I arrived with my two pals, Mike and George, Wednesday at 3 pm. For the first time ever, I reserved a room at the Radisson and I won't have it any other way in the future. The ability to go up to a room whenever one of us felt the need was well worth the extra $$$. It seemed like a 1/4 mile walk from the room to the expo, but, it was way more convenient than driving to and fro and trying to find that ever-elusive, good parking spot.
Wednesday night I had intended to play in the warm-up tourney but I made the mistake of not signing up online. The wait line downstairs looked like about an hour long and so I decided I would find something else to do. Ended up supporting my buddies in their quests at Wed Warmup, one of whom cashed. Nice way to begin, $400. to the good.
I then went to Chumley’s where I met, and enjoyed beers, big laughs, and great conversation with, cue aficionado, Dick Abbot (cuezilla.com, BilliardCue.com). The man knows cues, that’s for sure.
I went to my room to get a cue Dick wanted to see and on the way back through Chumleys, I recognized and got to say hello to Justin of TAR fame. Judging from his avatar you would think he’s a very big guy but in reality, he’s only about 5’ 5” or 5’ 6”.
After the bar closed I went to the action pit and hung down there for a couple of hours, got into small action. The fun has officially begun!
Thursday was vendor day. Met Martin Bick of Superior Cues who did a rewrap on my recently purchased Ariel C. TAD tribute cue. Real nice guy and as many of you already know, a very reputable dealer. His cue selection is wonderful and I sure do love his Ed Prewitts.
Next, I picked up a new 4 x 8 butterfly case from Gil Castillo. Very Nice! I also had Gil change the worn out lid latch on my favorite old basketweave case. And, while I was there, I noticed Gil had custom pouches for Hager extensions and I am having him make me up a pouch in a very close-matching orangey brown leather I got from Jack Justis. It was great to meet both Gil and Jack, very talented leather men.
Around the corner was Mr. Cleary and the +Spot clothing booth. I told him I wished I was 100 lbs lighter and 30 years younger – or was it 30 lbs lighter and 100 years younger? Nice high quality material and designs. Pleased to meet you, Cleary.
One of the most enjoyable vendors I met was Joe Villalpando of Pooliq.net. I’ve always been a sucker for good road stories and Joe was kind to share some with me. Joe, or “Little Joe” or “Cherokee Joe” or “Mexican Joe” or a few other road aliases I can’t recall. He is a diminutive, soft-spoken man with an ever present smile. He liked my “Kickin’ Chicken” badge and since he has a kicking system, I thought it would be fun to play a few racks with him, emphasizing kickshots. He was gracious to let me on his table and we sure did have some fun. At one point our kicking games were going so well that passersby were stopping to enjoy the show. Joe can shoot very well and he kicks beautifully. Hanging out at his booth was a highlight for me. To think he was on the road in the late 50’s when I was just arriving on this planet.
I got to say hello to Brent of BHQ cues, kmrunout, Steve Kur, and the fine folks at Triple Cross/Crown Cues. I also ran into Denny Stewart at the Triple Cross/Crown Cues booth and I complimented him on his sorting out our favorite AZ horse, Robleyf7. Denny allowed me to hit some balls while he evaluated what I was doing and he, of course, offered some great advice. He showed me his nice kick system, too. Question: What do you get when you combine voodoo, magic, and fairy dust on Simonis 860? Answer: Denny Stewart’s frozen footrail bankshot. Place the cue ball frozen on the footrail cushion at the middle diamond, then, place an object ball frozen on the same cushion, first diamond. Now bank it straight back into the corner where you’re shooting from. What?... that’s not possible... That’s what I thought, too. In fact, Denny did it for me then was able to get me to do it (took me about 13 tries). Meeting Denny and seeing this shot was another big highlight. Thanks Denny!
