is this the best weekly tourney in the country?

M

mikeiniowa

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
let me tell you about a weekly tourney we have here in des moines iowa. it is held at big dog billiards, a great place with over 40 tables. 16 of the tables are diamond bar tables with the tougher pockets( not the buckets like at bca in vegas).

every week we have had a weekly tourney that consistantly gets over 30 players. The last 4 weeks we have averaged over 40. the entry fee is 15 bucks and the house adds 5 per player and there is no green fee or quarters.

the races are 6 on the winners side and 5 on the losers side. the game is 9ball winner breaks.

we have a calcutta every week. this week was higher than normal with over $330 in it.

we have had a few pros come play. Players like baraks, vilmont and jesse boweman have all made the trip to play and jamie and chad come 10-12 times per year to play in it.

anybody have a weekly tourney that sounds better than this? great equipment, good payout and good competition.

mike athens
 
mikeiniowa said:
let me tell you about a weekly tourney we have here in des moines iowa. it is held at big dog billiards, a great place with over 40 tables. 16 of the tables are diamond bar tables with the tougher pockets( not the buckets like at bca in vegas).

every week we have had a weekly tourney that consistantly gets over 30 players. The last 4 weeks we have averaged over 40. the entry fee is 15 bucks and the house adds 5 per player and there is no green fee or quarters.

the races are 6 on the winners side and 5 on the losers side. the game is 9ball winner breaks.

we have a calcutta every week. this week was higher than normal with over $330 in it.

we have had a few pros come play. Players like baraks, vilmont and jesse boweman have all made the trip to play and jamie and chad come 10-12 times per year to play in it.

anybody have a weekly tourney that sounds better than this? great equipment, good payout and good competition.

mike athens
Click to expand...

Mike it sounds like a good tournament, but have you ever been to the weekly tournaments at Hard Times.
 
Back in the early 90's, I ran Galaxy Billiards NE in San Antonio. We had a regular Thursday night 9 Ball tourney with a $12 entry fee. $2 went into a break contest where 3 players names were drawn out of a hat and each got to take a swat at making a 9 ball on the break.

The break contest was held on an old GC with crappy slow cloth that no one could move the 9 ball on. The contest was not won for almost a year. Eventually, there was over $6000 which we divided up into 3 seperate break contests for $3k, $2k and 1k+.

Players came out of the woodwork once the contest cleared a 3 grand and we would average between 60-80 players per week. The largest turnout was a 108 players one night.

I told the owner to never change the cloth on the table until someone won the contest. One day, I walk in and what's on the table.....new cloth!

All three break contests were won in the next two weeks and the attendance at the touney dropped back to 45-50 players.

Sounds like you got a nice tourney going, keep it up!

Stones
 
Birmingham, AL

The Birmingham Race course currently holds two tournaments a week.

9 Ball every Friday night with $500 added with a minimum 20 players.
8 Ball every Saturday night with $500 added with a minimum 20 players.

The nicest thing here is the lack of solid players. Only in the last 4 weeks has there been anyone that could even be considered a shortstop. The tournaments currently average about 30 per night.

The entry fee is $10. There are no greens fees and no money removed from the tournament fund.
 
manwon said:
Mike it sounds like a good tournament, but have you ever been to the weekly tournaments at Hard Times.
Click to expand...


no I havent. tell me about the weekly events. thats what I wanted to hear.

mike
 
iba7467 said:
The Birmingham Race course currently holds two tournaments a week.

9 Ball every Friday night with $500 added with a minimum 20 players.
8 Ball every Saturday night with $500 added with a minimum 20 players.

The nicest thing here is the lack of solid players. Only in the last 4 weeks has there been anyone that could even be considered a shortstop. The tournaments currently average about 30 per night.

The entry fee is $10. There are no greens fees and no money removed from the tournament fund.
Click to expand...

You mean twice a WEEK they add 500 bucks? that is huge. what are the race to? that sounds incredible. that is the winner so far. what kind of equipment and is the tourney well run?
 
Back in the 90s at Chelsea Billiards in New York City, we had a weekly $25 entry that featured all the top guys in the area and total calcutta would exceed 7k EVERY SINGLE WEEK.

Eat that with your breakfast.
 
Jude Rosenstock said:
Back in the 90s at Chelsea Billiards in New York City, we had a weekly $25 entry that featured all the top guys in the area and total calcutta would exceed 7k EVERY SINGLE WEEK.

Eat that with your breakfast.
Click to expand...


Sounds good but, we dont have to pay for parking, lol.
 
mikeiniowa said:
let me tell you about a weekly tourney we have here in des moines iowa. it is held at big dog billiards, a great place with over 40 tables. 16 of the tables are diamond bar tables with the tougher pockets( not the buckets like at bca in vegas).

every week we have had a weekly tourney that consistantly gets over 30 players. The last 4 weeks we have averaged over 40. the entry fee is 15 bucks and the house adds 5 per player and there is no green fee or quarters.

the races are 6 on the winners side and 5 on the losers side. the game is 9ball winner breaks.

we have a calcutta every week. this week was higher than normal with over $330 in it.

we have had a few pros come play. Players like baraks, vilmont and jesse boweman have all made the trip to play and jamie and chad come 10-12 times per year to play in it.

anybody have a weekly tourney that sounds better than this? great equipment, good payout and good competition.

mike athens
Click to expand...

