Dusk Till Dawn Casino and partypokerLive aimed for the stars with their £6,000,000 guaranteed event that wrapped up last weekend in Nottingham, England. The event drew a total field size of over 8,500 entrants that played in online and live stages of the tournament before the field combined at Dusk Till Dawn. The guarantee was exceeded and in the end, Maria Lampropulos walked away with the title and £1,000,000 first place prize.

Overall, the event was a huge success but none of it would have been possible with the guiding touch of Dusk Till Dawn Founder, Rob Yong. The casino set in the UK Midlands has gradually become a more popular destination for tournaments with each passing year and it is Yong who is primarily responsible for that. Yong’s passion for the game shines through in every decision he’s made since Dusk Till Dawn first opened 10 years ago, and knows that it was only a matter of time before a tournament of this magnitude took place.

“It was always our target when we opened DTD to deliver a £1,000,000 for the winner event within the first five years, but it has taken us 10 years to get there, so it’s been a long time coming, I don’t think we got there earlier because of our problems finding the right online partner, I think we have changed online partners five times in the last 10 years which I would say is the reason why it’s taken so long,” said Yong. “We have extended our partypoker partnership until the end of 2021 so we now have stability so I feel we can push the bar much higher both in the UK and internationally.”

The initiative required by Yong to put a seven-figure first place prize up for grabs and cooperative nature to find the right online partner played a strong role in making the partypokerLIVE Millions happen. This is far from the first major tour stop to come through Yong’s casino and the learning experiences from the previous series over the years prepared him for one of the biggest events on the poker calendar.

“(This event ranks) up there with the ISPT Wembley and Caribbean Poker Party, I don’t think WPT and UKIPT can really compare fairly as they were very UK focused events, whereas ISPT, CPP, and MILLIONS were global,” said Yong. “ISPT Wembley had its logistical challenges which made it special, CPPs are great as they are holidays – but this MILLIONS was very special because of the atmosphere at the event. Overall, MILLIONS probably ranks at #1 because we had 2 x £1M side events which both hit, I know the £6M Main gets the headlines but the overall schedule was special.”

Yong is the primary catalyst for pushing Dusk Till Dawn to reach this point but he is tremendously appreciative of his staff for their hard work. As much as he would like to, Yong isn’t able to work on every aspect of the events at his casino. The Dusk Till Dawn and partypoker staff received high praise from Yong for making sure it went off without a hitch.

“It sounds a cliche, but I am more happy for the staff who have worked so hard and have taken some big hits over the years to build the reputation of the Club to a level when this type of event was possible. It’s not a massive deal for me personally, to be honest, I really just get enjoyment out of the DTD and partypoker staff feeling a sense of achievement and believing that we can do great things for the poker world if we work together. This is a decent start to a much bigger project.”