Amateur events in Jacksonville

Nine Ball

Nine Ball

Certified Rail Tester
Silver Member
I just returned from the amateur event in Jacksonville and I have to say it was one of the worst events I have ever attended. There was a problem with getting the money posted and when it finally was posted was about $950 short of the total entries. I questioned this several times and each time received a different excuse. One of them was they took the money out of the men's tournament to add to the women's tournament. WOW! I surely have never heard of that before. I ended up with an answer of a simple miscalculation but then only $600 of the $950 was put back. There was also a similar problem with the 8 ball event. Moving on to simply the worst tables I have ever seen which I should mention cost $1.00 per game. There was a total of eleven bar tables with each having dead rails which played extremely slow. A few of the tables actually had spring rails and if a ball was hit into them with medium speed would pop up about two inches off the table. In addition to these bad tables was also a very heavy and oversized cue ball. Any players who attended this thing called a tournament will surely agree with my, Well let's call it an opinion. After all of this I did manage to place in both the 8 and 9 ball events but don't think I'll be rushing back to play again. I just felt this information would be appreciated for people who plan to attend the future events.
 
Nine Ball said:
I just returned from the amateur event in Jacksonville and I have to say it was one of the worst events I have ever attended. There was a problem with getting the money posted and when it finally was posted was about $950 short of the total entries. I questioned this several times and each time received a different excuse. One of them was they took the money out of the men's tournament to add to the women's tournament. WOW! I surely have never heard of that before. I ended up with an answer of a simple miscalculation but then only $600 of the $950 was put back. There was also a similar problem with the 8 ball event. Moving on to simply the worst tables I have ever seen which I should mention cost $1.00 per game. There was a total of eleven bar tables with each having dead rails which played extremely slow. A few of the tables actually had spring rails and if a ball was hit into them with medium speed would pop up about two inches off the table. In addition to these bad tables was also a very heavy and oversized cue ball. Any players who attended this thing called a tournament will surely agree with my, Well let's call it an opinion. After all of this I did manage to place in both the 8 and 9 ball events but don't think I'll be rushing back to play again. I just felt this information would be appreciated for people who plan to attend the future events.
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Also after seeing all this on tuesday night I did try to get my entry fee's back and was told so sorry. (Ok, Thank You)
 
The amateur events this past week were the worst conditions I have ever seen at a tournament, bad tables, weak payouts, horrible staffing (except Kay from kings bay). I have been to bar tournaments that were run better. The staff from Dragon promotions seemed to know nothing about any rules, every time a question was asked the response was "I don't know" and then they quickly walked away. It seems funny to me that they put the event together and have no idea what the rules are, and also no idea why the payouts for every event were short, with $490 missing from eight ball and roughly $600 missing from the 9 ball. The women's and seniors also had problems with the payouts. Everything that was advertised on the internet for this event was conveniently forgotten. I would be surprised if any of the players will make the mistake of attending another of their events.
 
US Amateur Open Jacksonville, FL

I agree. I had to wait 3 days to be able to post on this site so I guess you'll beat me to telling this story. Hear is my post about this event. I forfeited in the eight ball and nine ball. I'm glad I didn't have a hotel room paid for in advance.

US Amateur Open -May 24-28 2006 at the Hyatt in Jacksonville, FL has to have ranked as the worst tournament I have every been witness too. The 65 and 75 dollar entry fee (8_ball and 9_ball) and the hype the BCA and Dragons Promotions gave to it would leave you to believe this was one of the major amateur events going on in the US and that would have been the furthers thing from the truth. The field was limited to 512 (open men’s) only 57 showed up thank god because they only had 11 bar tables (all of which were in bad shape) to support the men, women’s and senior 8-ball and 9-ball. They used the oversized cue ball, has anyone ever played a tournament with that type of cue ball? The rails on most of the tables were dead and the cloth was slow, slow, and slower. Worst of all if you happen to be one of the unlucky ones to preregister you were not able to get a refund on your entry fee once you were aware of the conditions (Kings Bay promotions said that the table contract for the tables fell thru 2 weeks before the tournament and these tables were the only one available, my responds is how is that the players fault).
I would not recommend supporting any promotion company that would treat the amateur pool players like this. I also was very disappointed that Dragons Promotions (Charlie Williams) company would be involved with an event such as this. I am also sadden that a company like Predator cues, based out of Jacksonville, having been aware of the situation with the tables wouldn’t have helped get some better quality tables.
Please comment on what you thought of the tournament situation or what I have said.
 
us amatuer

Thanks for posting some information about the tournament. Glad I wasn't there. The list of player you mentioned are all top regional players or players that play at a pro ;evel. Many should not have been allowed to play. Apparently the UPA only cares about taking good care of their pros.
 
nineballer1974 said:
I agree. I had to wait 3 days to be able to post on this site so I guess you'll beat me to telling this story. Hear is my post about this event. I forfeited in the eight ball and nine ball. I'm glad I didn't have a hotel room paid for in advance.

