lfigueroa
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- Joined
- Jul 17, 2004
- Messages
- 2,529
The Derby this year had a different tenor than previous editions -- it was quiet and more peaceful. The energy in the main tournament room, and even in the upstairs rooms, was totally different. I finally realized why: first off, the matches were scheduled. Your match came up on the screen and you could see your opponent, table assignment, and the time you’d play. Players were no longer swarming around in angst worried they’d miss their match start time. Second, because the matches had scheduled times there was no longer the constant drone of the tournament director calling matches on the hotel speaker system. Even better, (because the computer program didn’t melt down this year) there was not the repeated promises of, “We’ll be doing the draw for the second round of the 1pocket in about 30 minutes.”
Oh, and I want to write this before I forget: but I thought the tournament staff -- those working the desk and ticket office were exceptional. I believe they are mostly Diamond employees uprooted and trucked in to help out for the event and I just want to say how, in spite of the non-stop questions, requests, and transactions how pleasant they were. They add a lot to the tournament and deserve to be commended.
Walking around it was surprising to me how few vendors were at the tournament. I’d guesstamate they were down at least a dozen vendors. I took a look around and shook hands with Freddy the Beard, John not Fred, and Artie Bodendorfer at Freddy’s booth and listened to Freddy rant about some of his favorite posters on onepocket.org. I bought an autographed copy of “Confessions of a Pool Hustler” by Bobby “Cotton” LeBlanc (after Freddy read me the passage about himself in the book
It is, in my opinion, unfortunate that the hotel is setup the way it is, all chopped up into “meeting room” sized compartments. During the evening you’d constantly encounter knots of people craning their necks, four and five deep, to see inside the TAR Studio (which looked very nice by the way) or the AZ/onepocket.org Room for the 1pocket Challenge, or in the Action Room. If you weren’t one of the lucky few who actually got in early and close you had no chance to sweat what was going on. In the 14.1 Challenge Room there’s barely enough room for the two tables and a few spectators. Monday I hung in there for a while and watched Schmidt and Mika and Appleton take on the mountain. The day before, Appleton had posted a 183 right off the bat. But, for unknown reasons, all three champions I watch on that day looked about my speed at the table. Shot after shot they over ran position, got hooked, or flat out missed. Mika gets to the point of slamming balls and (to be honest about it) whining more than a bit, complaining out loud at one point "Why is everything such a grind?” John's attitude was a bit different, with him good-naturedly muttering, “My God, do I really suck this bad?” Somehow, for me, this was the flip side to watching all these same guys scream balls into the holes in the banks tournament and I enjoy a bit of schadenfreude.
I saw many, many friends at this event and that, for me is always a highlight, Bill, Dennis, Rich, Fred, Mark, Sunny, John , J.D, Ed, Mike, Josh, Greg, Grady, Jay, Freddy, Doc, Harold, Lenny, Ghost, Justin and on and on. A couple of guys greet me by saying, "Ah, my favorite poster on AZ" or just telling me how much they enjoy my posts and that is especially gratifying. Steve Booth of onepocket.org and I kissed and made up after a misunderstanding at last year’s event and that was very heart-warming to be able to set that aside. Thanks, Steve.
My second round match was against another banking savant, Louie de Marco. Frankly, neither one of us played very well that match and, had I been able to do anything at all with the CB, I might have prevailed, but Louie got me 1-3. Later that night I get into the 1pocket-mini and actually win my first match against a young player who shall remain nameless, 2-1. Lou actually pulls this match out of the jaws of death when the young lad needs one and I need three and I take a ball out of his pocket and bank my way to victory. As we’re unscrewing I get "the speech" from the young kid that I have gotten, oh, maybe five or six times from defeated opponents at the Derby. It is second in popularity only to "the speech" that goes, “Yeah. I stopped playing for a few years and didn’t practice much for this tournament and I’m just getting back into it.” This speech instead goes (and is always delivered to you after you have scratched and clawed your way to victory using every bit of skill and knowledge and experience you posses: “Yeah. I only started playing 1pocket about a year or two ago.” I love hearing that speech.
My second round in the mini is against Shannon Murphy, again, and that goes poorly for me and I’m out 1-2.
And here I’m going to give something away. It is only my opinion and not based on anything other than my 40 years or so of playing pool: if you don’t play on Diamond tables regularly and go to one of these events, you are giving up at least one and probably two balls to the field. If nothing else, do yourself a favor and get yourself a set of nice new polished Aramith Pro balls, take them to the pool hall if necessary, and practice with them. It is a totally different game with new balls: aiming; how they react to throw; the angles they take; and ultimately, the confidence you will shoot with.
