Back to its roots
The Dusk Till Dawn poker club is one of the UK’s premier poker venues and soon, it will be a poker-only venue. Last week, Dusk Till Dawn owner Rob Yong announced via Twitter that he is removing all casino games and making the club 100 percent poker.
In his tweet, Yong explained that a new sports bar will be built in the void left by the casino gaming tables. Though it sounds like loads more poker tables won’t necessarily be added, Yong believes that the restructuring will allow for bigger poker events.
Dusk Till Dawn does already host some sizeable poker series, such as the MILLIONS UK (part of the partypoker LIVE tournament series) and WPT UK.
Club founded out of necessity
Yong opened Dusk Till Dawn in 2007, prompted by an incident when he and a friend were denied entry into a tournament at a local casino after arriving one minute late. Frustrated, he decided to just open up his own poker room, catering to recreational and lower stakes poker players.
Yong is also an executive at partypoker and admitted his work with the online poker site and its partypoker LIVE has taken up much of his time recently.
“So busy with @partypokerlive it’s been hard to also do stuff at DTD to be honest,” he tweeted in response to someone commenting on his announcement.
He did admit that it will be a challenge to make up for the revenue lost from casino games, again saying that partypoker LIVE has taken him away from his baby.
“We will have to get back to more regular major poker events to make up the difference but I think that’s what the club staff and players want anyway,” Yong said. “So much time on Partypoker Live so club taken back seat.”
Jake Cody loves the place
The vast majority of the responses to Yong’s announcement have been positive. One, in particular, hearkened back to a legendary moment in Dusk Till Dawn’s history.
In late February 2018, Jake Cody won the UK Poker Championships High Roller event at Dusk Till Dawn, banking £42,670 ($59,393). After asking Yong’s permission, Cody went to one of the club’s roulette tables and put his entire winnings on black. As cell phones recorded the moment, he requested that Yong himself get the ball rolling and after a tense sweat, the ball bounced onto black 22, giving Cody his double-up. Cody’s buddies went wild and Yong slunk away.
Replying to Yong’s announcement, one person said, “@JakeCody bustoed the casino confirmed.”
Yong replied, “Haha please don’t remind me of this event.”
The casino games were added to the club after Black Friday in 2011 hurt poker traffic.
Lead image: Dusk Till Dawn (@DTD_Cardroom) | Twitter
