Day One at Turning Stone

JAM

JAM

I am the storm
Silver Member
Greetings from Verona, NY. We arrived last night at 7:00 p.m., and it was only a matter of minutes before we hit the casino games. We ran into Ralf Souquet at the front desk in the lobby as he was checking in. I took the opportunity to congratulate him on his fine performance at the DCC, and if he, in fact, contributes his new bounce in his step to his new lady. Ralf smiled from ear to ear and said yes, he is a very happy camper.

Heard it through the grapevine that LilJon's car engine blew up en route to Turning Stone Casino and that he won't be here. Tough break for one of Mississippi's finest.

Tony Mougey from Ohio is here with his brother, just back from the IPT qualifier in Georgia. He said he's been practing and feels he's hitting 'em pretty sporty. He intends on competing in the IPT qualifier next weekend in Chelmsford.

Tommy D'Alphonso and Keith got right down to business on the craps table and blackjack, until 4:30 a.m. this morning. The pit bosses remembered Keith, and the dice tables were on fire last night, with patrons hooping and hollering. At one juncture, they had every number lit up with several hundred on each one. Thankfully, there are no gambling losses to report to date, and the action will continue tonight.

As you might expect up here in Upstate New York, the local pool folk are looking for New York's favorite Dennis Hatch to take off this whole tournament, and from what I have heard, he's in dead punch. I overheard in an elevator conversation that Dennis has been taking advanage of the exercise room and spa here. He looks like a mighty stallion in the flesh, and he'll be a force to be reckoned with this week. I'm glad he's not in Keith's bracket.

No Filippino domination here this time, with the exception of Jalapena. I was pleasantly surprised to see the brackets on the home page. Keith looks to be in a good slot, but y'all know how tournaments go. I'm hoping he can just stay alive until Day Two.

Well, that's about it so far. We just got back from a wonderful breakfast buffet, and I'm enjoying my triple-shot grande latte from Starbucks. All the amenities of home, and then some.

Will report back later on with more snippets after the players meeting which begins at 2:00. I also learned that the top banana of AzBilliards will be arriving here this weekend. See you soon, Mike!

JAM
 
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Although there was snow predicted yesterday, I didn't see one flake. It was 60 degrees all the way to the Turning Stone. Of course, these Upstate New Yorkers think it's spring if the temperature stays above 40.

BTW, for those who have trouble signing in, to include AOL users, I could not sign on until I pulled up AzBillards in the IE window. For some reason, just going in through straight AOL, I would sign in, type in my password, got the Welcome greeting, but then came up empty. AOL has a free dial-up number here in Verona, NY, but I can only connect at 14,000. I'm going to use the high-speed computer in the business center in the future. What takes me 30 minutes to sign in via my dial-up laptop and post one note will take me 3 minutes with the high-speed cable.

jAM
 
JAM said:
Greetings from Verona, NY. We arrived last night at 7:00 p.m., and it was only a matter of minutes before we hit the casino games. We ran into Ralf Souquet at the front desk in the lobby as he was checking in. I took the opportunity to congratulate him on his fine performance at the DCC, and if he, in fact, contributes his new bounce in his step to his new lady. Ralf smiled from ear to ear and said yes, he is a very happy camper.

Heard it through the grapevine that LilJon's car engine blew up en route to Turning Stone Casino and that he won't be here. Tough break for one of Mississippi's finest.

Tony Mougey from Ohio is here with his brother, just back from the IPT qualifier in Georgia. He said he's been practing and feels he's hitting 'em pretty sporty. He intends on competing in the IPT qualifier next weekend in Chelmsford.

Tommy D'Alphonso and Keith got right down to business on the craps table and blackjack, until 4:30 a.m. this morning. The pit bosses remembered Keith, and the dice tables were on fire last night, with patrons hooping and hollering. At one juncture, they had every number lit up with several hundred on each one. Thankfully, there are no gambling losses to report to date, and the action will continue tonight.

As you might expect up here in Upstate New York, the local pool folk are looking for New York's favorite Dennis Hatch to take off this whole tournament, and from what I have heard, he's in dead punch. I overheard in an elevator conversation that Dennis has been taking advanage of the exercise room and spa here. He looks like a mighty stallion in the flesh, and he'll be a force to be reckoned with this week. I'm glad he's not in Keith's bracket.

No Filippino domination here this time, with the exception of Jalapena. I was pleasantly surprised to see the brackets on the home page. Keith looks to be in a good slot, but y'all know how tournaments go. I'm hoping he can just stay alive until Day Two.

Well, that's about it so far. We just got back from a wonderful breakfast buffet, and I'm enjoying my triple-shot grande latte from Starbucks. All the amenities of home, and then some.

Will report back later on with more snippets after the players meeting which begins at 2:00. I also learned that the top banana of AzBilliards will be arriving here this weekend. See you soon, Mike!

