ABR 2Nite: Vivian Villarreal + Team USA Pool Party

I wonder how much she made as a promoter.

I'm assuming none, since she stated she did this for the players. Right?

At least one male and female walked away with 10K cash for about 3-4 days work.

In tournaments do they file tax statements for you?
 
What are your thoughts on badges. Am I missing something?

I keep asking myself why do players even need badges? And if these badges could be eliminated all this nonsense about passing said badges around to cheat the gate would come to en end.

There are simple ways the gate attendant could verify the players without badges:

1.) Drivers Licence verified against list
2.) Pic verified against image on a PC
3.) Thumb print reader
4.) Actually knowing most of the players
 
I thought it was pretty amazing that she said people were complaining so she told the casino to cut the added money.


Did we listen to the same interview?

My recollection, from the interview, is that she went to the Seminole leaders and told them about the player's complaints about the added money and the tribal leaders said words to the effect: if they can't appreciate all that's being done for them, pro-rate the pay out.

Lou Figueroa
 
At an absolute minimum, V V should have better insight regarding her relationship with customers and, yes, these pool players (and paid vendors) were her customers. :yeah:

Does a promoter have to take shit from a customer? No, I don't believe they do.

But as a promoter you have to do a little soul searching when so many of your customers are complaining, especially ones who do not ordinarily do so.

Her arrogance on the ABR show won't be serving her very well going forward, imo.

People tend to remember comments like "I don't need them; they need me."

And: "and The Tribe doesn't need them either." Is she a spokesperson for The Seminoles, too?

And: "Okay let me explain what happened to the money for all the little crybabies."

I think you can run a tight ship and be firm when actually needed but it has to be tempered with some empathy and consideration especially when you have created a lot of the confusion with promo posters vs the website vs the contracts; just step up and own some of that.

Who has known John Morra and SVB to be complainers, btw?

And seriously, who was that guy with his bare feet up on the rail playing with his phone? Somebody needed to eject him; how disrespectful... :angry:

best,
brian kc
 
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At an absolute minimum, V V should have better insight regarding her relationship with customers and, yes, these pool players (and paid vendors) were her customers. :yeah:

Does a promoter have to take shit from a customer? No, I don't believe they do.

But as a promoter you have to do a little soul searching when so many of your customers are complaining, especially ones who do not ordinarily do so.

Her arrogance on the ABR show won't be serving her very well going forward, imo.

People tend to remember comments like "I don't need them; they need me."

And: "and The Tribe doesn't need them either." Is she a spokesperson for The Seminoles, too?

And: "Okay let me explain what happened to the money for all the little crybabies."

I think you can run a tight ship and be firm when actually needed but it has to be tempered with some empathy and consideration especially when you have created a lot of the confusion with promo posters vs the website vs the contracts; just step up and own some of that.

Who has known John Morra and SVB to be complainers, btw?

And seriously, who was that guy with his bare feet up on the rail playing with his phone? Somebody needed to eject him; how disrespectful... :angry:

best,
brian kc


Taken in context, I don't believe her comments were out of line.

As to pool players complaining -- I'm shocked! Shocked I say!! lol. Ask any pool promoter and they'll tel you that as a group pool players are the biggest bunch of whiny babies in the world. Nothing is ever good enough.

I don't believe it was arrogance when she said, "I don't need them, they need me" because she was talking about very few, very specific players: JR, TC, JM, and I can't recall if there was another. (I believe she said one of those would be barred from future events.) And truth be told, neither she nor the Seminoles need any particular player. It is the players' loss if they publicly bad mouth a promoter, and by association the sponsors. Kinda dumb too.

Empathy and consideration? Nah, they're big boys and now they can reap what they sow. VV and at least one other promoter are now on record as saying they're not going to take that kind of crap anymore and when next year rolls around we can all see if it is VV begging those few guys to attend or whether it's those few guys begging to get in.

Lastly, I don't recall SVB complaining -- VV said when she talked to him he volunteered to anything he could to help the event.

We are in agreement about the dude with the bare feet.

Lou Figueroa
 
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Did we listen to the same interview?

My recollection, from the interview, is that she went to the Seminole leaders and told them about the player's complaints about the added money and the tribal leaders said words to the effect: if they can't appreciate all that's being done for them, pro-rate the pay out.

