AZB Player Money List - top 10 last 5 years (After IPT)
- Thread starter Roy Steffensen
- Start date
TheThaiger
Banned
Yawn. I know several people who've sought out and played Reyes. Guess what, none of them played him for free. Cheap it may have been - to them - but he only plays for money.
Many do quit. But in most cases, there's an in between situation. There are thousands of players who cannot make a living at it, but love the game, so they can't quit. As a result, pool is full of pro-speed part-timers.
I mentioned the IPT, then someone else said something about how it was the first time he saw so many players really working on their game. Very true. All of a sudden, these pros were practicing intensely.
Experiences are important. And there's more to life than money. However, not everyone is Efren. For every top player like Efren, there's thousands of pro and semi-pros eating grilled cheese.
The same can be said for golf. For every Tiger Woods, there's thousands that can't make it. However, at least in golf...those outside of the elite level, but who are still pros, make a GOOD living. It's worth it for them to compete.
In pool, it's the elite who make a basic living, and then there's a cliff drop of poverty after that. Everyone else has to be a part-time player. They do other things to supplement their income. They usually stick to local or regional tournaments due to travel expenses. The risk vs. reward isn't there to travel to world class events. Despite the fact that they could be competitive in them.
Wasn't the great Steve Mizerak a school teacher? He went and got a degree because pool didn't pay. Granted, his era was the dark ages of pool. The elite make a living today, so things have improved (a little).
That is not true. Efren will also play for free. But most people like to gamble against him just to say they did.
Guess that's the difference between someone who knows several people who played Efren and someone who knows him.
And anyway, even if Efren only plays for money you can't equate agreeing to give up a huge amount of weight to play for $20 a game as Efren doing his "job".
Sorry but as we say in the good old USA, that dog don't hunt.
TheThaiger
Banned
Are you seriously saying if I pitched up in a poolhall in Manila and asked someone to arrange a game with Reyes he'd play me for nothing? I doubt it!
I am not Efren's manager. But I am pretty sure that if you got to know him a little then he would play some with you for free. I have seen him play people for free, fans who just wanted to shoot a game or two with him.
You have to understand that when Efren goes to a tournament he is mobbed by people wanting his autograph, pictures, and the like. Generally he has somewhere to be or something to do because most of the time SOMEONE wants to be doing something with him.
It's not like he is sitting around the pool room waiting for fans to show up and play him.
But the point I was and am making is that for Efren playing for $20 a game is the same as playing for free. Giving up 15:5 in one pocket for 20-30 a game is the same as Tiger Woods agreeing to play you some golf for $100 a side and spotting you ten strokes on top of it.
I've played Efren many times, most of the time we have been playing cheap sets of one-pocket, but I have also played him just for fun with no money involved.
I don't think he will do that often, but to say for a fact that he never plays without gambling is wrong.
I don't think he will do that often, but to say for a fact that he never plays without gambling is wrong.
Interesting thread. As Roy notes, many European and Asian tourneys are missing from this list. However, the story is told accurately --- the top few make about 100,000 per year in prize money. The top four (Van Boening, Appleton, Immonen, Souquet) all compete on three continents and surely have tens of thousands of expenses. Perhaps these four superstars are netting about $75,000 annually from competition.
Every member of AZB would like to see them make more money, but there are simple reasons they don't.
1) There is no continent on which the pro pool product can be sold for really big money because pool does not attract a fanbase representing the demographics that many advertisers are looking for.
2) Pool has an image problem which players and fans alike dismiss as unimportant. Players continue to display low self-esteem and a lack of professionalism publicly, and every time they do, the apologists for their behavior come out in droves (in 2011, see Alex at the DCC Straight Pool Challenge and Earl in TAR 22), reminding the players that poor professionalism will be both tolerated and embraced in the sport.
3) The game's image problem has, to a point, contaminated America's pool rooms, a) alarming many parents who might otherwise permit their children to take up the game, and b) turning off the affluent, who are playing the game less and less. The result has been countless pool room closings. If pool is to reach another level, the affluent and youthful players/enthusiasts will be the ones who deliver it from it from its current obscurity, but players have alienated their would-be saviors.
4) Professional players, far too often, have alientated their promoters, their sponsors, and their fans, and, unfathomably, many of the players feel that they themselves should price the pro pool product.
The players themselves are largely responsible for pool's failure to attract the demographics that would bring them a greater income. It does't seem to bother any of them in the least. Until it does, they'l have to settle for small incomes.
Every member of AZB would like to see them make more money, but there are simple reasons they don't.
1) There is no continent on which the pro pool product can be sold for really big money because pool does not attract a fanbase representing the demographics that many advertisers are looking for.
2) Pool has an image problem which players and fans alike dismiss as unimportant. Players continue to display low self-esteem and a lack of professionalism publicly, and every time they do, the apologists for their behavior come out in droves (in 2011, see Alex at the DCC Straight Pool Challenge and Earl in TAR 22), reminding the players that poor professionalism will be both tolerated and embraced in the sport.
3) The game's image problem has, to a point, contaminated America's pool rooms, a) alarming many parents who might otherwise permit their children to take up the game, and b) turning off the affluent, who are playing the game less and less. The result has been countless pool room closings. If pool is to reach another level, the affluent and youthful players/enthusiasts will be the ones who deliver it from it from its current obscurity, but players have alienated their would-be saviors.
4) Professional players, far too often, have alientated their promoters, their sponsors, and their fans, and, unfathomably, many of the players feel that they themselves should price the pro pool product.
The players themselves are largely responsible for pool's failure to attract the demographics that would bring them a greater income. It does't seem to bother any of them in the least. Until it does, they'l have to settle for small incomes.
Please elaborate?
