Matthew Pitt: Dusk Till Dawn
After I first located poker, I remember studying an editorial in a now-defunct poker mag that a poker-targeted online casino changed into the set to open in Nottingham, United Kingdom. Dusk Till Dawn become the name given to the online casino by the then little-known Rob Yong and his buddy Nick Whiten. The tale is that Yong and Whiten have been turned away from a poker tournament at a Nottingham casino, so they decided to open their poker room, as you do!
Yong and Whiten had to leap through hoops and reduce their manner through the pink tape as local casinos fought to prevent them from establishing Dusk Till Dawn. The two businessmen desired to open a casino that was a haven for folks who wished to play poker; however, casinos around Nottingham pushed for Dusk Till Dawn, wanting a complete casino license, which might be steeply-priced in the U.K. And Yong and Whiten had already invested tens of millions into this project.
Eventually, after years of combating felony battles, Dusk Till Dawn opened its doors to the poker-loving public in 2007, and it has by no means seemed returned. Boasting 45 poker tables and a capacity to accommodate 450 players in one sitting Dusk Till Dawn became the most critical poker site inside the U.K. And certainly one of the biggest globally. Yong and his management group have constructed brief marquees in recent years to grow the capability similarly while DTD hosts first-stay poker fairs.
It’s incredible how many ways DTD has come. Yong famously described DTD as “a shed on a retail park in Nottingham,” but it is far more than that. From humble beginnings of £30 to £one hundred buy-in tournaments, Dusk Till Dawn has become the top-rated poker venue in the U.K. and now hosts many of the most critical activities.
DTD became famous for walking £three hundred and £500 buy-in Deepstack tournaments that attracted the best of British poker. Yong and company then hosted multiple PokerStars UKIPT events in Nottingham. The first noticed 1,625 entries spoil the £1 million assure Yong had insisted on; the second also exceeded its confirmation via nearly a quarter of 1,000,000 pounds.
The “shed on a retail park” has account housed World Poker Tour events, the WPT500, Sky Poker Tours, the United Kingdom Poker Championships, and possibly its most significant feat yet, the PartyPoker MILLIONS UK competition.
Some individuals thought Yong had lost the plot while signing a partnership with PartyPoker. He said he changed into running a £6 million guaranteed tournament at DTD that might pay the eventual champion £1 million. Build it and that they shall come, so the pronouncing is going, and Yong did construct it, the MILLIONS UK Main Event attracting 1,204 entries of £5,300 every to create a £6,017,395 prize pool. Maria Lampropulos emerged victorious to gather the promised £1 million.