Update on the Des Moines pool scene

mikeyfrost

Socially Aware
Silver Member
I posted this in the ring game thread and figured I'd post it here too since people follow different things.

Sooooo for an inaugurural event WE KICKED ASS LAST NIGHT!!!! With a $50 entry fee to a ring game in Des Moines on the big tables we had 17 people come out and play. Let me repeat that 17 people!!! We had a prize fund of $850 last night which is strong as horse piss. I was ringing phones, sending texts, and just getting everyone to spread the word and we did end up with 17 people. Now for the run down on the event.

No shows for different reasons were Jason Chance, Pet, Jody, Gary DeCarlo, Troy Honeycutt, and Jon Brown. That's literally 6 people that were gonna play that didnt make it for various reasons and we still got 17 to play.

The group agreed on 4 A players and the rest play as B's. The A players were Athens, Phil T. Mikey Henderson, and Jamie Fenton. Athens is the only one that cashed he finished 4th. Mikey Henderson went 10 and out lol, talk about being a victim in a ring game.

I want to acknowledge the people who played in the event right now because I really am appreciative of them coming out to play and sincerely hope they join us again on the 27th for the next ring game. Here's who played:
1)Mikey Frost
2)Theo Lee
3)Paul Ashmore
4)Justin Richardson
5)Mike Athens
6)Jamie Fenton
7)Jason Richardson
8)Kurt
9)Chance
10)Phil Tendrill
11)Mikey Henderson
12)Jason from Ames
13)Rick Goulden
14)Tony Ellers
15)Matt Spina aka Spimp
16)Eddy
17)Jimmy aka Mini Efren

Thanks to all.

I can't give a full recap of the entire event but we started at about 5:00 and finished right around 2 AM. I think people really liked how often the order changed and I seen some great intentional fouls to get out of racks. Anyways through various rolls and runouts the final table of 6 players competing for the prize money was Jamie Fenton, Mike Athens, Justin Richardson, Paul Ashmore, Theo Lee, and Myself.

The ante is up to 4 chips at this point and myself, Mike Athens, and Jamie are all fairly shortstacked with between 16-22 chips. I think it is very important to note that Mike Athens, Paul Ashmore, and myself were all on the same opening table for the first two hours of the event, thats pretty strong we all make it to the end. Anyways I fall out first blew my only opportunity to chip up and I go on tilt and bust out. Jamie goes out right behind me in the next 2 racks. Mike Athens almost made a push but he was subdued by Justin Richardson's ring game moves to pocket the 10 from anywhere. Athens finished 4th and recieved $50 for his efforts.

Now Paul, Justin, and Theo play until the bet gets to a 15 chip per game ante and they pass chips around for about an hour or two. Justin is eventually sent by the wayside in 3rd place and recieved $100 for playing. Paul and Theo decide to race to 9 for the first place prize so they lock up in a tough set. Paul is up 6-4 on the way to 9 when an issue arises that halts play. There was an apparent misunderstanding that Green Fees would be waived for this event however that was not true. Me and Jon Brown talked some more, I figured to have a tourney this successful in this place and the additional business it may bring would be good enough for the house...it's the only tournament there where the tables are not donated and big dogs does not add money per player. In other words my tourney is the red headed step child. Jon finally decides to waive the green fees of $5/player for this tournament which lets us keep the prize fund at a full $850. Next tournament I will have to add green fees on, sorry boys. Jon was cool about the whole thing because several people got hot about the prize money changing. Anyways after this commotion they didnt wanna play anymore so Paul Ashmore took $370 and Theo Lee took $330 and they both left happy for sure.

Thanks again guys...I'm shooting for 24 players on the 27th when we do it again. I think everyone had a great time and people realize they all have a chance with this format.

