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

[robyong]

Our web site will not be online untill December 2006, the online card room will also not be launched till then. The stuff you can see is just a holding site (and this is displayed on the web page) as a number of people had been trying to log onto the url.

[Rooky9]

Our web site will not be online untill December 2004, the online card room will also not be launched till then. The stuff you can see is just a holding site (and this is displayed on the web page) as a number of people had been trying to log onto the url.

Cough... time must have flown by! 2006 now!

Had a look through the site, some intriguing stuff on there already and it does clearly say the site launches in December.

[action man]

any idea on the weekly tournament schedule yet rob, ill be down at dtd 4-5 days a week

[actionjack]

Just to claify what seems to be some confusion.

The web page at www.dtdpoker.com is only a holding page and replaces the previous holding page which simply had one contact number for reference.
The DTDpoker Web site will be launched on December 1 2006 (it does say this on the holding page).

Perhaps the confusion has arisen because the holding page has been interpreted as a poor web site rather than a good holding page.
It is simply there in advance of the real web site so that visitors have something nicer to look at than a copy/pasted simple word document.

I actually think it looks quite good although my picture portrays me with a deceptively large number of chins, the only silver lining being that chubbs' picture is next to mine to make me look better.

[ifm]

Yeah gotta admit it's not the best piccy

[kinboshi]

Sorry - I missed the huge writing at the top of the page...

Sure the real thing will be excellent.  Looking forward to it.

[robyong]

Nothing runs simply, there are always snags and more admin to do with thie damn DTD project. We are getting very close to the launch of our online card room and web site but there are so many loose ends to tie up. The Gaming Board are also asking for more information, some of which I had already provided them with, a mountain of admin is in my inbox and on my desk as we speak. I guess most of these chores are one-off set up jobs but it still cheeses me off doing them as 90% is just forms that will be filed away in some vault somewhere.

The Club is totally ripped out now and looks like a giant empty warehouse. Nick has chalked the floorplan out on the floor showing where the various rooms will be. As we make progress with the fit-out Lee has been taking photos every day so we have  a record of each stage of development. This will be nice to look back on when it is complete. I have an appointment with the local newspaper, Nottingham Evening Post, tomorrow at 12pm, they want to run an article and take some pictures. We are getting a lot of request from the media, everyone seems very interested in what we are doing which is nice.

DTD is definatley for the serious poker player, live and online. Of course, recreational and beginner players will also be welcome, but the Club and Online will be geared towards genuine poker players. DTD is different to a casino, who want to attract the masses so they get more volume through their blackjack and roulette. Online sites such as William Hill and 888.com also benefit from attracting volume, providing additional income to their online sportbetting and online casino operations. DTD is just poker, so we are not going for the volume approach, it makes more sense for us to have less customers but provide a more personal service.

When people say to me " DTD is going to be a massive success, it will be packed", this is actually not what I want. I prefer to personally know every member and I want every member to feel like they are part of DTD, not like they are visiting a "megabowl" or "rileys snooker". Of course, if you spend a fortune on a club, get a 24hr drinking licence, serve nice food and provide great poker.............i'm sure it could  be packed if marketed to the mass audience, but will it be the best environment for us? I would rather we had less customers but the right ones, and DTD is not like visiting a casino on a Friday or Saturday night. Of course, when we hold major festivals, of which we plan to have at least 3, DTD will be busy, but we will put extra resources in place for these events, so that the experience does not deteriorate for our members.

When I went to Amstserdamn it confirmed to me that I am doing the right thing, excluding roulette and blackjack etc from the club. The place was heaving with poker and casino players, and they "fitted" the poker tables around the gaming tables and machines. At DTD everyone will be poker players, members of the club, we will all know eachother, we will have plenty of space, we can play online while having a beer, we can discuss poker hands without the noise from the casino tables, we won't get our tournamant structures changed for TV, and we can play poker in high quality and comfortable surroundings. Every single tournament will either have money added or the prize pool guarenteed, and we'll provide whateverr cash games our members want. Keeping DTD exclusive to genuine poker players makes financial sense aswell, we can control our overheads and wages costs and have time to plan correctly for major festivals.

