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

[vinni]

flushy your a better player than most.

you proved that last year in the unusual suspects

[tikay]

flushy your a better player than most.

you proved that last year in the unusual suspects

The "things you never thought you'd hear" Thread is elsewhere.

[Dewi_cool]

 

[Royal Flush]

Ty Barry.

As for you Tikay!

[robyong]

Nick normally adds 1 hour onto the scheduled plane departure time for our trips abroad, this means that if I am late for some unavoidable reason, we don't miss the plane. This trip was booked at the last minute with us both there, so Nick couldn't lie about the plane time..............I was late and we missed the Barcelona flight from East Midlands Airport...we were only 4 minutes late and those tight xxxxxxxxxxx as Ryan Air wouldn't let us on.

Plan B - the only flight we could get on was the 6.40pm from Stanstead, so we had to get a taxi there, damn £150 quid taxi plus £80 to change the flights. However, in the lounge at Stanstead Nick won £600 quid online and ended up pretty pleased we had missed the flight (and i was pretty pleased as he would have moaned and moaned about this balls up).

The flight went pretty quick and before long we were ordering a taxi to our the Hotel Princess in Barcelona, about 80km away from Gerona Airport, that was until I realised I had LOST my wallet with all my cash and cards.........what a nightmare, I checked my bag over and over again, I had left it in the lounge at Stanstead Airport. We were stuck in Gerona with no cash or cards, Nick had not brought anything as I owed him money, what a balls - up.

Just when we were losing the will to live, 2 skint sad blokes in an airport at midnight with no idea what to do. our "Knight in Shining Armour", in the form of Simon Zach, arrived on the next Ryan Air flight and bailed us out with some euros. Anyway, my luck is changing, my wallet was handed in by the waiter at Stanstead with ALL of the cash and cards still in tact, what a blessing. Cussions and Mickey Wernick were kind enought to lend me euros so we're okay. There's a good crowd here, Mr Cool, DC, Chezza, Actionjack, Whisky Kev, Nowab, Zach, Cussions, The Worm, Marbella Kid, Jonny Texas(the official sponser), Stephen "the mouth" Pearce etc etc. There's plenty of bantor and some interesting heads-up matches to watch.

The round 1 matches are over 2 days, I play today (day 2). Yesterday DC and Michael Grecco went out, but Chubbs, Zimbler, Mickey W, Jo Grech and Actional Jack all went through. I play today versus an english guy I do not know, but he's a mate of Mark Goodwins, in fact Mr Cool has placed a side bet of 12,600 euros on his mate to beat me at even money (10k with me and 2.6k with Chubbs). Should be an interesting day today..................................

Chubbs had a very tough match against a friend of ours from Austria called Eric, quality player. This was the very 1st hand of the match:

Chubbs raises on button with 

Eric calls with 

Flop  , Eric bets his straight, Chubbs calls

Turn  , Eric bets, Chubbs calls

River !!!!!!!!!! - Eric fires again AND Chubbs JUST CALLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He only did 50% of his stack with that hand and came back to win the match, impressive.

Okay, I gotta go and win the 12k side bet off Mr Cool, my match starts at 4pm. i have a feeling there may be a few railbirding this one, so I gotto a try and really concentrate. Hopefully my opponent will feel a bit of pressure with the extra side bet.

Cheers Rob

[ariston]

Gl rob and you should have a side bet on every one of your matches through this tournament if it makes you focus. Wish the bubble and chubbs luck from me as well.

[b4matt]

Gooo on rob. Great stuff. And well done chubbs, that fella's got some game

[RED-DOG]

Gooo on rob. Great stuff. And well done chubbs, that fella's got some game

So, you missed the plane and lost your wallet!

I have a daughter like you.

gl today.

[robyong]

Just got back from Barcelona today with my tail between my legs. The guy I lost to was a really nice bloke although I sort of went off him when he declared that "this was his first heads-up game he had ever played". I'm pretty cheesed off with the way things went, we were dead level in chips after 4 levels and he raised with   , he'd been raising virtually every hand irrelevant of position so I called him with   (how stupid - if I thought he was weak I shoud re-raise), the flop came   , I check raised him and then moved-all in when he re-raised me back. Pretty poor play by me, but I did it out of pure frustration that I hadn't managed to get the chip lead by now. I was still on tilt after he had hit a 3 straights against my 2 pair in the previous levels, it seemed like no matter how much I bet, or raised, he called and hit his hand, this happens sometimes in heads-up so I should not have tilted, how I was level chips after these hands was a small miracle in itself - I'm very unhappy and depressed, nevermind.

