Archer & Varner Southern Tour first day, getting ready

bfdlad said:
We had a full clinic today at Beezers Fine Billiards, it went from 11am to 3pm and we got done a little after 3pm. As we were packing our stuff to leave the pool room JA said he was starving and I was starving too. No need to ask Nick as he is always starving, we just wasn't sure if we should get on the road to Jamaica Joes a 4+ hour drive and find somewhere down the road or just go and eat before we set off. Justin (fathomblue) had been telling me about a place called CJ's A burger place that was awesome. He really talked it up but at the end of the day its a burger to me and I thought that they were probably good but it didn't matter to me either way. UNTIL a few others in the pool room started talking them up too, then Nick, JA and myself were just contemplating our what we should do Justin pipes up again about these burgers. He explains that they take the shouldler of meat and grind it up throughout the day as needed and that this is the freshest burger you ever had. For some reason these were the key words to getting all our attention and JA said thats it lets do it, Justin had offered to buy our lunch when we came through and again offered and so now Nick was gonna be in for sure if there was any doubt in his mind before. So get our stuff together and take it out to the van. We find we have a small convoy of cars waiting to go to the famous CJ's with us. So we get there and I have never seen a burger joint like this before. They have an old fashioned butcher case right at the front that has Beef shoulder in there and BIG slices of some other meat and I am not sure what it was but that was the mix that they ground us as they went thoughout the day. We all got our burgers and hopefully Justin will post a couple of pics he took. The burger was not a dissapointment and really very tasty, I know that maybe we all make burgers at home that are not the frozen kind but not many of us take the freah butchered meat every morning and make our our hamburger meat. There is a definate difference in taste for the better actually I could eat one again right now.
They sold T-Shirts there with obviously the name of the place and on the back it said "Nobody beat OUR meat" Well Ja found this amusing and got himself one and then Nick thought it funny too and went ahead and got himself one too. So there is another pic in the parking lot as they put them on again hopefully Justin will post that too.

We left Russellville, Arkansas with full bellies and very content.
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We had a hike ahead of us to get to Oklahoma City but we knew we would pass the time somehow. Telling stories mostly about one player or another and a couple of good ones came out. JA tells a story about Buddy hall with one of those trick lighter things that shock you. Its a long story but had Nick and I laughing for a while. We had tried yesterday to bid on hotel rooms here in OKC but were not having any luck and so we tried again today with no luck at a good price. Not sure what is going on but this trip just hasn't been good for the hotel bidding and that is usually when its busy. We nelieve that there was a Sooners game today and that is what is hampering us. So we decide that we will just stop by hotels that we like and see what can be done. The first one had no room but the second one was a good hotel and a good price so here we are. We finally got in about 9pm so not too bad, and we are all ready for bed since we have a private clinic in the morning starting at 9am and then the real clinic starting right after it at 11am. We will be able to get some rest tomorrow afternoon and the next day but We are all really serious about doing the best job possible we can do for the people in the clinics (Not that I do any teaching but just a mindset) Making sure that the guys are rested and ready to go is very important.
My buddy from Lincoln, Nebraska Finch is in town and texting me to go over to the pool room tonight and I am very tempted right now but I have things to do tonight yet and its 10.20 here. I know I won't be going over there for just a beer and leaving once we get chatting etc. So I am thinking my best bet is to stay here and get the sleep I need. We are actually here for 3 nights so plenty of time to hang out. We are as bad as eachother and don't take alot of talking into "just having one more beer before we leave". After this stop I will be running into the same problem with Shane "Cuephoric" in Dallas. I love seeing old friends but they keep me out too long drinking and playing pool. I guess thats why they are friends :) I don't think I have forgotten anything but if I did I will be back. Otherwise a report tomorrow after the clinics.
 
