hello, this is bernie friend ipt player as far as being called a good B rated player, maybe so, however, i could rise to an A+ player very easily, and that has been proven. many B players are just that, B players now and forever, no matter, i however, can rise to break and run out into the A+ status, i've proven this to myself and others, now with that all said, oh and by the way, i made my money by playing on bar tables in tournaments, however i excell on regulation sized tables, so don't let the bar table write up fool you, but here is my point, i am not in the same catogory as mika immonen and nick van den berg, two of the greatest players on the ipt in my opinion. now, how did the ipt choose it's first 150 players? enthusiasum, they wanted players that were DIEING to prove their skills, not players that were on the fence. as kevin said at the last meeting in orlando, "hey, if your not keen on this tour, and you feel you don't really want to try to be on it so much, then DON'T!!! i don't want you anyway! i only want players that are pro 8-ball pro money, and pro ipt! makes sense right, so that was the first criteria, the second was what you had to write in, were you coherant, or bla-zay?, then the deadline, how early were you to write in, and also they checked and verified your "story" and if it wasn't true, you weren't in. now the biggest irony of all this is this~~~~~ alex paguliyan perhaps the strongest player right now, along with van den berg, thought that the ipt was invatational, and he waited for THEM to send him an invite, to his suprise, he found out, you had to submit, who you are and what you've won!!! well, he's in the ipt now, and rightly so!! i feel blessed and fortunate that i'm in and i would like to think that my game can stand up to a lot of the other players, i believe it can. oh yeah, let me tell you breifly about the other players, that you might not have heard of, they are SENSATIONAL!!! tammi jones who i had the misfortune of playing was sensational, spot on!!! vince goh was strong and in stroke, phil harrison was the fastest and most accurate player i ever saw, he left me shaking!!!, everyone one of the 150 ipt players that i had the privlage to play with or see shoot, were, fantastic, there will be PLENTY of upsets, and by mid 2007 all the names you never heard of will be the big guns, mark my words, the 150 list is ULTRA-STRONG. as far as my playing, i will hold my own and will play as hard as i can, to stay for the 2007 season, if not, i was privlledged to have had the chance of my lifetime. i hope that everyone here supports the ipt, and let's all watch it unfold before us in 2006.
