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Yo smitilos, & good morning to you.
Thanks for the feedback man, I thought it was a fair & balanced piece, & have no issue with it at all. That's not to say we agree, but such well-mannered debate is rare, & a delight, & we have no probs with that.
I hope my replies on thread have not been overly aggressive, but, to be wholly honest, the phrase "half-hearted" grated more than a little. "Sky Poker got it wrong" may be acceptable, but "half-hearted" was a tad below the belt & ill-informed, I felt. I'm not exactly in a position to respond in kind, either. It MAY have been done badly - that's abso fair comment for debate - but it has not been done "half-hearted", anything but. Sky Poker got it wrong? Maybe, if you like. (The numbers tell a different story). Half-hearted? Strewth, you have no idea! Does anyone itt actually know what the business case for UKOPS is, what market segment is being focused upon?
I think the TV coverage thing has been done to death, everyone has said their piece.
I did say that the question of TV coverage had been VERY closely examined, & after those with the facts to hand weighed it all up, the decision was "no" to 7 day blanket coverage, but "yes" to coverage on Thursday, Saturday, & Sunday. So it's not a total UKOPS TV blank. I can only add this item was considered at very great length, but for good reasons I'm not going to enlarge further upon right now, (most have been stated already, & as facts, not opinions) the decision was that we would not go to 7 day coverage.
I would ask you, however, to consider two other facts, neither of which have raised their heads much thus far in the entire debate, although with great vision, you did hint quite strongly about one of them.
I trust you realise, that there are not ANY circumstances, in which 865 would be able to remain on air until the end of each UKOPS Tourney? Last night's UKOPS3 never finished until beyond 2am, & some of the rest of UKOPS will finish even later. In fact, they would not even make the Final Table before transmission had to end. Imagine the hoohah THAT would cause! There are SOME things I would ask you to take on trust, & the fact that we cannot, under any circumstances, run the Show beyond 1am, 2am or even 3am is just NOT do-able, for numerous practical, logistical & financial reasons.
And now open your mind to another possible situation. Let's suppose - hypothetically, & as you shrewdly alluded - that UKOPS was not an Annual affair, but a twice, thrice, quarterly per year jobbie, or or even bi-monthly or monthly affair. Hypothetically, of course. Now, having set the precadent of 7 day TV UKOPS coverage, the bill starts to mount up, & inexorably rise further. A while back, 865 was reduced to 3 days per week of "Live" coverage, & there's no way it can be allowed to "creep back" up to 7 days, the money is just not there, budgets have been re-allocated, it is being spent in other areas of Marketing & Promotion now.
Well-managed businesses need to be disciplined as to spend, & that decision was made, & will be stuck to.
When 865 reduced live coverage to 3 nights per week, the doomsayers said it would damage the business. The business is more than 50% bigger now than it was then, though...
TV is a great tool to have, fun to watch, we hope, & fun to do. Whether it would drive business to UKOPS is a different matter altogether, though. Perhaps a different market is being attacked now......
Incidentally, I have a personal vested interest in more night's Live coverage, because I am employed by 865 as well as, & in addition to, being employed by Sky Poker. (They are different things). So more TV coverage would mean more work, & more income, for me. In fact, there is a double whammy, because I am playing every UKOPS (Friday excepted) on my own money, except the nights I have the TV Show, & as I have not even had the sniff of a cash yet, it's costing me a fortune!
Bring on 7 day coverage, I reckon.....;)
Anyway smitty, thanks for the input, & I really hope you are enjoying UKOPS.
As for the TV debate, perhaps the UKOPS2 schedule could be tweaked a little, for instance, as and when UKOPS2 comes along, perhaps the first night (Event 1 and the series) can be 'launched' live on Sunday's programme and then run for 8 consecutive nights, ending with the finale main event being televised live the following Sunday night.
