Despite only being partially recovered from a bout with bronchitis and a nasty sinus infection, I loaded up Friday morning and headed down to the Horseshoe. Jamie/Worminator was gracious enough for the second year in a row to allow me to share his room and hang out.
Turns out Jamie is good friend with the Father of a young man Drake Niepoetter who is 18 and played in the banks. I guess he has already lined up a spot in Mark Wilson's program. Spent time chatting with this young man, his Father Dale and the younger brother. All young Drake did was make it into the 7th round of the banks. Watched him play some, he is the real deal. I can see why Mark Wilson wants this young man on the team. Very mature and respectable young man, his Father should be quite proud. Conducted himself with great poise and professionalism at the table as well.
I was impressed overall with how polite the players and spectators were. Watched Corey Duell get smoked by a relative unknown in banks, shook hands like a gentleman and wished him luck. John Brumback had a grind it out knuckle biter with PiggyBanks. Before the hill game, they rapped knuckles, smiled and wished each other good luck. Sadly, one exception. You'd never guess. I wasn't close enough to hear what it was about but Earl was into with some guy he was pounding in the very first round. You can say what you want about what a great player he was/is, but IMHO, he is simply bad for the game.
I was watching Jamie in his 3rd round match and was able to watch Bergman absolutely smoke Thorsten at the table to the left. Bergman was playing absolutely great. Thorsten was gracious in the loss. Bustamante was playing next table over, Orcollo to the left of that with Reyes on the table across the way. Brumback was practicing at another nearby table. I'm just watching all these great players soaking it in like a kid in a candy store.
I thought the caliber of play in banks was substantially better than last year. Having said that, the tables were clearly playing extraordinarily tough. I don't know if that was due to the very warm rooms, the dry air or what. I couldn't believe how many of the guys firing at the pockets were coming up short time after time after time. There were a lot of good, experienced bank players getting tough matches from guys who were mostly slow rolling and taking it a ball at a time. It kind of reminded me of professional bowling where they vary the way they wax the lanes. I guess figuring out the variance in the tables separates the men from the boys. Perhaps the Cyclops balls played a part in it as well. Perhaps it was all of the above. Not sure if Diamond intended this or it was other conditions.
Was chatting with Mike Durbin and he introduced me to Joey Gray. What a polite and really nice young man he is. I asked him about the games he had with Rhea. He said he was just messing around and had just tried shooting 3 shots that were near 90 degree cuts with extreme english. Rhea apparently walked up and told him she could show him how to never miss those shots again and proceeded to give him her version of a Perfect Aim lesson. Joey just chuckled about the whole thing. He sure would be a good candidate for consideration for the Mosconi Cup Team. Win or lose, he would undoubtedly represent the team with class and dignity.
I spent a lot of time watching the various World Class players grips and foot work. For the most part, the grips were clearly kept very, very light and it appeared to me anyway, very consistent. I also took notice of how graceful and consistent their foot work was when they moved into their shots.
To those who don't wish to credit pool players as athletes, I say think differently. With the 10 ball big foot challenge going on simultaneously with the banks, it seemed like those top players were at a table constantly on Friday and Saturday. I can't fathom how exhausting it has to be to play at that level for that many hours for so many days in a row.
Gotta love Efren. Almost 60 years old and still playing like a World Champion. Always seemed 100% relaxed and also seemed to always have that nice little smile on his face.
Hanging with Worminator, I got to see some off the charts cues passed around. Watched JimmyRayK take down a $15K Szamboti that was incredible. He had a high end Joss West and Gina that were gorgeous. Jamie had some incredible cues in his case including his new playing cue from Ron Haley.
Enjoyed two nice dinners at the Steakhouse there. If I stayed for the entire tournament, I'd probably gain 25 pounds!
It was an incredible couple of days even though I felt a bit crappy. Hoping to be blessed to be around and able to attend again next year, it was an absolutely incredible time. Reflecting on the weekend, it's a shame to read so many headlines here at AZ about the bad behavior of pool professionals, how pool is dying, etc.. Aside from the single Earl incident, all I saw was great sportsmanship, professionalism and respect among all participants and spectators. The atmosphere seemed really upbeat as well. Hats off to Diamond for putting on such a great event.
