Countdown to Liverpool 7th of October

Welcome to Allan's blog - directly from London. The countdown has started:

Exactly 14 days to go! Wow... 14?? Fourteen??

Let's say it this way, ONLY 14 days to go! 7th of October is the big day. 10KingsPoker.com's official debut tournament, our big LIVE final in Liverpool. Feel free to follow my blog, to get an honest inside look in our work, activities and thoughts as we counting down to the BIG day at Circus Casino.

All the key info about the tournament to be found on our own website, and I'm not going to bore you with too many details today. More importantly, we're on schedule and all the guys are up for it. 36 players will participate in our tournament, incl. 11 ex-players from English football and three Nordic sports celebs.

1. John Aldridge (Liverpool / Ireland)
2. Jan Mølby (Liverpool / Denmark)
3. Lee Martin (Man Utd / England)
4. Frank McAvennie (West Ham / Scotland)
5. Dean Holdsworth (Wimbledon / England)
6. Georgi Kinkladze (Man City / Georgia)
7. Graham Roberts (Tottenham / England)
8. Kerry Dixon (Chelsea / England)
9. David Fairclough (Liverpool/England)
10. John Wark (Ipswich/Scotland)
11. John Durnin (Portsmouth/England)

Quite a line-up, and we're proud to get them all together for a one-day tournament. In the days to come, I will introduce you to some of these special guests and offer you some interesting interviews. I'm also made up to see three Vikings joining us in October.
* Ivan Benes is a Danish football agent with a bunch of good names in his 'squad'
* Henrik Elvestad is a top comedian and TV host in Norway.
* Tor-Kristian Karlsen is an international football scout with a tremendous CV.

Let me use this opportunity to congratulate Tor-Kristian Karlsen as the new Sports Director of Fredrikstad FK. A great signing by the club! And for a local guy like TKK, I'm sure this is his 'dream job'. The club is doing really well, 3rd place in the Norwegian top league, the fans support have always been great and Karlsen's fantastic network of contacts and ideas will give Fredrikstad FK a real boost. And last but not least, I think TKK will set a new standard when it comes to scouting young players and bringing in new signings. He has been far from impressed by the Norwegian clubs' hit & miss activities in the transfer market (i.e. Ham-Kam, Vålerenga, Brann and also Fredrikstad have been criticized)
When you have been involved in bringing Brazilian power house Lucio and Bulgarian star striker Berbatov to Bayer Leverkusen and Bundesliga - you certainly know your way around Europe. TKK does! The former East Europe and South America, TKK knows 'em all. Analytical, detailed and the ability to speak several languages, that's a winning combination.

On behalf of 10KingsPoker.com, we've proud to welcome Tor-Kristian Karlsen to Liverpool in October. Our invitation was sent almost a year ago, so we go back 'a long way'. More about that later. Good luck with the new job, mate!

Writing a blog gives me an opportunity to stay in touch with friends and family, maybe give a friendly advice to new UK tourists and receive feedback and tips from you people out there. I know my honesty and direct approach will also leave me open for criticism, but hey I don’t give a damn. I write what I want in my diary :-) Freedom of speech, right? Feel free to get in touch with me, if you have a question, a comment or fair criticism. I will deal with it. (I think so. Ha-ha.)

One of the questions I got the other day: 'Allan, what's the difference between London 2008 compared to London during my previous stay between 2001 and 2004?
Ha-ha... Sorry to say it, but it's the number of Poles!

There are Polish people everywhere. There are millions of them in UK; you could really say they have taken advantage of the boundaries opening up in Europe. Polish workers, Polish shops, Polish 'areas' - and you can now see that even the most arch British banks and phone shops have employed minimum one Pole. The Polish shops are quite popular, and you will those shops everywhere. Good workers though, and they get a lot of praise over here. Maybe we'll soon get a few of them over to our online poker tables? :-) Ok, from Poland... to China...

I'm off. It's time for my 'tea', for an English man that means dinner time. Today's food will be a Chinese buffè at a local restaurant. Not sure how interesting this blog post is, but it's a start. 14 days to go, soon 13. And if you really want to know to know if I'm nervous or worried... Hmm... I can't be. This is business, and we have things to do, to prepare, to look after and we need to be focused and ready. But yeah, I can feel the pressure... It's a massive event for a new company like 10KingsPoker.com, and we have quite a few legends on our guest list. Problems? No... We know we will have to face a few challenges, but that's expected. We have worked day and night for many months, and now it's time to roll out the red carpet, deal the cards and let people enjoy a fun day at the casino.

Ok, that's all for now. Pictures, links and honest comments to come.
Allan / Liverpool