Bill Grassley of Cornerstone Cues, not only is he a class act, his cue inventory is just amazing. I spent a lot of time drooling there. There was a Gina cue that defied reasonable description. There was a Richard Black optical illusion cue with a design that made this round cue appear square. There was also a Rambow, all original everything, straight as an arrow, inscribed with the name 'something VandenBerg'. I would have to say Bill's Cornerstone booth was the best of all cue vendors. Exquisite!
On my last day, the folks at pooltees hooked me up with a special “Kickin’ Chicken discount” so my grandkids are now all pool-fashion, correct. Thanks for the great deal!
WE GOT ACTION
I immersed myself in this aspect of SBE moreso than any other year that I’ve attended. This required that I get little to no sleep and, grudgingly, I complied. Basically, during daylight hours, I was like a zombie the entire stay.
Wed night: Light action, not terribly exciting. What happened to the $100 table? Lots of $40 & $50 table bets. Rail action wasn’t very impressive, either. Must be a sign of the economy. Maybe it'll get better.
Thurs night: Things are more exciting. Scooter and company are backing John Morra in some short, $1k, 10 ball races against SVB The bet requires SVB to use John’s BK2 break cue with what pinged like a phenolic tip. I had the cue in my hands later and it did look like phenolic to me but some say it was leather. Definitely sounded otherwise. <<< p-i-n-g >>>
This game was going on for 3 or 4 hours, the last 1 or 2 hours featured a very drunk, medium roller, I’ll call “P”. P was woofing and sharking bigtime on JM, some of which was funny, some not so much. Early on, I’d say, to maybe ¾ of the way through, John was wearing Shane out. Shane then started to work out the kinks playing with the BK2 and was coming back. Drunken P, however, started getting real personal with his “Canadian faggot” line of sharking, obviously pissing off the kid to the point where he was all set to quit this very entertaining game. If P was a $50 bettor, I’m sure he would have long since been helped to another part of the convention center by JM’s people but the fact was, they were showing P’s Ben Franklin’s to another part of the center of their wallets. Well, regardless of all that, the kid had heard enough from obnoxious P and he was quitting - actually started to unscrew his cue.
From the valuable ringside seat that I earned, I walked up to the table and had a few words with the kid hoping to calm him down. Also, I discussed an arrangement for a hopeful big final set with Shane and he liked it. Scooter agreed so once again, we got action! Squeezed-upon P was now walking around by the table, arms outstretched, saying “All right, I won’t say another word.” I seized the opportunity to provide a much needed moment of levity by offering anyone who wanted it, a $500 bet that P WILL say another word. We all had a good chuckle over that one. Even P.
The last set began and Shane never looked back. He was doing things I thought impossible with a BK2. How about a full table draw shot starting near the footrail, potting the object ball hanging all the way up in the far corner, then whitey backspinning back to where it’s journey began in perfect shape for the next ball. WOW! He was in dead-phenolic-stroke!
Shane closed it out. Whoooohooo.
Fri night - Last night for me: I arrived at the pit late-ish at around 1 am. The Scooter and Spanky show was already underway. Races to 3 then races to 4 for $1k plus Scooter was taking pretty much whatever rail bets he could. These short races seemed to favor Scooter though Spanky was hanging in.
It was getting past 5 am when they decided to do a longer race to 9 and Spanky put a spanking on Scooter jumping out to an 8 – 1 lead, then ended up winning 9 – 4. At the conclusion of that set, Spanky went over to Scooter, got 1 inch from his face and let out a jungle yell with something along the lines of How’s That Mother Fxxcker? The crowd went wild!
It's 5:30 and time’s getting close to the 6 o’clock witching hour when convention center staff does their one hour shutdown to clean up. The last set would be a race to 8, must win by 2, but they upped the anti for this finale to $3k each man. We got action!
Once again, Spanky was doing well and built a lead but Scooter had no quit in him, chipping away at his lead. The woofing between these two was pretty much non-stop and v-e-r-y entertaining. At one point, on a tough 3 ball, Spanky left it hanging and out of frustration he threw his cue, tip upward, six feet into the air and almost simultaneously, Scooter mimicked the move by doing the same with his cue. Funny stuff!