JAM
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Hey Jam,

I, as well as many others I'm sure will be waiting anxiously for any and all updates.
Best of luck to Keith in the tournament as well as on the tables, have a great time!

Jim
 
Thanks JAM!!

Thanks for the update(s) JAM!! You RULE!! Tell Jerry Slivka that "The Guz" from Turtle Creek says Good Luck......he can win the whole thing! Look forward to meeting you at the Super Billiards Expo JAM.........this time I'll actually talk to you..........good luck to your horse too:)
 
The Lovely Jennifer and Veteran Karen Corr

Jennifer Baretta defeated Jimmy Forsythe on a hill-hill, much to the delight of a full crowd of spectators. I could hardly see the match from where I was sitting. Forsythe had her stuck, 5 to 1, but Jennifer then took advantage of every opportunity that came her way, and caught a second wind, winning her first round at the Joss event.

Karen Corr, always so focused and determined, got her first win, beating a second-place U.S. amateur champion, whose name escapes me at the time of this writing. I think it is Heidrich, but I'm not sure.

Sparky Ferrell is getting ready to play Nick Vidol right now, and Allen Hopkins is also next on the agenda. The feature match-up, though, is Ryan "Genie Man" McCreesh vs. Kim Davenport.

The ladies make it past round one. Nice way to start a tournament, I say!

JAM
 
JAM said:
I took the opportunity to congratulate him on his fine performance at the DCC, and if he, in fact, contributes his new bounce in his step to his new lady. Ralf smiled from ear to ear and said yes, he is a very happy camper.
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Is she blonde with a southern accent?
 
Hi Jen.... could not make it today (thursday) but i have decided to come up on Saturday morning for the day. Tell Keith i said hi and tell ryan to keeep plugging. see you all on saturday...............mike
 
Congrats to Keith for winning first game (at pool) lol, glad you are doing huge in casino. Best of luck tomorrow.
thanks for the great reports.
 
It was quite an exciting first day, with several feature match-ups, resulting in some unexpected upsets.

Keith is elated to have won his first match, but I think what really made his tournament the best was receiving a brand-new shaft from Michael Webb, which Keith believes is the best thing to come along his way in quite a long time. Custom-made to his specs, it's a 4.2 ouncer, 12-7/5 shaft, a nice long professional taper, with a hard Morri tip. Mike said this is a one-of-a-kind shaft made with some very special wood which will hold up to Keith's liking.

Sparky won his first match again Vidal a/k/a "Spain," 9 to 4.

The Allen Hopkins vs. Ray McNamara match was a hard-fought battle. I thought Allen was going to sail his way through to 9 when he had Ray stuck 5 to 0, but after a few unfortunate leaves, Ray came back with a little fire power, 6 to 4, still Allen in the lead. The score seesawed, but then McNamara scratched on the break, leaving Hopkins a fairly tough 1-9 combo. When the dust settled, Allen scored the big "W," pocketing the 9. Spectators were commenting on how smooth Allen is moving the ball.

Shawn Putnam lost a heart-breaker to Adam Smith. The match was tight, but I've gotta say that Adam was taking quite a long time to shoot between shots, and as the trend is these days, he started picking lint off the table, walked the perimter of the table several times, before he would pull the trigger. Tough loss for Putnam, but a great win for Adam. The speed of Adam's play, though, is difficult to watch.

Kim Davenport gave it his all and ended up going hill-hill with Ryan McCreesh. Kim made it to the hill, only needing one game for the win. McCreesh kept fighting back, making the 9-ball on the break, to bring the score closer, and then along came the tie-breaker, one game for the win, with Ryan breaking. Kim racked and reracked and reracked and reracked at McCreesh's insistence, but the veteran never let it bother him and tried his best to accommodate Ryan's crying. Finally, after about 10 minues of this racking ritual, Ryan submitted and went with Kim's rack. He broke, missed, and Davenport made a beautiful run-out for the win.

Jerry Slivka lost to a player named Kong, 9 to zero. I didn't see the match, but I was very surprised to see Jerry not score one game. The same thing happened with Danny Hewett in an earlier match when he knocked down his opponent with a 9-zip.

AzBilliard's Aaron stepped up to the plate tonight and faced his opponent, hoping for the best. He has been practicing every day, looking forward to the Turning Stone event, and it paid off. He's on his way up the A side of the charts, beating his man down with a brilliant win, 9 to 5.

After hours, of course, we all returned to the dice tables and put on another show, much to the dismay of the pit bosses. Some of the players in attendance on the Dice Patrol were: Tony Ruberto, Tommy D'Alphonso, Allen Hopkins, Frankie White, Dennis Hatch, and Keith, of course. To be continued tomorrow night.

Keith will be coming up against a veteran champion, Joe DiPietro, beginning tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 p.m.

JAM
 
Waldo's said:
Jam, great info any pictures of the event. Thanks
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Pics! Pics! JAM that sidestroker one of Keith for the boys in CAL. Thanks for the updates!!
 

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