Going again this year, will play 1 pocket, maybe banks if I get there early. Hope to see everyone in the AZ room again. Tom
Derby City Classic!
- Thread starter richiebalto
- Start date
When do they start taking entry fees?
I am going to the DCC and plan on eating hot browns in Big L on Bardstown Rd. Late night ice cream is also on the agenda on a regular basis, plus my usual one pocket match with some guy from Chicago I met a few years ago. Playing in the tournaments are almost out since I can never tell one day from the next how the pain levels will be. May do banks and one pocket. Most definitely will take down Lulu, Dudly, Ghost again this year. That will pay for the trip. I will be taking some nice cues with me to sell. Several Limited Schons, UL(uncle larry), Black Pearl. Jazz cues, Samsara, Woodsworth. Of course I will have my usual broke horse games my traveling companion sets up. Maybe a certain lawyer from Seattle will want to play either JR or me. YEE HAW Reporting from Best Coast pool live action from the TV Table. :thumbup::thumbup:
I play Banks, just not very good. Not good enough to play in the tournament anyway. :smile:
I don't know about that Jay, and don't give us that I'm too old bs.
From the article, partially printed below, sounds like you ran with the big dogs. (main subject of the article is Buddy Hall, it's a good read)
Are you a hustler, Jay?
From an old Sports Illustrated article: Coolest Hand With a Cue
By Walter Tevis
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1089351/index.htm
By the electric green table with narrow pockets under a cone of light stands Hippie Jimmy, James Reid of Detroit, in his early 20s and one of the best nine-ball men of his time. Like the table, Jimmy is dressed in green, but a darker shade, close to olive. He has on tight knit flares and a matching green T shirt with beige embroidery at the neck. On the table sit the 15 garish balls that absorb a pool hustler's skill and maybe his dreams, racked into their triangle, ready to be broken. Hippie Jimmy holds in his hand a 57-inch, 20-ounce pool cue with steel joint, ivory inlays and gray silk-wrapped butt, every inch of it handmade by Bill Stroud of Joss Cues West in the clean air of Aspen, Colo., a million miles from this big poolroom in Dayton, Ohio.
It is between matches here in the third week of the Tournament of Champions, usually called the hustlers' tournament because the matches do not include straight pool, the game of such suit-and-tie respectables as Willie Mosconi and Joe Balsis. Instead they are divided among the three biggest gamblers' games: one-pocket, bank pool and nine-ball.
Jimmy begins banking balls. In the game of bank you must drive a colored ball to a rail and then into a pocket without kissing another ball in order to score a point. The first to score 23 balls out of three racks wins a match. More than three weeks of nightly matches here at Forest Park Billiards in Dayton, and if you win them all you are declared Bank Pool Champion of the World, or One-Pocket Champion or Nine-Ball Champion. Bank pool is Jimmy's weakest game, and he misses his first shot, but then he banks three in a row, misses again and runs four. Someone in the stands begins to applaud.
The six rows of bleachers are beginning to fill, mostly with ordinary-looking people. There are 62 professionals here who have paid up to $325 to play for $30,000 in prize money, and you might spot some of the hustlers by their sharp, mod clothes, men like Jim Rempe, or the cousins Pete and Jimmy Fusco of Philadelphia, or Bugs Rucker, or Ronnie Allen, the younger generation. But you could be fooled by some drably dressed middle-aged men like Boston Shorty, or Jersey Red, or Luther (Wimpy) Lassiter, or that country maniac of gamblers, Cornbread Red, all of whom look like Middle America but handle a cue stick as though it were the wand of Glinda the Good of Oz.
The main thing is, it would be unwise to play pool of whatever kind for money with anybody in this room. There are some serious people here.
