"Dusk till Dawn" Poker Club In Nottingham Diary (by Rob Yong)

[Royal Flush]

He just isn't ready yet....

[robyong]

I had a legal meeting yesterday afternoon at Frankie and Benny's, oppoisite the Club. Present was Andy, my licencing lawyer, 2 policeman and Nick. Andy is highly experienced in casino licencing, thats why I went to him, and thats why he's so god damn expensive. I asked Andy the direct question;

Me: "what happens if I get turned down for my Gaming Licence on 27th July, you do realise that there is no going back    now, I just can't get out with all the money I have invested and the commitments I have made?".

Andy : "I just can't see you not getting it. The Gaming Board are 99.9%, and I can't think of any reason why the magistrates would turn you down. In the event of being turned down, we will appeal to Crown Court, but I just can't see this happening".

Normally Lawyers are sceptical, but Andy seems so certain about this on the basis that the government need a test case for Poker Clubs, a "precedent", jumping through all the right hoops to get this legal process through. The 2 policeman were there as part of the liquor and gaming auditing process. I felt the meeting went well, although the police will be imposing some security conditions on the Club such as cameras and doorman.

I have finally signed the online poker contract direct with the room, not through a cage. They have asked us to keep stum until they annouce it to the stock market as they are a public listed company. In my wisdom I have decided to go with the online company that has the most expensive deposit, set up fee, support fee and % commision on the rake. One of the elements to my decision is that they have agreed to sponsor a monthly freezout at the DTD Club, they will guarentee the prize pool at 200 x the buy-in. This means that if we do a £500 Freezout (the monthly comps will vary from £250-£750), they will guarentee the prize pool at 100k. There are a number of other initiatives with the live club, and overall, I just felt they really understood the importance of the link between live and online play for DTD. As soon as it gets announced, I'll paste a copy on this thread.

I have a huge amount of admin to do all of a sudden. My inbox has 23 emails requesting documentation so I need to complete all of these today to make sure processes are not slowed down. I know that I could have probably delegated a lot of this legal/admin work, but I can't afford any mistakes in the set-up stages, I don't even trust the accountants and lawyers to always get stuff right, based on previous experience,  so I double check everything.

I'm not control freak, once the foundations are in securely, I have no problem with leaving people alone to do their jobs as long as they are hitting he targets, but there are so many donkeys around advising you who have a long list of qualifications but are about as useful as Chubbs on the 10-20 NL. We are setting up the first licenced poker club in the UK, its never been done before, so we are all playing UTG without looking at our hole cards.

That thread on "Nottingham Gala" yesterday really xxxxed me off, especially the unnecessary vidictive comments about DC. I know the guy who posted it pretty well, I always found him to be a really decent chap and have played on the same 8table with him and had a few drinks and laughs at the bar, can't understand why he would post something like that, I was shocked, and he also have a dig at me and DTD. Saying that TK was posting negatively about Notts Gala to get people to go to DTD, what planet is he on, DTD is not even open and is a totally different concept to Gala, we will both exist side by side appealing to different sectors of the poker community.

I'm used to people having a pop at me in general life, but that was a pretty disgusting post and left a bad taste in my mouth. I've had so many good times at Notts Gala, the only reason why I don't go anymore is because Nightfly is now an employee of mine, and I feel that going there would be a bit disrespectful to Gala. I miss all the bantor there, my last longer bets with Ash, Ali "bad of bollxxxx" playing 83 like it is AA........

Anyway, on a more positive note, I whipped Nick at squash last night..he's not ready

Cheers Rob

[julian]

good skills the yongsta,
keep it up

[ifm]

Good stuff, just noticed your signature, was that the hand you busted on?

[robyong]

Good stuff, just noticed your signature, was that the hand you busted on?

I made 2 calls with KJ costing me 300k in chips with 17 people left at the Irish Open in Dublin, when I was chip leader. I was trying to justify it to Mickey Wernick when we were having a smoke ouside, and he just said "Rob, would there have been a better situation for you to put all of your chips in".....meaning......."Rob, you are a turkey but this is a nice way of putting it".

[Jim R]

I think you should give chubbs the same advice after his paly at Blackpool, I promise not to get him a large JD again

[Junior Senior]

its getting there! -
good luck with all thats left to do.

[robyong]

Me and Nick nipped over the Walsall £300 Freezout on Saturday night. On the downside it started late and did not reach 100 runners, I think this was due to the £300 freezeout that was being held at the Luton Grovesner the same day. The UK poker calender is getting so congested, there was also a £50 freezout at the Broadway that apparently only got 12 runners. On the upside I thought the structure at Walsall was excellent and staff were as usual, very efficient and frirendly. So much poker available in the UK now, even Grovesner are clashing events and fighting for players internally.

Quite a few players were laughing at the Broadway's 12 runners, I think there is some rivalry here. I found myself wondering if anyone will be laughing at me and the DTD Club one day, if we only get small fields, but then I remembered that I could just ban anyone who takes the XXXX and I felt better.