So we would have:
Sunday - UKOPS Event 1 - The launch of UKOPS2 is thus TELEVISED LIVE ensuring maximum interest & promotion
Monday - Wednesday - UKOPS Events 2 -4
Thursday - UKOPS Event 5 The High Roller - TELEVISED LIVE
Friday - UKOPS Event 6
Satruday - UKOPS Event 7 - TELEVISED LIVE and will include the final promotion and push for the series finale
Sunday - UKOPS Event 8 - The finale and Main Event TELEVISED LIVE
So SKY have an even bigger and better UKOPS series with 50% of events TELEVISED LIVE!!!!
Everyone's a winner!!! Well almost.
Fine Post, Darty. Very fine indeed....
Meanwhile, with just over 30 mins to go, tonight's High-Roller is Guaranteed over 70 runners.
Happy days? Just a bit.
Thank you for your lengthy and thought-out reply Tikay, it's much appreciated for you to come in the thread and discuss all things SkyPoker. And to get such a detailed reply like that, well, thank you very much (again) for your time and effort sir!
I think UKOPS has been a great success so far and hope that events and promotions like this are only a snippet of what's to come in the future.
Right, better get grinding! GL all!
Cheers,
Carlos Smitalos
Thursday 3rd November 2011
UKOPS Event 4 - £25,000 Gtd. High Roller
https://www.skypoker.com/secure/poker/sky_lobby?action=go_tnmt_lobby&game_id=5195697&guid=ef942954-6a47-494f-ab16-2715d26ef4a2
That was an unbelievable night for myself on the Sky Poker tables. I admit, I was nervous about playing in an event like this and I'd have taken the £500 instead of the seat, if it had been offered at the end of the satelllite.
It was a terrific experience playing against the big boys, although it didn't start well with Carlo beating my Kings in my first real hand with 9 10 when he made a straight. I had my share of luck to make it to the cash especially my shove with AQ against Kings and binking the Ace.
The cash bubble seemed to last forever, a shove with nines from under the gun and the wait for everyone to fold took an age, like waiting to find out who won Total Player! Thankfully for me, the bubble burst and I had made the cash.
The next few hands seemed unreal as another two players exited including YoYo. To make the final table was by far and away my best poker achievement. I was happy enough just being on the same table as the YoYo, Gidzo, Glitterbabe and the rest.
Apologies for droning on but I need to thank everyone for the rail at the end. I appreciated all the good lucks and congrat comments. Thanks to Irene aka Trip5 who silently railed from the start (who would of thought Irene can be quiet!).
Hopefully another DTD player will run good in the forthcoming events, thank you sky poker!
Night all.
WD Rossjim!!!! :-)
Friday 4th November 2011
UKOPS Event 5 - £15,000 Gtd, Rebuy
https://www.skypoker.com/secure/poker/sky_lobby?action=go_tnmt_lobby&game_id=5195716&guid=c58b452b-d836-4f6f-b013-3c5b4e69f5bb
Tim Davie is the name of this particular Palace hater.
Sponsored Sky pro Julian thew is the wineer of Event 7. Congrats to him and all who cashed, plenty of well known Sky regs made deep runs in this one.
UKOPS Event 7 - £10,000 Gtd. NLHE
https://www.skypoker.com/secure/poker/sky_lobby?action=go_tnmt_lobby&game_id=5195728&guid=c6486ab8-b354-45a0-b8a8-3c7a54b50cce
Hi GaryQQ.....
The lobby link above, and in your main results page, for UKOPS6 goes to the super bounty hunter last night. Have you (or anyone else) got the link for the lobby for UKOPS6 please?
Hi All
Had a go at sat and got through so am in Semi @ 5pm GL to All
Awesome. Largest ever on Sky - congrats!
Also congrats to Sky Poker, in my opinion the first UKOPS series has been a huge success, I'm already looking forward to series 2.
UKOPS Main Event £40,000 Gtd. NLHE
https://www.skypoker.com/secure/poker/sky_lobby?action=go_tnmt_lobby&game_id=5195761&guid=ec7e7e3f-5130-4e90-8714-5def225c9895