Ipt

PAMike

PAMike

AKA Tattoo Mike
Silver Member
I notice there seems to be very little discusion on the board regarding the International Pool Tour. I only recently stumbled upon their web site, as I am not new to pool, but pretty new to the "pool culture?" for lack of a better term....


Are they bad for the sport n your opinion?
 
PAMike said:
I notice there seems to be very little discusion on the board regarding the International Pool Tour. I only recently stumbled upon their web site, as I am not new to pool, but pretty new to the "pool culture?" for lack of a better term....


Are they bad for the sport n your opinion?
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They'll never last.

Just remember, you heard it from me first.

:wink:
 
PAMike said:
I notice there seems to be very little discusion on the board regarding the International Pool Tour. I only recently stumbled upon their web site, as I am not new to pool, but pretty new to the "pool culture?" for lack of a better term....


Are they bad for the sport n your opinion?
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Your threads have been awful. Use the search button and you can find out all you want on the IPT.
 
They had great ideas and horrible execution due to who was running the show. If infomercial criminal Kevin Trudeau had more smarts than ego, he could've used his money to back the endeavor on a smaller scale (tournaments with $100,000 purses) and had a respectable, honest person running the show. Had he taken that route, the IPT would've/could've been good for the game.

Kevin's ego was too big to step aside so he chose to be th front man. His "right hand man" tournament director, Deno Andrews is almost equally as egotistical so they were a nice fit - for each other. Not so much everyone else.

Ultimately, Kevin stood in front of all the IPT members (many who had quit their jobs because they had to be at the 1st tournament* though only a handful of them were playing in it) that he was well aware the business model didn't make sense and he had no expecatations of making money in the beginning (he knew what was being talked about on here). It was then that he told people that he was going to fund the tour, out of his own pocket for 3 (or 4 yrs, my memory is fuzzy these days). If you count the first tournament (invitational where hall of famers were brought in during a later round) then I think the IPT had 3 (could've been just 2) tournaments where the players received their paychecks.

At the end of a tournament after everyone had incurred the travel cost to the event, expensive hotels, food, etc, (everyone was to get a check, even the people that finished last so the whole field was expecting payment) they were told "FedEx didn't deliver the checks". :rolleyes: They blamed it on someone in their office. Over time, the excuses changed but it took the players banding together to start talking lawsuit when the IPT came out with a "payment plan" of paying 11% every so often. They didn't really follow the "plan" but I do believe the IPT members were eventually paid in full.

During the time that they were making excuses for non-payment, they were still holding qualifiers and charging people $2000 entry knowing good & well these people were qualifying for a tournament that was never going to happen. (stealing) To my knowledge there are some people that never got a full reimbursement of that $2000.

My exact details are fuzzy due to the amount of time that its been but my post is the gist of the situation. In answer to your question - No, they are not good for pool. (IMO)
 
Love or hate the IPT, how can you deny the excitement level in the pool world during their three big tournaments (King of the Hill, North American 8Ball Championship, World 8Ball Championship). It seemed simply too good to be true, and it was.
 
jsp said:
Love or hate the IPT, how can you deny the excitement level in the pool world during their three big tournaments (King of the Hill, North American 8Ball Championship, World 8Ball Championship). It seemed simply too good to be true, and it was.
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They say "Ignorance is bliss". I don't have the highest IQ and I didn't fare all that well in school but what I was blessed with was common sense and a good instinct (probably to save me from my stupidity :p). These couple of attributes that I have make me a realist and a skeptic.

My instincts had red flags popping up everywhere and my simple common sense seeing that the business model made no sense and the show was being run by a criminal, would not allow me the excitement that so many others had. Some people were glowing like a pregnant woman they were so enthralled. I don't know if their instincts weren't as strong as mine (and others) or if they're just better at ignorning their instincts (I'm not good at ignoring mine). Regardless of what the reason, yes there were some very exited folks in the pool world which actually made their demise that much sadder. Some of us weren't surprised at all while others were devastated.
 
UrackmIcrackm said:
They say "Ignorance is bliss". I don't have the highest IQ and I didn't fare all that well in school but what I was blessed with was common sense and a good instinct (probably to save me from my stupidity :p). These couple of attributes that I have make me a realist and a skeptic.

My instincts had red flags popping up everywhere and my simple common sense seeing that the business model made no sense and the show was being run by a criminal, would not allow me the excitement that so many others had. Some people were glowing like a pregnant woman they were so enthralled. I don't know if their instincts weren't as strong as mine (and others) or if they're just better at ignorning their instincts (I'm not good at ignoring mine). Regardless of what the reason, yes there were some very exited folks in the pool world which actually made their demise that much sadder. Some of us weren't surprised at all while others were devastated.
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I was just referring to the excitement of the tournaments themselves. They were some great tournaments. For a week straight I was glued to computer checking the round robin updates, and posting on tournament-related discussions right here in AZB. I thought the tournament format was great, and the online coverage wasn't too bad either. Nothing really has come close since, nor do I think anything like that will ever happen again anytime soon. Anything like that is simply unsustainable given the current economics of pool.
 