Off to Barcelona on Friday. It was not in my original plans for 2006, but I'm self justifying this trip on the basis that I need to go to  Gibralter and Tenerife anyway, which I intend to do when I finish playing the heads-up in Barcelona. The beauty of the internet is that wherever you are in the world, you can continue working and catching up on things, we coped without it before..and mobile phones........god knows how.

I've been getting plently of practice for the heads-up on the Blondepoker site, I like the NL heads-up formats there, although the turbo formats are a waste of time. Since I started playing on the BP I have not won a bean on the cash games, in fact, I'm 4k down, but I've won a bit on the heads-up and I think I'll stick to them from now on. Poker software is a really funny thing, I hated the tribecca software when I first switched to Blondepoker from Littlewoods, but I find it really easy to use now.

Pete has just arrived at my house with the latest version of our web site to show me. Its tedious work, trying to get even the most basic of things right, but I'm very finicky about stuff like that, and keep changing the goal posts. Our first version which will be launched in next 2 weeks is very basic (just so we can collate members for The Gaming Board) but we will continue to develop the site up until the club opens. I've spoken to Kevin O'Connell's son, Adam, about doing some work on the site content in the future and he's sent me a few ideas. He's studying journalism at Uni and seems a nice lad. As always, I like to try and use people that I know, or know people I know, even if they are not the most experienced (or have no experience!).

The DTD crew is ever growing, even with no club or online room open yet. If we don't get the gaming licence I'll be handing quite a few P45's out sharpish! We have Pete (IT), Darren (General Manager), Chubbs (Online), SundayPM(Chubbs assistant),  Aces (Poker Host), Nightfly (Card Room Manager 1), Mr X (Card Room Manager 2), Mr Y (White Licence Complaince Officer) plus me and Nick.

In the long term, me and Nick will have no operational hands-on responsibility for DTD, as we both have our "day jobs", but at the moment its all hands to the pump. I never realised in a million years the amount of crap there is to do setting up a venture like this and I take my hat off to The Gutshot and all of the other independant casino/card room operations in the UK. Would I have done it If I had known how much red tape was involved?

Okay, time to get some work done this week, I was well on top of things last week, an example of supreme organisation, now I'm back in chaos again, with 23 emails and 13 phone messages to respond to.

Cheers Rob

[ariston]

Gl in barcelona mate. If you need any practice with the heads up games I don't mind giving you a few games- I think you may be ready now 

[Cupcake]

Great stuff Rob,

 I dont know how you find all the time !!!!!.

 DTD sounds like Dog's , cant wait to visit , and i dont even where Nottingham is !!!!!!!.

 Best of luck with your licence.

 cupcake.

[b4matt]

As always mate, a fascinating read. Good luck in barcelona and fill us in when you can! cheers, matt.

[M3boy]

Any odds up yet for the heads up?

I fancy sticking a few quid on Rob to take this one down.

[robyong]

Had 2 meetings yesterday with lawyers and accountants in Birmingham. Being banned from driving is becoming a real pain, I had to get taxis to and from Birmingham, the train service is really crap on this route, taking 1.75 hours.

While I was in Birmingham I popped over to the Jonny Texas 3k euro TV tournament, Aces was playinl. It was situated at the Mailbox complex in Birmingham City Centre. There were quite a few familiar faces there, players and spectators, including Michael Grecco, Malclom Harwood, Ash "Cushions" and of course John Hewston himself. I was really impressed at the set-up there, all the right equipment, plenty of support staff, and a lovely canal location in one of Birminghams most presigous locations.

Before the poker started I had a drink with Jon Hewston, that guy can really talk....he's one of those "larger than life" charactors. He gave me a guided tour of the studio and seemed very proud of what he is creating, his enthusiasm hits you straight in the face . His mobile was going off every 5 seconds, literally, that guy is really working his backside off and you can't underestimate the work that must have been put in by him and Craig Wildman to get this show on the road.

I've got heaps of crap to sort out before Barcelona, my office looks like a bomb has hit it. On a positive note my new apple 30" screen has arrived which allows you to play 9 online games side by side. I've seen a mate of mine, Dave Clayton, play 9 tables and its a challenge to learn how to do it. He's one of the top internet players in the UK and watching him play 9 NL 6 handed games at the same time is pure poetry. I can play 4 maximum........and still get timed out.

On an even more positive note, I couldn't sleep last night when I got home so logged onto crypto to test my new apple screen. I couldn't resist a quick bit of heads-up and took down a £10k pot on the 1st hand with K8 v 88, flop KK8.......say no more, all the money went it and I'M FREEROLLING IN BARCEONA!

Cheers Rob

[robyong]

that means there were 5 8cards out surely

read again, your eyes are playing tricks on you.......

[Tractor]

I count four, Or is it a trick question?

Good post Rob, I thought info on the Jonny Texas 3k euro TV tournament was meant to be top secret

Good luck in Barca.

Those apple 30" monitors are loveerly.....


Jason