Tuesday morning I share a breakfast table with Mark Griffin and John Henderson. Mark invites me out to Vegas again to write/report from an upcoming event in May. We swap stories and plans and shortly thereafter I am “wheels up” as we used to say in the Air Force and on the road back home to St. Louis.
If you have not been to a Derby City Classic you need to start planning now to go next year.
Lou Figueroa
Oh, and I want to write this before I forget: but I thought the tournament staff -- those working the desk and ticket office were exceptional. I believe they are mostly Diamond employees uprooted and trucked in to help out for the event and I just want to say how, in spite of the non-stop questions, requests, and transactions how pleasant they were. They add a lot to the tournament and deserve to be commended.
Walking around it was surprising to me how few vendors were at the tournament. I’d guesstamate they were down at least a dozen vendors. I took a look around and shook hands with Freddy the Beard, John not Fred, and Artie Bodendorfer at Freddy’s booth and listened to Freddy rant about some of his favorite posters on onepocket.org. I bought an autographed copy of “Confessions of a Pool Hustler” by Bobby “Cotton” LeBlanc (after Freddy read me the passage about himself in the book
It is, in my opinion, unfortunate that the hotel is setup the way it is, all chopped up into “meeting room” sized compartments. During the evening you’d constantly encounter knots of people craning their necks, four and five deep, to see inside the TAR Studio (which looked very nice by the way) or the AZ/onepocket.org Room for the 1pocket Challenge, or in the Action Room. If you weren’t one of the lucky few who actually got in early and close you had no chance to sweat what was going on. In the 14.1 Challenge Room there’s barely enough room for the two tables and a few spectators. Monday I hung in there for a while and watched Schmidt and Mika and Appleton take on the mountain. The day before, Appleton had posted a 183 right off the bat. But, for unknown reasons, all three champions I watch on that day looked about my speed at the table. Shot after shot they over ran position, got hooked, or flat out missed. Mika gets to the point of slamming balls and (to be honest about it) whining more than a bit, complaining out loud at one point "Why is everything such a grind?” John's attitude was a bit different, with him good-naturedly muttering, “My God, do I really suck this bad?” Somehow, for me, this was the flip side to watching all these same guys scream balls into the holes in the banks tournament and I enjoy a bit of schadenfreude.
I saw many, many friends at this event and that, for me is always a highlight, Bill, Dennis, Rich, Fred, Mark, Sunny, John , J.D, Ed, Mike, Josh, Greg, Grady, Jay, Freddy, Doc, Harold, Lenny, Ghost, Justin and on and on. A couple of guys greet me by saying, "Ah, my favorite poster on AZ" or just telling me how much they enjoy my posts and that is especially gratifying. Steve Booth of onepocket.org and I kissed and made up after a misunderstanding at last year’s event and that was very heart-warming to be able to set that aside. Thanks, Steve.
My second round match was against another banking savant, Louie de Marco. Frankly, neither one of us played very well that match and, had I been able to do anything at all with the CB, I might have prevailed, but Louie got me 1-3. Later that night I get into the 1pocket-mini and actually win my first match against a young player who shall remain nameless, 2-1. Lou actually pulls this match out of the jaws of death when the young lad needs one and I need three and I take a ball out of his pocket and bank my way to victory. As we’re unscrewing I get "the speech" from the young kid that I have gotten, oh, maybe five or six times from defeated opponents at the Derby. It is second in popularity only to "the speech" that goes, “Yeah. I stopped playing for a few years and didn’t practice much for this tournament and I’m just getting back into it.” This speech instead goes (and is always delivered to you after you have scratched and clawed your way to victory using every bit of skill and knowledge and experience you posses: “Yeah. I only started playing 1pocket about a year or two ago.” I love hearing that speech.
My second round in the mini is against Shannon Murphy, again, and that goes poorly for me and I’m out 1-2.
And here I’m going to give something away. It is only my opinion and not based on anything other than my 40 years or so of playing pool: if you don’t play on Diamond tables regularly and go to one of these events, you are giving up at least one and probably two balls to the field. If nothing else, do yourself a favor and get yourself a set of nice new polished Aramith Pro balls, take them to the pool hall if necessary, and practice with them. It is a totally different game with new balls: aiming; how they react to throw; the angles they take; and ultimately, the confidence you will shoot with.
Tuesday morning I share a breakfast table with Mark Griffin and John Henderson. Mark invites me out to Vegas again to write/report from an upcoming event in May. We swap stories and plans and shortly thereafter I am “wheels up” as we used to say in the Air Force and on the road back home to St. Louis.
If you have not been to a Derby City Classic you need to start planning now to go next year.
Lou Figueroa
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