Welcome to Poker Verdict

Welcome to Poker Verdict… and to my first blog, in which I thought it only right to introduce myself…

I was born in London where I was thoughtfully raised by loving parents. I was further blessed with a privileged education and shortly after, still in my early twenties I co-founded a successful online business. A frequent visitor to Synagogue, a family lover, never into drugs, an occasional smoker, an infrequent drinker and never a womaniser, I am in general the middle class parents’ dream. The only blip is that I have never been averse to risk or put it another way, I’ve always liked a gamble and in particular, ever since my mid teens, poker.

Like so many others my transition from home game player to tournament competitor was inspired by Tony Holden’s classic book “Big Deal”. At the time of reading I was a 21 year old student and my first tournament was in a local Leeds casino. I sheepishly bowed out after less than half an hour but I returned a week later and defeated 48 other players to finish second. A week later I finished third and a week after that a maiden victory. It was a baptism of fire and it heralded a further four years of success in each of which I made considerable profits and racked up a series of minor tournament victories as well as experience in all variants of poker both in cash games and tournaments.

However as I hit my mid twenties, other priorities took over, in particular my fledgling business, www.easyodds.com (gambling orientated of course!) and a serious relationship with a ‘non-poker-approver’. For around three years I was only a very occasional player. But in late 2004, as a freshly single bachelor and with the business having matured, I decided to get back on the scene.

Sit 'n' Gos

I started out playing online Sit 'n' Gos and cash games but I soon became aware of the incredibly large fields playing Multi Table Tournaments and the large prizes on offer. So I thought I’d give it a go. In January 2005 I played my first bigger buy-in tournament, a £200 no limit holdem freezeout on Betfair Poker that ended up attracting 667 runners. Several enjoyable and satisfying hours later I finished second and picked up a £17,000 prize.

With renewed confidence, a new bankroll to play with and a new genre to explore, I went on a tare and over the course of 2005 I became a highly successful tournament player, regularly cashing and final tabling in events of all sizes. With this success (and with the poker industry continuing to boom), the urge grew to combine the business skills I had developed with my passion for poker and create a unique poker site for lovers of the game like me.

Then in mid 2005, we recruited a new CEO and it turned out that the successful candidate was Warren Wooldridge. We both laughed the first time we met each other as we had known each-other quite well in previous years as Warren was also a poker lover and a respected adversary.

Within a few weeks of him joining, having recounted final table battles of old, we decided we would pool our spare time and enthusiasm to create a great poker site and the concept of Poker Verdict was born.

So I hope you enjoy the site. Please post your profile and feedback any thoughts you have. I will do all I can to keep you updated with all my news and views as well as those of the rest of the team by posting a regular blog.

Till next time…

All the best,

David aka "thekid08"

8 September 2005

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