By way of background, the format used in this tournament was based on one used in golf, but was tailored to suit pool, the concept created by Allen Hopkins and Billiards International.
The night before the 2-day event, there was a players meeting, and each one picked a card out of a hat: Ace, 2, 3, and 4 of each suit. Niels Feijen picked the Ace of Spades, spades being the highest-ranked suit, and Keith McCready drew the 2 of Spades; thus, they were the very first match of the event. JAM was already sweating bullets!
The rules for this unique skins format were reviewed extensively at the players meeting, and the 16 combatants were given an opportunity to ask questions and voice any concerns. I really like the fact that Scott Smith, the TD, was the designated racker at all times and nobody was allowed scrutinize the rack. Olhausen Tables gave each participant a bag of goodies consisting of a polo shirt, baseball cap, a cup holder, a really cool cobalt blue pen, note pad, key chain, and a few other neat things. (JAM liked that a lot!
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The first day, the four groups came down to this:
Group No. 1-Feijen, McCready, Morris, Jones;
Group No. 2-Williams, Blanda, Archer, Petroni;
Group No. 3-Massey, Salvas, Nevel, Santos;
Group No. 4 (the toughest one, I think)-Hohmann, Owen, Strickland, Deuel.
Each game in the first round was worth $500, and each group played 16 games in total. The highest money earners would advance to the semi-finals to occur on Day Two, which was filmed by ESPN. At the end of Day One, the highest money winners were: Williams, $5,000; Hohmann, $4,000; Morris, $3,500; Nevel, $3,500; Feijen, $3,000; Strickland, $2,000; Salvas, $2,000; and McCready, $2,000 (Whew!
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Day Two, the eight remaining players were, again, randomly selected in two groups consisting of four, this time a 12-game match. The only way to earn money is to win a "skin," i.e., three consecutive games in a row. At the end of the match, if all the monies weren't absorbed by a skin win, there was a sudden-death playoff: one game for the remaining monies, if any, in that bracket. That's where the tension builds!
Here is a picture of the chart. Though difficult to read, the colors may help to understand the Skins Billiard Championship format. I didn't fully grasp the concept until I saw it unfold.
JAM
