Ambition to get better slowly decreasing - no tourneys available

Kris_b1104

Kris_b1104

House Pro in my own home.
Silver Member
Here's my experience: literally every pool hall in my state are only having tournaments for amateurs/beginners/league players, and a majority of them are on 7ft tables, and to top it off, it's 8 ball. And to top it off even more, it's a race to 4 or 5 on the winners side and race to 3 on losers side.

It is very discouraging because there are no opportunities to play with stronger players and test yourself, unless you want to pay $1000 to travel to the US Open and go 2 and out.

What's even more annoying, is whenever they do have a 9 foot table tourney, it's ALWAYS on a friggin weeknight, and starts at 6PM!!! (always some kind of weird handicap attached to it) Not Saturday or Sunday. Are they purposely trying to restrict better players?

Why is American pool heading in this direction? It seems to only favor the Tournament Directors and room.

It's good to get beginners and lower ranked players engaged, but there has to be some kind of balance. It should NOT be this hard to find a normal 9ball tournament played on 9 foot tables. It lowers my drive to want to get better. Like what is the point of increasing my skill level if I'm only going to be playing the same people every Tuesday night 8 ball race to 3.

Certain States like NY, Cali and Florida had tour stops every weekend with the Predator Pro-Am tour and others for their respective states.

Now it's only bar table tourneys with $20 entry fee. Why would I want to leave my house to play pool?

Anyone with a similar experience in their state of residence?
 
Well I am in California and everyone in the state know each other in the pool world. With that said, there are tournaments here but inconsistent people show up. Some times 20 players or sometimes just 10 and held on weeknights and probably doesn't end till past midnight. I stop playing in these.

I would prefer a weekend tournament that starts in the morning but sadly the mornings are still too early for most.

Also, a lot of our tournaments in my city are geared towards league players too. We have a bar box tournament here that is the biggest of any. That is just the way pool has been going for a long time now. We've been talking about this for years and eventually pool rooms will be filled with nothing but bar box tables.
 
Kris_b1104 said:
Here's my experience: literally every pool hall in my state are only having tournaments for amateurs/beginners/league players, and a majority of them are on 7ft tables, and to top it off, it's 8 ball. And to top it off even more, it's a race to 4 or 5 on the winners side and race to 3 on losers side.

It is very discouraging because there are no opportunities to play with stronger players and test yourself, unless you want to pay $1000 to travel to the US Open and go 2 and out.

What's even more annoying, is whenever they do have a 9 foot table tourney, it's ALWAYS on a friggin weeknight, and starts at 6PM!!! (always some kind of weird handicap attached to it) Not Saturday or Sunday. Are they purposely trying to restrict better players?

Why is American pool heading in this direction? It seems to only favor the Tournament Directors and room.

It's good to get beginners and lower ranked players engaged, but there has to be some kind of balance. It should NOT be this hard to find a normal 9ball tournament played on 9 foot tables. It lowers my drive to want to get better. Like what is the point of increasing my skill level if I'm only going to be playing the same people every Tuesday night 8 ball race to 3.

Certain States like NY, Cali and Florida had tour stops every weekend with the Predator Pro-Am tour and others for their respective states.

Now it's only bar table tourneys with $20 entry fee. Why would I want to leave my house to play pool?

Anyone with a similar experience in their state of residence?
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Brother, 9ft tournament pool at lower levels is deader than Elvis. There are pockets of 9ft activity but in general its pretty dead. Most people don't have the practice time to get better on big box so they gravitate to the bb. Just the way it is. I live in the midwest and 99% of tournaments are on the small table. Some big table play in Texas but that's about it in my area. Take a vacation: https://skinnybobs.com/ nice joint. big event coming up Feb13-19th.
 
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There are near zero tournaments in my local room. The current room owners have zero interest in promoting the game, but are willing host if someone wants to organize and be the TD. Of course during league season, there's absolutely zero available time to host such an event. When some of the leagues dialed it back for the summer there are 9b minis on the available night.

If I want to actually compete. I must drive an hour minimum and hope that a rare 'open' event lands on a weekend I have free. Is what it is...

It's the main reason my game sits where it is... Boils down to commitment. Pool isn't the end all to be all.

On the upside. The lack of frequency allows me to stomach the higher stake entry fee events. I'd rather do one $300 entry event every few months than a couple $50 tourney every month.
 
shooter_Hans said:
Well I am in California and everyone in the state know each other in the pool world. With that said, there are tournaments here but inconsistent people show up. Some times 20 players or sometimes just 10 and held on weeknights and probably doesn't end till past midnight. I stop playing in these.