Jay Helfert, Toupee Jay, comes in, small, agile and bald. The toupee is what he wears the second time he plays for money in a town on the road. He and Jimmy nod at each other. Joe Burns, who owns the poolroom, turns on the lights over the two other new tables in the tournament room. Three matches will go on simultaneously, featuring each of the games. On the first table Ray Martin, winner of the 1974 World Invitational in straight pool, will be playing nine-ball against Kenny (The Trucker) McCoy. Martin, who looks like a Country-and-Western singer with his glossy black hair and blazing loud shirt, says, "Freeze that rack tight, please. I break 'em like a girl, but I want 'em froze." Hippie Jimmy and Toupee Jay are lagging for their bank-pool game on the middle table, and on table three Luther Lassiter, looking like a fit, middle-aged golfer in his powder blue cardigan, is chalking up to play against Jimmy Fusco at one-pocket.
This tournament is the best there ever was or will be,where do u ever see a tournament where every name in it is a real threat to win it,FATBOY tournament is 1 of a kind,i like to see pepsi jump on this tournament and make it even bigger,this is the ultimate tournament in the whole wide world,if u ever win this tournament,u were the best player in the world at that moment,i would rather win this then the us open,there r no byes here!
Book it Baby!
I'll be there all 9 days this year for the first time ever.
Your 2 x Collegiate National Champ and US Amateur Champ is gonna be competing in all 3 events!
I don't have much experience playing Banks and 1 Pocket but I'll be putting in my chips and trying to compete with the best at this Year's Derby. Maybe I'll get lucky and make a little noise!
All the best and wish everyone safe travels to the venue!
See you there,
Raymond
I'll be there all 9 days this year for the first time ever.
Your 2 x Collegiate National Champ and US Amateur Champ is gonna be competing in all 3 events!
I don't have much experience playing Banks and 1 Pocket but I'll be putting in my chips and trying to compete with the best at this Year's Derby. Maybe I'll get lucky and make a little noise!
All the best and wish everyone safe travels to the venue!
See you there,
Raymond
Where did you find that? It's about 100 years old! Like me :smile:
P.S. I won that match, got very lucky.
I am looking forward to seeing and chatting with friends again.
I always enjoyed the long walk from the hotel to the lobby. It's a long walk, at first. But after a couple of days, I found it very relaxing, mentally.
I will gain a few pounds from eating all that ice cream. That little ice cream shop sure has some good stuff.
The after hours activities are going to be fun whether it's at the poker room or sweating some good gambling matches.
I always enjoyed the long walk from the hotel to the lobby. It's a long walk, at first. But after a couple of days, I found it very relaxing, mentally.
I will gain a few pounds from eating all that ice cream. That little ice cream shop sure has some good stuff.
The after hours activities are going to be fun whether it's at the poker room or sweating some good gambling matches.
One Pocket
I haven't been to the new location, I really enjoyed Louisville.
Going to enter the One Pocket as I always do.
I'll be ther everyday.
I am assuming it's best to stay at the casino?
I haven't been to the new location, I really enjoyed Louisville.
Going to enter the One Pocket as I always do.
I'll be ther everyday.
I am assuming it's best to stay at the casino?
I'm your huckleberry cleary....easiest action at the Derby
definitely (for staying at the casino)...it's in the boondocks, and the next closest hotel is NOT close. Actually, NOTHING is close (food, gas station, anything)! I still find time to get away from the Horseshoe, but I always feel like I'm going to miss something when I'm gone
I'm a whole new level of easy action. Last year I lost to the follow AZ Billiard's members. KtowD, Derek Disco, Beav99_4life, JCIN... im sure there were more but these guys are all pretty bad and all took my money without a problem. I played Silver Ochoa a few games of 15-4 one pocket and never had a chance! This year, I need to make better games! I need weight!!!
what did Sylver cost ya? I'd love to try that (and lose like you did)! :thumbup:
I'm not sure I've ever won a single game of ANYTHING at the Derby
I haven't played the others, but I banged a few around with Beav on the barbox one year (he can tell ya; I'm BAD!!)...then Shane (that Shane) shot a bit with my cue (nothing rubbed off, unfortunately).
Last edited:
I will be there to make my usual contribution to The Pro Pool Player Retirement Fund, 1Pocket Division.
Lou Figueroa