Rob Yong's Blog V3 "WSOP 2010 & Life After DTD Opened"

[EvilPie]

Cos and John, please keep it civil

I'm not deleting anything on Rob's thread unless I really have to....but please don't make things awkward for the mods by making it personal thanks

No objection to legitimate questions (particularly those which affect me directly lol) which Rob and tikay can choose to answer if they wish to do so

Regards

T

FYP

Regards

E

[robyong]

Blog Entry (6 ) DTD & Pokerstars

One of the most common rumours that I get asked about, usually in the DTD smoking area, is whether we have sold or intend to sell any part of DTD to Pokerstars, especially since it was announced that DTD was to be one of the legs of the new UKIPT. Last year, I did meet with a few of Pokerstars’ management and they presented us with a few different options, one of which was to work with them by hosting some of their live events, and this was my preferred choice. To associate yourself with their brand can only be good for DTD going forward and it’s really important that this UKIPT event goes well this week. If at some point in the future, I wanted to move away from DTD, Pokerstars would be the first company that I would approach if they were interested in having a live venue in the UK, because they are genuinely passionate about poker and I believe they would at least maintain the standards we have set.......and probably not replace our 50 poker tables with blackjack and roulette!

I wanted to write a bit about Pokerstars because I find their organisation very interesting, in comparison to stereotype market leaders in other business sectors, who can often be bureaucratic, corporate and sluggish. I have found Pokerstars to be very different, they are able to pay attention to every single detail, they are always looking to enter new markets aggressively and every single Pokerstars employee that I have ever met seems full of enthusiasm for their job. Their company has remained privately owned, I think the founder owns 75% and the employees 25%, therefore the organisation is free of the constraints and expectations of the stock market and external investors. In such a small space of time, Pokerstars have been right at the centre of the huge growth in poker’s global popularity, I remember when they founded the EPT with John Duffy, smashed their first £1m Sunday guarantee and of course, how they held their nerve and continued taking US online customers, despite changes in US legislation, its been quite an amazing ride so far for what effectively started off as a few lines of computer code.

I am not kissing ass because Pokerstars are holding their UKIPT leg at DTD this week, far from it, I normally loathe big companies that tread on everyone else in their quest for world domination, I hate seeing how the supermarkets are putting our corner shops and pubs out of business and how these big retail parks are killing our town centres as well as being built on green belt land with taxpayers money and backhanders to corrupt councilors. I naturally always side with the ‘David’, not ‘Goliath’, in fact, I was one of the poker players that often slagged off Pokerstars, especially when they put the EPT buy-ins up, but now I am on the other side of the fence, I can see how really professional they are and there is a basic difference between them and some of their competitors, they genuinely love poker and maintain this ethos by employing people who share their love of poker.

I have decided to treat myself and play the UKIPT this week, I have never played an event at the club so I am really looking forward to it, this is such a good value tournament for a £500 buy-in, I just have to play. I spoke to Nick this morning and he told me we already have over 400 runners confirmed, so hopefully we will set a new record for the UKIPT, between 600 – 700 is probably my estimate, although we have staffed for 810 just in case. I expected Day 1b (Thu) to be much more popular than Day 1a (Wed), but so far we have about 200 runners for each, so it looks like I was wrong about that! I am also interested to see how their £50 freezout super satellite does tonight, most of DTD’s satellites to events are rebuys, but maybe we could look at doing freezouts if this one gets a good turnout at the club this evening. I guess the only thing I would change is their £100K GTE, I think they could have pushed the boat out a little more to maybe £200K, as £100K only equates to 200 runners, but I guess in their first season, they did not expect their tour so be so popular.

With the GUKPT’s, the Gala Tour, the UKIPT and our own DTD events, there is so much poker available in the UK now, whilst this choice is currently great for players, I am not sure if this is sustainable in the long term and believe we could see a decline in certain events, there is only so much money to go around, and the growth in new poker players will inevitably reduce in what is already becoming a mature marketplace. Personally, I favour the recent trend towards lower buy-ins and higher fields, this allows a bigger pool of players to take a shot at winning decent money, but I am still fearful of the sheer volume of poker tournaments going on in the UK at the moment.

Good luck to anyone on Blondepoker that is playing the UKIPT at DTD this week, here is the link to the UKIPT schedule at DTD this week http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/festivalinfo.php?id=33

Cheers Rob

Next Blog Entry (7) My Day 1b UKIPT

[tikay]

The comments about my absence are noted. I much regret being absent, but it was unavoidable & I have continued to support blonde & DTD in other under-the-radar ways, as many know.

I will be explaining "why" soonest, but nobody should jump to wrong conclusions, as some already seem to have done.

I remain 100% grateful to, & supportive of, Rob & Nick at DTD, & I chat to them regularly. But let's keep Rob's thread on topic please, & any complaints as to my position, please put them on my Diary, thanks.

[LeedsRhodesy]

The comments about my absence are noted. I much regret being absent, but it was unavoidable & I have continued to support blonde & DTD in other under-the-radar ways, as many know.

I will be explaining "why" soonest, but nobody should jump to wrong conclusions, as some already seem to have done.

