This is basically the same thing Dutch told me and Steve at the Bellagio buffet during the last big tourney.

He said he would return the domain name to Steve for just the costs he (Dutch) paid to register it.

This is Steve Hall and this is my side of the story:

I tried to switch servers as my original , startlogic, was nickel and diming me
to death. (They started to charge for more than five pages and for the
gallery etc). GoDaddy informed me they needed an authorisation code
from Startlogic and Startlogic would not reply but they would keep trying.
I contacted Startlogic myself. They asked "Why are you leaving?" and
"Is there anything we can do to keep your business?" I replied " No I just
need the authorisation code." They gave me a phony code and hung up.

The next thing I know poker player Josh Merrin IM'd me to ask if I had
sold my domain name to Dutch Boyd. He then sent me a link to a
domain name site (probably owned by or an affiliate of Startlogic)
with all the details. Dutch still uses an address in Columbus.

Many times Dutch has said he would return it in return for some varying
amount of money (usually giving him a profit of $100) plus some photos
of Brandon Cantu + Jeff Madsen. He has my email address and can obtain my number from one of our mutual friends but he has not had any
contact with me since the Bellagio.

Pokerfolio has had its good traffic days. I was the guy who photographed
the late Brandi H with the FT logo over her nipple. Also Diane Nguyen
was found on my gallery from the thread "Who's that girl?".

I was proud to be there, at my favourite casino the Bellagio, when
Alec Torelli won back to back tournaments. Also when Shannon Shorr
won his first big Vegas tournament. I still have the emails from their
respective parents thanking me for being there.

I feel the larger sites just photograph the same big name players
repeatedly whereas I have the freedom to photograph anyone
without fear of losing my job!

I will be at the Bellagio from Day1 photographing the players and
prizeboard (which Kevmath uses). Just remember to add a spruz
to your search.

have you tried contacting him or are you waiting for him to get a hold of you to sell it back?

I've had problems with authorization codes before, but it never occurred to me that it it was a conspiracy against me.

But seriously, just email him. I don't even know him but I found two email addresses just from looking into stuff in this thread.

I am expecting some red roses from Daniel Negreanu on the gayness
of this photo.

rofl, now i hope u get ur **** back.

what is spruz that steve refers to? Is that another site that has poker pictures

If it was a business, he should have paid for his domain renewal.

Read the entire thread, Dutch.

this, completely.

his new site is impossible to promote as the web address is www.pokerfolio.spruz

www.pokerfolio.spruz.com

Time to rebrand, come up with a new name and launch it. **** Dutch Boyd.

This is Dutch Boyd. I figured I'd chime in here. Thanks, sketchy, for letting me know about this thread. It honestly kind of pisses me off that this even came up here, because I know a lot of people will have just read the original post and stop following it to get to the details, and probably will have walked away from the thread with a bad impression of me. That's definitely one of my big problems with forums, and why I generally stay away these days. Luckily for me, my public image is already about as screwed up as it can get. A little more mud isn't going to hurt too much. Anyway, here's my side of this story.

First off, I didn't steal the domain name from Steve. He let the name expire. I can definitely sympathize, as I've let a ton of really great domains expire because I neglected them and didn't renew in time. Pokerspot.com and Rakefree.com, for example, both expired and ended up in the hands of domain speculators. I was even a few days away from losing DutchBoyd.com.

Pokerfolio.com is a great domain and I picked it up with the intention of using it as a website showcasing my poker domain name portfolio. I didn't know it had previously belonged to Steve, or that he was using it on his business cards and identity. I didn't purchase this domain name with the intention of selling it back to Steve Hall. I picked it up on its own merits. It cost me $60 at an aftermarket auction (which is usually where domains go when they expire).

A few weeks later Steve approached me at a Bellagio prelim and told me that he lost the name and I now had it. We talked very briefly, since I was playing the tournament... I told him he was pretty lucky that I was the one who ended up with it and that I'd be more than happy to sell the name back to him. I threw out a hundred dollars, which I figured was more than a reasonable offer. I spent sixty on the name and I should be able to take at least a little for my time. He kind of hesitated, and my read was that he was kind of strapped for cash... so I told him I'd be happy to take some photos or something in lieu of cash. I also told him to email the nameservers so I could point the domain over while we get it figured out.

I didn't think about it again until a couple days later when I was registering for the Bellagio main. One of the WPT girls, half jokingly, said something like "Give Steve Hall back Pokerfolio.com!" I was kind of like, wtf?!? Whatever. Then on dinner break, I bump into chainsaw and steve, give em the nod and hello, and chainsaw shouts out "Give back Pokerfolio.com!" Again, I'm like wtf?!? Since Steve was right there we talked a little more about it and I repeated the same thing and reminded him about the nameservers. A few more weeks go by without any though, until I'm on nwp's radio show and micon kind of ambushes me with the issue. "Dude, give back Pokerfolio.com!" Again, I'm like wtf?!? It's not like I'm holding out, here. And it's not like Steve was calling me every day trying to get the name back and I was dodging him. And now this 2+2 thread. Seriously. WtF?

