Check the Hendon.
If you're a poker player, you've likely said that or been told that. Maybe you use Hendon Mob to track your favorite players, track your own tournament scores, or scout out your Day 2 table draws. The site is synonymous with tournament poker results.
However, many say those words without really thinking about what they mean. And most have no idea where they came from.
Thankfully, Barny Boatman was on site at the World Series of Poker today to explain the origins of the website, given he was an integral part of its formation.
Who and what were the original "Hendon Mob"?
"Not a lot of people know over here, but Hendon is actually a neighborhood, a London suburb," said Boatman. "The original member of the Hendon Mob were me, my brother Ross Boatman, Joe Beevers, and Ram Vaswani."
"We used to travel to games around the country," said Boatman. "You're often known as the mob from wherever you come from. To generate interest, we created a little...database. It was really a list of pages, the top 100 European pages and we wrote about them. That was the start of it, and it kind of grew."
Solidifying the legacy
So, how did a small database of players created by a group of four guys become the go-to resource for tournament results it is today?
"We sold the site. We were approached by Alex Dreyfus with GPI (Global Poker Index)," continued Boatman. "He had the vision of what it was about, and we were delighted to do a deal with him. Our legacy was secured It's something the poker world needed, and people still use it.
With over 778,000 players now in the database, Hendon Mob rightfully markets itself as the "largest live poker database."
Next time you pull up Hendon Mob, think about what those words really mean. A mob of guys, including the Boatman brothers, who were all either from the Hendon area in London or played there regularly. From there, the rest is history.