It's almost 8am I have been up for about 45mins packing. Nick gave us our instructions that we were to be packed and ready to go at 8.30am. He wants to move to to a different hotel as we booked it yesterday at a great rate for the next 2 nights, it was just last night where we had a problem. The hotel we are at is still a good rate and it nice and fairly big rooms. It would be easier for us to just stay here for the difference in what it costs. However, Nick decided he wants to move and once he gets something in his head its hard to get him away from it. It can be done but you have to have a good reason to get him to change his mind and you must have a good argument. So I think its gonna be easier to just go ahead and move this morning than trying to change Nicks mind. Sothe plan is to pack up the van, move to the hotel across the street and be at Jamaica Joes for the private lessons by 9am.
I am really glad I didn't go out last night and meet with Finch cos I would be worthless right now.
Oh last night I went outside for a smoke and as I passed the business center I see JA in there on the computer. Guess what he was doing?? yeah reading these reports/blog. He was laughing at something Not sure what but he said he likes what I am doing. Be back after the clinics today if anything is worth talking about.
 
What a day, As I said previously we were up early for pool players since we had a fairly late night last night. We got there to find the pool room almost filled at 8.45ish am. There was a USAPL event going on that had gone withouth thought and that we was not expecting but still we had an area that we could have to ourselves for the private lessons in the morning and then the original clinic in from 11am to 3 pm. We were greeted by Jessica and Shane the owners of Jamaica Joes and made welcome right away. See Jessica is my buddy Finch's sister. As I said last night he is a bad influence on me and no sooner had I seen Jessica I see finch heading toward me. "Oh no, man its too early to see you I have things to do before you try to wrangle me into some stupid bet for a shot" We all stood around and really didn't have much to say but insults and digs. Thank god Kenb showed up "Okie on here" and so we chatted a while and even he got dragged into some insults on his standard of play. Okie is a nice guy and did absoloutly nothing to encourage the onslaught of harrassment he got on his playing ability and took it well and the nfelt comfortable enought with us to jab back a little, good for him.
The clinics went well and Finch and I argued over everything his mom was there too and his step dad. Two great people in the pool world in their own right and have supported just about everything I have asked them to help out with. These guys don't realy need to do anything for pool but they keep doing things and trying for one thing or another. Anita is a sweeheart, she is the mom of the bunch and gets respect from all of us. Although she is willing to throw a jab when she feels like it but always does it with a smile. Don her husband is also a great and will talk as long as you want about pool and cues. He is an avid cue collector and are the "O" in OB Cues and also the creators of Pool 300.
We had all sat around all afternoon shooting the Shit while the clinics were going on and had a great time doing it. We decided that we would all get together and have dinner tonight around 6pm. So there was Don and Anita, Anita's friend, Shane from Jamaica Joes, Varner Finch and myself. We have a great dinner at a place I think called Air Depot. A seafood/.seak house. I had fillet wrapped in bacon and it was delicious Nick had the same and when all was said and done, Our dear friend and now dinner sponsor :) picked up the tab. What a nice guy and of course his lovely wife Anita. We were very greatful as we wasn't expecting that at all since we had asked them if they wanted to go to dinner. After dinner I came back to the hotel and Nick went to play some cheap one snatch. JA wanted to watch golf and so here we are. We work again tomorrow night but I will be back before then I am sure. Oh I will be back real quick to tell you about JA scaring Nick and Nick scaring JA.
 
CaptainHook said:
Can't wait to see the pics, that's funny that JA was reading the thread.:grin-square:
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Yes, I was a little suprised myself to see JA reading it. Fathomeblue said he was going to post the pics he took today sometime, I am looking forward to seeing them myself.
 
