Since others have done trip reports from the perspective of a Pro (Lou) and a fan (SJM), I thought I would do one from the BCAPL player side.
After a few days in Vega$, enjoying the city with a night of partying, a day at the pool and a dinner at Michael's @ Southpointe (if you ever want to impress - propose - keep happy a girl, take her here). Five star dining at it's best. It's off the strip but worth the drive. You just have to make your way thru all the locals in their tank tops and jean shorts in the casino to the back to the restaurant.
In the open singles, I got 65-96 place out of 1080 or so. Good to feel the pressure of pool again. I lost to Chad Bennke (he should've been a master player just by his last name
) and some guy from Alaska (I can never beat the guys that live out in the middle of no where and do nothing but play pool). I figure Chad plays more pool in a day then I play in a year. He deserves to win. I was safety breaking him and out moving him, he just executes better than me when he has to. 17-24 in Open Teams. We had a good run til the end. Lost to a team from Idaho (again people that live in the middle of no where with nothing better to do than play pool). It was fun playing with a bunch of great guys on our team.
Here's what I love --
the text messaging feature at the BCAPL now to let you know your next match. Nice to read - Congratulations you won. You play again at 7:30 on table 129. Seemed a little faulty at times as for one match I got literally 9 messages in 5 minutes reminding me my match was going to start.
the new venue. Food in the Rio was great. Ate breakfast at the Sau Paulo Cafe twice. No more waiting 30 minutes to just sit down at an empty table that has been there for 30 minutes like Kady's at the Riv. Ate at an Italian place upstairs that was better than average. Good service. Lunch at the sports book deli, also very good. Dinner at the VooDoo steakhouse. Excellent steak with even a better view of the Vega$ strip. I'd go here on my next trip to Vega$ even if it wasn't pool related.
Center bar was a good meeting spot and comfortable to sit at. Not like the Riv where the bartender didn't care you were there and you had about 2 feet between you and a railing to stand.
setup was good - I figured the convention center would be way in the back but it wasn't that bad of a walk. Three distinct rooms. Plenty of signs put out by the CSI staff to let you know what was where. I liked the images of the players as you walked down the corridor. There was no Robin Dodson's husband bellowing out - "raffle tickets for a jump cue. 5 tickets. $20 a piece. One winner" - every 40 minutes right in the middle of the tournament room. This was a big bonus.
Plenty of free interaction for the fans - Dr. Cue (although I don't need to hear that Jesus loves me because I can do a trick shot), Mike Massey, SVB and Orcullo (and I'm sure others) did free clinics/lessons, Jennifer Berreta.
Standard affair of booths - good to see friends such as Michael Hoang. If you don;t buy from him you are missing out. I liked the ACA region. Was good to see Travis (Blackcreek) and Andy Gilbert (even if he didn't remember me which he will never forget me again). Josh Treadway (a real up and comer cue maker) and this guy Robertson from Texas had some nice cues.
The pro arena right there for everyone to see with free admission to watch any match at any time.
here's what I dislike or think could be improved-
More spectator seating around the pro arena. The stands were full most of the time. More people could have enjoyed the pros if there were bleachers on more sides of the tables. Space may have been an issue so move the trick shot / 14.1 competition to one of the side rooms or out in the main foyer.
The refs - I saw them stand on the wrong side of the table to call hits, multiple times. I saw them more worried that someone was practicing and on their cell phone then they were on the action on the 'live' tables. I know of one player that was forfeited two games because he had a one inch rip in his jeans. I fouled on a break shot by barely hitting the cue ball on a practice stroke. My opponent called the ref to just clarify it was a foul. The ref's first question to me was "did the cue ball pass the head string", which it did not. Then he asked if I hit the cue ball with the tip of my cue, which it did. He called it correctly as a foul but why on earth he asked if the cue ball passed the head string was unknown to me.
Female players - ok crucify me but they are much more mean spirited than any man. Have been for years. I took a piece of chalk off a table that I thought the match was over with as the table had been empty for over 5 minutes. I guess one of the women was on her third potty break and she let me have it when she got back. I just stood there and laughed.
Diamond bar tables - just kidding. These are great tables but there are none in St Louis. We are at a huge disadvantage. Mark G or Greg - please use some marketing to get at least one table in St. Louis. My basement will work if the price is right. You know how to contact me.
Skittle colored balls. More of a distraction than any benefit I could see.
The center bar did close one night in the casino kind of early. Guess they hate money when you can pay a bartender's salary by him serving one drink an hour.
Vega$ in July. It's hotter than hot.
Waiting 24 hours to get paid. Guess I need to understand the entire process and obviously appreciate that BCAPL check ALWAYS cash but this was the longest time ever having to wait. I would thnk with computers, etc. that this could be controlled better. Especially if you are knocked out of the singles you might not come back over to the RIo if not staying there for 2 or 3 more days.
The match scheduling. I would have to take a closer look as it will probably be explained to me that I don't understand - but I dont understand that if you make it to the final bracket of an event, you are basically playing non stop from the morning til the night. A fat guy has got to eat.
Oh yeah, I found some of the team names offensive.
That's all. I'll be back next year for sure.
Thanks to JCIN for letting me sit in and do a little commentary on 3 of the matches. I had a blast and ready to do some more when needed. TAR is the best to me. Support them. Buy a stream. Buy a VOD. Buy a SVB DVD. People need to see what goes into all of it to truly appreciate what their crew does.
