Well.. Real Deal Poker is just another site to rip us affiliates off.. and it's still all good. I'm done with going deep with new start up online poker companies until they show me months or years of being honest.
Couple months ago, Gene Gioia of Real Deal left me and my partner high and dry after playing us like a fiddle for over 3 years. No sense in going into all the details at this time, Real Deal & Gene Gioia's just not worth the time it would take.. Let's just say what goes around comes around.
The only way I'd forgive Gene Gioia is if I heard he was in a coma. He surrounded himself with garbage and garbage well... stinks.
The RD site posted long ago that it would be back up and running, that it was coming back stronger. Take some advice from Big Daddy and stay clear if they ever open again. Sad.
All is not lost, I learned tons of SEO stuff while working for RD (I worked for FREE 99% of the time) over the past 3+ years. While I lost some good cash investing in our RD dedicated sites.. I picked up life knowledge that is worth millions.
I gave Gene Gioia many months to get back to Chris and I about our payments owed and the status of RD... and let's just be clear here.. He went from talking to us every other day for years to... GONE. He's all of a sudden a GHOST. Investors with this man are the biggest losers in all this.. I lost a few thousand.. no biggie.
As good an idea it was.. Real Deal in the end was just another scam it appears... A total waste of time and a real shame.
Used to be a blog that questioned everything about live poker,online poker,live gaming and well. Life. Now it deals out ANYTHING I want write about. Like my quest for #1win w/major poker tourney,or how Political correctness got nuts! Why I think Washington D.C. Sold us out! God Bless our Troops/GOD Bless the USA! Time to round up those accountable for the mess and get them before the JUDGE, People got too GREEDY,Big Bizz,Politics,Media and Insurance. The days of ME,ME,ME must STOP,STOP,STOP!
Tom,
ReplyDeleteI sympathise with you enormously as I used to work for Real Deal poker in their UK offices. I also am very disappointed at the way things turned out with RDP as it occurred to me not very long after taking the job that the company was not going to last longer than 6 months at best. RDP had a poor business model and Gene was not a good man to work for. I do not feel he set out to be dishonest rather the reality of the world of gaming hit him like a brick squarely between the eyes when the business failed to take off. RDP made too many mistakes and quite frankly failed to do anything when they were pointed out to them. Genes style was to shoot from the hip and not to take a balanced and well thought out viewpoint. Sadly he seems to believe that RDP's failure was due to everybody but himself. The truth is he was not the right man for the job. I quit before the shit hit the fan and because of that he refuses to give me a reference even though my work was good. He is a bitter and destructive man with a little bit of the Jekyll and Hyde in him. Very sad but I hope things go well for you in the future anyway mate, we are connected on Facebook so contact me anytime.
Nick
Hi Tom,
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your experience. I did see quite a lot of your diligent work in promoting this new idea and room. Thought you did a great job.
I have met Gene on several occasions and believe him to be a good person with no intent to scam anyone. The fact that people may have lost money certainly will make some feel that way though and I can appreciate that. We have been involved with many gaming companies over the years including World Gaming that went under and we certainly felt taken when we could not collect what was owed to us. Plus we had to scramble at super high stress levels to find a new operation to move players and affiliates. A NIGHTMARE!!!
I believe that the RDP plan may have been flawed from the beginning as the planners working with Gene really knew nothing about starting and operating a poker room. No one had actually done it before. In addition, trying to break into an industry with such a new concept that cannot easily be grasped based on standard poker RNG software understandings.
I am glad you are taking the positive high road on how you benefited from the experience and I am sure you will do well on other ventures. Who knows perhaps one day we make work on something together.
Take Care,
Vince Van Horn