LAst night I could not sleep, did not even feel like I wanted to sleep. So I had a couple of bourbon and cokes thinking that would help but it didn't. So I ended up watching youtube videos til 3am and woke up at 11.30am. So much for being able to get a lot of rest today, maybe I will be able to take a nap this afternoon. I have a couple of things that I need to do so we shall see.
Just went out for a smoke and saw Nick sat in the lobby on the phone, JA is out and about and coming to pick me up in a little while to go to Walmart.
The show is tonight at Jamaica Joes at 7.30pm come on by and say hi if you are in the area. Oh I said I was gonna tell you about JA scaring Nick and Nick scaring JA. Ity all happened at the same time. Nick had gone to bed and JA was doing something else and told Nick to leave the TV on and put the remote on the middle bedside table (Oh they room together on the tours) So JA comes back to the room to find it in darkness and fumbles around and can't find the light switch. So he feels on the bedside table for the remote to turn on the tv and give him some light. Its not there and so he thinks that Nick fell asleep with the remote in his hand and its gonna be laying next to him in or around the sheets. So he quietly and gently feels around the side of the bed feeling for the remote but no luck, he pulls back the sheets a little to see if its are laying right there under the top sheet. As he does Nick wakes up in the darkness with someone stood over him and sliding their hand around the bed and in the sheets. He jumps hup witha loud "WHAT THE F&$K IS GOING ON?" So Nick is startled. This loud yell with Nick jumping up scared JA as he is trying to be quiet. Now JA yells "AARRRHHH" and jumps back almost falling down. They yell back and forth to eachother for a second about what was going on and why and then laughed and told me about it first thing the next day. I can just see all this happening and especially with Nick and his personality its pretty funny.

Thats all I got for now, its a nice day here in Oklahoma and looking forward to tonight. I wish that Ken "Okie" had stuck around to maybe come to dinner last night. I think he is gonna be around tonight so maybe he will post something about his experience after tonight.
 
bfdlad said:
LAst night I could not sleep, did not even feel like I wanted to sleep. So I had a couple of bourbon and cokes thinking that would help but it didn't. So I ended up watching youtube videos til 3am and woke up at 11.30am. So much for being able to get a lot of rest today, maybe I will be able to take a nap this afternoon. I have a couple of things that I need to do so we shall see.
Just went out for a smoke and saw Nick sat in the lobby on the phone, JA is out and about and coming to pick me up in a little while to go to Walmart.
The show is tonight at Jamaica Joes at 7.30pm come on by and say hi if you are in the area. Oh I said I was gonna tell you about JA scaring Nick and Nick scaring JA. Ity all happened at the same time. Nick had gone to bed and JA was doing something else and told Nick to leave the TV on and put the remote on the middle bedside table (Oh they room together on the tours) So JA comes back to the room to find it in darkness and fumbles around and can't find the light switch. So he feels on the bedside table for the remote to turn on the tv and give him some light. Its not there and so he thinks that Nick fell asleep with the remote in his hand and its gonna be laying next to him in or around the sheets. So he quietly and gently feels around the side of the bed feeling for the remote but no luck, he pulls back the sheets a little to see if its are laying right there under the top sheet. As he does Nick wakes up in the darkness with someone stood over him and sliding their hand around the bed and in the sheets. He jumps hup witha loud "WHAT THE F&$K IS GOING ON?" So Nick is startled. This loud yell with Nick jumping up scared JA as he is trying to be quiet. Now JA yells "AARRRHHH" and jumps back almost falling down. They yell back and forth to eachother for a second about what was going on and why and then laughed and told me about it first thing the next day. I can just see all this happening and especially with Nick and his personality its pretty funny.

Thats all I got for now, its a nice day here in Oklahoma and looking forward to tonight. I wish that Ken "Okie" had stuck around to maybe come to dinner last night. I think he is gonna be around tonight so maybe he will post something about his experience after tonight.
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I wish I could have stuck around yesterday as well. However, I did enjoy my son's soccer game until he was sidelined with a suspected concussion. :(

We have been monitoring him very closely and he seems good...thankfully!

I spent about 5 hours hitting balls last night thinking of only hitting the cue ball correctly as prescribed by Mr. Archer. All I can say is if I get it, then there is gonna be a lot of disappointed players in OKC after I go through them. Of course right now they love playing ol' Kenny! :embarrassed2:

I will be there tonight and be there as early as life let's me get there! To anyone on the fence about hooking up with these boys in the near future, DO IT!

