I did a quick run to the DCC this year. It’s an amazing event worth a visit from every pool aficionado out there. But, I ran out of gas this year, mostly due to a lack of sleep.
The venue is definitely an upgrade from the Ex West. The food way better too. I had a great Caesar salad and a steak one night, and a shrimp and crab cocktail, and salmon the next, and they were both excellent dinners. The staff at the hotel is fantastic -- very accommodating and pleasant, from Nichole at check-in, to the ladies serving coffee at the stand near the tournament room entrance.
But… the rooms have tissue paper for walls. Last year I had the Asian ladies reciting the phone book back and forth all night on one side and the couple who liked to do the horizontal mambo in the middle of the night. But this year I got at least two, maybe three, black guys that liked to talk ALL night about the matches they watched. The sound penetration was so bad that the second night I got to my room early in the morning, closed the door and thought there was someone snoring in my bed, when it was actually coming through the wall. I would have asked to change rooms, but I knew from the year before that they were all the same. So after about 70 hours with no sleep I decided to bag it. If I go again next year, I will drive in from a decent (spelled: quiet) hotel in Louisville, if need be.
Aside from all that, it was still swell to sweat the games, see the players, say hello to old friends and play some pool. I went 1-2 this year, winning my first match 3-1, from a guy named Gary Brown, and then losing my next two, hill-hill, to Brandon Croft and Michael Banks. Bandon is like 13 or 14. I happened to be up in the balcony and had watched him beat Hennessee earlier in the day. It was brutal. The kid could not move at all and shot at everything and, pretty much made everything, particularly long thin back cuts, and long cross-over banks, letting the cue ball go were it may. I even had joked with Joey later on that I really felt for Hennesee, because he had, or course, been playing pool longer than the kid had been alive. And basically, the kid had no fear because he hasn’t suffered enough in his young life to even be conscious of all the horrendous things that can happen to you when you fly at all the shots he does, (unlike us old dogs who have been thoroughly tortured over the years and seen how capriciously the balls can roll
. So of course, I draw the kid the next round. And, as advertised, he shot at everything. But I still thought I’d pull it out, though I got some absolutely brutal rolls. I had Banks beat too, but made a couple of boneheaded mistakes that let him up.
I played in the 14.1 challenge and didn’t do much of anything -- I just couldn’t slam it into gear and the tables were playing incredibly tough, at least for me. The pockets in the challenge room seemed sooo tiny this year. But it didn’t seem to slow up John Schmidt or several of the other pros any.
Throughout the tournament they were using, what I am told, are the new Aramith Tournament balls that have little semi-circular lines around the numbers. Sorta like they couldn’t make up their minds about how much they did or didn’t want to look like Centennials. When I went up to a table to practice, at first I thought they had used some cheap balls to replace some missing from the rack, until I saw that they were all the same. And whether it was the balls or, as one pro told me, what they were using to clean the tables with, there were a huge honking number of skids this year. One match I had, on three out of my first five shots, slow to medium speed cut shots, I had the cue ball either hop straight up on contact, or skid on the ball. Totally brutal.
The action seemed sporadic, but good, I watched a bit of Platis, Lutman, JL, Scooter. And I also watched the first, and last, couple of hours of the Artie -- John Henderson match. I think the tape Chicago Mike was making of the whole match will speak for itself, but my opinion is that the “perfect, no mistake, smartest 1pocket of all time” that Artie rants about all the time is a figment of his imagination. In real life, all that would appear to mostly consist of is: every time it's your shot you stare at the table for five to 10 minutes while chalking your cue; then you bunt a ball up-table to your side; and then, you do not shoot, *at anything.* Ever. IOW, with this “strategy” you’re basically relying on your opponent dropping dead out of pure exhaustion, boredom, or both.
