cool thread, and nice post jay..
love to read about the history and all the great players that came through-
love to read about the history and all the great players that came through-
Pool tournaments history 1990s
- Thread starter Ratamon
- Start date
I'm Pretty sure it was the same year. I got it a little wrong. Efren did win in Hollywood (Roger was second) and Roger knocked him out at the Sands. I remember we watched the Buster Douglass-Mike Tyson fight during the Hollywood tournament. Douglas had been a 30-1 underdog and went off at 20-1. After it was over, Danny Diliberto (a great fighter himself) said something I never forgot, "A bad fighter in good condition will beat a good fighter in bad condition!"
Here are some results (top two only) from the Cue Sports Journal, a local magazine which was published for three or four years in the 1990s. These results are from before the CSJ started publishing.
Here are the results and some report from Sands XVII. The final went hill-hill.
Well worth mentioning re 1990's tourneys IMO are the annual ones that were (and I think still are) held as part of Allen Hopkins' springtime expositions initially in New Jersey then in several Philly-area venues (Valley Forge, etc.)
I remember one match there -- crowded with bleacher spectators -- between Earl and Johnny Archer, and mid-match Earl's trailing badly and very frustrated, turns to the crowd and quite audibly says "I was doing great in all the tournaments till this guy [Archer] came along."
Arnaldo
I remember one match there -- crowded with bleacher spectators -- between Earl and Johnny Archer, and mid-match Earl's trailing badly and very frustrated, turns to the crowd and quite audibly says "I was doing great in all the tournaments till this guy [Archer] came along."
Arnaldo
Only the top few on the money list back in the early 1990s made $50,000 for the year. As for the Sands, it used to have gigantic fields, sometimes more than 256, so the prize money wasn't very strong in view of the field size. The Sands was probably the second biggest event (or third behind the BCA Open) of the year, behind only the US Open 9ball. There wasn't much money in tournament pool until the PBT took off circa 1996. That's why so many more of the action players steered clear of the major tournament scene back then.
The Sands had two events twice a year, a pro event and one for a regional nine ball league (USPPA). The league event may have gone over 256, but I don't think the pro event ever got that large. The league event drew a lot of spectators for the pros. Room were maybe $39 per night and that was before the casinos invented resort fees.
I remember around 93-94, Johnny came through the inland empire and we got a call he was matching up with Francisco Galindo at his room in San Bernardino (Gold Ball Billiards) for $10,000 a set. Johnny giving Francisco the 8. We went over there and watched that. Johnny ended up $30,000 loser. Francsico was one hell of player. Him and Ernesto were probably the best Mexican players around.
BuffaloSlim
Well-known member
Great thread .. thanks to everyone adding their information and posting memories
Sigel vs Reyes in Sands VII seems like the first pro match I saw. Thank you, Accu-Stats!
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Here is a tournament from 1990 in New Orleans. Wish I knew who were the players and the results....
Bill Stack told me Floyd Baxter passed on just as Howard Ikeda has.
30+ years ago 10,000 was big money! That's why most all the top players were there. Many of them had cue deals where they got free cues to sell or raffle at the tourneys.
Players like Varner and Griffis played locals in after hours action, giving up big spots. I saw Nick playing 200 a game with guys, giving up 10-6 and spots like that. He easily paid all his expenses with the side action.
The site newspapers.com has scanned many old newspapers and you can search for a particular time and keywords and state. If the results got printed, there's a chance you could find it there. I've found a lot of billiard info there. Also, all the issues from 1990 of the National Billiard News are available in the Goldmine tab on the main AZB page.
middleofnowhere
Registered
I recall a few of those tournaments not paying off back then.
The ones I produced or directed all paid off. There were some bad actors though, Barry Behrman one of the worst. He was prone to writing bad checks, paying weeks and months later and withholding money from foreign players. I got caught in the middle many times trying to collect for players who got bad checks.
middleofnowhere
Registered
I remember one tournament and I can't remember the name of it, it had a title of a person's name James something or another. After the tournament the guy just said he couldn't pay off and was offering the players whatever they would take and most who had prize money coming just took it, except one.
Steve Cook who won the tournament had something like $8,000 coming. He was from the Tampa area. If any of you have seen the movie Donnie Brasco you may remember the name Santo Trafficante head of the Tampa based crime family.
While Steve was kind of a pasty face wimpy guy who was never a threat to anybody, he had friends who were and liked him very much. Steve got all his money.
James Gaston tourney in New Orleans. Preacher Red also got paid in full. He let his .45 do the talking!⁷