I'd love to come over to try that one out sometime, just a little too far to drive (almost 2 hours) for me to go very often, but you can't beat the entry for no green fees and no plugging the tables each game, especially with a $5 add for payback per player. :D

I sure wish we had a similiar event here in Eastern Iowa, specifically in the "Corridor" (Cedar Rapids, Iowa City) area. Unfortunately there are no places that have what I'd call "top notch" tables at all. :(

The following is a little taste of my opinion on tournaments in this area and not intended as a form of hijacking this thread..........................

There was just a tournament up in Cedar Rapids this past weekend where the tables had to be plugged with 4 quarters for EVERY game, and those were the plain jain 7' Valley bar boxes. I knew the guys who won the 3-man Team event, and the guys who got 4th (all friends of mine) and after they split up the winnings minus all the $$$ plugged into the tables/entry fees/etc, the bar owner and amusement co.'s tables were definitely the biggest winners.

Don't get me wrong, each of the 3 guys on the winning team were probably up over $100 easily, probably closer to $150 by the time it was all said and done, but a lot of people that were at the tournament (I went to the 9-ball FRi. night, went out in 2 rounds.......I SUCKED that night) would probably agree with me that we need a better facility with better tables for tournaments in this area. MAN would I love to see some Diamond bar tables in my neck of the woods! A place with more than several tables sure would be nice too!

Count yourself lucky in the Des Moines area Mike. :)
 
Sunday at Hard Times Bellflower

manwon said:
Mike it sounds like a good tournament, but have you ever been to the weekly tournaments at Hard Times.
Click to expand...

Hard Times Bellflower has the best weekly tournament I know of. This tournament has been running every Sunday for nearly 20 years. I don't know what the usual turnout is for this tournament these days, it used to draw 45-64 players every Sunday getting the best players from all over Southern California.
 
Jude Rosenstock said:
Back in the 90s at Chelsea Billiards in New York City, we had a weekly $25 entry that featured all the top guys in the area and total calcutta would exceed 7k EVERY SINGLE WEEK.

Eat that with your breakfast.
Click to expand...


that would be cool. how long were the races? anything like that go on now?
 
mikeiniowa said:
that would be cool. how long were the races? anything like that go on now?
Click to expand...


We have several weekly tournaments in NYC but I don't believe anything that high anymore. The calcuttas simply aren't what they used to be.
 
Well here in SoCal we have SEVERAL places that don't add anything and take out a green fee!!


I long for the days of Herman and Anns weekly in Dothan Al that added $100 for a simple $5 entry. Always 32 man board. Cokes were $.75 cents, $150 chilli dogs, and $2 per hour. You could play on any of the 12+ Gold Crown IIIs or the 10+ bar tables or maybe any of the three 5x10 snooker tables that were tight as hell.
Tournament lasted a while but everyone had fun.
No calcutta but always good players in it as well as some road dogs.
Action before, during and after.


A couple that I have been to
Lufkin Texas -- weekly that paid over $400 for I think a $7 or $10 entry. It had added money and a calcutta.

Nacogdoches Texas -- small room ... $20 entry I think with a calcutta.
My buddy wins and I get 3rd. We left with close to 1400 between us.

The Electric Cowboy locations used to have good cheap events always with added money and usually a calcutta.
 
Jude Rosenstock said:
Back in the 90s at Chelsea Billiards in New York City, we had a weekly $25 entry that featured all the top guys in the area and total calcutta would exceed 7k EVERY SINGLE WEEK.

Eat that with your breakfast.
Click to expand...


you won. game over. on to the next thread....
 
When I was in the AF, I was stationed at Langley and in Newport News, VA they had break and run pots all over the place. Usually you had to play in a tournament 3 times to qualify for these pots. Every week they'd sell raffle tickets and draw a name. You had to break, make a ball on the break to keep shooting, not scratch, and then every ball after the break you got 1/9th of the pot. If you ran all 9 balls you got all of it. I had my name drawn twice and won two separate pots of around $2200 each for a $5 tournament. I bought 20 tickets both times and got extremely lucky to be drawn.

There was one place that was the cream of the crop. They had a 9-ball tournament on Fridays and 8-ball on Saturdays and the pot got so big, they divided it up 3 times at 10g each so the IRS wouldn't know I heard. People would get their co-workers and friends to chip in money and would buy up to $500 of $1 tickets to get a chance. Every Fri and Sat they would max out the tournament with 64 players but the reason the pots were seldom won was they wouldn't just let anyone in. I showed up at this place before I knew about the pots and gambled with a guy who was one of the best in the tournament and gave him the 8 ball and won. They let me play in the tournament the next week after I begged but they finally kicked me out the week I qualified for the pots.

Recently the best weekly tournament I've seen was at Bogies in Houston. About a year ago I went there for a Monday tournament and they matched the entry fee for every person in the tournament. I think it was a $10 entry and they'd put in another $10 for everyone who entered. I can't remember if there was a calcutta or not.
 
Not the same since Kenny lost interest and decided to sell out.

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

thebigdog said:
Hard Times Bellflower has the best weekly tournament I know of. This tournament has been running every Sunday for nearly 20 years. I don't know what the usual turnout is for this tournament these days, it used to draw 45-64 players every Sunday getting the best players from all over Southern California.
Click to expand...
 
We have a weekly tournament--

for an appetizer: Race to 1, 8 ball $10 entry fee, loser pay quarters, no money added.

main course: Race to 7, $10K - $20K, split quarters, winner take all.
 
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