The Jeanette Lee Calcutta Scandal

clolson

Feisty Foster 4 MVP
Silver Member
My friend, Tompnation, who signed up on this site but couldnt post yet because his account is in moderation queue (awaiting activation), he posted on another site and asked me to post this until he could log on here at AZ and post himself, here is his account, word for word and the link to his post. He has the same account name here an AZ as he does on billiards forum, Tompnation.

http://www.billiardsforum.info/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1130

First off, I wanna start by saying that I created this account for the sole purpose of telling this story and that everything u read below is factual. I don't know anything about this site, but if someone thinks this should be posted in a different category, please let me know. I

P.S. I apologize for the length of this in advance, but I know people want all the facts. It is hard to believe and definitely worth the read.

On February 21st I went to an A-B-C tournament at John Wayne's Pub in Greenwood, Indiana. I go up there with a couple buddies and we immediately grab an open table, (with chairs, not a pool table.) which we sit at for the next four or five hours After a while Jeanette Lee walks in, which is no biggie considering she lives in Indianapolis and one can see her at any bigger pool tournaments in the area on any given weekend. I myself have seen her numerous times at different pool halls and the DBCC. The calcutta starts at around one o'clock, and goes through 45 C players. The 14 A-B players are next and begin with a wild bid, which was not Jeanette. Her name gets called next and me and my friend buy her for $140. For 35 dollars apiece we think we got a steal, (Or so we thought) knowing that the tourney is gonna pay at least a thousand to win.

Anybody who knows anything about tournament pool knows that if a player does not buy themselves in the calcutta then THEY must find the person who bought them and BUY half themselves from the buyer. Knowing that she always has people hounding her for pictures and autographs, I go find her. I introduce myself, as she sits at a table trying to download a popular poker website, and tell her its 70 bucks for half of herself. She responds verbatim "Let me see how big the pot is...I will let you know." We bs'd for about 5 more minutes and i went back to my seat. The tournament begins and everybody starts playing , and woofing, and carrying on as players usually do. I don't give much more thought about it.

About eight o'clock, i hear my name being called over the PA by one of the tournament directors. I know exactly whats about to happen as soon as I hear him ask me to come up there. He tells me that Jeanette has been looking for me, and wants to buy half of herself. I don't say yes or no, I just go back to my seat .

About ten o'clock Jeanette begins playing one of the guys I rode up there with in the finals of the winners bracket of the A-B side. During the first game of the match, she walks away after a miss and walks up to the tourney directors and asks them to get me up there. She says, "hey, I've been looking for you...I want to buy half of myself." I tell her that was 8 hrs ago and it was too late. She responds by turning around and breaking down her pool cue.

Ok, here's my take on the subject. My account of what went down. I rode up to John Wayne's with a couple friends and their girlfriends. I did not drive, so therefore I never left. We arrive around 11:30 or so and sat at a table in the middle section of of the tournament area. Jeanette arrived later but was definitely in time for the calcutta. I bought Jeanette for 140 dollars and went to her to offer her half. She said she wanted to look at the pot first and she would let me know. We talked for roughly five minutes after that, which would have been sufficient time to just give me seventy dollars. There were 59 players, how could she not win enough to cover her expenses?

My friends and I play in the tournament, but always return back to that table which their girlfriends are sitting at, as well as our coats and belongings. That being said, I could have easily been found. She also got on the microphone on two different occasions to speak, so I figured she could have easily called "the gentleman who bought me" to come speak with her. As I've said, everyone knows that if someone buys you in the calcutta, you are supposed to buy half of yourself before you hit even one ball. Every pool player in every tournament would love to get a free ride in the calcutta and then claim half the dough in the end.

Look, she had a great chance of winning the tournament, but just because someone is supposed to win or get second, DOES NOT mean that they do not "really" have to buy half of themselves. It is not just "understood" that they want half of themselves because they are going to win the tournament. That is why I wouldn't give her half of herself. I've never seen anything like that by any caliber of player, and sure didn't expect her to react the way she did. She forfeited the entire tourney from there, and cost me and my buddy to lose 35 dollars apiece.