This was an important set for me in that if Spanky wins I’ll be nicely in the black for my night of sweating but if he loses, I’m down a few hundred.
My horse is now up something like 6 - 3, maybe 6 – 4, and he fires the 6 into the side pocket. I don’t think the 6 fully dropped before Scooter sprang over declaring “wrong ball”. WTF, Spanky skipped the 5 ball and now he’s asking the rail why nobody told him he was shooting the wrong ball. It was that the 5 was in a semi tough spot close to the cue ball and it looked like he might be thinning the 5 to send whitey up table safe. Scooter gets new life and comes back a couple of games.
Spanky worked out a 7 – 6 lead and was on the hill. He’s running out and is down to the last three balls. There appears to be no problems and pretty much everyone is starting to mill and getting ready to pay or receive some money. Spanky hits the 7 ball in and loses whitey into the side pocket. Again, WTF!
Scooter now walks over by Spanky, lets out an Incredible Hulk-like scream and tears his t-shirt open from the front collar straight down to his belly button. Lou Ferrigno (sp?) would have been proud. The crowd was in a frenzy. Spanky planted the butt end of his cue hard into the concrete floor. He was extra pissed. He turned to his rail supporters and said “I hate my life”. We tried to tell him to get his head right and don’t give up but it was too late for that.
Scooter takes care of the 8 & 9 on that rack, and then claims the next two games for the big win.
I went over to Scooter, settled up, shook his hand and told him I admired how much heart he has and thanked him for the entertaining night. Without question, he had the biggest heart of anyone I saw at SBE.
Scooter and his entourage, as well as a number of others from the pit, decided to go to the café at the lobby of the Raddison. My room was just off that lobby and so I walked up there with most of these guys. There was some talk of resuming after breakfast though I don’t know if that ever came to be.
While waiting the fifteen minutes for the café to open (6:30) a few of the guys began pitching quarters in the beautiful marble lobby, closest to the wall, for either $20 or $50. The morning counter staff of the Raddison looked on in utter amazement.
TO BE CONTINUED (AZB said to shorten it)
Best,
Brian kc
Wednesday night I had intended to play in the warm-up tourney but I made the mistake of not signing up online. The wait line downstairs looked like about an hour long and so I decided I would find something else to do. Ended up supporting my buddies in their quests at Wed Warmup, one of whom cashed. Nice way to begin, $400. to the good.
I then went to Chumley’s where I met, and enjoyed beers, big laughs, and great conversation with, cue aficionado, Dick Abbot (cuezilla.com, BilliardCue.com). The man knows cues, that’s for sure.
I went to my room to get a cue Dick wanted to see and on the way back through Chumleys, I recognized and got to say hello to Justin of TAR fame. Judging from his avatar you would think he’s a very big guy but in reality, he’s only about 5’ 5” or 5’ 6”.
After the bar closed I went to the action pit and hung down there for a couple of hours, got into small action. The fun has officially begun!
Thursday was vendor day. Met Martin Bick of Superior Cues who did a rewrap on my recently purchased Ariel C. TAD tribute cue. Real nice guy and as many of you already know, a very reputable dealer. His cue selection is wonderful and I sure do love his Ed Prewitts.
Next, I picked up a new 4 x 8 butterfly case from Gil Castillo. Very Nice! I also had Gil change the worn out lid latch on my favorite old basketweave case. And, while I was there, I noticed Gil had custom pouches for Hager extensions and I am having him make me up a pouch in a very close-matching orangey brown leather I got from Jack Justis. It was great to meet both Gil and Jack, very talented leather men.
Around the corner was Mr. Cleary and the +Spot clothing booth. I told him I wished I was 100 lbs lighter and 30 years younger – or was it 30 lbs lighter and 100 years younger? Nice high quality material and designs. Pleased to meet you, Cleary.