I would prefer a weekend tournament that starts in the morning but sadly the mornings are still too early for most.

Also, a lot of our tournaments in my city are geared towards league players too. We have a bar box tournament here that is the biggest of any. That is just the way pool has been going for a long time now. We've been talking about this for years and eventually pool rooms will be filled with nothing but bar box tables.
Click to expand...
Same thing here, I am in the Midwest.

Decided to try one out last week to see if I would like it or not. $15 entry fee on barbox, 10 people showed up to play... I made it to the finals from the losers side and before we played I asked the guy if he just wanted to do 1 extended race because it was already close to midnight. He said no it's a true double elimination you have to beat me twice. I'm like bro are you serious? 10 people entered this tourney and we started at 4pm and it's now close to 12am. The winner would only receive $55 dollars.

Nit behavior. He wasn't getting a trophy or anything. Not even a picture taken, no nothing. Anyways I beat him both sets but goddamn. Why would I ever want to put myself through that again lol.
 
skip100 said:
Where do you live? If it's not in a major metro area with a large population then I don't know why you'd expect anything other than "playing the same people every Tuesday night".

600+ Fargo players don't grow on trees. Most folks are 400-500 level.
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pretty much my thinking here too. here in Oklahoma there are lots of bb Fargo events. most players are under 575 for sure.
 
Kris_b1104 said:
Here's my experience: literally every pool hall in my state are only having tournaments for amateurs/beginners/league players, and a majority of them are on 7ft tables, and to top it off, it's 8 ball. And to top it off even more, it's a race to 4 or 5 on the winners side and race to 3 on losers side.

It is very discouraging because there are no opportunities to play with stronger players and test yourself, unless you want to pay $1000 to travel to the US Open and go 2 and out.

What's even more annoying, is whenever they do have a 9 foot table tourney, it's ALWAYS on a friggin weeknight, and starts at 6PM!!! (always some kind of weird handicap attached to it) Not Saturday or Sunday. Are they purposely trying to restrict better players?

Why is American pool heading in this direction? It seems to only favor the Tournament Directors and room.

It's good to get beginners and lower ranked players engaged, but there has to be some kind of balance. It should NOT be this hard to find a normal 9ball tournament played on 9 foot tables. It lowers my drive to want to get better. Like what is the point of increasing my skill level if I'm only going to be playing the same people every Tuesday night 8 ball race to 3.

Certain States like NY, Cali and Florida had tour stops every weekend with the Predator Pro-Am tour and others for their respective states.

Now it's only bar table tourneys with $20 entry fee. Why would I want to leave my house to play pool?

Anyone with a similar experience in their state of residence?
Click to expand...
Having a goal to shoot for is what motivates most of us to practice and work to improve.
 
Bob Jewett said:
One table?
Click to expand...
I believe 5 barboxes were being used. It is a huge pool hall with over 25+ barboxes and about 8 9ft tables. Newly refelted Diamond tables. Some people were just playing very slow.

Winners side - 8 ball race to 3
Losers side - 9 ball race to 3

The guy in the hot seat wanted me to beat him both times in both games, which I did but it's a little silly not to just choose 1 game and do an extended race to 5 or something for the finals.
 
Kris_b1104 said:
I believe 5 barboxes were being used. It is a huge pool hall with over 25+ barboxes and about 8 9ft tables.

Winners side - 8 ball race to 3
Losers side - 9 ball race to 3

The guy in the hot seat wanted me to beat him both times in both games, which I did but it's a little silly not to just choose 1 game and do an extended race to 5 or something for the finals.
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Where was this at?
 
garczar said:
There's some good big table places there like Mile High and Felt. Have no clue about their tournaments. Most pool is gonna be on the bb.
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I've been to both, of course they have 9ft tables but the tournaments are the problem.

In 2023 they had a 9ft tourney every Sunday with Fargorate handicap, and it started at 12pm which was ideal. Not on a weeknight at 6pm when we got work the next day. Then they just got rid of it for 2024. Hence the frustration.
 
The_JV said:
I have thought of doing this as well... I always end up reminding myself how much I can't stand pool players. They're even worse when they think you own them something.
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I've run multiple in-house leagues because the owner/manager was unable or unwilling to promote the game like that. I don't recall the players being much of a problem other than a few for slow play. Well, and that one guy who just never understood double hits.
 
I'm sure there is demand in Denver for a real monthly 9-ball tournament with a $50 entry fee. Someone's just got to take charge on it. Arrange the tables with one of the pool halls, put the bracket on Digital Pool, promote on Facebook. The pool hall is not going to do the work, it will be up to the TD as a labor of love.
 
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