I'm now in Atlanta for a trade show for 12 days and wanted to go to Johnny and Kim's room. I posted as much here prior to getting here and AZB's quadrary (Monty) told me he worked there and to look him up when I was there. Thanks for the assistance quadrary!
I have some pic's but am borrowing someone's computer at the show now. Will try and post sometime.
I've been an acquaintance of Johnny's for 4-5 years and a good friend of mine is a good friend of Johnny's. He offers to call Johnny and see if he's going to be up there Thursday night. Johnny said he had no plans to but he'd be happy to meet me there @ 8pm. Cool!
I walked into this huge pool hall with my GF; Johnny hadn't yet arrived. Maybe 60 tables? It's a big joint and pretty darned sweet! They have pub food, full bar and table side service. Nicely decorated.
Well, every table was taken. TAP and APA. Except one table in the front that was covered - it was "Johnny's". I told this hot young gal at the counter that Johnny was coming up to play me and asked if I could warm up on it. She said "one minute plz" and walked over to none other than co-owner Kim Davenport, whom I spoke with a bit and got the green light. I started warming up and then Shawn Putnam walks in. He didn't say hi, perhaps he didn't recognize me or perhaps he wasn't happy I'd taken the last table, lol.
J/K Shawn! A few minutes later Johnny walks in, sporting a big ole smile.
That front table is a beast. A diamond that is @ as tight as I've ever played. I asked Johnny which was tougher - his or the TAR table. He said they were different, but comparable in overall difficulty. I thought he was a Gold Crown guy...
He wanted to play straight pool, as he's preparing for the World 14.1 Championship in NY in a couple weeks. I've rarely played straight, but what the hell. It was 6 - 1 when I played a pretty good safety. He played a 9 foot kick shot down the rail and proceeded to drain the next 63. F me! We had a nice audience. He edged me, 150 - 6.
Only one time did I get to the table with anything reasonable to work with. I got off my icecycle seat and double tittied after a few balls. Arrgh. He played fantastic!
Then he asked if I wanted to play 9 or 10 ball. I said let's play some 10, give me the 5 and out for $10-20. He didn't hesitate, "race to 5 but let's play for a shot." I said ""you don't drink!" Well, I ended up getting maybe 2 decent looks at the table and went down 5-1. He, his GM, my GF all toasted to his choice of shots - it was like an 8 ounce Royal Flush. Afterwich, Wendy had her showroom pass on a faux diamond lanyard and Johnny asked what it was. She proceeds to drape it over his neck and say "give this to your daughter Leeanne". Johnny said "hell with that, I'm keeping it!" He wore it the rest of the night and did give it to Leeanna the next day on her 5th birthday. :smile:
Shawn took over the table and torched some poor soul in 1 hole. Johnny, Wendy and I stood around for a good 2 hours. He gave us a tour of the Scorpion Room - very cool pic's/memorobilia; some were pool pic's from long ago when he looked like he was 14. He was a Chatty Cathy and we shared some very personal stuff. He's going all in on Bonus Ball and was extremely enthusiast @ it. He said at one point "I really want this thing to work out because this will probably be the last time I'll do a venture like this." He perked my interest and I hope we can all be open minded @ it.
He was a great host. Thanks Johnny!
If you ever get near Atlanta, you really oughta stop in to Marrietta Billiards!
I have some pic's but am borrowing someone's computer at the show now. Will try and post sometime.
I've been an acquaintance of Johnny's for 4-5 years and a good friend of mine is a good friend of Johnny's. He offers to call Johnny and see if he's going to be up there Thursday night. Johnny said he had no plans to but he'd be happy to meet me there @ 8pm. Cool!
I walked into this huge pool hall with my GF; Johnny hadn't yet arrived. Maybe 60 tables? It's a big joint and pretty darned sweet! They have pub food, full bar and table side service. Nicely decorated.
Well, every table was taken. TAP and APA. Except one table in the front that was covered - it was "Johnny's". I told this hot young gal at the counter that Johnny was coming up to play me and asked if I could warm up on it. She said "one minute plz" and walked over to none other than co-owner Kim Davenport, whom I spoke with a bit and got the green light. I started warming up and then Shawn Putnam walks in. He didn't say hi, perhaps he didn't recognize me or perhaps he wasn't happy I'd taken the last table, lol.
J/K Shawn! A few minutes later Johnny walks in, sporting a big ole smile. That front table is a beast. A diamond that is @ as tight as I've ever played. I asked Johnny which was tougher - his or the TAR table. He said they were different, but comparable in overall difficulty. I thought he was a Gold Crown guy...
He wanted to play straight pool, as he's preparing for the World 14.1 Championship in NY in a couple weeks. I've rarely played straight, but what the hell. It was 6 - 1 when I played a pretty good safety. He played a 9 foot kick shot down the rail and proceeded to drain the next 63. F me! We had a nice audience. He edged me, 150 - 6.
Only one time did I get to the table with anything reasonable to work with. I got off my icecycle seat and double tittied after a few balls. Arrgh. He played fantastic!Then he asked if I wanted to play 9 or 10 ball. I said let's play some 10, give me the 5 and out for $10-20. He didn't hesitate, "race to 5 but let's play for a shot." I said ""you don't drink!" Well, I ended up getting maybe 2 decent looks at the table and went down 5-1. He, his GM, my GF all toasted to his choice of shots - it was like an 8 ounce Royal Flush. Afterwich, Wendy had her showroom pass on a faux diamond lanyard and Johnny asked what it was. She proceeds to drape it over his neck and say "give this to your daughter Leeanne". Johnny said "hell with that, I'm keeping it!" He wore it the rest of the night and did give it to Leeanna the next day on her 5th birthday. :smile:
Shawn took over the table and torched some poor soul in 1 hole. Johnny, Wendy and I stood around for a good 2 hours. He gave us a tour of the Scorpion Room - very cool pic's/memorobilia; some were pool pic's from long ago when he looked like he was 14. He was a Chatty Cathy and we shared some very personal stuff. He's going all in on Bonus Ball and was extremely enthusiast @ it. He said at one point "I really want this thing to work out because this will probably be the last time I'll do a venture like this." He perked my interest and I hope we can all be open minded @ it.
He was a great host. Thanks Johnny!
If you ever get near Atlanta, you really oughta stop in to Marrietta Billiards!
... I really want to meet Johnny Archer... He's one of my pool idols! He actually talked to me on Facebook 
