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

[robyong]

It was my birthday on the 24th February, 34 years old. When I woke up I didn't even remember it was my birthday until my Mum gave me a card a present. That trip around Scandinavia has really knackered me and before I knew it, it was time to play the £1500 in Walsall.

True to form I managed to blow a big stack on 3 draws (I had 28k after level 2) and was soon watching the Blondepoker team doing the updates. I realise now why I play poker, not to win, but to say "all-in" and hit my 8 outer every once in a while. That gives me the rush, and why I'll never be a very good player. I think I'm gonna invent "tag team poker" at DTD, when I can build a stack of chips and then give them to Action Jack to win the tourney!

If I had £25 for every person who had asked me, "when is the club opening", I would have got my £1500 buy-in back at Walsall. It seems like people expect me to wave a magic wand and refurbish 20,00sq ft of empty space in a few weeks. My standard answer is, "its a big job, I think late 2006, I'm doing my best", and the questioner gives me a look that says "pull your finger out, Yong, thats a long time away!".

I had a really cushy life before DTD came along, bit of poker, travel and the odd visit to one of my offices to show my face. Malcolm Harwood remarked that "I had taken a bit more on than I originally thought" - he's damn right. You see when I was younger I could do more stuff, needed less sleep and had a lot more drive. I also did severley underestimate the work need to refurbish the premises, recruit 60 staff, put a management team in place, deal with legals (which are a minefield) and accounting and set up an online poker site.

I did get the original diamond $6m classic comment at Walsall though, "You don't need a licence to have a poker club, a mate of mine knows all about  it". I just replied, "I wish I'd known that before, cheers". No energy left to respond to that old classic I'm afraid. I'm just feeling a bit drained at the moment, I guess.

Anyway, onwards and upwards, we have the final prices and proposals from the online poker sites. We have a web site 70% complete. We have some good staff who have agreed to join. We have a full project team recruited. We have 3 designers working on the layout of the club. We have have 3 contractors pricing up the fit out. We have bank accounts set up and Ltd companies registered. We have the applications into the Gaming Board. We have all our guns loaded and ready to fire at the right times, hopefully.

Cheers Rob

[bobby1]

Rob, all the best, this will be a fantastic place to play I am sure of that.

[madasahatstand]

yes all the best and keep your chin up. it will be worth it and even if it takes to late 2007 who cares? take your time and try to enjoy your moments  building up to glory

mad

[b4matt]

Is the club open yet?......

Chin up mate, get yourself to Vienna and try out there public transport system.

[robyong]

Vienna was a quick trip, as soon as me, Nick, Chubbs and Aces got knocked out we changed our flights and went home. I was really focucced for the main event in Vienna. After level 3 I have 27k in chips and was one of the chip leaders. If my AA had stood up v QQ I would have had £55k and been in fantastic shape but the poker gods seem to be bending me over at the moment.

Me and DC had a drink after we were both out to drown our sorrows and he told me it still takes him 2/3 days to get over being knocked out of a major tourney - I was hoping the pain got easier! Poker hurts you, I've played 4 comps this year and had big chips in all of them and should have done much better.

Paul Parker had a chat with me in Vienna about the Sporting Odds Monte Carlo sateliite, when I got disconnected with 3 people left and him and Rob Cooper played on. He must have spend over 2 hours chattering away explaining why he did not sit out and what he thinks should happen. It really is not a problem to me what happened, there was no guarentee I would have won and it was a freeroll so I lost nothing.

On the positive side news of the DTD club had spread outside of the UK. Even Dan Goldman, the Marketing Director of Pokerstars knew that the club was in a "little place called Nottingham". It was really nice to speak to so many people who have been following this diary aswell who I did not actually know as they were reading it as "BP guests". In fact, I'm amazed that people actually log in each day to check if I have posted, its a real complement and makes me determined to do my best.

It really cheered me up a bit as it seems nearly all the poker players are behind what we are trying to create. Mick Jones had a good chat with me about the club, what a nice fella. Dusk Till Dawn is definatley big news on the poker world, and we owe BP a lot for giving us this free PR, 3 other web sites have asked me if they could run my diary etc and I told them no, politely, nothing against them.

I don't think I am going to Monte Carlo next week as I have loads to do on the club and my pokers running really bad. I have written a to do list for next week:

1. Submit floor plan designs to landlord and arrange approval meeting
2. Pay Gaming Board licence fee from new DTD bank account
3. Finalise and order DTD logo pokerwear for me, Chubbs, Nick and Aces
4. Transfer all my property accounts into sf group head office and meet Rebecca
5. Recruit Sarah from sf group as my PA to help me get organised (as per Karibiners advice)
6. Choose and agree deal with online poker room and check out legals with Poppells
7. Meet with Pete to review latest web site draft
8. Meet with Nightfly to review staffing requirements and give him more jobs
9. Put project plan on my server so me and Pete can share it
10. Take my sister out on Wednesday and visit my Grandma

I always do these lists in 10's for some reason. The bottom line is that I need to get more organised, as everything is getting on top of me a bit. The amount of interest that DTD is getting is way above my expectations and the pressure is on to deliver what I have promised and I feel like I've been walking through quick sand over last 4 weeks - lots of effort with little tangible results.


Cheers Rob



 

[shortstack_itb]

All I can say is that the M1 section from Luton is gonna take a battering from me once this place opens.