Lou Figueroa

Yes, but she made it sound like it was much more in her control. She said "I was going to give it (the full added money) to them" but then she told the tribe about the complaints, and they said to prorate the added money: "So I didn't give it to them" is what she said. It sounded to me more like she got permission from the tribe to prorate it, but at the very least, it was her complaining about players being mean on Facebook that caused some of the added money to go away. But it's hard to believe any of it because the sequence doesn't even make sense. Why were players complaining about losing the added money before they lost the added money?

She also said she would have given Josh Roberts a free replacement badge but he was mean on Facebook so she didn't give it to him.

And remember this is the person who said she didn't even like giving SVB his money for winning the men's event because he was complaining and wanted to boycott, and then he told her that wasn't true. So how many of the rest of the supposed complaints was she completely wrong about?
 
Yes, but she made it sound like it was much more in her control. She said "I was going to give it (the full added money) to them" but then she told the tribe about the complaints, and they said to prorate the added money: "So I didn't give it to them" is what she said. It sounded to me more like she got permission from the tribe to prorate it, but at the very least, it was her complaining about players being mean on Facebook that caused some of the added money to go away. But it's hard to believe any of it because the sequence doesn't even make sense. Why were players complaining about losing the added money before they lost the added money?

She also said she would have given Josh Roberts a free replacement badge but he was mean on Facebook so she didn't give it to him.

And remember this is the person who said she didn't even like giving SVB his money for winning the men's event because he was complaining and wanted to boycott, and then he told her that wasn't true. So how many of the rest of the supposed complaints was she completely wrong about?


Just to clarify, (because I did speak to Vivian about this at length prior to the show)
The prize fund was always going to be prorated. That was the plan from day one.
And every single player that registered could have seen it plainly spelled out, if they had simply read it.

The big problems with male players began when some of them realized for the first time that the prorating was going to happen, and they got pissed. Pissed enough to possibly boycott, and also pissed enough to blatantly and repeatedly insult both Vivian and the entire Seminole institution.

In light of the complaints, Vivian and the tribe reps discussed NOT prorating, not because they had to, but because it would have been a nice thing to do.

However, considering the extent that some of the male players went to to bash Vivian, the seminoles, and the event itself, they decided that the men's events would stay just as they were intended in the beginning. Prorated.

Either way, had the events filled up, every cent of the 100,000 would have been paid out.

Hope that helps
 
Vivian does not have what it takes to be a upper echelon promoter in my opinion. She was out of control with most of the crap that spewed out of her mouth. She doesn't know how to have an adult conversation (i.e., back and forth discussion). She was very disrespectful with the name calling towards the players (male and female). She even made mention of Kim White in a negative light but what did Kim do wrong here?

She is though, an extremely talented pool player with no fear who can dust off most of today's female players and some of the men as well. She's highly driven by ego and comes off as mixed up a little bit. She doesn't really seem to like men in general, although I'm sure she has her favorites. She might as well keep the boys around so she has someone to whip on going forward.

She warned about what to expect in the coming years and that cry baby Tony Chohan better not wear tennis shoes next time or else. And Josh Roberts is barred for life...
 
Just to clarify, (because I did speak to Vivian about this at length prior to the show)

The prize fund was always going to be prorated. That was the plan from day one.

And every single player that registered could have seen it plainly spelled out, if they had simply read it.



The big problems with male players began when some of them realized for the first time that the prorating was going to happen, and they got pissed. Pissed enough to possibly boycott, and also pissed enough to blatantly and repeatedly insult both Vivian and the entire Seminole institution.



In light of the complaints, Vivian and the tribe reps discussed NOT prorating, not because they had to, but because it would have been a nice thing to do.



However, considering the extent that some of the male players went to to bash Vivian, the seminoles, and the event itself, they decided that the men's events would stay just as they were intended in the beginning. Prorated.



Either way, had the events filled up, every cent of the 100,000 would have been paid out.



Hope that helps



Yes that makes more sense.
 
She warned about what to expect in the coming years and that cry baby Tony Chohan better not wear tennis shoes next time or else. And Josh Roberts is barred for life...