PAMike said:
Wow that was helpful, how about just stating the obvious and post, "I don't know"
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He does "know", he's just like many who have been on this (and other) forums for many yrs. Specialized forums have a shorter life span than generalized forums which means there is only so much one can discuss about a particular thing (pool). What happens is that once something like the IPT has been discussed ad nauseam on here, it never fails that someone new will join the forum and start asking questions about it. You wouldn't believe how many threads have been started about "what kind of tip do you use".

Newer folks don't see the problem because its all new to them but the folks that have been around longer and have seen the same discussions many times over get sick of it. Its not your fault, its just the way the life cycle of a specialized forum is. There is a search feature here that will take you back a few yrs and with the IPT having its own forum since the beginning of the IPT, all that you could ever want to know can be found there by using the search feature.

I see both sides of the coin. Disco might not have been very eloquent in the way he stated it but I see his frustration. On the flip side of that coin, I understand new members wishing to partake in a discussion with current members as opposed to spending all your time simply reading what others have said in the past. Its a no win situation because a more seasoned member(s) is going to get frustrated and if they pose that frustration to a new member in the way that Disco did, now the new member is frustrated.

If you have thick skin (you'd better if you're going to post on a forum) and you try to at least see where the other side is coming from, you'll find your forum experience to be much more enjoyable. Just my .02.
 
UrackmIcrackm said:
He does "know", he's just like many who have been on this (and other) forums for many yrs. Specialized forums have a shorter life span than generalized forums which means there is only so much one can discuss about a particular thing (pool). What happens is that once something like the IPT has been discussed ad nauseam on here, it never fails that someone new will join the forum and start asking questions about it. You wouldn't believe how many threads have been started about "what kind of tip do you use".

Newer folks don't see the problem because its all new to them but the folks that have been around longer and have seen the same discussions many times over get sick of it. Its not your fault, its just the way the life cycle of a specialized forum is. There is a search feature here that will take you back a few yrs and with the IPT having its own forum since the beginning of the IPT, all that you could ever want to know can be found there by using the search feature.

I see both sides of the coin. Disco might not have been very eloquent in the way he stated it but I see his frustration. On the flip side of that coin, I understand new members wishing to partake in a discussion with current members as opposed to spending all your time simply reading what others have said in the past. Its a no win situation because a more seasoned member(s) is going to get frustrated and if they pose that frustration to a new member in the way that Disco did, now the new member is frustrated.

If you have thick skin (you'd better if you're going to post on a forum) and you try to at least see where the other side is coming from, you'll find your forum experience to be much more enjoyable. Just my .02.
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I do see your point... I have been posting to forums (mostly political, gun control, hunting) for many years and I have one rule. I don't post anything to anybody that I wouldn't say to their face. I treat everybody like a man. True, I could have, perhaps should have used the search feature, but helpful people like yourself can, and did give me a brief current synopsis that nicely answered my question. If I need to know more, I will certainly search the information out.
If im respectful to people, I expect that back, that's all I ask and I don't think it's too much to request.
 
UrackmIcrackm said:
I see both sides of the coin. Disco might not have been very eloquent in the way he stated it but I see his frustration. On the flip side of that coin, I understand new members wishing to partake in a discussion with current members as opposed to spending all your time simply reading what others have said in the past. Its a no win situation because a more seasoned member(s) is going to get frustrated and if they pose that frustration to a new member in the way that Disco did, now the new member is frustrated.
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Its is not a no win, all Disco would have had to do was not read the thread that he knew he didnt want to respond to and all would have been fine. Instead he chose to be an ass.

Unless MAJOR changes have been made, the search function is pretty weak. And not only is it more fun for new members to interact with other posters, they are sure to get the most up to date responses.
 
woody_968 said:
Its is not a no win, all Disco would have had to do was not read the thread that he knew he didnt want to respond to and all would have been fine. Instead he chose to be an ass.
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I agree that there was a different way to respond. My reason for stating its a no win situation is the fact that there will always be that *someone(s)* on forums that post in the way Disco did. Its a fact of internet life, hence my "no win" statement.

woody_968 said:
Unless MAJOR changes have been made, the search function is pretty weak. And not only is it more fun for new members to interact with other posters, they are sure to get the most up to date responses.
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Which is exactly what I said. :smile:
 
Lets not get sidetracked, we need to stick to the topic. Why don't you guys talk about the IPT?
 
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