After a few days in Vega$, enjoying the city with a night of partying, a day at the pool and a dinner at Michael's @ Southpointe (if you ever want to impress - propose - keep happy a girl, take her here). Five star dining at it's best. It's off the strip but worth the drive. You just have to make your way thru all the locals in their tank tops and jean shorts in the casino to the back to the restaurant.
In the open singles, I got 65-96 place out of 1080 or so. Good to feel the pressure of pool again. I lost to Chad Bennke (he should've been a master player just by his last name
) and some guy from Alaska (I can never beat the guys that live out in the middle of no where and do nothing but play pool). I figure Chad plays more pool in a day then I play in a year. He deserves to win. I was safety breaking him and out moving him, he just executes better than me when he has to. 17-24 in Open Teams. We had a good run til the end. Lost to a team from Idaho (again people that live in the middle of no where with nothing better to do than play pool). It was fun playing with a bunch of great guys on our team. Here's what I love --
the text messaging feature at the BCAPL now to let you know your next match. Nice to read - Congratulations you won. You play again at 7:30 on table 129. Seemed a little faulty at times as for one match I got literally 9 messages in 5 minutes reminding me my match was going to start.
the new venue. Food in the Rio was great. Ate breakfast at the Sau Paulo Cafe twice. No more waiting 30 minutes to just sit down at an empty table that has been there for 30 minutes like Kady's at the Riv. Ate at an Italian place upstairs that was better than average. Good service. Lunch at the sports book deli, also very good. Dinner at the VooDoo steakhouse. Excellent steak with even a better view of the Vega$ strip. I'd go here on my next trip to Vega$ even if it wasn't pool related.
Center bar was a good meeting spot and comfortable to sit at. Not like the Riv where the bartender didn't care you were there and you had about 2 feet between you and a railing to stand.
setup was good - I figured the convention center would be way in the back but it wasn't that bad of a walk. Three distinct rooms. Plenty of signs put out by the CSI staff to let you know what was where. I liked the images of the players as you walked down the corridor. There was no Robin Dodson's husband bellowing out - "raffle tickets for a jump cue. 5 tickets. $20 a piece. One winner" - every 40 minutes right in the middle of the tournament room. This was a big bonus.
Plenty of free interaction for the fans - Dr. Cue (although I don't need to hear that Jesus loves me because I can do a trick shot), Mike Massey, SVB and Orcullo (and I'm sure others) did free clinics/lessons, Jennifer Berreta.
Standard affair of booths - good to see friends such as Michael Hoang. If you don;t buy from him you are missing out. I liked the ACA region. Was good to see Travis (Blackcreek) and Andy Gilbert (even if he didn't remember me which he will never forget me again). Josh Treadway (a real up and comer cue maker) and this guy Robertson from Texas had some nice cues.
The pro arena right there for everyone to see with free admission to watch any match at any time.
here's what I dislike or think could be improved-
More spectator seating around the pro arena. The stands were full most of the time. More people could have enjoyed the pros if there were bleachers on more sides of the tables. Space may have been an issue so move the trick shot / 14.1 competition to one of the side rooms or out in the main foyer.
The refs - I saw them stand on the wrong side of the table to call hits, multiple times. I saw them more worried that someone was practicing and on their cell phone then they were on the action on the 'live' tables. I know of one player that was forfeited two games because he had a one inch rip in his jeans. I fouled on a break shot by barely hitting the cue ball on a practice stroke. My opponent called the ref to just clarify it was a foul. The ref's first question to me was "did the cue ball pass the head string", which it did not. Then he asked if I hit the cue ball with the tip of my cue, which it did. He called it correctly as a foul but why on earth he asked if the cue ball passed the head string was unknown to me.
Female players - ok crucify me but they are much more mean spirited than any man. Have been for years. I took a piece of chalk off a table that I thought the match was over with as the table had been empty for over 5 minutes. I guess one of the women was on her third potty break and she let me have it when she got back. I just stood there and laughed.
Diamond bar tables - just kidding. These are great tables but there are none in St Louis. We are at a huge disadvantage. Mark G or Greg - please use some marketing to get at least one table in St. Louis. My basement will work if the price is right. You know how to contact me.
Skittle colored balls. More of a distraction than any benefit I could see.
The center bar did close one night in the casino kind of early. Guess they hate money when you can pay a bartender's salary by him serving one drink an hour.
Vega$ in July. It's hotter than hot.
Waiting 24 hours to get paid. Guess I need to understand the entire process and obviously appreciate that BCAPL check ALWAYS cash but this was the longest time ever having to wait. I would thnk with computers, etc. that this could be controlled better. Especially if you are knocked out of the singles you might not come back over to the RIo if not staying there for 2 or 3 more days.
The match scheduling. I would have to take a closer look as it will probably be explained to me that I don't understand - but I dont understand that if you make it to the final bracket of an event, you are basically playing non stop from the morning til the night. A fat guy has got to eat.
Oh yeah, I found some of the team names offensive.
That's all. I'll be back next year for sure.
Thanks to JCIN for letting me sit in and do a little commentary on 3 of the matches. I had a blast and ready to do some more when needed. TAR is the best to me. Support them. Buy a stream. Buy a VOD. Buy a SVB DVD. People need to see what goes into all of it to truly appreciate what their crew does.