I thought she was being humorous. The drama made for great radio.
 
Just to clarify, (because I did speak to Vivian about this at length prior to the show)
The prize fund was always going to be prorated. That was the plan from day one.
And every single player that registered could have seen it plainly spelled out, if they had simply read it.

The big problems with male players began when some of them realized for the first time that the prorating was going to happen, and they got pissed. Pissed enough to possibly boycott, and also pissed enough to blatantly and repeatedly insult both Vivian and the entire Seminole institution.

In light of the complaints, Vivian and the tribe reps discussed NOT prorating, not because they had to, but because it would have been a nice thing to do.

However, considering the extent that some of the male players went to to bash Vivian, the seminoles, and the event itself, they decided that the men's events would stay just as they were intended in the beginning. Prorated.

Either way, had the events filled up, every cent of the 100,000 would have been paid out.

Hope that helps

Fairy tales will come true if ...................
 
Vivian does not have what it takes to be a upper echelon promoter in my opinion. She was out of control with most of the crap that spewed out of her mouth. She doesn't know how to have an adult conversation (i.e., back and forth discussion). She was very disrespectful with the name calling towards the players (male and female). She even made mention of Kim White in a negative light but what did Kim do wrong here?

She is though, an extremely talented pool player with no fear who can dust off most of today's female players and some of the men as well. She's highly driven by ego and comes off as mixed up a little bit. She doesn't really seem to like men in general, although I'm sure she has her favorites. She might as well keep the boys around so she has someone to whip on going forward.

She warned about what to expect in the coming years and that cry baby Tony Chohan better not wear tennis shoes next time or else. And Josh Roberts is barred for life...

Josh Roberts is one of the finest men among all the pool players! Consider that.
 
Josh Roberts is one of the finest men among all the pool players! Consider that.

as well as SVB & John Morra.

And, yes, Lou, pretty sure I heard V V say that initially Shane also complained but according to her, she turned it around with him.
 
Just to clarify, (because I did speak to Vivian about this at length prior to the show)
The prize fund was always going to be prorated. That was the plan from day one.
And every single player that registered could have seen it plainly spelled out, if they had simply read it.

The big problems with male players began when some of them realized for the first time that the prorating was going to happen, and they got pissed. Pissed enough to possibly boycott, and also pissed enough to blatantly and repeatedly insult both Vivian and the entire Seminole institution.

In light of the complaints, Vivian and the tribe reps discussed NOT prorating, not because they had to, but because it would have been a nice thing to do.

However, considering the extent that some of the male players went to to bash Vivian, the seminoles, and the event itself, they decided that the men's events would stay just as they were intended in the beginning. Prorated.

Either way, had the events filled up, every cent of the 100,000 would have been paid out.

Hope that helps

I do believe a little push back was needed when John Mora was being called names
I have witnessed nothing but honour and respect from him since he was 17 years old. He's always respectfully dressed, his demeanor in victory and defeat is exceptional and he is an ambassador for his sport and country of Canada.

In my opinion, from the dozens of times I have watched him play and conversations I had with him in passing - if he had a problem and brought it up to the tournament director it was not trivial and warranted a respectful answer, not insults.

VV did not conduct a professional interview in my opinion. The nice guy approach to the interview was able to get the story and views out in the open, however, when a credible name is being slandered, some pushback is required.

Now, will you have John morra on the next show to give him a platform to respond?
If you do and he agrees, I'll bet he will sound far more professional than VV.
 
just listened to it

SVB - what i heard her say is that svb told VV the players wanted him to lead the boycott and he said no. I'm sure he did initially complain as who wouldn't with the lack of transparency but why would SVB boycott a ten ball tournament when he is already there?

Appleton - not sure if any truth to him being hungover and forfeiting is legitimate or not would like to hear his take especially as he is trying to be a promoter himself. i know apple is not the most quiet as he has a history of complaining about events, rules, racking, lighting you name it but would like to know his side on this.

J Roberts - wow he is banned from events

T Chohan - she ridiculed him for asking what the payouts were?
 
If Appleton missed a match, the reason for missing it is irrelevant. He paid his money and it is up to him if he decides to show up for it or not, unless he has a contract.
 
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