US Amateur Open -May 24-28 2006 at the Hyatt in Jacksonville, FL has to have ranked as the worst tournament I have every been witness too. The 65 and 75 dollar entry fee (8_ball and 9_ball) and the hype the BCA and Dragons Promotions gave to it would leave you to believe this was one of the major amateur events going on in the US and that would have been the furthers thing from the truth. The field was limited to 512 (open men’s) only 57 showed up thank god because they only had 11 bar tables (all of which were in bad shape) to support the men, women’s and senior 8-ball and 9-ball. They used the oversized cue ball, has anyone ever played a tournament with that type of cue ball? The rails on most of the tables were dead and the cloth was slow, slow, and slower. Worst of all if you happen to be one of the unlucky ones to preregister you were not able to get a refund on your entry fee once you were aware of the conditions (Kings Bay promotions said that the table contract for the tables fell thru 2 weeks before the tournament and these tables were the only one available, my responds is how is that the players fault).
I would not recommend supporting any promotion company that would treat the amateur pool players like this. I also was very disappointed that Dragons Promotions (Charlie Williams) company would be involved with an event such as this. I am also sadden that a company like Predator cues, based out of Jacksonville, having been aware of the situation with the tables wouldn’t have helped get some better quality tables.
Please comment on what you thought of the tournament situation or what I have said.
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I am so glad people are coming forward about this event and telling how it was. Actually, The people who setup the tables for the PRO event said they had tables for the amateur events but someone was too cheap to get those tables. I think we all know who I'm talking about there. What a joke.
 
nineballer1974 said:
I agree. I had to wait 3 days to be able to post on this site so I guess you'll beat me to telling this story. Hear is my post about this event. I forfeited in the eight ball and nine ball. I'm glad I didn't have a hotel room paid for in advance.

US Amateur Open -May 24-28 2006 at the Hyatt in Jacksonville, FL has to have ranked as the worst tournament I have every been witness too. The 65 and 75 dollar entry fee (8_ball and 9_ball) and the hype the BCA and Dragons Promotions gave to it would leave you to believe this was one of the major amateur events going on in the US and that would have been the furthers thing from the truth. The field was limited to 512 (open men’s) only 57 showed up thank god because they only had 11 bar tables (all of which were in bad shape) to support the men, women’s and senior 8-ball and 9-ball. They used the over-sized cue ball, has anyone ever played a tournament with that type of cue ball? The rails on most of the tables were dead and the cloth was slow, slow, and slower. Worst of all if you happen to be one of the unlucky ones to preregister you were not able to get a refund on your entry fee once you were aware of the conditions (Kings Bay promotions said that the table contract for the tables fell thru 2 weeks before the tournament and these tables were the only one available, my responds is how is that the players fault).
I would not recommend supporting any promotion company that would treat the amateur pool players like this. I also was very disappointed that Dragons Promotions (Charlie Williams) company would be involved with an event such as this. I am also sadden that a company like Predator cues, based out of Jacksonville, having been aware of the situation with the tables wouldn't’t have helped get some better quality tables.
Please comment on what you thought of the tournament situation or what I have said.
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I agree... I would hope that anyone considering attending an event run by Dragon Promotions would think twice about where their money would actually be going. Clearly this whole tournament was someone's retirement fund. I would have thought that an event hosted by a pro pool player would have been set up a little better than that. How can they expect people to enjoy playing in conditions that they themselves would NEVER think of playing on. They had 11 players that just forfeited the 8 ball tournament who had also registered for the 9 ball and never showed back up. I was contemplating playing in the women's tournament until I saw the conditions. A staff member from Dragon asked me if I was playing and my response was "There is no way on god's green earth that you would get me to pay $65 plus $1 a game to play in these conditions" his response was "a great player can play on anything" I know I am not a world champion.... I wouldn't expect ANYONE to play in those conditions. I don't care if they host an event in a pool hall with Diamond tables and is free entry fee I still wouldn't even go to watch.
 
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$65 to enter plus a dollar a game which is about $10 per match if you are racing to 7. That can be quite an expensive tournament if you are winning. The better you play, the more it costs you.

Sure glad I didn't go.

Jake
 
Am I reading this right that Richie Richeson, Trevor Braymore, Wade Crane, Brian Davalos and James Roberts played? Surely that cant be the case.
 
nineballer1974 said:
I agree. I had to wait 3 days to be able to post on this site so I guess you'll beat me to telling this story. Hear is my post about this event. I forfeited in the eight ball and nine ball. I'm glad I didn't have a hotel room paid for in advance.

US Amateur Open -May 24-28 2006 at the Hyatt in Jacksonville, FL has to have ranked as the worst tournament I have every been witness too. The 65 and 75 dollar entry fee (8_ball and 9_ball) and the hype the BCA and Dragons Promotions gave to it would leave you to believe this was one of the major amateur events going on in the US and that would have been the furthers thing from the truth. The field was limited to 512 (open men’s) only 57 showed up thank god because they only had 11 bar tables (all of which were in bad shape) to support the men, women’s and senior 8-ball and 9-ball. They used the oversized cue ball, has anyone ever played a tournament with that type of cue ball? The rails on most of the tables were dead and the cloth was slow, slow, and slower. Worst of all if you happen to be one of the unlucky ones to preregister you were not able to get a refund on your entry fee once you were aware of the conditions (Kings Bay promotions said that the table contract for the tables fell thru 2 weeks before the tournament and these tables were the only one available, my responds is how is that the players fault).
I would not recommend supporting any promotion company that would treat the amateur pool players like this. I also was very disappointed that Dragons Promotions (Charlie Williams) company would be involved with an event such as this. I am also sadden that a company like Predator cues, based out of Jacksonville, having been aware of the situation with the tables wouldn’t have helped get some better quality tables.
Please comment on what you thought of the tournament situation or what I have said.
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JUS HAVE TO LOVE THE UPA .The WAL-MART OF POOL.
 