Ken
 
I was just asked on Facebook for an update on Nicks finger. I actually saw it for the first time yesterday and I was cringing at the thought of what I was gonna see but it wan't as bad as I thought it was gonna be. He has the big bandage off now and just and a small dressing on there that he has to change everyday and keep clean. This will not be an issue anymore I don't think and he has not mentioned about it hurting at all even when he plays. So as bad as it looked and as much as they had to do to his finger to get it out its all gonna be fine. Still glad it wasn't me though :)
 
Okie said:
I wish I could have stuck around yesterday as well. However, I did enjoy my son's soccer game until he was sidelined with a suspected concussion. :(

We have been monitoring him very closely and he seems good...thankfully!

I spent about 5 hours hitting balls last night thinking of only hitting the cue ball correctly as prescribed by Mr. Archer. All I can say is if I get it, then there is gonna be a lot of disappointed players in OKC after I go through them. Of course right now they love playing ol' Kenny! :embarrassed2:

I will be there tonight and be there as early as life let's me get there! To anyone on the fence about hooking up with these boys in the near future, DO IT!

Ken
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Thanks Ken for your endorsement and I hope that your son gets over it quick. My sone got a concusion a couple of weeks ago from football. Thankfully they have a new High School program there that is focused on Concussions and the effect they have. So there is a very stringent testing with all kinds of doctors and medical personel that check everything before they play or practice and after a hit. They kept him out of practice and playing until they were satisfied and that was a little too long for him. Again I hope he is ok and I will see you tonight.
 
fathomblue said:
I just realized that I have no idea how to post pics on here. Any clues?

http://us.mg1.mail.yahoo.com/ya/dow...AAQkDUF6SSQL4PCLrxS4&pid=2&fid=Inbox&inline=1

http://us.mg1.mail.yahoo.com/ya/dow...AAAJmUF6PXQN0+3I5yn0&pid=2&fid=Inbox&inline=1

Ok, I got the link to work, but is there a way to post the pic so that it appears in the thread without having to have the viewer click on a link?
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Justin those links are not working buddy.

I will be doing my write up later as we have to leave for Richardson TX right now but last night was alot of fun.
 
Legends And Champions

Man where do I start . I signed up for the clinic , had no idea what was going to happen , well they cut us up in two groups , I wanted to be in Kens group , we kind of bounce idea off each other but it did not happen. But it was ok I was with a fine group .We went with Mr. Varner first , what amount of pool smarts this man has . He had a program of stuff to show us , but we had our own itenarerry , we kept him hoppin with stuff we needed to work on , he helped all of us a lot. Next for our group was Mr.Archer . If you ever go to a zoo and you have a Tiger look at you , you know what I mean , with a big smile too . He talked to us for a while , then he set up some shots and watched us jab em in the rails , then he told us our strong points and where we need work , very helpfull . Then he played each of us at least two games each , you need to experence this , to watch him move is worth every penny . I don't know about this Mark guy , he talks funny , and fast, kind of like a rat on crack . Just kiddin Mark you did a fine job of keppin things runnin smooth. can't say enough about the clinic , The show on monday the best I ever saw , I will let Mark tell you about it . If these guys come to your state at least go see the show , if you want to improve your game take the clinic for the stuff you learn its cheep. Fingers are tired , see ya . Robert
 
FELIX said:
Man where do I start . I signed up for the clinic , had no idea what was going to happen , well they cut us up in two groups , I wanted to be in Kens group , we kind of bounce idea off each other but it did not happen. But it was ok I was with a fine group .We went with Mr. Varner first , what amount of pool smarts this man has . He had a program of stuff to show us , but we had our own itenarerry , we kept him hoppin with stuff we needed to work on , he helped all of us a lot. Next for our group was Mr.Archer . If you ever go to a zoo and you have a Tiger look at you , you know what I mean , with a big smile too . He talked to us for a while , then he set up some shots and watched us jab em in the rails , then he told us our strong points and where we need work , very helpfull . Then he played each of us at least two games each , you need to experence this , to watch him move is worth every penny . I don't know about this Mark guy , he talks funny , and fast, kind of like a rat on crack . Just kiddin Mark you did a fine job of keppin things runnin smooth. can't say enough about the clinic , The show on monday the best I ever saw , I will let Mark tell you about it . If these guys come to your state at least go see the show , if you want to improve your game take the clinic for the stuff you learn its cheep. Fingers are tired , see ya . Robert
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I wish we had been in the same group as well. We just didn't speak up fast enough. Mark offered we just stalled when he did. :)

I posted on Facebook the two main things I learned. One, I suck. Two, everyone is human and and makes inexplicable mistakes. So as the old saying goes...it's getting knocked down that defines you it is what you do when you get back up...or something like that :D

As Mark will tell ya shortly I am sure, there was one hell of a pool exhibition put on last night in OKC!!

