Sorry guys, my memory fails me sometimes on dates and events. I'm much better at remembering specific incidents that stand out in my mind. I was the TD in the late 80's and early 90's for maybe six or seven years. Back then there were two tourneys a year at the Sands (June and December) with a $300 entry fee into the pro event and a $10,000 top prize (good money back then). Barbara Woodward was the Sands host and organizer and at the end of the tourney we would count out $10,000 in hundreds on the final table and hand it all to the winner. Second place got $6,000.
There was also a Pro-Am event staged by Gene Stary right before the main event that used his excellent handicapping system for all the players. That was a cheap entry fee (like $50 or $60) and first prize was generally around $3,000. Many of the pros came early for that one as well. The whole event lasted for eleven days and I got paid $100 a day (plus room and food). It was a tough gig but I needed the dough. I was basically jobless except for the tournaments I worked, maybe ten or twelve a year. Hell, I was doing handy man work at a nearby health spa for women for $15 an hour just to make ends meet. OMG, I could tell you stories about that gig, doing repairs in the locker room!
In the early 90's I made a deal with the BCA to stage the North American 9-Ball Championships in Reno and it was a big success. First place was $15,000! The BCA pulled out after two years and I made a new deal with the Sands and we renamed it the U.S. Bar Table Championships. I held it there for six or seven years, then moved to the Flamingo Hilton for a few years and next held it at the MGM by the airport. Before I sold the event to Mark Griffin we had moved back to the Sands. I think I ran the first twelve years of the USBT before Mark took over. I could write another book about just that one event, so many crazy things happened along the way.
By the way, in all the events I ever produced (a few dozen at last count) ALL the money got paid promptly and completely! I never owed any player a dime. In the second Los Angeles Open in 1994 when Mark Tadd won $26,000 I had a shortfall of over twenty grand to make up. I had about 50K to my name and I went to the bank and withdrew the money so that everyone got paid. The following year I produced the California Pool Tour for Brunswick (a series of ten events) just to get back on my feet. I got together with George Hardie of the Bicycle Club at around the same time (early 90's) to produce those events and they turned out to be huge successes, until Don Mackey came along and spoiled that party. It's been an adventure trying to make a living off Pool, but somehow I survived and eventually thrived. The few dollars I made over the years (poolrooms brought in the bulk of it) I poured into real estate deals and now it's multiplied tenfold and more!
I almost forgot all the great events we had at Hard Times in the late 80's to mid 90's. This was a collaboration with Chuck Markulis who wanted to create events that would bring the top players to L.A. He asked me how to do it and I told him we needed to add $10,000 to the purse. He never batted an eye and said let's do it and the rest is history.
