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Future of the SPT - 2018 onwards
EvilPingu
Member Posts: 3,462
It goes without saying that the Manchester leg of SPT was a huge success. Obviously Brighton has been announced in November. Nothing after that has been announced yet, understandably, but presumably there'll be an SPT in 2018. Therefore, I'm wondering:
- Are there more legs beyond Brighton that have been confirmed with casinos and are waiting to be announced?
- Will we get a full schedule announced for 2018 in due course (Maybe in Brighton?), or is it more likely to be announced one leg at a time?
- Are future SPTs for the time being likely to remain at £220 with the same structure, or will there be variation in BI and structure? Know there's been £110 1 day SPTs previously, as well as £330 'Grand final' legs at DTD in the past.
- What venues are 'off limits', due to other tours or relationship with other sites? Is a DTD leg still a possibility despite their links with Party? Are Genting still notoriously unwilling to host any other tours despite closing down their iPoker skin?
Comments
Morning chaps.
Firstly, apologies that I had not replied to the OP. I feel quite bad to be honest, I'm generally very diligent in replying to all (sensible) questions.
I do know the answers to most of those questions, but I'm not sure if The Business want to show their hand at this stage. I did send a note up to the Office asking them to clarify a few things, & asking them if they minded me replying, & if so, how. I've not had a reply yet, but that's not dissing them - they are all very busy, lots of Autumn & Winter plans are currently being finalised, some of which will be revealed quite soon.
Some background here is that the Poker Team - all of whom were at SPT Manchester, so many of you will have met - is small, compact, & all very busy, whilst I don't have much on my plate right now, so I end up bombarding them with often relatively trivial questions & notes every day. They must dread opening up their laptops some mornings - especially on Mondays - fearing all the guff I will have sent up overnight or over the weekend either by e-Mail or our internal Slack channel.
Anyway, as to the main thrust of Andy's OP, if The Business give me the green light, I'll reply as appropriate.
For now, I'll pick up on a few things.
More follows.....
DTD, as you know, are very much in bed with PP, so at the moment, it's not really feasible. The landscape changes so quickly & frequently, you never know what the position may be in 6 or 12 months though. Both The Business & me personally remain on excellent terms with DTD, & Rob Yong, who owns DTD, remains a close friend of mine. We have never had a fallout or anything like that - commercial considerations just means that at this moment in time, we can't really do live gigs together.
When Sky Poker held a live event at DTD, DTD insisted that our players became Members of DTD, & that meant our players had to divulge their e-Mail addresses to DTD. DTD is a business, always on the look out for more players, so its easy to imagine what they did with those e-Maill addresses - spam the players. Nothing wrong with that, I'd do the same, & so would you, but it's not ideal, is it?
So, right now, it's a no to DTD, but as I said earlier, that could change at any time.
SolarCarro posted on this Forum last week actually, but you are right really - we don't see much of him on here these days, sadly.
It was won by Adam Bromley, HappyNige was 5th, and Barry Carter was 7th. Barry is the best poker journalist on earth - not even close - & remains to this day a very good friend of mine. He writes most of the serious stuff on Poker Strategy, & was co-author of The Mental Game of Poker.
The event was memorable for a bizarre play in the Final. HappyNige was in seat 1, Barry Carter was in Seat 9, & they were only separated by the Dealer.
HappyNige was wearing headphones, & not paying attention, & it was passed to Barry in the SB who announced all-in. Nige, thinking he was facing a regular raise announced "call" as he had not seen or heard Barry move all-in. Nige had the old 7-2, & could not really call, but the TD ruled he had to call, so he did, & of course he somehow did a get & that left Barry with dust.
Dave Nicholson - "lilDave" - played too, as did the CEO of SB&G, Richard Flint.
I mentioned above how quickly the online poker landscape can change.
As it happened, that SPT in Leeds came just 3 weeks after Black Friday.
I interviewed Richard Flint at that SPT, & he suggested that Black Friday would mean regulation for Online Poker. That is something that started soon after, & has continued to this day. It's a good thing, too, but it does complicate matters.
Here's Richard Flint being interviewed at SPT Leeds by Yours Truly. One of us has aged quite badly. No prizes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoEX6ojLdGQ
Cracking interview Tikay. Some more interviews like this with any of the individuals from the higher echelons of Sky Poker in the future would be great. Gives the the players an idea of the direction Sky wants to move in and adds a nice personal touch from the management.
But I +2 the efforts to ensure a buffet at future SPTs