I remain 100% grateful to, & supportive of, Rob & Nick at DTD, & I chat to them regularly. But let's keep Rob's thread on topic please, & any complaints as to my position, please put them on my Diary, thanks.

yeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaa Tikay back woooooooop woooooooooop      Sorry for getting carried away Back to you Rob

[robyong]

New Blog Entry (7): “My First UKIPT”

I was hoping for 700 runners, but 650 was not too far off and it was the 2nd largest field ever in England, behind last years EPT. The main event was also a record number of runners for any DTD tourney, so I think everyone was pretty happy with the field, players, pokerstars and DTD (okay, maybe the DTD kitchen got a bit of a shock!).

I believe we are close to agreeing a deal with Pokerstars to hold the event again next year so they must have been reasonably happy with how things went over the week. What was nice to see was the success of the side events, very well supported by the DTD members, in particular the 177 runners in the NL 6 max, which I am a big fan of. I think we could look at developing this 6 max concept in DTD, both in terms of cash games and tournaments. A big thank you to our regulars for supporting the week, I know these events were quite a bit more expensive that our normal weekly schedule!

This was my first event that I have played at DTD, the structure was great and I have actually changed my mind about the 12pm start that Pokerstars decided to go with, players on the whole found it more enjoyable to finish at 9pm, and have time for a few beers with friends, as well as play some cash.  Finishing earlier also helped some of the travelling players as they had enough time to drive home and get a decent nights sleep, before returning feeling fresh to play more poker the next day.

I have hardly played any poker for the last 4 years, I have been way to busy with DTD and my football club, but things have settled down a bit now, I am looking forward to playing more, Simon Trumper has recently set up some VIP games every week in the club, Wed (DC), Fri (NL) and Sun (Omaha), and I have been playing in these. Unfortunately, I am £7,000 down in these cash games so far this year, even after taking into account winning £10,000 in cash games last week, but that’s not really a significant amount for the size of the games being played, however, clearly I am not playing that well!

Despite my ‘rust’ in playing tourneys, I had set myself a target to end day 1 with 45,000 chips, which would mean I went into day 2 in good shape or busted out early. I know many players believe grinding and waiting for hands is the correct strategy and going into the next day with average chips is fine, but the arguments for a more aggressive early strategy are equally as valid, you have to navigate through so many difficult situations with 650 runners, I think its better to have more chips and be able to survive the inevitable accidents and coin flips along the way.

During Day 1, I was never all-in for my tournament life and rarely had many show downs, I also never outdrew anyone after the money went in, so I felt that I played pretty well. The key hand was when I flat called a min re-raise by obvious AA after I had raised UTG with QQ, flop came and I check raised all-in on the flop, I actually think my opponent can possibly think about folding here, as the pot was only 6,000 ish, but he insta called his remaining 24,000, I guess I had a VLAG image on the table.  I ended day 1 with 55,000 chips, I peaked at 75,000 but lost 2 coin flips against short stacks, however not a bad days work and I was about 25th in the chip counts.

Day 2 started off pretty badly, I stupidly called a UTG raise on the BB with and donked off a third of my stack checkraising flop and betting turn on K high board (I put him on QQ as he was in check call mode), I should have moved in on the end as I then knew I was behind to AA or AK, but river went check check and AA won, it was a scary board and I believe he would have folded for an all-in as he would have been beat if I had any 2 pair or better.

I got back up to 50,000 with a few positional re-raises and continuation bets, the table was very tight and I felt I could probably get through the day without taking too many showdowns, until I found a monster starting hand, in the SB, with an UTG limper in the pot. It was 600 more to call with about 4,000 already in the middle, so I decided to take a flop but not get married to an 8 high board, the flop came down , I had flopped an 8 high flush with a 1 outer to the straight flush. I checked expecting the UTG limper to represent, but the BB fired out 4,000 and the UTG limper just flat called, I am never folding the hand unless another club comes/pair up so I just called aswell, the turn was a and I checked again, this time the BB fired out 10,000 and the UTG limper folded, the BB was a very tight player but I was almost sure he had 2 pair/small set and would pay me off even if the river did not pair the board, so I smooth called the 10,000, the river came a , and I moved in for 30,000 representing a busted flush draw, he insta called with and I was out. I have thought about the hand and people have said I should have bet out and then folded to a re-raise on the flop or turn, but because of my VLAG image, people with sometimes go all the way with just top pair/weak kicker with me, so I can't fold hands like this as their range is much wider, I’m happy with how I played the hand, and I really enjoyed the tournament.

I got a small £1000 touch in the £50 bounty comp on Sunday (maybe more my level at the moment) where I had a £300 bounty put on my head generously donated by Pokerstars, I should probably have won it when we got down to 3 players, I had half the chips in play but I lost 8 all-ins to one player, when I had her crushed almost every time, so it was not meant to be. I even lost with AQ on a QQ2 flop, all the money went in against her 88 and she rivered her 2 outer to make a boat! I think I had 350,000 chips and she had 25,000, and she ended up knocking me out – ahhh!