None of the players you mentioned played in the amateur event. I am not sure if they played in the pro event or not.
Just wanted to say that I ran the event to the best of my ability and I had several players tell me I did a good job. I hope I did. I was there to run the events on the amateur side . I ran three charts at the same time. For me I do want to say that I am sorry of the conditions of the event.
 
All this is a sad sound to hear for me, because i was looking forward to attending more KBP events in the future.

I attended the palatka one, and although the conditions werent ideal (8 foot tables, bad rails) i would say the event was run very well, Elvis did a great job with the brackets, and getting everything done in a timely manner. I was pleased with the event in palatka, and was ready to attend more KBP in the future. I might have to think twice from now on though.

But i would just like to restate the fact that the palatka event went well, and there were no hiccups in any of the tournament proceedings.
 
It was a bit shocking to see the tournament conditions and the big cue ball was pretty inexcusable. Still, I manage to finish 5th in the Women's 9 Ball, the hotel was great, I had fun and my margarita was superb ;-)!

Do it again........hmmmmmmmm, my magic 8 Ball says "Highly unlikely"

FYI: anyone who paid an entry via Paypal can probably get their $ back if they opted not to play....
 
I'm sorry that you "KBP" as a pool promotions company can't see why everyone would have a problem with the conditions for the entry fees charged . I am not a pro player but I'm a pool player that supports the pro tour and all I ask is to be treated like the money I spend is important.
 
I agree with everyone on the price issue, even when i played on semi decent conditions, i still thought $60 for an amateur event was a bit pricey. Especially if your playing on conditions stated in this thread. I would have been up in arms as well if i were registered to play.

Most likely what would have happened would be me getting there, walking in, seeing the "pool hall" and walking back out, and finding some action somewhere else in jax.
 
KBP said:
None of the players you mentioned played in the amateur event. I am not sure if they played in the pro event or not.
Just wanted to say that I ran the event to the best of my ability and I had several players tell me I did a good job. I hope I did. I was there to run the events on the amateur side . I ran three charts at the same time. For me I do want to say that I am sorry of the conditions of the event.
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The problems with the whole tournament didn't stem from King's bay. I lay the blame on Dragon Promotions and their lack of concern for the amateurs. It was like they only cared about their pro players. And even that is a stretch. What was said about the prize money for them was true I was standing there when someone tried to collect their money and was given an address to write to to collect what they had won. Not to mention 1st place for the pro event was supposed to be guaranteed $10,000... Imagine that it was only 9
 
KBP said:
None of the players you mentioned played in the amateur event. I am not sure if they played in the pro event or not.
Just wanted to say that I ran the event to the best of my ability and I had several players tell me I did a good job. I hope I did. I was there to run the events on the amateur side . I ran three charts at the same time. For me I do want to say that I am sorry of the conditions of the event.
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If you are the nice lady I'm thinking of, Kay? Then you did an excellent job of handling the brackets. The problems were with (Well we all know who) as they are the ones who selected the tables, balls, prices, and of course the payouts. I will say once again that the people who set up the tables for the PRO event also had tables for the amateur events but "someone" (and we all know who that is) was unwilling to pay for the amateurs to play on good equipment. They also had 6 regular size cue balls and were too cheap to go a mile down the road and purchase 5 more cue balls so we ended up with the oversized balls to save them money. True, None of the PROS got paid for their event yet only an address to write to. In my opinion the "guy" running the tournament should be the one handling that matter not the players.
 
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Payouts

Have you ever heard of a tournament like this paying out less then the entry fees? To start off it was paying out 16 places and When they finally put back in $600 of about the $950 they were taking out of the 9 ball event they added 8 more places paying 17-24 which paid $25 each. :eek: Any of this seem right to you? If you want to make money or atleast break even you better get 1st or 2nd because your expenses for hotel, entry, quarters, food, and traveling there are going to get the best of you..
 
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I was hired by Dragon Promotions to run the Amateur tournament which I did for 12 to 15 hours a day. I ran three charts at the same time for each of the 8-Ball and 9-Ball events. The three charts were the Amateur, Womens and Seniors. I left the charts only twice, once for approx 30 min and another for approx 45 min. I stayed on top of the event and the charts. I arrived on Tuesday night to check in and get my schedule and left the hotel on Sunday evening after the Pro Event was finished and all the amateur event items had been taken care of.
Kay
 
I was told the same thing that Frank was in an accident and the checks would be sent out later for the Pro's.
 
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