At one point in the final game, Artie had managed to bunt all the balls near his side pocket and I whispered to Mike, “This is it! We're about to see the perfect, no-mistake 1pocket Artie has been talking about -- he’s been working on this position for the last 42 shots and now, finally, at last, he’s going to gently pull the trigger and shoot a ball and the cluster along the side rail is going to open up like some beautiful tropical flower and the balls are going to stay on his side and he’s going to run out-- it’s going to be like some ancient Kung-fu martial arts Mortal Kombat Kill Bill thing where he’s just going to gently touch his opponent with the palm of his hand and his heart is going to just stop beating and it'll be like he just dropped dead in his tracks.”
But, alas, there was none of that.
And Artie kept bunting, and John kept shooting and won. Personally, I think John deserves a big tip of the hat for hanging in there for 14 hours of Artie’s stall. And I’m sorry we didn’t get to play, but by Tuesday afternoon I was dead on my feet.
It was too bad about the tournament scheduling conflict with the DCC this year, because, by and large, the Europeans were missing. I hadn’t thought about it before, but in their absence, I would have to say that they do add a certain flavor and glamour to the event. (I think they were definitely missed in the 14.1 challenge.) Maybe it’s because as a group (beside Niels) they dress better and look more like professionals/celebrities than the American and Filipino contingents. Anyway, the event looked and felt different without Souquet, Chamat, Petroni, Hohmann, and Immonen, et al walking around and playing. That’s just a passing observation. (I also don’t recall seeing Allison Fischer, Karen Corr, Ga Young Kim, Helena Thornfeldt, and most of the other women, besides Melissa Little, there. Maybe they were coming in for the 9ball.)
Good to see Joey, Mike, Ghost, JD, John, Bob, Dennis, Bill, Josh, Ed, Justin, Watchez, and many others. Also good to meet Fuji-whopper.
This is probably something like the 10th DCC I’ve played in and, just for me, it did have the feeling of the same vacation take once too often. You know -- it’s a nice place and good time, but you’re going the same clubs, bars, restaurants, and seeing the same shows that you saw the year before. But, it's still fun, and no two people have the same DCC experience, and if you haven’t been, you gotta go.
Lou Figueroa
The venue is definitely an upgrade from the Ex West. The food way better too. I had a great Caesar salad and a steak one night, and a shrimp and crab cocktail, and salmon the next, and they were both excellent dinners. The staff at the hotel is fantastic -- very accommodating and pleasant, from Nichole at check-in, to the ladies serving coffee at the stand near the tournament room entrance.
But… the rooms have tissue paper for walls. Last year I had the Asian ladies reciting the phone book back and forth all night on one side and the couple who liked to do the horizontal mambo in the middle of the night. But this year I got at least two, maybe three, black guys that liked to talk ALL night about the matches they watched. The sound penetration was so bad that the second night I got to my room early in the morning, closed the door and thought there was someone snoring in my bed, when it was actually coming through the wall. I would have asked to change rooms, but I knew from the year before that they were all the same. So after about 70 hours with no sleep I decided to bag it. If I go again next year, I will drive in from a decent (spelled: quiet) hotel in Louisville, if need be.
Aside from all that, it was still swell to sweat the games, see the players, say hello to old friends and play some pool. I went 1-2 this year, winning my first match 3-1, from a guy named Gary Brown, and then losing my next two, hill-hill, to Brandon Croft and Michael Banks. Bandon is like 13 or 14. I happened to be up in the balcony and had watched him beat Hennessee earlier in the day. It was brutal. The kid could not move at all and shot at everything and, pretty much made everything, particularly long thin back cuts, and long cross-over banks, letting the cue ball go were it may. I even had joked with Joey later on that I really felt for Hennesee, because he had, or course, been playing pool longer than the kid had been alive. And basically, the kid had no fear because he hasn’t suffered enough in his young life to even be conscious of all the horrendous things that can happen to you when you fly at all the shots he does, (unlike us old dogs who have been thoroughly tortured over the years and seen how capriciously the balls can roll
. So of course, I draw the kid the next round. And, as advertised, he shot at everything. But I still thought I’d pull it out, though I got some absolutely brutal rolls. I had Banks beat too, but made a couple of boneheaded mistakes that let him up.I played in the 14.1 challenge and didn’t do much of anything -- I just couldn’t slam it into gear and the tables were playing incredibly tough, at least for me. The pockets in the challenge room seemed sooo tiny this year. But it didn’t seem to slow up John Schmidt or several of the other pros any.
