lil dave's lil life

[Karabiner]

Only an utter degen. can have a 16/1 winner and lose £250 on the day.


 

[SuuPRlim]

bloodbath, a few lil sweats but entirely short lived, managed to scrape a £30ew 3rd place 22/1 shot to salvage a scrap of morale, done about 800 and at no point did it look like any other result was on the cards so should be glad it wasnt more! half of them prolly still running!

Thats defo towards the higher end of my gambling limits these days.

Off in person tomorrow so i can look the horses (and bookies!) in the eyes... turn in fortunes gtd

[SuuPRlim]

got my tweed racing suit on, a few cans of pimms for the train and a pocket full of money.

LET'S FUCKING HAVE IT CHELTNAM!

[Eso Kral]

got my tweed racing suit on, a few cans of pimms for the train and a pocket full of money.

LET'S FUCKING HAVE IT CHELTNAM!

Photos ftw big man please!

Who are you with today?

Any strategy to the punting and if it all goes pear shaped is it the darts punting tonight to get you out of it?

Have a great day.

[rfgqqabc]

Next year! Glgl

[Karabiner]

 

[SuuPRlim]

Was me and middy at Cheltenham. We ended up losing tiny but it took a £750 win on the 4/6 ruby Walsh fave in the last followed by a £350 ew on a 25/1 2nd place in the last to get us out of it.

The worst part of the day was niceonefrankie dying, we had him in the heart of ew lucky15 and a chunky ew bet on him in a race where the fave fell early so to watch him fall and then learn hed been put down was pretty terrible for morale.

There's much easier ways to do your money :-D

Love the races, feels like you're actually part of a spectacle and not just shamelessly degenerate.

We actually ran sick after the races too, donked around like utter clowns and found ourselves 25 min walk from the train station 15 mins before the last train and zoo hope of getting a taxi in the next 30 mins...

Luckily we used our northern charm to piggyback someones taxi and made the train, that would have been fucking criminally stupid.

Yday was pretty zzzzz too, had a semi-sized single on Don Cossack and a few live dbls with that he completed but that aside another hose - job on lil daves gambling dreams :-D

Actually had a sick ew lucky sweat in Cue Card too and have a lot of love for this horse, so was pretty tilted to see it clatter the fence at the end,  glad the horse is ok and the jockey looked like he nearly took a hoof to the face which I can only imagine is highly unpleasant.

Ended up stuck ~1.2k over the course of the week which I can't help but feel could have been 3x... had 2 horses come second that were 1.2 in running that would have got me out of it, so maybe it could have been a lot better too! That's gambling innit <3

Back to work now, 2 businesses to run and some huge challenges ahead this next few months. easter weekend coming up too and iv set some pretty massive targets at the restaurant which has prompted  Graham to offer a pretty exciting reward should I hit :-p (vegas related)

I'm also in the process off adding a sportsbook onto our site which is going to be a fucking adventure. Why I insist on doing everything all the time I will never know, gotta get my degen fix in somewhere.

I was saying to middy the other day that since quitting gambling on a daily basis sometimes I wake up literally desperate to be in action somewhere on something, I guess you can just never quit gambling once you're in...you're in for life :-p

Now I have to go iron my shirt.

#lildaveslife2016

[booder]

 

[SuuPRlim]

Hello!

The days of wild vegas parties and $100k cash games swings have gone but I'm busier than ever. I actually think life now is more exciting than ever, however its not wild vegas parties and $100k cas games swings anymore but there is only so long your body and mind can handle my early twenties

Restaurant

Usually I'm a get it quietly kind of guy...however the restaurant we are absolutely crushing right now, from ~£6,000 p/w in gross turnover we're currently somewhere between £13,500 and £14,500 (15 seems to be that tough nut I cant crack) but given I was hoping to be around there for Xmas I am pretty happy. Average spend has gone from £7.10 to £12.50, wet sales have risen from 2% of turnover to 11%, feedback is great, food is good and the staff in there are doing reallllllly good.

A few slammings on tripadvisor are really the only negative thing so far, i am verrrry proud of it currently. MY biggest worry now in complacency in the staff, so natural in any walk of life that things go well and you start to free-wheel a bit - how would everyone else think is best to deal with this? Im swinging between coming down HARRRRD on the first signs (judge by high standards now etc) or just doing even more training than i currently am, softly softly approach and all.

On that note...
If anyone fancies leaving a tripadvisor review for me
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g186411-d1316924-Reviews-The_Fisherman_s_Lodge-Leeds_West_Yorkshire_England.html

If anyone leaves a sparkling review and then wants some sort of favor just PM me !!!!

Fucking hate trip advisor, Middy nailed once when he said its "Giving the cattle a voice they dont deserve" obviously this is my customers we are talking about and I welcome their feedback good or bad...

Just a breeding ground for cantankerous misers to spread there gloom onto others. Still 1400 restaurants in Leeds I wanna be top 10!

Had some good pictures made up of the restaurant...



Bar Area

Click to see full-size image.

GINS!!!!

Click to see full-size image.

Gin Menu!

Click to see full-size image.

This has been a cool innovation we did, given that in Fish and Chips restaurants you just never sell any starters except the odd prawn cocktail and soup, we put this "Fish Tapas" menu in, like tiny sharing plates... Couples are getting 1 to share between them as a starter and tables of 4 getting 3 for £10 etc, so far since opening we're sold 1670 items off this menu which I think its pretty cool.

Click to see full-size image.

That's how it would look

Some Interior Pics:

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

Click to see full-size image.

Did this last month and was roaring success so going in again, anyone in Leeds fancies it was a great night!!!



Next month (June) doing Country Night!!! Sheriff David and his team of deputies! Yeee-Haaaa

Other Work

As you might be aware I invested in an online poker site and casino last year, after steadily growing the database our long term goal was to add a sportsbook to the site, after lots of negotiating over the funding for this we have agreed to merge our database with a new site that is being launched and take smaller pieces of it. The dream me and my partner had of building our own brand and becoming DaveyPower or BetDave was a grand one, but when you start to really understand the numbers these guys deal with it was pretty obviously pretty quickly that this was unrealistic, the offer that was made to us - simply because of who was making it (a hugely successful very well funded guy) was kind of a no -brainer.

Our license application is currently underway and we're setting up some swanky offices in Leeds (same place as SkyBet actually!) been a real learning curve all this and really enjoyed it, a real risk = reward business sports betting and the money involved is pretty spine tingling.

God I'm going to go all Pleno on you here...I am currently in the middle of a deal semi related, to my two work projects and if I pull it off would be the deal of the decade...I literally cannot say anything more about it but in essence I would acquire 40% of a £1m business in cash and equity for an investment of £0.00. I'd say I'm about 20% to land it but just being in this hand with a chance is exciting enough for me!!!!

Real Life

Enjoying life, things with Laura (my GF) are really good, not without the odd problem - we always look super chilled out and people always say to me "you guys make it look easy" if I learnt ANNNYYYTHING this past 2 yrs its that relationships are far from fucking easy! If you got the right girl though, worth it a million times over.

Actually done lots of really cool stuff lately;

End of March we went to Barcelona for 4 days, was amazing - I do love that city, great weather beautiful place, amazing food, Laura never been before and had always wanted to go so I thought, best do this properly...and stayed at the Arts Hotel

First day went for Tapas at a restaurant in the hotel, was absolutely phenomenal, one of the best meals I've had in forever, I dont have a picture of this but I got a cocktail served in a glass shaped like a pipe!!!! Served in a cogar box on a bed of tobacco, it was 27 euros but I was lovvvvvvvving it!

I also went on my first ever segway trip, the guy was telling us how safe they are, you cant fall off these they are so steady...about 20 minutes in he's telling me what a prop I am (tbh I was feeling like I was crushing it) so he took the speed limiters off our segways and off I flew...within 2 minutes I'd fallen off and cut my arm wide open lol...hubris at it's finest. Didn't take away from the segway'ing experience for me though, I loved it would do it again happily.

Little picture of me and Laura pre-my big fall

Click to see full-size image.

After more drinking and shopping and general flopping around in the sunshine we booked a table at InoTeca a 3* Michelin restaurant at like a bazzilion euro's a head, when the worst thing happened...

Sat down ordered some wine, then i got this murmouring feeling...like I was feeling a bit off, I just thought I must be hungry and woofed a bit of wine down, then the waitress brought over this amuse-boushe which usually I'm all over, but I just felt weird. I pulled myself together, took one bite and immediately had to rush to the bathroom to throw up.*

*JUST TO NOTE, THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE RESTAURANT THE FOOD IS OUTSTANDING lol

This happened 3 times more and in the end I barely ate anything and struggled one glass of wine down Laura ate pretty much everything and she is a pretty small eater, so that goes to show just how good it was. WOke up next day felt abso fine, raging tilt.

