All-Around Tournament---Maybe it's time

[stevelomako]

With all the talk lately about the best all-around players maybe it's time to have a true all-around tournament. I've mentioned this before and people seem to like the idea.

The games...........

9-ball: race to 15
One pocket: race to 4
Banks: race to 5
8-ball: race to 7
Straight pool: 200 pts

Lag to see who gets to pick what game is played first then other player will choose next game.

First player that wins 3 sets wins the match.

Some matches will take a long time, some won't. Other sports have 4-5 hour sets so what does it matter if it took 8-10 hours. Everybodys played at least that long before.

Would probly take 2-weeks to do a tournament but then again, who cares?, it's happened before and you never hear people bitch about seeing great pool being played.

Picture some of these match-ups and say you wouldn't pay to watch:

Efren Reyes vs Jose Parica
Earl Strickland vs Fransisco Bustamante
Shannon Daulton vs Cliff Joyner
Nick Varner vs Buddy Hall
Alex Pagulayan vs Thorsten Hohman
Ralf Souquet vs Mika Immonen

and on and on, all the good players from around the world playing all games. Who ever would win that you'd have to definately say they could play a little.

Just a thought that's been on my mind for years,
Steve Lomako

 

[carlton31698]

That would be a great idea. Have only the top 6 to 10 players in it so it would not take as long. I would pay to see this.

 

[Celtic]

Make it a 8 player invitational round robin with everyone playing all 5 games against everyone else. At the end take the 3rd and 2nd place and make them play all 5 games with the winner taking on 1st in the round robin for the title.

This would be great. If you made two matches a day it would take about 5 days total to have a winner, so a great Wednesday start with a sunday final. The 8 invites could be chosen either by certain tournament winners, money leaders on certain tours, or maybe bset by a voting panel of people in the industry like P&B magazine writers/editors, AZBilliards webmaster, Joss Tour director, ect.... About 100 or so people voting would make for a good selection I would think. As long as those people choosing know the people who excel at a wide array of games and not just some awesome 9-ball player that never has played a game of 1 pocket in his life.

 

[King Cueball]

I would like to see this happend what a great tournament that would be. Efren would win pretty easy i think if the races are long.

 

[Celtic]

Efren would not be a given to win. Supposedly the best straight pool player in the world atm is also the current 9-ball world champion. Efren is most likely the strongest 1 pocket player in the world but in a race to 4 he can be beat by alot of other great 1 pocket players. In 8-ball far too many players can break and run racks for Efren to dominate, the game is too easy and relient on the break. While I think he would do well and have a chance to win I would not think he is a favorite against the field.

 

[sniper]

I think that's a great idea, pool fans would definitely be willing to pay to see that I know I would. Winner would have a much stronger claim to being the strongest all around player in the game.

One problem, where's snooker? I know it would put Earl and the American players out of the running but I would love to see Pagulayan and Immonen play snooker against each other. Efren is quite the snooker player too, gotta include snooker.

 

[King Cueball]

Celtic. Luck is not a factor that much in 8-ball, Efren has won just about every major 8-ball title for the last 7-10 years like i said Other pros have given him that title as the best 8-ball player not only today but of all time.

 

[stevelomako]

There's too many good players in the world to just have a few. What kind of claim would that be?

We've figured things out at times and you could have 64 players and have take as long as the World's in Cardiff or Derby City.

Never hear anyone say those are too long but like I said, for this kind of pool what's two weeks?

Definately other tournament winners should be automatic entry's (like how golf does it), then some invitations, and you have to have a few qualifiers around the world.

We need some kind of championship that REALLY, REALLY means something.

Steve
P.S. to Sniper: Sorry but this is POOL, not snooker, might as well include billiards then. Different tables, different games.

 

[jjinfla]

Didn't they just have a tournament like that?

Maybe Grady's down south? Or was it in Georgia or North Carolina?

Jake

 

[piglit]

Who will win?

Max Eberle would take this off. Everybody knows that. In fact, that's why it hasn't happened. Everybody knows that.

-piga

 

[manlyshot]

Re: Who will win?

Max Eberle would take this off. Everybody knows that. In fact, that's why it hasn't happened. Everybody knows that.

Explain that a little, Piglet. Are you a Max Eberle fan, or do you know something about "why it hasn't happened"?

ManlyShot

 

[deadstroke32]

Hay I would come out for that just to see Shannon 14.1 .Because he don't play the game .I know this just by asking him ...And i hear Clif does play 14.1.so u'll know who will win "that" game..But the all the others would be real nice to see..But betting money is on Reyes ....He just play to dam good .And 9-ball is his weak game..So u tell me who going 2 win that..

 

[coolriffs]

how about including some carom billiards games ? If we really want to know who's the best in seeing the angles on the table, maybe include some 3-cushion billiards. that would be fun to watch.

 

[ajrack]

An "All Around" championship tourney
...great idea...

What town...
...How long can pool players stay in one town..and keep their expences down? (like...in VEGAS!)

Fred Whalen ran a 3 week straight pool tourney back about 1970 in LA...quite a few players came to LA a couple of months early just to enjoy the LA winter and at the time there was quite a bit of "action"...
The 'STARDUST" casino in Vegas ran quite a few "all around"
2 week tourneys but the players were all broke by the last few days of the tourney

Why not have a few different tourneys spread over a few months in different towns and then have the top 3 finishers all go to one city ...then have your "ALL AROUND" tourney!!!!

 

[parvus1202]

You forgot Snooker, so why not include top caliber snooker players from Europe, they also hold cues, don't they? I bet they can play 9 ball and other cues sports at world class level.

 

[Gerry]

IMO, drop the 8-ball and banks and just ask the "old" guys how the Johnson city tournys were run and copy the format. Everyone still talks about those days as the best gathering of quality players ever.

Come to think of it, Why does'nt Pat over at Accu-stats hold a tourny like this?. It's a lock to have great matches, and sell tons of tapes. Give the players a percentage of thier matches sold, and everybody wins. I can't believe this has'nt been thought of before?. I pay to see coverage of the old Johnson city days!.....Gerry

 

[King Cueball]

Gerry good idea, Id like to see that also!

 

[Cletus]

I thought the Derby City Classic was the modern day All Around tournament?