Throughout the tournament they were using, what I am told, are the new Aramith Tournament balls that have little semi-circular lines around the numbers. Sorta like they couldn’t make up their minds about how much they did or didn’t want to look like Centennials. When I went up to a table to practice, at first I thought they had used some cheap balls to replace some missing from the rack, until I saw that they were all the same. And whether it was the balls or, as one pro told me, what they were using to clean the tables with, there were a huge honking number of skids this year. One match I had, on three out of my first five shots, slow to medium speed cut shots, I had the cue ball either hop straight up on contact, or skid on the ball. Totally brutal.
The action seemed sporadic, but good, I watched a bit of Platis, Lutman, JL, Scooter. And I also watched the first, and last, couple of hours of the Artie -- John Henderson match. I think the tape Chicago Mike was making of the whole match will speak for itself, but my opinion is that the “perfect, no mistake, smartest 1pocket of all time” that Artie rants about all the time is a figment of his imagination. In real life, all that would appear to mostly consist of is: every time it's your shot you stare at the table for five to 10 minutes while chalking your cue; then you bunt a ball up-table to your side; and then, you do not shoot, *at anything.* Ever. IOW, with this “strategy” you’re basically relying on your opponent dropping dead out of pure exhaustion, boredom, or both.
At one point in the final game, Artie had managed to bunt all the balls near his side pocket and I whispered to Mike, “This is it! We're about to see the perfect, no-mistake 1pocket Artie has been talking about -- he’s been working on this position for the last 42 shots and now, finally, at last, he’s going to gently pull the trigger and shoot a ball and the cluster along the side rail is going to open up like some beautiful tropical flower and the balls are going to stay on his side and he’s going to run out-- it’s going to be like some ancient Kung-fu martial arts Mortal Kombat Kill Bill thing where he’s just going to gently touch his opponent with the palm of his hand and his heart is going to just stop beating and it'll be like he just dropped dead in his tracks.”
But, alas, there was none of that.
And Artie kept bunting, and John kept shooting and won. Personally, I think John deserves a big tip of the hat for hanging in there for 14 hours of Artie’s stall. And I’m sorry we didn’t get to play, but by Tuesday afternoon I was dead on my feet.
It was too bad about the tournament scheduling conflict with the DCC this year, because, by and large, the Europeans were missing. I hadn’t thought about it before, but in their absence, I would have to say that they do add a certain flavor and glamour to the event. (I think they were definitely missed in the 14.1 challenge.) Maybe it’s because as a group (beside Niels) they dress better and look more like professionals/celebrities than the American and Filipino contingents. Anyway, the event looked and felt different without Souquet, Chamat, Petroni, Hohmann, and Immonen, et al walking around and playing. That’s just a passing observation. (I also don’t recall seeing Allison Fischer, Karen Corr, Ga Young Kim, Helena Thornfeldt, and most of the other women, besides Melissa Little, there. Maybe they were coming in for the 9ball.)
Good to see Joey, Mike, Ghost, JD, John, Bob, Dennis, Bill, Josh, Ed, Justin, Watchez, and many others. Also good to meet Fuji-whopper.
This is probably something like the 10th DCC I’ve played in and, just for me, it did have the feeling of the same vacation take once too often. You know -- it’s a nice place and good time, but you’re going the same clubs, bars, restaurants, and seeing the same shows that you saw the year before. But, it's still fun, and no two people have the same DCC experience, and if you haven’t been, you gotta go.
Lou Figueroa
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Hope you continue to find 1 way action too...what a good deal that was :thumbup: