Same to you Eric. For me personally, Pool has always been golden for me with a few bumps here and there. You got started at a very interesting time, right around the release of The Color of Money. Pool had been in the doldrums for a few years and then it just took off again with many, many new upscale rooms opening all over the country, along with a boom in the entire billiard industry. We were having five or six tourneys a year with 25K and up first prizes, like winning 50 or 75K today. It was the beginning of the Sands Reno event twice a year with 10K cash on top in each one and the Bicycle Club double events soon followed with similar (or better) prize money. Hard Times broke some barriers and began producing some of the biggest poolroom events ever held. Other big poolrooms soon followed and began offering good tournies $$ as well. Players were getting busy and the action was flowing. It ran good for about ten years and then things started slowing down again. So it has been an endless cycle of highs and lows in my time around this game.I was a 19 year old groupie/degen in 85-86.
You got to live the golden era of pool, I got the golden age of arcades.
Lucky we are still here part of the show!
Happy New Year Jay,
The good news is that in spite of the recession Pool is on the upswing once more. I'm just along for the ride. It's been fun so far.