P.S. THERE WAS ONLY 1 BREAK AND RUN ON THE NIGHT(Theo Lee) AND 0 10 BALL BREAKS!!!!!
 

ykndoit

UnRegistered Abuser
Silver Member
Sounds like a good time was had. Hopefully I can make it out next time. It would be a total donation on my part as I could get the 4-out and the breaks against anyone on a big table and still lose. But none the less, sounds like fun.

Not sure about the green fee charge though. Sounds like the ring game is getting 15 or so more people there than normal and figured the house would/could swallow the table time for this.
 

TheMadScientist

Justin Richardson
Silver Member
ring game

I'd say the first ring game was a big success. I expected less than 10 people to play, so 17 was a nice surprise. I just hope that the field stays big if all of the top players start playing in it.

The format was fair to say the least. I'm not even sure the chip advantage was needed for the lower level players. Three B players finished top 3, and I don't think one of us was all in until it was 3 handed. This may have been due to the A players getting evenly dispursed throughout the tables early on though.

There are some tweaks that need to be made with the ante levels, but I think it was still a good tournament for a first try. It was a fun tournament to play in. (That almost hurts me to say, as much as I dislike rotation games)

$50 one pocket tournament next time anyone? :p
 

mikeyfrost

Socially Aware
Silver Member
On the 27th I wanna fill up the tourney and be more aggressive with the antes after the 1st hour goes by.
 

Richardson

Who me ?
Silver Member
Another 9 ball tournament out of the way. Another night losing to Athens and Jimmy. Some day you rotten SOB's im gonna getcha.

I did find out last night Athens is a big time Lakers fan like Justin and I. So he was giving me updates during our match. He beat me 6-4. Jimmy and i went hill/hill and i broke and jumped the 1 ball off, lol. Daniel said damn king kong, calm down. Jimmy ran out quietly :(
 

mikeyfrost

Socially Aware
Silver Member
Let's just say I had some very passionate moments. I wasn't happy I didn't win, especially once we got down to about the last 8, I had a chance to win 3 straight racks and blew it. Yeah I lost my cool. From now on, no booze until after I'm eliminated.
 

crawfish

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Let's just say I had some very passionate moments. I wasn't happy I didn't win, especially once we got down to about the last 8, I had a chance to win 3 straight racks and blew it. Yeah I lost my cool. From now on, no booze until after I'm eliminated.

I once tried playing totally sober. To my body, it was like playing drunk. It just wasn't natural to my muscle memory.

Right mixture: 4-6 beers, and one hour of firing them in. Then, and only then, can I run three balls.
 

mikeyfrost

Socially Aware
Silver Member
I like to play with a good buzz, I enjoy it more. Plus the shit I talk gets more and more funny, sometimes! I rarely get angry at people sober but always get pissed drunk so I think people need to stop ****ing with me while I'm drinking and I wont be an asshole.
 

deadstroke7

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I think people need to stop ****ing with me while I'm drinking and I wont be an asshole.

LOL - its all good Mikey. It was entertaining.

Pool players are a bit like third graders, you have to explain things slowly and more than likely several times. And they all want to talk at once.

I'll just keep my mitt handy for a high heater when your playing....

:rotflmao:
 

Spimp13

O8 Specialist
Silver Member
Review

Since I have not posted my review yet I will throw my 2 cents. There were a lot of good things I liked about this setup especially for being a first stab at it, as well as a couple of soso things which can be fixed or changed. I believe it can be tweaked depending on what the norm agrees to.

Things I liked:
1. Decent amount of chips to start. To stay healthy you are supposed to win one of every about 4-5 racks. The three extra chips are not a huge advantage by all means and it does give the B players a bit more to work with at least for that first hour.
2. It could be blind luck, but having the A players split up between three tables I believe is a really good thing. If 3-4 A players are on one table the 1-2 B players have little to no shot unless they get lucky. This could be argued against due to the fact there were no ten ball breaks and only one break and run, but my gut tells me this helped the B players compete more. This could also be argued against that now you have 6 B players that have a better chance at getting a big chip count to start if someone gets hot...but on a fairness level I think it is a good thing.
3. For the most part or at least at my table there was no *****ing about how people were racking, trying to play safe or anything questionable against the rules.
4. I did see people telling each other nice shot, laughing and having a good time while trying to compete for the most part which makes for a more fun tournament.