Overall, an excellent week, good to see so many familiar faces, the £10,000 winnings on cash games meant I ended the week in profit, so roll on the next Pokerstars UKIPT at Dusk Till Dawn!

During the week, I had quite a few questions about what we are going to do in Vegas at the WSOP this year, so I’ll talk about the plans/arrangements in the next blog entry, there is a £20 RB sat into the main event satellite tomorrow at DTD (3pm start – buy in for 3 levels) if you don’t fancy stumping up the £500 to try and win a seat. There are also some 20 euro stats online, here is the link for all WSOP info http://www.dusktilldawnpoker.com/satellites.php?satellite=7

Next Blog Entry (eight) “WSOP...here we come”

[Matt.NFFC.]

6 max cash tables.....yes please.

[Ironside]

u playing this weekend

[AMRN]

New Blog Entry (7): “My First UKIPT”

During Day 1, I was never all-in for my tournament life and rarely had many show downs, I also never outdrew anyone after the money went in, so I felt that I played pretty well. The key hand was when I flat called a min re-raise by obvious AA after I had raised UTG with QQ, flop came and I check raised all-in on the flop, I actually think my opponent can possibly think about folding here, as the pot was only 6,000 ish, but he insta called his remaining 24,000, I guess I had a VLAG image on the table.  I ended day 1 with 55,000 chips, I peaked at 75,000 but lost 2 coin flips against short stacks, however not a bad days work and I was about 25th in the chip counts.

Yep that was me. Having lost sleep about that hand, and wondering whether or not I could have folded there, I still think that folding would have been weak. There were a couple of players at the table that I would have snap-folded my AA against in this spot, but because of the super-LAG image you had engineered for yourself, I felt that your range was particularly wide when you shoved, and you could easily have had KK, a flush draw, or straight draw (I just hoped it wasn't a combo draw). If you had a striaght draw, then I had two of your outs, and if you had a flush draw, I had ace hearts. A flopped set was way up at the top of your range - there was so much more that I was beating, that I just had to call. 

Thought perhaps I should have raised more preflop - the min-raise was silly - but as it turned out, it was irrelevant.

Edit: Also, for the record, you were all in and at risk.... I had you covered, albeit after the hand I only had around 15xBB left.  The worst part about losing so much of my stack was that I didn't get to play with Michelle Orpe for long before I lost the rest

[TheChipPrince]

 

[Mitch]

 

Robert please can you tell us some more stories!?

Info on the new cash room at DTD? Or maybe how u like to peel a 3 bet oop with A4 off, get a 46Q flop, peel again and get there vs AQ. There all dying to hear it.

 

[ripple11]

Next Blog Entry (eight) “WSOP...here we come”

Guess Rob is busy atm.......but those in contact, pls remind him.

[Doc Bok]

Next Blog Entry (eight) “WSOP...here we come”

Guess Rob is busy atm.......but those in contact, pls remind him.

2011 obv

[TightEnd]

from elsewhere, when Rob spoke at the APAT WCOAP last week

I hope some of you caught the interview between tikay the APAT chairman and DTD Owner Rob Yong

Rob Said that DTD has been open for three years now, after 18 months of delays pre-opening fighting the casino lobby who wanted to prevent him opening

DTD is still in the red weekly, as the traffic into the room from the area is insufficient to cover costs.

However DTD has so far hosted 45 third party events for the likes of APAT, Norwegian and Greek Poker Championships, Stars, Ladbrokes etc which enable DTD to continue as is.

For the UKIPT DTD hosted the largest ever UK tournament outside the EPT, with over 600 players taking place.

DTD therefore values its relationships with third party event holders like Stars and Betfair/APAT very highly

Rob spoke about his admiration for APAT and his amazement at the distances players travel to participate in APAT events. He complimented the APAT range of tournaments in the festival currently taking place.

[tikay]

from elsewhere, when Rob spoke at the APAT WCOAP last week

I hope some of you caught the interview between tikay the APAT chairman and DTD Owner Rob Yong

Rob Said that DTD has been open for three years now, after 18 months of delays pre-opening fighting the casino lobby who wanted to prevent him opening

DTD is still in the red weekly, as the traffic into the room from the area is insufficient to cover costs.

However DTD has so far hosted 45 third party events for the likes of APAT, Norwegian and Greek Poker Championships, Stars, Ladbrokes etc which enable DTD to continue as is.

For the UKIPT DTD hosted the largest ever UK tournament outside the EPT, with over 600 players taking place.

DTD therefore values its relationships with third party event holders like Stars and Betfair/APAT very highly

Rob spoke about his admiration for APAT and his amazement at the distances players travel to participate in APAT events. He complimented the APAT range of tournaments in the festival currently taking place.

Jeez, I've done so many things in the last week, & visited so many places, I plum forgot that interview. Not sure if it's recorded anywhere, but he spoke, as always, very openly & honestly about the good ship DTD, & it'd be worth listening to his comments. Tell you what, I feel sorry sometimes for Nick Whiten - trying to second-guess Rob's thoughts is unbelievably difficult, he thinks on a different plane altogether.

[TightEnd]

I don't think it was recorded, but I listened and took notes. Good interview. Good festival too, I think DTD were very happy too.