Thoughts & photos from the Maryland Open
I was able to make the 2 hour drive on Sunday to check out this straight pool event.
With 3 or 4 world champions playing, I knew I'd have to check it out.
• Saturday I got a lesson with Ralph Eckert who was staying with a nice family near Top Hat.
Lesson was awesome but that's a separate post. They had a great basement room with all the amenities.
Halfway through my lesson they went to pick up Toastie from the airport.
The 2 Germans and [the father and son?] all entered this tournament. And all of them could play a little
• The venue (Top Hat) is awesome, the outside has a spiffy giant top hat on the roof, with neon all over it,
plus two giant molded racks of pool balls to either side of the hat, so you can see it's a pool hall
from 50 yards away. Which is about where we had to park.
• Inside was an odd layout, but it worked well for spectating. The tables were very clean
and recently redone, high ceilings, GOOD food (pies, burgers, full turkey dinner, chicken salad, more).
Love the open "aircraft hangar" feel. It's a player's room, they kept music OFF the whole time,
and tv's muted. The pool noises and spectator chatter kept it from feeling like a crypt. It was perfect.
Below: Players group together for a giant professional photo.
The old guy on the far right would stroll through the center of the playing area during the matches
like he just didn't give a f*ck. Guy in the foreground is watching a football game.
On the other side of the wall they held a few matches, and for whatever reason spectators
didn't bother with that room. The ping pong tables maybe kept people away.
I suck with my camera, my hand shakes and everything looks blurry.
The panorama feature is dope, and done properly lets you see a mile of photo with full detail.
Done poorly it looks like this:
No but seriously, I suck at taking pictures. Here's someone's shoulder.
The Players
Here's the chart.
You will recognize some top level pros on it, including Johnny Archer, Thorsten Hohmann, and Corey Deuel.
But they weren't the only pros in attendance. And there were several non-pro players
who were absolute ANIMALS at straight pool. Monsters you never heard of, unless you really follow 14.1.
Guys like Bob. Maidhof (Drexeline Bob, Florida Bob)... he apparently took Corey on the road long ago.
This guy has run over 300 balls and if he'd dedicated to games like 9b/10b
would probably be a household name. His cueball control is fantastic.
Below: The #1 and #2 finishers, and Mr. Maidhof.
He was very composed under pressure and narrowly missed the final 4.
Johnny Archer gave him a rare opportunity when he somehow missed a routine break
(Johnny missed 3 or 4 balls in this match, even a lesser-known event in the hinterlands of MD can bring out
nerves in a pro player). Bob went on to run about 75 balls and then got stuck on the foot rail.
All the railbirds had their idea on what he should shoot but he saw a bank combo on the side rail
that absolutely nobody else thought of. He drilled and kept right on trucking through to the next rack.
He did end up on the foot rail again and this time had nothing but semi-tough 3 ball that was 8 feet from the pocket.
Missed and Johnny finally finished him off. Bob can really play and goes into the rack fearlessly to blast them open.
Danny Barouty. Always wears this boonie cap thing.
Had a very relaxed attitude, the pamphlet described him as "whimsical" or something.
He kept it light. You can almost imagine him saying (in a NY accent) "eh, f*ck it" right before shooting a tough ball.
Here he is shooting on the TV table. They took off the lightshade to make it brighter for the cameras.
I think that worked a little TOO good. "Just don't look up" he quipped to his opponent.
Huidji See. For me, he was just one of those names you see referenced every so often in a tournament report,
and I had no idea what level he played at, or what he looked like. He's the miniboss of the netherlands.
Niels Feijin (not attending) is the final boss of that zone.
So it turns out Huidji is Chinese, not blonde and blue-eyed. And kinda tall for an asian. Nicknamed "Hooch" by some.
He has a very cool personality/demeanor. Extremely professional, with his vest and shiny black shoes with the giant straps.
But also quick to grin and composed, never mad. My buddy got a fantastic shot of him. I got a crappy shot of him:
Most of you can name 3 out of the 4 players pictured here. Corey's clean-cut look is easy to spot.
I think the counter girl swooned a little while taking his order (the big turkey dinner with mashed, gravy,
stuffing, green beans, etc.). Johnny, you can be forgiven if you didn't recognize him with glasses.
Somehow this depressed me. Johnny's old enough to need glasses sometimes. Still shoots at the highest level.
Mike Dechaine managed to stroll by without either of them punching the other.
