New Blog Entry (3): ““Mick McCool, DTD’s No.1 Fan”Everyone has there critics, they often can help make life more interesting and make you question yourself and ensure that you continue to maintain and improve your standards, and DTD’s no.1 Critic is without doubt the infamous, Mick McCool.
I dont read it myself, but have been sent various links to Mick McCool's blog, also a link to a radio show, and numerous private messages/emails that he has sent to people, slagging off DTD. Despite the malicious intent of his wholly inaccurate and unfounded comments, I have never responded or even felt the need to, his opinions are very much in the minority judging by the growth in DTD customers over the last 2 years, and I am sure the 500 people that have come through the doors of DTD today, on a Sunday, cannot all be wrong, but clearly he has an axe to grind rather than being an impartial critic whose opinions are without obvious personal bias.
However, since his last outburst was not very complimentary to BP as well as DTD, I see no harm in stating the facts on here, which are the absolute truth, regarding DTD and Mick McCool, then people can draw there own conclusions, below is the opening paragraph from his latest outburst from his blog.
Blondepoker and Dusk Till DawnNow unless you live in a cave in the Shetland Islands you will know l hate the both of these fuckin things and everything they stand for more than anything in Poker. People come on the blog and on Blonde shortly after my attacks saying various nice things like, l’m attention seeking, a useless wanker, a fat kunt, billy no mates and all sorts of other bullshit. I couldn’t really give a monkeys what these fuckers say as it has no effect on my life and how l live so ying yang mother fuckers. Before l talk about my main subject, l was speaking to a lot of Norwegian's in Prague at the cash tables and they were telling me that their Championship of Poker was being held in Riga this year, main reason was prices at DTD were extortion and the other was location which didn’t surprise me really. I really like the Norwegians and have made plenty of friends there over the past 3 years so will be sad to not see them over here again even though it was making DTD money.The FactsFact 1: I first met Mick McCool on the UK Grosvenor circuit and got on pretty well with him, okay, he was a bit outspoken at the table and rubbed a few of the ‘established uk players’ up the wrong way, but I personally thought that he was more of a breath of fresh air than what the general consensus was, plus the UK poker circuit was quite ‘clicky’ at the time, and he wasn’t scared to play anyone and give them the rubdown, I sort of liked that.
Fact 2: The first problem I encountered with him was when he publicly accused DTD of putting ‘in house’ DTD players into the $25,000 online freeroll for the launch of the DTD online room, to try and win the ‘free money’ back for DTD. With respect, after investing £5m, why would we do this? This was a blatant lie, and I could not understand why anyone would say such a thing or really believe that we would do this, especially someone that knew me personally.
Fact 3: When the DTD club finally opened, Mick was a regular, his brash style and direct banter did upset a few of the customers and some of our staff, especially some of the dealers in the cash games. Simon Trumper and Darren Whiten had a some quiet words with him on a few occasions, often it was ‘six of one and half a dozen of the other’, and since Mick knew me quite well, I was sure these problems would blow over and he would realise that you just can't behave like that to people.
Fact 4: Mick’s behaviour did improve, the staff and players got to know him a bit better and realised that was ‘just his way’ and he meant know harm with what he said, he was 99% of the time just having a bit of a laugh and to be honest, he made the games more lively and fun a lot of the time. DTD is full of 'charactors' and sometimes our staff need to adjust and take this into account, Mick was one of these people and his heart was in the 'right place'.
Fact 5: Unfortunately, I got a phone call one evening to say there had been a problem in the club between Mick and another customer over a financial disagreement, whist that was nothing of DTD’s or my business, the situation has escalated to the point where the police were called and threats had been made, I was not there, but was told by my management that it had all got a bit messy in front of the customers in the club, which did not look good for DTD, and my management thought is best that Mick was at least barred for certain time. I said I would talk to him and get to the bottom of it, as I was sure there must have been some sort of misunderstanding and reasonable explanation.
Fact 6: Before I got the chance to speak to Mick, I was emailed the latest entry on Mick’s blog, where he was very disrespectful towards DTD, at that time, we were in the process of negotiating with the WPT for the UK Leg and I was very unhappy that someone who knew me personally would write such damning comments on the internet for everyone to see. I was furious that Mick would do such a thing, so I called him and told him exactly what I thought of him in no uncertain words, I made it clear that he would never be allowed in DTD while I owned it.
Fact 7: Mick’s ‘anti DTD’ blog entries have continued ever since that day, I would describe them as distasteful even If I was neutral, this has offended some of the Blondepoker members, due to the close link with DTD and BP. Mick even went on a poker radio show and had a real go at DTD to Jesse May, although to be fair, Jesse did seems to encourage him/fan the flames - I guess to make more interesting radio.
Fact 8: The situation is quite sad and I actually feel quite sorry for Mick, he is local to DTD and it’s a shame that he has put himself in this position. Despite his personal crusade against DTD, he has been consistently trying to get his ban lifted which makes no sense? After getting a ‘no’ from Darren, the General Manager, Mick even contacted Nick personally to ask to be let back into the club, this was only a couple of months ago. Nick spoke to me and I said ‘no’, and my decision has been proved to correct when you see what Mick has written on his blog since.
Fact 9: Mick is clearly not the person he makes out to be, ‘I say what I think’, ‘take me or leave me’, ‘ I don’t give a xxxx what people think’, is all just front, if he really ‘lived by his principles’ he surely would want to play poker anywhere else but DTD! Instead, it makes me cringe when I know he has been desperate to be allowed back into the club, a place he so publicly chastises. To be honest, I find it astonishing that he dare ask us to lift his ban, I would have thought he would feel humiliated to do so, especially when you read his latest comments on how he 'hates us'.
Fact 10: Mick should start by deleting everything that is derogatory in his blog, not just the DTD stuff, unless it is backed upsolid facts, he had made disrespectful comments about various people/organisations in poker, that simply leave a bad taste and give a bad impression of him as a person. If he does this, I will consider meeting with him and reviewing the situation with him being barred from DTD, I know he’s not a bad bloke underneath, but he should stop embarrassing himself with what he writes about third parties in his blog, maybe is would be a good idea to focus his very good blogging skills more on poker, rather than fuelling silly vendettas that don’t actually exist in reality.
Life is too short, Mick, stop being such a plonker, you know it makes sense
Cheers Rob
Next Blog Entry (4): “DTD & Blondepoker – what’s the score?”
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