Also been spending a bit of time in Bucherest, Laura was born in Romania but its been work thats taking us there mostly but I think she's been enjoying being back there, I like the city too - very cool and lots going on. It's quite like a bit of a mix between a really modern cosmopolitan city and North Cyprus (a place close to my heart ) would spend some more time there, would actually consider buying a house there as well they are incredibly cheap.

Coolest thing though by a long way was last week, Matt Perrins/Pez wedding in Norway. His wife is from a tiny tiny village at the top of Norway >1000 miles from the North Pole so they had the wedding there - me and Laura decided to spend a few days in Oslo first just as a little break the two of us - loved Oslo, one thing though it is MIND BLOWINGLY expensive, actual lumps at every turn, almost makes you scared to go out lol.

A big bag of skittles was like £10! We just did what we do in every city, eat amazing food and drink lol only here it was 2.5x the price and in glorious glorious sunshine!!!

The journey to the wedding was good as well, 2hr flight then a 2hr drive through the snowy mountains, absolutely amazing the scenery in this place...

Got drunk, hung out with my friends, ate like a King (Matt's new mother in law is quite the cook!!) did some fishing (caught zero fish) and generally just egaged in relentless merriment. The wedding was lovely, the maid of honour's daughter went mental during her reading which I found quite funny, got sat on a table with two champions of our sport, Martins Adeniya and James Akenhead neither of whom id seen in forever which was really cool.

Click to see full-size image.

Thats Midnight!!!!

Click to see full-size image.

The first "Selfie" Iv ever taken!

Click to see full-size image.

Back to work on tuesday with a mountain of paperwork and 4 12 hr days later barely even touched the sides...

Cliffs

Work Good.
Life good.
Seen some mountains.
Ate Nice Food.
Went on a Segway.
Fell of a Segway.
Trying to Get Rich.

[cambridgealex]

Find it hard to stick with long posts but read every word and loved it - you write so well. Glad things are going so well in all areas mate, keep it up! Will have to get you back into gambling with some crazy TV show related bets soon

[SuuPRlim]

Yes Alex, love the action

[titaniumbean]

would read again <3

[shipitgood]

Hey Dave, great post and  well written. It's great to see business talk in here, and just shows the diversity on blondepoker.

Congratulations on the success with the new restaurant.

With the staff, the main thing will be ensuring standards stay high so that customers get a consistent experience and consequently will keep coming back. It is a hard job/ industry really build the staff up, use a lot of positivity. It might not be a bad idea to run a promo, maybe something monthly with a prize for best customer service or something along those lines.

If you have a wine menu, start the list with the most expensive wines at the top to the lowest prices, this has been shown to increase turnover on wine/ drink sales.

To do with ta, I would just wait for the good reviews to flow in over asking people to write positive reviews.

It looks like a great wee business and wish you every success!

Oh, and what is with all the apostrophes in the menus (!)

[Marky147]

Superb read, and always nice to see things going well for good people.

Mate of mine I work with lives in Norway, and he says exactly the same thing. It's just joke expensive, for everything.

As for reviews/ppl, I always go with what Joe Rogan said on his podcast 'If you can make 90% of people happy, it's awesome, because 10% of people are just whiny little c****'

If I ever make it up north again, I'll be sure to hunt your place out!

[MANTIS01]

The trick with staff complacency is engagement. First is to create max engagement in the product they are selling, this is not fish, this is hospitality. Every guest walking through the door is unique so the experience starts afresh, it could be someone's birthday, an anniversary and the team have this exciting opportunity to create a wicked experience for people. I get a lot of success by empowering staff, coaching them about how influential they are in creating experiences for regular people. Next is to create max engagement about fulfilling potential. All staff, particularly young people, have aspirations to be as good as they can be in life and you can tap into that natural desire to get better with effective coaching. Who wants to waste their potential by underperforming in the things they choose to do?

How engaged are the team in hitting the £15k target? Do they know how they improved SPV by £5.40? Or how they're going to improve it again? Any incentive for hitting the target? Creating engagement, ownership in the performance of the business and offering incentive to grow is the best way to get a team to perform. I mean shit, you're team have more than doubled turnover, you better have taken them out for slap up meal mate!

Oh and the trick with TripAdvisor is to ask people who have positive experiences to review, we hand out little business cards. I mean Casanova said the reason for his success with the ladies was simply because he asked.