Ken
 
A rat on crack??? Wow, funny Felix cos you seem like such a nice guy in person :) Thank you for the nice things and endorsement of our tour.
Thanks Ken also for your endorsement it is appreciated and it was great to meet you guys.

Well I am going to leave the explanation of the clinic to someone else if they feel up to it. All I will say is it turned quite exiting with a little extra cheese out there to be won. The crowd was great and everyone had a good time. Between all the peopole that I already knew and have good relationships with it made the show even more fun than usual because of the heckling I got from time to time. I think that everyone had a great time including Johnny and Nick. I do need to say a big thank you to Jamaica Joes and Pool 300 for adding extra cash to the pot but they didn't make it easy to earn. The challenged JA to try and perform a feat that has never been done with the pool 300 game and break and run 12 racks of 10 ball. There was about $1,500 bonus if he did it and although this is not something that we usually do the crowd wanted to see it and see if the great JA could actually do it. So JA said since we were getting paid to be there and that is what the owners and the crowd wanted to see there was no harm in giving it a try. I have no doubt in JA's ability but breaking and running 10 racks is something that does not happen everyday so I fiigured this would not take long. Well he broke and ran the first rack, ok so its JA I have seen him and others do that before so no big deal. Then he does it again, and again, and again before I know it someones comes to me and says man thats 7 racks he has done. OK so now it had my attention, nicks attention and everyone elses attention. after the eighth rack now people are cheering, rack 9 and 10 go by and now people are hooting, cheering yelling go Johnny. rack 11 goes by and its down to the last rack if he runs this rack we get a nice additional payday for doing what we do and everyone got to see something special. To be honest I think that they have already seen something special so now it was just down to can he finish the challenge and do it.. JA shape had been almost perfect the whole time and on the last rack he hooked himself but still had a combo but it wasn't easy. He also could have jumped and got it and so he looked at the options he had and went for the combo and rattled it. Still from watching I think I smoked a pack of cigs and drank a little more that usual :) It was alot of fun and enjoyed it. I would still like to hear others account of the whole evening if they feel so inclined.

Things ran alot longer than they were scheduled to and by the time we said our goodbyes it was 1.30am. After getting McDonalds and coming down from the fun it was almost 3am again. We had breakfast plans for 9am that were put off as soon as my alarm went off as there was no way that any of us were gonna be able to get out of bed at 8am after the past 2 nights. We also had to leave around 11am to head to Richardson for the show tonight at the Billiard Den. So I ended up getting out of bed at 10am waking up etc and we went out to breakfast before we hit the road. Got to say the drivce from OKC to Dallas is a very uneventful one and we stopped a couple of times just to break the bordom. We will be able to sleep in a little tomorrow and then we have some lunch plans with Don and Anita Owen tomorrow so that will be nice to go and hang out at their place for a little while and not be in a hotel or a pool room. just a change thats all.

So its now 5.20pm we havn't been here in Richardson very long, just enough time for me to get in my room and write this post. We have to be ready to leave here at 7pm for the show so I have time to just chill a little while. Nick just called and is out looking foir some food. I told him to get some Dickies BBQ, the brisket sandwich is awesome. Well as always if you are around the Billiard Den please stop by and say hi and enjoy the show.
 
bfdlad said:
A rat on crack??? Wow, funny Felix cos you seem like such a nice guy in person :) Thank you for the nice things and endorsement of our tour.
Thanks Ken also for your endorsement it is appreciated and it was great to meet you guys.

