me.....Constructive, objective, criticism, we'll take that all day. "You were hopeless" is hardly helpful, now is it?

Not one individual has complained to me personally, by the way. I don't bite, you know.

And I hope that now you can see why, when folks who contribute little or nothing to the blonde Cardroom, but see no irony in complaining about a Free Live Update, do tend to rub us up a tad.

The Updates are EXACTLY what I always wanted them to be. They ain't gonna change insofar as style is concerned, though we've got some lovely techno extras about to be added.

So how can you, or the players, help to make them better?

Well, that's easy peasy........

[tikay]

1) If you want an Update on any particular player, or want us to look out for him, just ask, on the Thread. Look at today's Dortmund Update, or any other Update, & you'll see how it works.

2) If we have not mentioned someone whom you are interested in him, ditto, just ask, on the Thread. At he time, not afterwards. It's that simple.

3) If you are playing the Event, & a hand goes off on your Table, please try & mention it to passing Updaters. I know it's a bit of a pain, but top players like el blondie, & Thewy do it, & even fish such as Flushy & Matt Tyler do....Please remember, Updating is not even half as simple as you might think. Only those that have done it know that. Or ask Ariston, who lasted one Level in Dublin. Easy, it's not.

4) If you ain't happy with the Update, tell us, but please be civil. I don't respond well to threats & insults, & I hope our Staff don't, either. A bit of civility goes a very long way in this world.

5) If you still don't like our Updates, well, that's too bad really. You don't have to read them, there are other Sites doing them. But I bet you do.

OK, there it is, I hope that positions our Live Updates clearer in everyone's mind.

I'm very optimistic that we'll have a good Dortmund EPT Update, & that this weekend's DTD affair will be an absolute corker. If it's not, just tell me, directly, please. That's all we ask.

And thank you for bearing with me, whilst I waffled on.

[taximan007]

Floppy is the boss?

 

Thank you TK. From humble beginning blonde updates IMO are the best available and a guaranteed WINNER.

[jakally]

A super read as always Mr TK.

IMO no need to defend the updates.
The Brighton one was fine and even though Dortmund is full of names I'm not familiar with it still holds my interest.

Keep it exactly where it is IMO.

[LLevan]

Long may the updates continue. So far Dortmund has been a great update and hugely looking forward to DTD in the knowledge that Kev is going to be in charge of the camera 

[boldie]

Excellent post, Oh Old One.

[Karabiner]

Excellent post, Oh Old One.

With great age comes great wisdom

PS AdamM was the second one to sign up for the forum 

[Tonji]

I stumbled across blonde via an update a few years ago. They were hugely entertaining & informative then, today I'm still impressed at the quality & individuality all the updaters bring to their work. I've not been anywhere else since 

[Claw75]

Excellent post, Oh Old One.

What he said.  It's a little sad that you felt you needed to go to the trouble of explaining it all, but it's a good bit of blonde history to have on the record.

If it weren't for posts like this or other recent posts I'd never have realised the extent of the difficulties updaters are often faced with - that's testimony to their professionalism.

Now, about DTD, I think I'd better take my own camera along to balance out the norkage pics..........

[thetank]

This is why you don't get enough sleep