So many people have opinions on what you should do, "you should do this or do that". You might remember the infamous Harry Enfield charactor who always said "NO! you don't do it like that, you do it like this" (or words to that effect). DTD has been a bit like that, I have received so many pearls of wisdom. I always listen to genuine well meant advice, especially when it is from someome who I know has DTD's best interests at heart, this is how I have learnt loads of stuff over the years. Here are some quotes of some of the advice I won't be taking for self proclaimed experts:

1. "XXXX the Gaming Board, you don't need a license, they haven't closed my club, they have no power, just a bunch of pencil pushers" (a poker club owner)

2. "You can't charge a membership fee for the CLub, the casinos are free" (winning poker player who is broke due to Roulette)

3. "Why have you not sponsored me? You know me better that XXXX, I feel really let down" (poker player who I know ripped off his sponsor)

4.  "You've employed a load of free loaders in DTD, they just want you for your money" (poker player who has owed me £5k for 2 years)

5.  "I know you don't want to, but are mad not having casino games in the club" (75% of people)

6.   "The online poker business is finished now amercians can't play" (UK person who rakes £5k per month)

7.   "Why should I move sites? I'm on 40% rake back, best deal as I'm one of their biggest players" (online player who gets 40% of 50% Net Rake, therfore 20% of gross rake back)

8.  "You a good friend of mine, so I'm going to to you a favour and let DTD invest in XXXX rather than lets the banks make money out of me" ( poker businessman who has had bank loan turned down)

9.  "You should have had the DTD club in London, its easier for everyone to get to" (London poker player)

and the best till last......................

10. "You should sponsor XXXX, every site is after him, but I can talk to him and get him really cheap" (XXXX's mate)

Goodnight all. Rob

[boldie]

  at the "advice"

To be honest, I think one of the reasons most of us here are looking forward to seeing DTD once it's finished is because it would be a proper POKER club and NOT a casino disguised as a poker club...I for one can't wait to make the trip down south once it's opened.

[kinboshi]

at the "advice"

To be honest, I think one of the reasons most of us here are looking forward to seeing DTD once it's finished is because it would be a proper POKER club and NOT a casino disguised as a poker club...I for one can't wait to make the trip down south once it's opened.

Absolutely spot on.  It sounds like a Utopia for the poker player.  The reason it can be like this is through Rob's passion and probably through the goal of the club not being solely commerical.  I'd imagine with investors looking to make money from a  project like this, it'd be impossible for them to resist the lure of the revenue from roulette and blackjack, etc.

[thetank]

To be fair to XXXX's mate, XXXX is quite good (when he hasn't had a drink, or a beat in the last few days)

Can't wait till next month, it's going to start feeling real when the web site gets launched.

[Huaboy]

Rob,

On point 5  Surely 75% of people cannot be wrong.? does it make business sense to only cater for 25%
I admire the way you have gone about this what you are planning is "your" poker utopia....

And yes less sometimes does mean more....

[AndrewT]

Rob,

On point 5  Surely 75% of people cannot be wrong.? does it make business sense to only cater for 25%
I admire the way you have gone about this what you are planning is "your" poker utopia....

And yes less sometimes does mean more....

If the number of businesses/people catering to the needs of the 75% is more than three times the number catering for the 25%, then it's business sense to go for the minority, very roughly speaking.

[ariston]

Class Rob. Dont sign xxxx whatever you do just yet, if I have a quick word for you I'm sure I can save you a few quid and get him cheaper

[kinboshi]

Rob,

On point 5  Surely 75% of people cannot be wrong.? does it make business sense to only cater for 25%
I admire the way you have gone about this what you are planning is "your" poker utopia....

And yes less sometimes does mean more....

It's going to be a 'poker club' to cater for poker players.  If people want to play blackjack, roulette, etc., they can go to one of many casinos in the area.  If people want to do both - then they might be more suited to the casinos as well.

I do think you're right that Rob is building on his dream of what a poker club should be.  I also happen to think that there is a huge market of poker players who want exactly the same thing.

[boldie]

Rob,

On point 5  Surely 75% of people cannot be wrong.? does it make business sense to only cater for 25%
I admire the way you have gone about this what you are planning is "your" poker utopia....

And yes less sometimes does mean more....

It's going to be a 'poker club' to cater for poker players.  If people want to play blackjack, roulette, etc., they can go to one of many casinos in the area.  If people want to do both - then they might be more suited to the casinos as well.

I do think you're right that Rob is building on his dream of what a poker club should be.  I also happen to think that there is a huge market of poker players who want exactly the same thing.

you're damn skippy there is!