Best of luck

[robyong]

Today I chopped and changed my mind about playing in Monte Carlo so many times. I had 5 phone calls from guys who were over there already ribbing me about not going and Ariston hassling me on MSN all day, saying that "that I was a mug to miss the biggest and best tournamant in Europe". I was so close to getting in my car and catching the 18.10 to Nice from Luton, especially with Rumit rang me and told me he had the enough euros to buy me in today.

I played Monte Carlo last year and it was a fantastic atmosphere, structure and set-up. I would love to play it again but managed to control my urge to do a last minute plane journey and chose the sensible option, to stay at home and to do some work. Also, I really couldn't justify blowing another 12,000 euros out of my ever diminishing poker bankroll.

Burnley Jon rang me today and I thanked him for he kind words he put in his latest interview on the pokernews web site. It was through Jon that I first met Chubbs, his ever present poker partner.  I guess things are not quite the same for Jon now that Chubbs is working for DTD and does not have the time to play as much poker as before, but hopefully we will see plenty of the grumpy tea drinking XXX at DTD when it opens.

I sent the first payment for the Gaming Licence today. Its £8,500 just to get your application read by the powers that be, and of course, its non refundable even if you are unsuccessful. If you are granted the "Certiciate of Consent" you then have to cough up £35,000 more to the local magistates court to get their blessing. Double or triple that with legal fees, its no wonder all the card clubs in the UK are unlicenced. What does the governernment expect a small 10 table card room to do, fork out £100k to set up a business that probably wont make much money anyway? Whenever I watch the Robin Hood film with Kevin Coster in, I think nothing has really changed, the average bloke still gets shafted by the government from all angles.

We are now very close to signing up with an online poker room provider after I spoke with their Sales Director today. If you want to set up an online poker room you have 3 options:

Option 1. Have a skin of a skin (effectively you are a glorified affiliate)
Option 2. Have a skin from a cage (eg. Victor Changer or Blue Square)
Option 3. Go direct to the software provider.

Each have their pros and cons, mainly down to control versus cost. We are favouring Option 3, which is more expensive but gives you much more control. Option 3 requires set-up costs and additional support costs, but at least you have more of your destiny in your own hands. If everything goes to plan, we hope to launch the online side in July/August 2006 and Chubbs will be in charge of generating revenue for this area of DTD.

It is key that we make the online side work, as we be less reliant on external sponsership from other poker sites to subsidise the live club. Our strategy is to do everything "in house" at DTD, so noone controls us and we can do the right things by the members and remain independent.

I transferred the first amount of money into the new DTD bank account today. My bank manager seems a but nervous about the whole DTD thing and has been asking me for a full 3 year business plan for the last 3 months. When I told him that "I havn't got one but I can make one up if he wants" he got even more nervous. When I told him that I needed a £20,000 company credit card for miscelaneaus expenses he nearly fell of his chair. However, when I reminded him that I might move sf groups bank account somewhere else, he sorted it all out.

The shocking thing is that I am a qualified accountant and I have not even done an accurate financial plan for DTD, whats the point, who the hell knows what is going to happen? When I first took on the project 9 months ago, I did one (which I posted the summary on Blonde), but costs have escalated so much, I'd rather not do one at the moment! With a project like this, I think you have just got to go with your gut feel, and not get too hung up on making up figures such as number of customers per day, average spend per customer etc. The number of assumptions will make the profit/loss so wildly inaccurate anyway - you could be worrying about nothing. My thought process is much more basic:

1. Is poker growing?           YES
2. Will it continue to grow?  YES
3. Why?                             BECAUSE ITS ADDICTIVE WITH NO AGE RESTICTIONS
4. Is the project interesting? YES
5. Should we do it?              OF COURSE

Good luck to everyone in Monte Carlo. My tip to do well is DC, as he is due a result in a major comp and I just have a "gut feel" about this one.

Cheers Rob

[yt]

I bloody love this thread. Thanks for the updates.

[Karabiner]

Another great update Rob, truly fascinating and thrilling too.

[Colchester Kev]

3. Finalise and order DTD logo pokerwear for me, Chubbs, Nick and Aces

Rob, If you happen to over order a few XXL items, I will gladly take them off your hands

[Sheriff Fatman]

1. Is poker growing?           YES
2. Will it continue to grow?  YES
3. Why?                             BECAUSE ITS ADDICTIVE WITH NO AGE RESTICTIONS
4. Is the project interesting? YES
5. Should we do it?              OF COURSE

I had to laugh when I read this bit.  I know what you're trying to say on number 3 (young and old can play) but you might want to re-think your exact wording if you have an interview regarding the licence.  You'll give the poor bloke visions of delinquent 13 year olds running amok around your club!

Fascinating stuff as always Rob.

Sheriff

[bookiebasher]

bloody brilliant Rob

At your time of life its great to see you can still  put the effort in and see the funny side when things go tits up.

Take my hat off to you sir !!

[bookiebasher]

Just had an idea Rob

Know you dont want roulette or blackjack in the establishment but what about F.O.B. s

Like fruit machines but you can play roulette etc., linked to RNG.

Would be a good income stream for very little hassle.

[robyong]

Just had an idea Rob

Know you dont want roulette or blackjack in the establishment but what about F.O.B. s

Like fruit machines but you can play roulette etc., linked to RNG.

Would be a good income stream for very little hassle.

Jim - you need a bookmakers licence for these. Cant have them in a casino under current legislation. Rob

[RED-DOG]

Hey Rob, just out of curiosity, what did you think of the "22" game in the Concord?