One of the most enjoyable vendors I met was Joe Villalpando of Pooliq.net. I’ve always been a sucker for good road stories and Joe was kind to share some with me. Joe, or “Little Joe” or “Cherokee Joe” or “Mexican Joe” or a few other road aliases I can’t recall. He is a diminutive, soft-spoken man with an ever present smile. He liked my “Kickin’ Chicken” badge and since he has a kicking system, I thought it would be fun to play a few racks with him, emphasizing kickshots. He was gracious to let me on his table and we sure did have some fun. At one point our kicking games were going so well that passersby were stopping to enjoy the show. Joe can shoot very well and he kicks beautifully. Hanging out at his booth was a highlight for me. To think he was on the road in the late 50’s when I was just arriving on this planet.
I got to say hello to Brent of BHQ cues, kmrunout, Steve Kur, and the fine folks at Triple Cross/Crown Cues. I also ran into Denny Stewart at the Triple Cross/Crown Cues booth and I complimented him on his sorting out our favorite AZ horse, Robleyf7. Denny allowed me to hit some balls while he evaluated what I was doing and he, of course, offered some great advice. He showed me his nice kick system, too. Question: What do you get when you combine voodoo, magic, and fairy dust on Simonis 860? Answer: Denny Stewart’s frozen footrail bankshot. Place the cue ball frozen on the footrail cushion at the middle diamond, then, place an object ball frozen on the same cushion, first diamond. Now bank it straight back into the corner where you’re shooting from. What?... that’s not possible... That’s what I thought, too. In fact, Denny did it for me then was able to get me to do it (took me about 13 tries). Meeting Denny and seeing this shot was another big highlight. Thanks Denny!
Bill Grassley of Cornerstone Cues, not only is he a class act, his cue inventory is just amazing. I spent a lot of time drooling there. There was a Gina cue that defied reasonable description. There was a Richard Black optical illusion cue with a design that made this round cue appear square. There was also a Rambow, all original everything, straight as an arrow, inscribed with the name 'something VandenBerg'. I would have to say Bill's Cornerstone booth was the best of all cue vendors. Exquisite!
On my last day, the folks at pooltees hooked me up with a special “Kickin’ Chicken discount” so my grandkids are now all pool-fashion, correct. Thanks for the great deal!
WE GOT ACTION
I immersed myself in this aspect of SBE moreso than any other year that I’ve attended. This required that I get little to no sleep and, grudgingly, I complied. Basically, during daylight hours, I was like a zombie the entire stay.
Wed night: Light action, not terribly exciting. What happened to the $100 table? Lots of $40 & $50 table bets. Rail action wasn’t very impressive, either. Must be a sign of the economy. Maybe it'll get better.
Thurs night: Things are more exciting. Scooter and company are backing John Morra in some short, $1k, 10 ball races against SVB The bet requires SVB to use John’s BK2 break cue with what pinged like a phenolic tip. I had the cue in my hands later and it did look like phenolic to me but some say it was leather. Definitely sounded otherwise. <<< p-i-n-g >>>
This game was going on for 3 or 4 hours, the last 1 or 2 hours featured a very drunk, medium roller, I’ll call “P”. P was woofing and sharking bigtime on JM, some of which was funny, some not so much. Early on, I’d say, to maybe ¾ of the way through, John was wearing Shane out. Shane then started to work out the kinks playing with the BK2 and was coming back. Drunken P, however, started getting real personal with his “Canadian faggot” line of sharking, obviously pissing off the kid to the point where he was all set to quit this very entertaining game. If P was a $50 bettor, I’m sure he would have long since been helped to another part of the convention center by JM’s people but the fact was, they were showing P’s Ben Franklin’s to another part of the center of their wallets. Well, regardless of all that, the kid had heard enough from obnoxious P and he was quitting - actually started to unscrew his cue.