I think it's obvious I'm taking a lot of undeserved flack for this whole mess. It's certainly not my fault that Steve only had the domain regsitered through July and neglected to renew it. The people throwing around names like dbag and whatnot are completely off base and it's uncalled for. I didn't do anything wrong here, except MAYBE not being more proactive by not initiating contact with Steve to get Pokerfolio back to him.

So I decided to call Steve and we worked something out which I think anyone would agree is more than fair... he's going to email all the photos he's taken of me and I'm going to push the domain over to him.

Steve, I hope you feel lucky to know you have a lot of people willing to come to bat for you. I also hope that once you get the domain back, you don't let it expire again... because next time you most likely will not be able to get it back.

^^^^^ If this is true, this whole thing is ridiculous. Whoever is wanting to purchase the domain should email the person who owns it...especially if the current owner (Dutch) had no prior intentions to sell it.

I look forward to Steve's response because if everything Dutch said is true his name really was unnecessarily dragged through the mud.

+1

I really liked Dutch's reply and explanation. Seems like a lot of unfounded mudslinging to me.

as with anything on the internet or in poker, i'm sure the truth lies somewhere in between both stories

If Dutch really gives him the site back for a few photos, I really respect him for that....

Letting a domain expire is totally your own fault. You are lucky Dutch was nice enough to return it to you, especially after you ran his name through the mud.

It's obvious you don't understand the technical aspect of how domain names work and pretty nervy that you seem to not even want to pay him back his costs for obtaining it. When he asked for compensation you try to make it out like he is hustling you for a profit when in reality he is doing you a favour and just wanted a little something to cover what he paid and a little for his time.

If I was Dutch and you pulled all this crap on me, I wouldn't give back.

Uh uh. Did Dutch forget to take his medicine?

Dude Steve... wtf?!? This is so far out of line esp after Dutch's excellent post.

When you first told me about this at Festa, from what Allen's said, and from what I read, it's pretty clear to me that you think Dutch is out to put one over on you.

Dutch does this **** (buying and selling of domains) all the time. As a business. For paying bills. Much like you pay your bills with pokerfolio.com. Part of what Dutch does is pick up names that may be profitable in the future. Domain speculation is what it's called. Whether or not he knew that it was your site doesn't matter, cause if he didn't buy it somebody else would have. He was doing his job, and with pokerfolio.com being your source of income, you were not doing your job by letting it expire.

So, you ****ed up, and now blame Dutch. And after the guy offers the name back to you simply for DIGITAL PICTURES, you say what you said in your last post?

WTF Steve I have lost a lot of respect for you in this ordeal. If I was in Dutch's spot I would sell pokerfolio.com immediately to somebody who doesn't know you or give a damn about you to recoup my $60 loss and be done with this fiasco.

You just don't insult the guy who just saved your livelihood after you sent in the chainsaw to get him to do it.

Devo

Kind of curious, your comment is implying that Dutch is lying in his post or that he is leaving something out. So why would you direct your comment at me and quote my post instead of his?

Also making light of someones disability makes you look classy imo.

Not Dutch you paranoid Two plus Two er. I am a domainer a posted about Dutch in the past on here.

The guy forgot to renew his domain and lost it. I buy expired domains all the time. If someone makes a mistake at the poker table,d o you give them their money back?

I have lost domains in the past by forgetting to renew them. Tuff luck! One you develop a poker site, you are in business. If you own a bar and don't pay the electric bill they turn it off. Same with websites, if you don't pay your bills you lose. Dutch lost over 10 prime domains when he let them expire, nobody is handing them back to him.

BTW Im the guy who he almost lost Dutchboyd.com to. He was just short of losing it to me.

steve, this is jon eaton, i don't think you know my online name. i always thought you were a rather nice gentlemen and i was always glad to see you around. you helped me a few times i'm sure when i was a reporter for pokerpages & the likes. however, this crap you posted here is pretty much enough of a load of bull**** that i hope you lose your domain name for good and go out of business.

you can't just ****ing run someone's name through the mud in public. go back to the UK. you definitely don't belong here if you're going to accuse a friend of mine of this crap and have no proof. then, when the guy comes on here to defend himself and show everyone that you're the douchebag, you do this stuff to him in a public forum? go to hell buddy.

Dutch, for the record I think you're bat**** crazy, but **** this guy. **** him, don't do him any favors.

You are not at fault for "not being more proactive by not initiating contact with Steve to get Pokerfolio back to him." That would be his responsibility, not yours. You "owe" him nothing. You were kind enough to actually offer to give it back to him for a hundred bucks; this speaks hugely in your favor. I play the domain game a bit (not as much as you, but a bit); there is no way in hell I would've done that.

That he was dumb enough to let it lapse in the first place is strike one.

That he wasn't extremely proactive and accommodating in taking you up on your generous offer- instead, expecting you to keep in touch with him for the privilege of doing him a favor- is strike two.

Being insulting after the fact is just mind bogglingly ungrateful and strike three.

**edit, just read the entire thread. I see sentiments are about the same. Unbelievable, that someone would be this ungrateful in the face of a totally generous offer.