Ya gotta watch him. I watched him play Wednes and Thurs. The match yesterday vs Franklin Hernandez was something f'g else. Here's my highlights as I saw them railside.
He enters the Convention Center and stops among us common folk and starts his schpeal on current affairs, mostly about the jump stick. "No player here has any integrity! They support the jump stick. It's a gimmick!" I say to him "It certainly has changed the game but ya gotta believe there's too much money being made on the jump sticks to ever outlaw it." Earl: "It's not a different game! It's a gimmick game with too much luck! Whatever happened to kicking?! And whadaya mean it's about money!? Pool is DYING! I'm the only player with any integrity! I wear my passion on my sleeve!" .......
Off to the table... Franklin wins the lag. Earl is talking away and Franklin backs off his break stance, shoots a "you're starting real F'g early" look at Earl. Franklin breaks, and starts off strong with the first rack. Then Earl gets the next and then rack #3. As he walks around the table to move his second "ball-bead" over he's chatting away to anyone and everyone. I see him mistakenly move Franklin's second ball! The crowd is thick for this match, thicker than ANY so far, by multitides. Every seat taken within view, and 4 deep standing behind the rail.
Anyway, I believe I see Franklin get a quick look at Earls' error, but it was impossible to tell as his glance was so brief. I look around the crowd and maybe a couple others notice. Anyway, the crowd is not apparently supposed to say anything and no one does. Earl is still yapping away. Maybe 45 seconds pass while Frankin is just sitting there, not moving to rack, allowing Earl to hold court. Then Franklin gets up, takes his cue and wipes his ball back and marks up Earl's second. CLASS MOVE. I don't believe Earl ever even knew this occurred as he was busy at the time.
The play is EXCELLENT. The match progresses. Franklin plays great, and stays quiet and is a total gentleman. He plays way better than many/most that I watched over 2 days.
Then... Around rack 9, Earl lifts his right leg up and "Ripppppp", a velcro strip goes off and what appears to be an ankle weight is taken off and he quickly wraps it around his left elbow. "WTF?" Someone says he wore a waist weight belt recently to "remind him to stay down".
Play goes back and forth, and Earl maintains @ a 2-3 game lead. I step over to the other side of the center to check with a friend on the Robles/Souquet match.
I come back and here's Earl shooting with a set of massive headphones on. Not music, just noise buffeting headphones, similar to those worn by airport ground crew. WTF? He is now a sight to behold with one sleeve rolled up with a weight on, anf the other further down and these huge earmuffs on. He goes a couple racks, missing nothing, saying nothing. The stroke, the movement, the play ... was the best and most electric and WOW that I have EVER witnessed.
Then, after he polishes off a 9, he turns to the crowd and momentarily pulls the headphones away from the ears. "You guys are the loudest crowd I have EVER heard! I can hear you through these things and I can't even hear a 747 through these!!!" He breaks dry and takes a seat and removes them, "man these things are hot to wear!".
It's about 9-6 Earl when a most interesting thing happened. Earl gets hooked. The OB is the 7 and it's about 5 inches from the mouth of the side. The 9 is 18 inches away in direct line of the cue which is @ 12 inches from the 9. A basic jump shot.... Earl walks over to his break stick and looks at it (mind you it has an Elkmaster tip on it). He looks, and pauses a few seconds, and turns around. He mutters something, walks back to the table, and lightly kicks the cue off the opposite long rail and drops the 7 in, in perfect po for the 8. HUGE applause. Game over.
Last note for now... I believe it is Case game now. The 2 is in the corner jaws on the foot. The cue is frozen on the head rail. He jacks up over 45 degrees and hammers the 2 in, and whitey pulls back a foot or so without hitting a rail. Perfect shape.
UnF'g real play, unreal match. Love him or hate him, he is the match to watch. Thanks to both players for great play! :thumbup:
(My friend took a ton of pic's that I hope to nab today, I will try to post some soon!)
He enters the Convention Center and stops among us common folk and starts his schpeal on current affairs, mostly about the jump stick. "No player here has any integrity! They support the jump stick. It's a gimmick!" I say to him "It certainly has changed the game but ya gotta believe there's too much money being made on the jump sticks to ever outlaw it." Earl: "It's not a different game! It's a gimmick game with too much luck! Whatever happened to kicking?! And whadaya mean it's about money!? Pool is DYING! I'm the only player with any integrity! I wear my passion on my sleeve!" .......
Off to the table... Franklin wins the lag. Earl is talking away and Franklin backs off his break stance, shoots a "you're starting real F'g early" look at Earl. Franklin breaks, and starts off strong with the first rack. Then Earl gets the next and then rack #3. As he walks around the table to move his second "ball-bead" over he's chatting away to anyone and everyone. I see him mistakenly move Franklin's second ball! The crowd is thick for this match, thicker than ANY so far, by multitides. Every seat taken within view, and 4 deep standing behind the rail.
Anyway, I believe I see Franklin get a quick look at Earls' error, but it was impossible to tell as his glance was so brief. I look around the crowd and maybe a couple others notice. Anyway, the crowd is not apparently supposed to say anything and no one does. Earl is still yapping away. Maybe 45 seconds pass while Frankin is just sitting there, not moving to rack, allowing Earl to hold court. Then Franklin gets up, takes his cue and wipes his ball back and marks up Earl's second. CLASS MOVE. I don't believe Earl ever even knew this occurred as he was busy at the time.
The play is EXCELLENT. The match progresses. Franklin plays great, and stays quiet and is a total gentleman. He plays way better than many/most that I watched over 2 days.
Then... Around rack 9, Earl lifts his right leg up and "Ripppppp", a velcro strip goes off and what appears to be an ankle weight is taken off and he quickly wraps it around his left elbow. "WTF?" Someone says he wore a waist weight belt recently to "remind him to stay down".
Play goes back and forth, and Earl maintains @ a 2-3 game lead. I step over to the other side of the center to check with a friend on the Robles/Souquet match. I come back and here's Earl shooting with a set of massive headphones on. Not music, just noise buffeting headphones, similar to those worn by airport ground crew. WTF? He is now a sight to behold with one sleeve rolled up with a weight on, anf the other further down and these huge earmuffs on. He goes a couple racks, missing nothing, saying nothing. The stroke, the movement, the play ... was the best and most electric and WOW that I have EVER witnessed.
Then, after he polishes off a 9, he turns to the crowd and momentarily pulls the headphones away from the ears. "You guys are the loudest crowd I have EVER heard! I can hear you through these things and I can't even hear a 747 through these!!!" He breaks dry and takes a seat and removes them, "man these things are hot to wear!".
It's about 9-6 Earl when a most interesting thing happened. Earl gets hooked. The OB is the 7 and it's about 5 inches from the mouth of the side. The 9 is 18 inches away in direct line of the cue which is @ 12 inches from the 9. A basic jump shot.... Earl walks over to his break stick and looks at it (mind you it has an Elkmaster tip on it). He looks, and pauses a few seconds, and turns around. He mutters something, walks back to the table, and lightly kicks the cue off the opposite long rail and drops the 7 in, in perfect po for the 8. HUGE applause. Game over.
Last note for now... I believe it is Case game now. The 2 is in the corner jaws on the foot. The cue is frozen on the head rail. He jacks up over 45 degrees and hammers the 2 in, and whitey pulls back a foot or so without hitting a rail. Perfect shape.
UnF'g real play, unreal match. Love him or hate him, he is the match to watch. Thanks to both players for great play! :thumbup:
(My friend took a ton of pic's that I hope to nab today, I will try to post some soon!)
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