Derby City Straight Pool Challenge 2019

[jrctherake]

Just as a side note. Straight Pool is probably the best game you can use for practice by yourself. If you can learn to run a few racks (40-50 balls) you will be a good player, and capable of playing any other pool game. This from a guy who NEVER ran 100 balls in my life (high run 72).

TAP TAP TAP

GREAT POST!!!!!!

Jay, I couldn't agree more!!!!!!

When I was at my peak, 14.1 was my strongest game and my high run was 156. I don't EVER remember practicing for a "high run"..... not once.

My 156 was actually a 150 and out (only 150 and out I ever had) but ended up being 156 due to the rack-man forgetting to move 6 beads that was brought to my attention shortly after.

My high run didn't end on a miss, like most mediocre 14.1 players, I stopped when I had enough points since my average run was probably 10 to 15 in game setting.

BTW, I've had people to ask how many I could have run if I had tried. Lol.... compared to the greats, my run would have been a very, very big joke. I feel I would have been between 200 and 225 ballpark if I would've quit my job, got divorced, and lived in the pool room on the table with the biggest pockets and almost no shelf.

Although, I probably would have starved to death long before I reached that goal since I was a terrible gambler and ran business off due to not knowing how to or wanting to lay down (play only just good enough....that's for real players) regardless of how small the bet was.

Sometimes, these 14.1 threads/post bring back a lot of memories and makes me realize that being taught to play 14.1 by a couple old timers (75ish back in 1980) that shared a room with some of the greats you had the honor of knowing was a blessing and I had NO IDEA at the time..... i was a very stupid, stupid, stupid young man at the time.

Anyways, I here people, IMO, downgrading 14.1 by saying it's not this or that, when in fact, it is one of... if not the best game ever invented for pocket billiards.

On a side note, I have tried for a high run since returning to pool. 57 on my 9' pro-am. Like you and many others on here, I'm a ways from where I once was, eventhough, lol... it was a short trip.

 

[Nostroke]

Chris Melling just broke the DCC 14.1 Challenge record by running 244 (or was it 245?) on a Diamond table. I witness it from 154 on. Pretty sporty.

Another high run by a player steeped in Straight Pool Tradition. I dont think he even knows any other game-certainly not one as difficult!

 

[jrctherake]

Another high run by a player steeped in Straight Pool Tradition. I dont think he even knows any other game-certainly not one as difficult!

Damn!!, and I thought 57 was hard on my pro am.

Good thing my wife didn't quit her day job.

BTW, I'm jealous of everyone at the Derby..... I'm going next year if I have to walk there and sleep in the parking lot.

 

[jrctherake]

Another high run by a player steeped in Straight Pool Tradition. I dont think he even knows any other game-certainly not one as difficult!

I forgot to ask if that diamond has the 4.5" pockets? If they are even smaller, please don't tell me.....lol..... I already feel like a banger to the 10th power.

 

[gxman]

Chris Melling just broke the DCC 14.1 Challenge record by running 244 (or was it 245?) on a Diamond table. I witness it from 154 on. Pretty sporty.

Record at DCC is 227 by Shaw.

If the 244 holds, Melling will get 1K for the highest run + another 1K for topping 227 + 300 for the high run of 5he day. So $2300 for that 244 run plus entry into the 8man tournament.

 

[deanoc]

These guys are so good
people don't realize how impressive a run of 100 is

To run 245 balls is almost unbelievable

My high run is about 30 balls for the year

I once ran 60 balls but it was pure luck and good rolls
and my old deano cue

thanks for putting up this thread and supporting this contest

big fun

 

[garczar]

I forgot to ask if that diamond has the 4.5" pockets? If they are even smaller, please don't tell me.....lol..... I already feel like a banger to the 10th power.

ProCut 4.5...

 

[Joe_Jaguar]

Glad to see Niels is there.

Hope he leaves with a crown- and USA takes all the rest!:wave:

He can leave with a crown from Burger King.

 

[Black-Balled]

He can leave with a crown from Burger King.

Well, now I hope he wins you.

People have lost their names, you know?

Tampa tubby.

 

[realkingcobra]

The pockets are smaller than in previous years. You can't get two balls to the flat of the facing. The table where Alex just ran 136 seems to be the toughest.

Two balls half way in is 4 1/2". Check with Chad, but Diamond uses the same tables for every DCC, so those tables were the same ones used last year too.

 

[jay helfert]

Chris Melling just broke the DCC 14.1 Challenge record by running 244 (or was it 245?) on a Diamond table. I witness it from 154 on. Pretty sporty.

This is over 17 racks on a very tough table! I'm just as impressed with this run as Schmidt's recent 434. And I think they have this one on video as well.

 

[Bob Jewett]

Two balls half way in is 4 1/2". Check with Chad, but Diamond uses the same tables for every DCC, so those tables were the same ones used last year too.

They are about the same as last year, but they are smaller than they were for the first five or ten years of competition. You used to be able to take out a ball that was frozen against the flat by using side spin on the cue ball and softly spinning it out. Until a few years ago, you could do that on every table. Now you can't get the cue ball in far enough to work the ball out. I would guess they are 2-3 mm smaller than in the past.

 

[Bob Jewett]

Top 8 at the end of Day 2 of the qualifiers:

244 Melling
216 Schmidt
190 Orcullo
150 SVB
142 Feijen
141 Chinakhov
136 Fortunski
136 Pagulayan

It may take 150 this year to make the 8-man finals.

 

[Island Drive]

Top 8 at the end of Day 2 of the qualifiers:

244 Melling
216 Schmidt
190 Orcullo
150 SVB
142 Feijen
141 Chinakhov
136 Fortunski
136 Pagulayan

It may take 150 this year to make the 8-man finals.

Frank Tullos's game could roam with this herd in his prime, maybe now too.

 

[skogstokig]

Nostroke: melling isn't steeped in a straight pool tradition afaik, he is a blackball and snooker player. unless i completely missed something?

 

[gxman]

Shaw better keep trying if he wants to make the tournament

 

[deanoc]

i may be altogether wrong,but i am getting the distinct impression
that there is more interest in straight pool than there is in 9 ball

i know i have more interest in it

 

[gxman]

$15K added this yr, they're expecting record prize payouts.

6500 for 1st last yr. About 1K for making the 8man tournament and losing first rd. That doesn't include the daily payout for the top 3 each day, which is 100, 200, 300.

 

[ChrisinNC]

Frank Tullos's game could roam with this herd in his prime, maybe now too.

Frank was a very strong player at any game in his day. His best 2 games being 1-pocket and banks, although he played a mean game of 9-ball, as famously documented in Jay's first book. Now in his 70s, to say he could hang with those guys running 130's+ on a Diamond table, is simply not realistic, in my opinion. Even now, I'd still pick Cool Cat Ray to take down Frank in 14.1, and Ray is 10+ years older.

 

[sjm]

i may be altogether wrong,but i am getting the distinct impression
that there is more interest in straight pool than there is in 9 ball

i know i have more interest in it

Yes, you are altogether wrong. Not sure how you make the comparison before the nine ball has even started, unless you’re comparing this year’s 14.1 event to nine ball in the pat.

Typically, fifteen or twenty will watch the 14.1 event when one of the giants of 14.1 shoots, but in the nine ball event, a major matchup here in the last few rounds will draw a few hundred, with about half of them standing.