This is what really happened so everyone can think what you will but this is the way I saw it. There are at least three sides to every story, so i would love to hear what Jeanette or anyone else who was there have to say.
 

clolson

Feisty Foster 4 MVP
Silver Member
$TAKE HOR$E said:
If you spent $140 wouldnt you lose $70 each.

she quit in the semis, she finished in 5th/6th spot so he got some of the calcutta money back.
 

branpureza

Ginacue
Silver Member
If I enter myself into a tournament I'll quit whenever I want for whatever reason I want. Why should she have to answer to anyone? If some guy got an attitude with me I'd do the same thing.

She doesn't owe anyone shlt.
 

Bigtruck

Capt Diff Lock
Gold Member
Silver Member
I can only handle one controversy thread per day, so I'm not gonna post here. ~imo

Ray
(what ironman317 said) Updated when thinking clearly lol
 
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Jaden

"no buds chill"
Silver Member
it's ok Ray.....

Bigtruck said:
I can only handle one controversy thread per day, so I'm not gonna post here. ~imo

Ray
(what bran said)

I mentioned what happened with me and Robert Stewart in the other thread....

JAden
 

Nine Ball

Certified Rail Tester
Silver Member
branpureza said:
If I enter myself into a tournament I'll quit whenever I want for whatever reason I want. Why should she have to answer to anyone? If some guy got an attitude with me I'd do the same thing.

She doesn't owe anyone shlt.


That attitude is exactly why calcuttas are so risky.... A great example and a shame.

Which also leads in to why pool is what it is and so looked down upon. But that's another story. Knowing what I know now, I wish I would have taken up a different game 16 years ago.

Pool is a great game and very hard to master.. Unfortunately a large portion of the people involved in it drag it to the mud. Dumping, Sharking, Get it by any means all about yourself..

They are only thinking short term. It may take to your advantage at the moment but after time you lose backers. Nobody will want to deal with the stuff that comes in playin that certain person and so on.

Then the people who love the game, The fans, Watch all this and see it for what it truly is.

Maybe 200 years from now it may change to something better. I just don't see it happening before then. Only the people involved can change it but if we can't see past short term....

Just my worthless thoughts after 16 years involved in it all...
 
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Jaden

"no buds chill"
Silver Member
because that anyone is the one who put up money for her.

branpureza said:
If I enter myself into a tournament I'll quit whenever I want for whatever reason I want. Why should she have to answer to anyone? If some guy got an attitude with me I'd do the same thing.

She doesn't owe anyone shlt.


$h1t I could've been pissed that anyone bought me, because I was a complete unknown, (except that Robert and I had matched up a little the night before) but I'm not gonna be like that and it does a disservice to the game we all report to love to have attitudes of grandeur that beg to be able to get away with anything we want because people believe in our ability....

Again, just my 2 cents...

JAden
 

Josh Palmer

I'll take the 6 :)
Silver Member
branpureza said:
If I enter myself into a tournament I'll quit whenever I want for whatever reason I want. Why should she have to answer to anyone? If some guy got an attitude with me I'd do the same thing.

She doesn't owe anyone shlt.

There are two sides to this Brandon, and I could see myself go both ways on this... but here is my take:

Times are tough for people right now. This person decided to buy her, and hopefully take it down, while also giving her a chance to buy half.
Jeanette makes plenty of money, and if she decided to be an A-HOLE and do that just to spite him, then I say who needs or wants to be like this. She doesn't owe him anything, but her character would be in serious need of an overhaul.

Thanks for supporting the WPBA by the way... :cool:
 

Fuji-whopper

Fargo: 457...play some?
Silver Member
Man people really don't read very closely, 2 people put up the $140 to buy her so each person paid $70 to buy her. Not that it matters about the money but it shows how closely one reads the posts.
 

JB Cases

www.jbcases.com
Silver Member
Don't want to comment on THIS situation but just on calcuttas in general. When a someone PURCHASES a player in a calcutta they do not own that player. The player can quit at anytime, dump you, get frustrated, have a seizure or any number of things that prevent them from playing the best that they can.

The only thing I hate to hear is that a PLAYER owes the purchaser their time. The player doesn't owe anyone anything unless there is some kind of agreement between the player and the buyer. Otherwise it is a completely seperate thing between what they player does in the tournament and the fact that someone is betting on their performance.

Any time I have bought someone in a calcutta I have treated that money as if it were completely GONE and not worried about what the player did.