On the positive side, Devilfish, Marcel Luske, Bruno Fitoussi and Surrinder Sunar also got knocked out in round 1, so I was able to earbash them about coming to DTD (actually, Chubbs did slighlty more earbashing than me!). Its important that DTD can give "us mere mortals" the chance to play and mix with players of this type, quality and standing in the poker community. Although some of the "name players" don't get the conistant results compared to the days of smaller fields and less super aggressive players, I love playing on the same table as them and it would be great fun if members of DTD could get access to this experience without having to fly off to Vegas and pay a massive buy-in. Marcel Luske is one of my favourite players, he always makes time to speak with everyone .......in one of first comps I ever played in, he took the time to tell me how badly I played a hand and gave me good advice calling raises about KJ offsuit (which I have obviously  forgot). He's also a good person that could help bring in the scandy players over to our live tournamants and therefore boost our fields.

I strongly believe DTD needs to have players of all levels on our side, there is so much live poker available now in the UK and Europe, tournments are starting to overlap and clash. Surely in the long term the venues that are most popular with the players will flourish and those who don't cater for all type of players, will decline. Attracting "big names" is only one part of the equation but it would be give some credibility.

[RED-DOG]

I've already said I'll come, how big do you want to go ffs?

[robyong]

I've already said I'll come, how big do you want to go ffs?

Biigger than Karibener so you fall short I'm afraid..................

PS - dont think I have played any blondites heads-up on the site yet - PM me anyone fancies a game of NL (any stakes), I need the practice desperately...........

[robyong]

On the negative side:

1. We have had to re-apply for "change of use" for our premises due to a new law that has just come in for casinos. Before April 2006 casinos premises were covered under planning consent (which my building already has), but the Government has now decided as of May 2006, casinos must apply for a separate catorgory of planning use (this has nothing to do with the "Gaming Licence", just planning regulation). None of my legal advisors picked this up, it was the landlord's lawyer who spotted it. I'm "told" its just a formality, but it still delays commencing works for another 6-8 weeks.

2. I spoke to the Gaming Board last Friday to chase up my interview with them for the Certificate of Consent. Apparently there were 72 "unexpected last minute" applications for casino licenses that were put in just before April 2006 (everyone is trying to avoid applying to the new Gaming Commission which took control of all new applications after April 2006). They do not have the manpower to deal with all of these applications so could give me no idea of what was happening with mine, even though I've paid my fees etc.

The lega system is a joke, (doing things the correct and legal way), you can't apply for planning or a license untill you find suitable premises, and when you tie yourself into a massive premises lease liability, the goalposts change. The lawyers, "so called experts", tell you everything in running to plan, and you stumble on these problems yourself. Meanwhile, existing card rooms are operating without a licence and all of these headaches and in full view of the supposed law.

This whole process has been like pulling teeth from the start, as my diary testifies, I've put a hell of a lot of effort in. What started as an interesting and challenging project into the unknown, "to open the UK's first legal card room", is now developing into one big expensive pain in the ass. However, the alternative theory is that there in no such thing as a "free lunch", and these problems are just "par for the course" for taking on a project like this.

But on the positive side:

1. I finished 30th out of 2076 in the Pokerstars sunday comp last night. I tried a new strategy, stay away from people that have more chips than me......my previous system was, "the more chips they have, the higher my implied odds are". I'd like to get back to enjoying my poker, since DTD, I've not really been able to focus on it or play much. I've only been turning up just for main events and my games got pretty rusty and even more irratic than usual. I was looking at my results in 2006, I've played 12 events, cashed in 3, made 2 final tables, and am still £25K down plus expenses. I'm goona take some time out to play more tournaments and travel to some nice places.

2. My horse, Hi Humpfrey, finally won a race at 7-1. A nice £22.5k profit from the bookies at Aintree. I missed the race as I was in Barcelona losing at heads-up.