Things I didn't like
1. There was some throwing of chips, some standard *****ing or yelling or cussing, some of which is due to being passionate about playing and I get that, but some of it was with each other and wasted time and slowed the tournament down a bit.
2. There were some comments people were making toward other players and even one toward me which I thought was uncalled for. We don't need to kiss each others ass, but some common courtesy is not a lot to ask for. This was my biggest pet peeve of the whole game. No need to mention names on this one.
3. From now on no one should be allowed to play in a tournament or another team match while playing in this tournament. We almost had a huge issue here which fortunately didn't happen.
4. I have no issues with the green fees, but at the same time we better see some good service too. Not that they need to come hand in hand, but tournaments like these are good for Big Dogs not only on a pool atmosphere standpoint, but a lot of the people drink and spend money as customers as well. More people = more money spent at the bar.

I am absolutely embarrassed at how I played. I won three racks by sh*tting in two ten balls, as well as a 2 ball out after Athens missed a nine. I probably missed 4-5 ten balls with only 1 of them being "hard". I never play on a big table so maybe I took a lot for granted, but still felt like a kid with a helmet watching shiny object roll on the table with a smile on my face. I am no A player by all means obviously, but to compete and not just flush money down the drain I need to up the game. Maybe the prorating the money is a good idea, except for the people that are the top players that want to play for the $400. Once again a group decision. Thanks again Mike for putting this together. Des Moines players suck on the 9 footers (for now). Maybe they won't so much in about a year.
 

Richardson

Who me ?
Silver Member
Spimp, i only called you an idiot once. ...... sheesh !

Phil and Jamie and Frost throwing chips all over was a little hard to fade. A couple of them ended up going into the pockets. Our table minus Phil was pretty much complementing each other and what not on shots. Obviously we crapped some 10 balls in also, ok mostly me :thumbup: I did tell Matt Eddy i was tired of not having a shot following him for like 7 games :frown: :crying:
 

crawfish

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
You guys know something. I was there. I had on the purple Vikings hat sitting on the left. And I have to tell you, I thought Mike was gonna bust out laughing at me at least five times. I'll be back in about three days.
 

Spimp13

O8 Specialist
Silver Member
Spimp, i only called you an idiot once. ...... sheesh !

Phil and Jamie and Frost throwing chips all over was a little hard to fade. A couple of them ended up going into the pockets. Our table minus Phil was pretty much complementing each other and what not on shots. Obviously we crapped some 10 balls in also, ok mostly me :thumbup: I did tell Matt Eddy i was tired of not having a shot following him for like 7 games :frown: :crying:

Not talking about you on this one, its all good.
 

Spimp13

O8 Specialist
Silver Member
You guys know something. I was there. I had on the purple Vikings hat sitting on the left. And I have to tell you, I thought Mike was gonna bust out laughing at me at least five times. I'll be back in about three days.

Fortunately I am a Vikings fan and know this is not true because I would have said something. There was no left, only rights.
 

crawfish

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Fortunately I am a Vikings fan and know this is not true because I would have said something. There was no left, only rights.
Damn it. Maybe I was in Sharkey's in Raleigh. It's all a blur. I was either in Atlanta at Mr. Cues II, Des Moines (where I thought I was), or at my home base poolroom. Those damn Xanax.

I wait, wait. I could've been watching a rerun of the Vikings (not wearing the hat) at Shooter's in Olathe. Ah, hell. I'm not sure what happened.
 
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crawfish

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I will tell you this. I don't remember names, but the tall guy that is losing hair kept throwing chips. And, I think Christina was her name, had a bit much to drink. I now have everyone clocked. See you soon. And yes, I did have a Viking hat on. I wasn't in there long.
 
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