Into The Dragon's Den
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/ Matthew Pitt / 23 July 2009 / Leave a comment
Top poker players are used to finding themselves in high-pressure situations where vast sums of money are at stake, but recently professional player Jeraint 'JJ' Hazan found himself under the spotlight with £65,000 at stake.
Matthew Pitt tells of JJ Hazan entering the TV show Dragon's Den in search of backing from a host of multi-millionaires for his poker venture.
The BBC has a popular show by the name of The Dragon's Den where entrepreneurs and inventors face a panel of five millionaire businessmen and women in order to try try and gain funding in their product in exchange for equity in their company.
Duncan Bannatyne, Peter Jones, Theo Paphitis, Deborah Meaden and James Caan are the current Dragons, all of whom have amassed fortunes in the hundreds of millions through running and selling businesses along with investing in others.
Enter The Dragon
Each of the Dragons knows they are taking a risk when the invest but when Londoner JJ Hazan entered the den, the risk involved was extremely clear cut.
After making his entrance in sunglasses and seating himself at a poker table, complete with cards and chips, Mr Hazan then went about making his pitch to the Dragons, asking for £65,000 in exchange for 40% of his winnings or 12 months.
He informed them that he intended to play 30 tournaments in the coming year and that he planned on cashing in at least eight of them as he has a 30% cash rate in live tournaments in the past three years. The Dragons were also told that he had won $547,000 since 2006, and that in order to broker a deal he would give them 100% of the first £50,000 won.
After a brief game of poker between himself, David Bannatyne and Theo Paphitis, it was time to start discussing the business aspect of the staking deal. Peter Jones quickly declared himself out after a flurry of gambling innuendos, as did Deborah Meaden who said if she was going to gamble she would not do it by proxy.
Theo Paphitis said investing in Hazan would be an out and out gamble and that he only took calculated risks so declared himself out meaning Hazan had lost the potential backing from three of the five dragons.
Grilled by the Dragons
The Dragons were eager to know why, if he was so good, did he need backing. Hazan went on to inform them that he was a "family man" and had paid of his mortgage, bought a summer home in Sweden and had left himself with a bankroll of £20,000, which he had run up to £50,000 with an ROI of 250%.
James Cann said he liked the idea but as this was not a true business opportunity he would not be investing but wished Hazan luck.
This left poker enthusiast Glaswegian David Bannatyne as the only remaining Dragon that could offer him the money. With his love for poker backed up with an estimated fortune of £320m, Hazan must have been hopeful of getting his hands on the cash.
However, he would be soon disappointed when Bannatyne told him that he would love to play in a tournament or cash game with Hazan to see how good he really is, but until that time comes he would not be putting up any money.
You have to give full marks to JJ Hazan for having the bottle to go on national television and be grilled by a team of multi-millionaires with a new and different idea from the norm. He recently joined Poker Icons and is still looking for a backer so if you fancy investing £65,000 then track him down and good luck to you both.