Well I am going to leave the explanation of the clinic to someone else if they feel up to it. All I will say is it turned quite exiting with a little extra cheese out there to be won. The crowd was great and everyone had a good time. Between all the peopole that I already knew and have good relationships with it made the show even more fun than usual because of the heckling I got from time to time. I think that everyone had a great time including Johnny and Nick. I do need to say a big thank you to Jamaica Joes and Pool 300 for adding extra cash to the pot but they didn't make it easy to earn. The challenged JA to try and perform a feat that has never been done with the pool 300 game and break and run 12 racks of 10 ball. There was about $1,500 bonus if he did it and although this is not something that we usually do the crowd wanted to see it and see if the great JA could actually do it. So JA said since we were getting paid to be there and that is what the owners and the crowd wanted to see there was no harm in giving it a try. I have no doubt in JA's ability but breaking and running 10 racks is something that does not happen everyday so I fiigured this would not take long. Well he broke and ran the first rack, ok so its JA I have seen him and others do that before so no big deal. Then he does it again, and again, and again before I know it someones comes to me and says man thats 7 racks he has done. OK so now it had my attention, nicks attention and everyone elses attention. after the eighth rack now people are cheering, rack 9 and 10 go by and now people are hooting, cheering yelling go Johnny. rack 11 goes by and its down to the last rack if he runs this rack we get a nice additional payday for doing what we do and everyone got to see something special. To be honest I think that they have already seen something special so now it was just down to can he finish the challenge and do it.. JA shape had been almost perfect the whole time and on the last rack he hooked himself but still had a combo but it wasn't easy. He also could have jumped and got it and so he looked at the options he had and went for the combo and rattled it. Still from watching I think I smoked a pack of cigs and drank a little more that usual :) It was alot of fun and enjoyed it. I would still like to hear others account of the whole evening if they feel so inclined.

Things ran alot longer than they were scheduled to and by the time we said our goodbyes it was 1.30am. After getting McDonalds and coming down from the fun it was almost 3am again. We had breakfast plans for 9am that were put off as soon as my alarm went off as there was no way that any of us were gonna be able to get out of bed at 8am after the past 2 nights. We also had to leave around 11am to head to Richardson for the show tonight at the Billiard Den. So I ended up getting out of bed at 10am waking up etc and we went out to breakfast before we hit the road. Got to say the drivce from OKC to Dallas is a very uneventful one and we stopped a couple of times just to break the bordom. We will be able to sleep in a little tomorrow and then we have some lunch plans with Don and Anita Owen tomorrow so that will be nice to go and hang out at their place for a little while and not be in a hotel or a pool room. just a change thats all.

So its now 5.20pm we havn't been here in Richardson very long, just enough time for me to get in my room and write this post. We have to be ready to leave here at 7pm for the show so I have time to just chill a little while. Nick just called and is out looking foir some food. I told him to get some Dickies BBQ, the brisket sandwich is awesome. Well as always if you are around the Billiard Den please stop by and say hi and enjoy the show.
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Hey if you guys wants eom real Texas BBQ, go TO Mike Anderson's on Harry hines blvd. Its about 20-30 mins from the den

www.mikeandersonsbbq.com/
 
Txstang1 said:
Hey if you guys wants eom real Texas BBQ, go TO Mike Anderson's on Harry hines blvd. Its about 20-30 mins from the den

www.mikeandersonsbbq.com/
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Always open to good food suggestions, I will look and see what time they close because with the schedule we have right now its gonna be hard to fit it in. Thanks you for the idea though lets see.
 
Hell yeah! It worked. Ok, I'll have to post the rest tomorrow and give my summary of the weekend.

I'll just let you know that this was one of the most fun weekends of my life, because I LOVE pool. And it was amazing to even get the chance to hang out with Nick, Johnny and Mark, much less learn what I learned.

It really makes me want to get a full-blown all day lesson with those guys at some point.

They are such NICE guys. Really. I had a blast. More to come tomorrow.
 

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Mark Cantrill. Did you guys know that he's.......British? It's the damndest thing. Who knew, right? :eek:
 

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What a handsome man :) Thanks for posting the pictures, we had a great time. Keep em coming I know you have more. :)
 
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