Turns out Jamie is good friend with the Father of a young man Drake Niepoetter who is 18 and played in the banks. I guess he has already lined up a spot in Mark Wilson's program. Spent time chatting with this young man, his Father Dale and the younger brother. All young Drake did was make it into the 7th round of the banks. Watched him play some, he is the real deal. I can see why Mark Wilson wants this young man on the team. Very mature and respectable young man, his Father should be quite proud. Conducted himself with great poise and professionalism at the table as well.
I was impressed overall with how polite the players and spectators were. Watched Corey Duell get smoked by a relative unknown in banks, shook hands like a gentleman and wished him luck. John Brumback had a grind it out knuckle biter with PiggyBanks. Before the hill game, they rapped knuckles, smiled and wished each other good luck. Sadly, one exception. You'd never guess. I wasn't close enough to hear what it was about but Earl was into with some guy he was pounding in the very first round. You can say what you want about what a great player he was/is, but IMHO, he is simply bad for the game.
I was watching Jamie in his 3rd round match and was able to watch Bergman absolutely smoke Thorsten at the table to the left. Bergman was playing absolutely great. Thorsten was gracious in the loss. Bustamante was playing next table over, Orcollo to the left of that with Reyes on the table across the way. Brumback was practicing at another nearby table. I'm just watching all these great players soaking it in like a kid in a candy store.
I thought the caliber of play in banks was substantially better than last year. Having said that, the tables were clearly playing extraordinarily tough. I don't know if that was due to the very warm rooms, the dry air or what. I couldn't believe how many of the guys firing at the pockets were coming up short time after time after time. There were a lot of good, experienced bank players getting tough matches from guys who were mostly slow rolling and taking it a ball at a time. It kind of reminded me of professional bowling where they vary the way they wax the lanes. I guess figuring out the variance in the tables separates the men from the boys. Perhaps the Cyclops balls played a part in it as well. Perhaps it was all of the above. Not sure if Diamond intended this or it was other conditions.
Was chatting with Mike Durbin and he introduced me to Joey Gray. What a polite and really nice young man he is. I asked him about the games he had with Rhea. He said he was just messing around and had just tried shooting 3 shots that were near 90 degree cuts with extreme english. Rhea apparently walked up and told him she could show him how to never miss those shots again and proceeded to give him her version of a Perfect Aim lesson. Joey just chuckled about the whole thing. He sure would be a good candidate for consideration for the Mosconi Cup Team. Win or lose, he would undoubtedly represent the team with class and dignity.
I spent a lot of time watching the various World Class players grips and foot work. For the most part, the grips were clearly kept very, very light and it appeared to me anyway, very consistent. I also took notice of how graceful and consistent their foot work was when they moved into their shots.
To those who don't wish to credit pool players as athletes, I say think differently. With the 10 ball big foot challenge going on simultaneously with the banks, it seemed like those top players were at a table constantly on Friday and Saturday. I can't fathom how exhausting it has to be to play at that level for that many hours for so many days in a row.
Gotta love Efren. Almost 60 years old and still playing like a World Champion. Always seemed 100% relaxed and also seemed to always have that nice little smile on his face.
Hanging with Worminator, I got to see some off the charts cues passed around. Watched JimmyRayK take down a $15K Szamboti that was incredible. He had a high end Joss West and Gina that were gorgeous. Jamie had some incredible cues in his case including his new playing cue from Ron Haley.
Enjoyed two nice dinners at the Steakhouse there. If I stayed for the entire tournament, I'd probably gain 25 pounds!
It was an incredible couple of days even though I felt a bit crappy. Hoping to be blessed to be around and able to attend again next year, it was an absolutely incredible time. Reflecting on the weekend, it's a shame to read so many headlines here at AZ about the bad behavior of pool professionals, how pool is dying, etc.. Aside from the single Earl incident, all I saw was great sportsmanship, professionalism and respect among all participants and spectators. The atmosphere seemed really upbeat as well. Hats off to Diamond for putting on such a great event.
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