I was able to make the 2 hour drive on Sunday to check out this straight pool event.
With 3 or 4 world champions playing, I knew I'd have to check it out.
• Saturday I got a lesson with Ralph Eckert who was staying with a nice family near Top Hat.
Lesson was awesome but that's a separate post. They had a great basement room with all the amenities.
Halfway through my lesson they went to pick up Toastie from the airport.
The 2 Germans and [the father and son?] all entered this tournament. And all of them could play a little
• The venue (Top Hat) is awesome, the outside has a spiffy giant top hat on the roof, with neon all over it,
plus two giant molded racks of pool balls to either side of the hat, so you can see it's a pool hall
from 50 yards away. Which is about where we had to park.
• Inside was an odd layout, but it worked well for spectating. The tables were very clean
and recently redone, high ceilings, GOOD food (pies, burgers, full turkey dinner, chicken salad, more).
Love the open "aircraft hangar" feel. It's a player's room, they kept music OFF the whole time,
and tv's muted. The pool noises and spectator chatter kept it from feeling like a crypt. It was perfect.
Below: Players group together for a giant professional photo.
The old guy on the far right would stroll through the center of the playing area during the matches
like he just didn't give a f*ck. Guy in the foreground is watching a football game.
On the other side of the wall they held a few matches, and for whatever reason spectators
didn't bother with that room. The ping pong tables maybe kept people away.
I suck with my camera, my hand shakes and everything looks blurry.
The panorama feature is dope, and done properly lets you see a mile of photo with full detail.
Done poorly it looks like this:
No but seriously, I suck at taking pictures. Here's someone's shoulder.
The Players
Here's the chart.
You will recognize some top level pros on it, including Johnny Archer, Thorsten Hohmann, and Corey Deuel.
But they weren't the only pros in attendance. And there were several non-pro players
who were absolute ANIMALS at straight pool. Monsters you never heard of, unless you really follow 14.1.
Guys like Bob. Maidhof (Drexeline Bob, Florida Bob)... he apparently took Corey on the road long ago.
This guy has run over 300 balls and if he'd dedicated to games like 9b/10b
would probably be a household name. His cueball control is fantastic.
Below: The #1 and #2 finishers, and Mr. Maidhof.
He was very composed under pressure and narrowly missed the final 4.
Johnny Archer gave him a rare opportunity when he somehow missed a routine break
(Johnny missed 3 or 4 balls in this match, even a lesser-known event in the hinterlands of MD can bring out
nerves in a pro player). Bob went on to run about 75 balls and then got stuck on the foot rail.
All the railbirds had their idea on what he should shoot but he saw a bank combo on the side rail
that absolutely nobody else thought of. He drilled and kept right on trucking through to the next rack.
He did end up on the foot rail again and this time had nothing but semi-tough 3 ball that was 8 feet from the pocket.
Missed and Johnny finally finished him off. Bob can really play and goes into the rack fearlessly to blast them open.
Danny Barouty. Always wears this boonie cap thing.
Had a very relaxed attitude, the pamphlet described him as "whimsical" or something.
He kept it light. You can almost imagine him saying (in a NY accent) "eh, f*ck it" right before shooting a tough ball.
Here he is shooting on the TV table. They took off the lightshade to make it brighter for the cameras.
I think that worked a little TOO good. "Just don't look up" he quipped to his opponent.
Huidji See. For me, he was just one of those names you see referenced every so often in a tournament report,
and I had no idea what level he played at, or what he looked like. He's the miniboss of the netherlands.
Niels Feijin (not attending) is the final boss of that zone.
So it turns out Huidji is Chinese, not blonde and blue-eyed. And kinda tall for an asian. Nicknamed "Hooch" by some.
He has a very cool personality/demeanor. Extremely professional, with his vest and shiny black shoes with the giant straps.
But also quick to grin and composed, never mad. My buddy got a fantastic shot of him. I got a crappy shot of him:
Most of you can name 3 out of the 4 players pictured here. Corey's clean-cut look is easy to spot.
I think the counter girl swooned a little while taking his order (the big turkey dinner with mashed, gravy,
stuffing, green beans, etc.). Johnny, you can be forgiven if you didn't recognize him with glasses.
Somehow this depressed me. Johnny's old enough to need glasses sometimes. Still shoots at the highest level.
Mike Dechaine managed to stroll by without either of them punching the other.
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