Honestly, a BETTER way to run a calcutta is to have it be a pari-mutuel (I think that this is the right term) where anyone can bet on whatever player they want to win the tournament and the total money is paid out in places and divided amongst the amount of people who bet on the player.

I participated in a few of these in Europe and they were always fun and drama free.

OR another way is to have groups of players who get bundled together. My ex-wife and I made a bundle on a calcutta like this in North Dakota one year and it was a ton of fun to sweat the lesser known players in the groups we bought.

Anyway, this is a sad situation all the way around. JL has always been fun and gracious in all the years I have known her. Hope it can get resolved amicably between all concerned.
 

ShootingArts

Smorg is giving St Peter the 7!
Gold Member
Silver Member
who started the game playing?

Josh Palmer said:
There are two sides to this Brandon, and I could see myself go both ways on this... but here is my take:

Times are tough for people right now. This person decided to buy her, and hopefully take it down, while also giving her a chance to buy half.
Jeanette makes plenty of money, and if she decided to be an A-HOLE and do that just to spite him, then I say who needs or wants to be like this. She doesn't owe him anything, but her character would be in serious need of an overhaul.

Thanks for supporting the WPBA by the way... :cool:


Even from what I read posted for the person that bought JL, I see a bit of two sides of the story. None of us know when she first decided to buy half of herself. It could have been two minutes after she quit talking to the buyer when she checked the pot, it could have been far later. The one thing that we do know is that the buyer was called over the PA system several hours before the second call that he responded to and he chose to ignore that call.

How many matches did JL play after that first call? How far was she out of the money then? Who did she play and who did she look likely to meet in her path through the brackets?

We have no idea of quite a few things including when JL first started hunting him however it does seem that the buyer was doing a little game playing of his own when he ignored the first call instead of responding and telling JL then that she was too late to buy her half of the Calcutta and was playing only for the prize money which is often less than the Calcutta in my neck of the woods, sometimes only a third or less.

If I thought the buyer had deliberately dodged me to prevent me from buying half of myself I might have well unjointed my cue when Jeanette did. We don't know what happened here. Jeanette may well have hunted him very early and perhaps he was outside, in another area, or in the bathroom. Perhaps she was careless about catching up with the Calcutta winner to buy half of herself in a timely manner.

We simply don't know. I'm not going to judge either party without hearing from both, probably not even then.

Hu
 

FLICKit

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
So, let me get this straight. Jeanette Lee was approached by an unknown person in a crowd of many. In your post you say "she always has people hounding her for pictures and autographs, I go find her". You say this because (in some form of words) you believe that you're being magnanimous and doing her a favor. After all, finding her in order to offer an opportunity to buy half of herself was a gesture that you didn't have to do. Especially because you say "we think we got a steal" by buying her. So you assess her to be a surefire lock for return on the investment.

When you propose that she can buy half of herself from you, and she says "I'll let you know", you both put your honor on the line via a verbal contract. Thinking rationally: she would have a hard time finding you (as an unknown) in a crowd of many. So she makes the effort to go to the tournament director and announce that she will take the offer, which fulfills on her end of the bargain to let you know. You and everyone in the crowd knows of the verbal agreement.

At this point in time, if you don't believe that Jeanette Lee is good for the $70, then you have easy access to locate her and get the money in advance. Instead you sit in the crowd, remaining difficult to distinguish, even if you happen to be within 5 feet of her, or whatever. You make no effort to complete the agreed upon transaction.

Afterwards, you insist that she has no claim to half of the calcutta...

You can play it that way if you choose, but personally in this case (knowing that you have no reason to doubt someone like Jeanette Lee), I think I'd honor my word in the verbal agreement rather than try to stiff Jeanette Lee on a couple of hundred bucks.

Like I say, you can play it that way if you choose.
Personally, I'd honor my word.
 
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$TAKE HOR$E

champagne - campaign
Silver Member
Suppose all of these statements are true so far, the only one that should even matter is HOW LONG DID SHE (OR ANYONE IN GENERAL) WAIT TO SEE HOW MUCH MONEY WAS IN THE TOTAL POT BEFORE THEY SAY YES OR NO. If it was before the board is filled out and the first balls broke then no big deal but if it was after several matches then what is everyone missing, its a no brainer.

And for those of you that have never been to John Waynes, they have 27 bar tables I think and there were only 50 some players in the tournament so its not like getting around is a big deal because the place is not small and cramped.
 
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