From the valuable ringside seat that I earned, I walked up to the table and had a few words with the kid hoping to calm him down. Also, I discussed an arrangement for a hopeful big final set with Shane and he liked it. Scooter agreed so once again, we got action! Squeezed-upon P was now walking around by the table, arms outstretched, saying “All right, I won’t say another word.” I seized the opportunity to provide a much needed moment of levity by offering anyone who wanted it, a $500 bet that P WILL say another word. We all had a good chuckle over that one. Even P.
The last set began and Shane never looked back. He was doing things I thought impossible with a BK2. How about a full table draw shot starting near the footrail, potting the object ball hanging all the way up in the far corner, then whitey backspinning back to where it’s journey began in perfect shape for the next ball. WOW! He was in dead-phenolic-stroke!
Shane closed it out. Whoooohooo.Fri night - Last night for me: I arrived at the pit late-ish at around 1 am. The Scooter and Spanky show was already underway. Races to 3 then races to 4 for $1k plus Scooter was taking pretty much whatever rail bets he could. These short races seemed to favor Scooter though Spanky was hanging in.
It was getting past 5 am when they decided to do a longer race to 9 and Spanky put a spanking on Scooter jumping out to an 8 – 1 lead, then ended up winning 9 – 4. At the conclusion of that set, Spanky went over to Scooter, got 1 inch from his face and let out a jungle yell with something along the lines of How’s That Mother Fxxcker? The crowd went wild!
It's 5:30 and time’s getting close to the 6 o’clock witching hour when convention center staff does their one hour shutdown to clean up. The last set would be a race to 8, must win by 2, but they upped the anti for this finale to $3k each man. We got action!
Once again, Spanky was doing well and built a lead but Scooter had no quit in him, chipping away at his lead. The woofing between these two was pretty much non-stop and v-e-r-y entertaining. At one point, on a tough 3 ball, Spanky left it hanging and out of frustration he threw his cue, tip upward, six feet into the air and almost simultaneously, Scooter mimicked the move by doing the same with his cue. Funny stuff!
This was an important set for me in that if Spanky wins I’ll be nicely in the black for my night of sweating but if he loses, I’m down a few hundred.
My horse is now up something like 6 - 3, maybe 6 – 4, and he fires the 6 into the side pocket. I don’t think the 6 fully dropped before Scooter sprang over declaring “wrong ball”. WTF, Spanky skipped the 5 ball and now he’s asking the rail why nobody told him he was shooting the wrong ball. It was that the 5 was in a semi tough spot close to the cue ball and it looked like he might be thinning the 5 to send whitey up table safe. Scooter gets new life and comes back a couple of games.
Spanky worked out a 7 – 6 lead and was on the hill. He’s running out and is down to the last three balls. There appears to be no problems and pretty much everyone is starting to mill and getting ready to pay or receive some money. Spanky hits the 7 ball in and loses whitey into the side pocket. Again, WTF!
Scooter now walks over by Spanky, lets out an Incredible Hulk-like scream and tears his t-shirt open from the front collar straight down to his belly button. Lou Ferrigno (sp?) would have been proud. The crowd was in a frenzy. Spanky planted the butt end of his cue hard into the concrete floor. He was extra pissed. He turned to his rail supporters and said “I hate my life”. We tried to tell him to get his head right and don’t give up but it was too late for that.
Scooter takes care of the 8 & 9 on that rack, and then claims the next two games for the big win.
I went over to Scooter, settled up, shook his hand and told him I admired how much heart he has and thanked him for the entertaining night. Without question, he had the biggest heart of anyone I saw at SBE.
Scooter and his entourage, as well as a number of others from the pit, decided to go to the café at the lobby of the Raddison. My room was just off that lobby and so I walked up there with most of these guys. There was some talk of resuming after breakfast though I don’t know if that ever came to be.
While waiting the fifteen minutes for the café to open (6:30) a few of the guys began pitching quarters in the beautiful marble lobby, closest to the wall, for either $20 or $50. The morning counter staff of the Raddison looked on in utter amazement.
TO BE CONTINUED (AZB said to shorten it)
Best,
Brian kc
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