Tuesday, March 25, 2008

The Irish Open on the rails

My Irish Open experience was spent on the rails. It's so much fun spending time with all the great players and faces of the poker world. They are an incredible bunch it has to be said. I hope I have many more days to come with them in the future.

I was doing the blogging for Paddy Power for the weekend and although fun, I was a little bit annoyed with how it turned out. We got a lot of stick on the site and it was largely unfair. The people who were giving stick did not understand the problems we were having on our end.

People ranted a lot about the lack of pictures. Fair point. Me and mellor went around taking loads of pictures but we could not get them on to the site. There was a technical error. This was not my problem, there was a problem with the site. I took the photos, just like I did for Blonde, just like I did for Poker News, if I could have got them up I would have. The blog would have looked better with photos but it was not to be.

The other thing people attacked me over were the hands posted. The suits didn't come up for me and I posted a couple of hands incorrectly. Big deal. That is just a simple mistake and one which I got far too much abuse on. Quite frankly, it would put me off doing blogging again. I like the job. I am a poker fan. I could well be one of the biggest fans out there. I know all the faces, who they are and what they eat for breakfast. This is why I like writing about the happenings and the charecters. I do not like getting attacked over mistakes though. It was the toughest blogging gig. All our team was amatuers, myself included. How can people expect it to run uber smoothly like Blonde when this is the case. Also I was responsible for updating both the production teams and the commentators. I was effectively responsible for running three blogs. Needless to say I didn't even have enough time to eat!

That is it for a while though I would imagine in blogging terms. I'm planning on getting loads of live poker tournaments in over the coming months now. I'm looking forward to three games in particular. I think these would be the smart place to invest some of the dough from Drogheda and it means I get several quality tournaments for less than an IO buy in.

JP Irish Masters. €750 main event. May 3rd

Waterford Open 2008. €500 main event. June 13th.

Irish Winter Festival. €1500 freezeout. October 25th.

Along with a selection of end of month games in the Fitz, the SE and the jackpot should they bring their back. Should be interesting times ahead none the less.

11 comments:

snoopy1239 said...

It's not as easy as it looks this blogging lark, but I wouldn't let it get you down, human error is unavoidable and people are always quick to moan when you make a mistake. Sometimes you just have a bad day and everything goes wrong, happens to all the bloggers.

Good luck in those events.

Des said...

u r d man obv.

in non internet text,

if you stop writing I will shoot you.

des

(do me a favour and read some Ian Fleming. I've got a bad feeling about you Gary...)

Undercoverblogger said...

Gary,


I thought you did a sterling job in a very tough spot but the one thing I would say is do not take one bit of the criticism that was leveled at you personally.

People were expecting a pokerstars type blogging experience from PPP as they are a big commercial organization and didn't understand the constraints and the challenges arising from the fact that PPP blog doesn't get used for providing updates on tournies apart from once a year.

The people who were anonymously commenting on the blog were freerolling monkeys with nothing better to be doing and wouldn't even appreciate if you had all the results of every hand posted up in real time anyway!!

Don't let it put you off man but learn from the experience and perhaps try to manage expectation a little better at the start and also try to ensure that if you are involved in updates for an inexperienced website that they pay you to make sure that the end product is going to work in advance of turning up on Day one of the tournie if you can.

Take care

Olly

P.s. Just to be clear my comments about the Smurph post was in light of those misunderstanding idiots who wouldn't know her and might take something out of your words that wasn't intended. I trust you understood that.

LuckyLloyd said...

That's real solid advice from Olly. Obviously, people complaining should be shot. But at the same time you guys should have come clean during day one and left a post (and subsequent reminders at the start of each day) that photos wouldn't be possible and that you were having general technical problems.

Additionally, if I was doing it I would have checked out 2 + 2 // P5s to check out what young internet stars were coming over and ask for their real names, etc so that you could keep an eye on their progress.

Also, just going through the regged players list and putting every name in the hendon mob and taking notes a couple of days before the tournament began might have helped all of you guys to have a better grasp of who to keep an eye on.

Finally, if it's an Irish player you and their not in the middle of a pot - just tap their shoulder, say hi and ask for a count. Better than a guesstimate and nobody is going to mind.

In the final analysis, it's not going to be an easy job and you'll get better with practice.

Jackyback said...

I think the issue lies with the PP Blog layout and setup rather than the actual bloggin.
Would not let it dishearten you to much, keep writing or else baby kittens will die!!

Unknown said...

Hello Gary I think you did a great job lad-keep up the good work!

Your friend Ciaran O'Leary
by the way how did easter egg go over!

Unknown said...

Nice job Gary-keep up the good work my man. how did the easter egg thing go,

Ciaran O'Leary

Fungi said...

Hey Gary,

Just want to say it was great working with you on the blog. While there was criticism, it's impossible to please everyone. It occasionally got to the point in the comments section where, if we posted chip counts, people would be complaining asking for hands, and if we posted up some hands, people would be asking for chip counts, along with the "How's my mate John doing?" type requests. With only three (as you said, amateur - I'd never done it before) bloggers, it's impossible to know every player in the room and get everything that the commenters were looking for. The response to the blog from people who knew the work it takes seemed to be very positive, and you seem to be forgetting that. And, with the nature of the internet, people are far more likely to voice their complaints than they are to voice their compliments. I realised this early in the weekend, and focussed on doing the best job that I could with my limited experience, and as a result thoroughly enjoyed the job.

Good luck in all those tourneys, and I'll hopefully see you at one of them. :)

All the best,
Darragh

Rounders123 said...

Hi Gary. Just to be above board about my back stabbing im forced to repeat to you now the complaint i felt i had to make at the time.

welcome to paddypowerpoker! A host will be with you soon.

HostClodagh: Hi! Welcome to Paddy Power Poker! How can I help you?

rounders123: please check the IO blogger reports

rounders123: idiots

HostClodagh: can you clarify please

HostClodagh: I have reviewed this blog and see absolutely no evidence of any idiocy

rounders123: sorry the problem is mainly Gary Clarke

rounders123: he’s not doing his job properly

HostClodagh: can you please recheck the blog

HostClodagh: im not sure I see your point

rounders123: ffs

rounders123: sorry, yeah ive read it again and they are ripping us off

HostClodagh: there is nothing wrong with their reports in the blog

rounders123: how much they getting paid for this sh!t?

HostClodagh: I cannt tell you what their pocket money is

HostClodagh: but this is not a normal complaint

rounders123: ok

rounders123: just seemed weirid to me 3 of em and not a single decent report

HostClodagh: its hardly worth their while

rounders123: ok

HostClodagh: please do not continue to push this futher

HostClodagh: i cannot tell you their wages

rounders123: i was not asking

HostClodagh: no, but you are pushing it when I have alrady said that the reports are normal

rounders123: just that the reports are very suspious

HostClodagh: they are not

HostClodagh: in any way

HostClodagh: shape or form

HostClodagh: I have played poker for 10 years now

HostClodagh: and there is nothing wrong with their reports

rounders123: ok

rounders123: relax

rounders123: support!

HostClodagh: Is there anything else that I can assist you with?

rounders123: no ty

Jackyback said...

if gary wont comment i will, pure class rounders for us in the know

Anonymous said...

McLovin It!

Keep up the good work.