3. Liverpool finished 3rd in the Premiership, I just remembered I had £250 each way with Booky Jim at 25-1.

Life is full of ups and downs, apart from DTD I don't have much stress and can't really grumble. Cheers Rob

[Karabiner]

I've already said I'll come, how big do you want to go ffs?

Biigger than Karibener so you fall short I'm afraid..................

PS - dont think I have played any blondites heads-up on the site yet - PM me anyone fancies a game of NL (any stakes), I need the practice desperately...........

Just seen this today Rob,my heads-up challenge will be in the PM post.

Glad to see that your aiming for the upper echelons.

Seriously though that is a bummer about the 6/8 week delay.

I hope it's not going to interfere with our Xmas party

[Royal Flush]

my previous system was, "the more chips they have, the higher my implied odds are".

Oh how true!

[robyong]

Things seem to have come to a bit of a stalemate at the moment. There are a lot of balls up in the air, new planning application, gaming licence application, online room, dtd web site, refurb final costing etc and i'm just waiting for them ALL to come down in my favour. There was bound be be snags with this venture, but many hurdles have already been jumped to get this far, and although i'm a but frustrated with the bureaucracy, i'm still very confident of everything coming off. For example, next week, the Gaming Commission are interviewing my 2 charactor referees, Dean Westmoreland (non-exec chairman of sfgroup) and Richard Altoft (my bank manager), so things are moving slighly quicker that "tortoise pace"............

I guess these delays have given me time to think more about owning a poker business and how I want things to be. The most important thing is that it after I have set things up, they run smoothly and don't give me the headaches that working as MD at sf group gave me. DTD is supposed to be a fun business, not a life and death scenario. I've always wanted a place where I could relax with my friends and collegues, have a few drinks and do a bit of gambling, and its important that DTD gives me this, and not a load of extra "business" grief instead.

Of course, everything that I do will always be run professionally and accurately, but enjoyment is the priority for me and thats why i'm willing to go through the pain of setting this thing up now. I can't say that the last 12 months have been a ball, as to get things this far has needed a lot of tedious work, but we are very close now, everything is lined up in the right direction, its just a case of ploughing through a bit more paperwork and we'll get the green light, I'm 95% sure.

Take Blondepoker for example, an awful lot of work has been put into this site, and the bigger it gets, the harder it gets, trying to keep all the members happy, whilst balancing the books. I guess the point I'm making is that owning and running businesses can often take up so much of your time and can sometimes be a thankless task working your butt off. I read that thread titled "Is Blondepoker becoming a spamming site?", what a joke that was, what the hell does someone expect to accomplish by posting stuff like that? How can anyone critise BP for marketing their own poker room on their own site or forum? 

Sometimes you can end up working for everyone else apart from yourself and certain people always want to freeload or have a piece of you. I'm just not going the let this happen with DTD. Including management, the whole operation will employ 100 people, with Club members.........thats an awful lot of people to "keep happy". Well, you just can't please everyone, especially those who want something for nothing, or just have nothing else to do but "whine", so I'll be on the "if you don't like it then goodbye, nice to have known you" system (no matter who it is, member or employee).

I've also had quite a few people approach me to "do this" or "do that" with the DTD Club. Normally it's some "money making" scheme or a "favour" they just want to do me (ie. they want one back in the future). I'm just not interested in all of this crap, the DTD concept is simple: Have a great Club for decent people, and have an online card room that subsidises the costs of the Live Club. It makes me laugh when people say, "you can't charge a membership fee, you'll get less people coming in, casino's don't charge any fees" - first of all, maybe I want less people coming in, and second of all.........I can do what I want (a bit arrogant but true).

Some people may find my "like it or lump it" and "I don't want any favours thank you" approach a recipe for disaster in what should be customer based business. I agree, to maximise profits and grow turnover in a business, your customers and employees are absolutley crucial, and you must be prepared to bend over (literally) for them, to be ultimatley successful.........but this is not the DTD objective - so if you just want to have some fun, you gotta surround yourself with good friends, people you can trust, and don't do anything that you don't want to.

thats enough disjointed rambling for today, there's actually a "point" somewhere in this post.........Cheers Rob