[Lengthy Trip Report] US Open 2013

[CreeDo]

This is a first-timer's thoughts on the US Open.
This will have a lot of photos but there are many more at this imgur album:
>>> http://imgur.com/a/2pC9S#0

The Venue

First, as a warning to future first-timers: This was held at the Norfolk
Marriott Chesapeake at 725 Woodlake Drive. There's another Norfolk Marriott.
My buddy had me just type "Norfolk Marriott" into the GPS and we ended
at the wrong one. Managed to get there just in time for the 6:30 TV Table match.

I like the venue. Seating was a bit cramped and but the hotel is nice, with
a semi-upscale, modern feel. I never experienced the other venues so I can't
compare it, but I have no complaints except for the tight seating.

This is the main playing area. Love the lighting. The curtained corridor
separates it from the TV table area. But they thoughtfully rigged up 2 TV's
(notice back right wall) showing the live stream so people can sweat both rooms.

This is just the wrong ISO setting on my camera but this place would look cool
in low lighting. This position also lets you watch both rooms at once.
Click for a wide panaroma shot going from the TV table area to the main room.
>>> http://i.imgur.com/Dp1w3ic.jpg

Of course, in the pool world, nothing is ever quite done 100% upscale
with unlimited budget. See the white seat cushions? They just took bleachers
and wrapped polythylene foam
around them.

You see this right away when you walk in. I'd like to imagine some businessman
from Iowa booked his room here not realizing it's U.S. Open week and just
walked in and said "what the fuuuuucckkkk?" and then got sucked into the scene.

Jacoby's booth. There's a bunch of booths set up in the hallway next to the
arena. You can buy all sorts of cues and cases, plus US Open polos, etc.
At the head of this all this is a small bar where you can get various
stiff drinks and a limited selection of food... dogs, burgers, pizza, that sort
of thing. Prices were high (4 bucks a slice, 3 dollar dogs) but not terrible.

Cory near one of the case booths with an AZBer I just met.
I'll let him ID himself if he wants.

They keep a handwritten bracket in the Vendor Area.
You can see the relentless march of SVB at the top.

There was a nice little floating counter with a few TVs nearby, where various
pros and US Open regulars gathered to, uh, speculate on the outcome of
upcoming matches. Naturally, I am using the definition of speculate that means
to meditate on or ponder a subject. Not the definition that means
to assume a business risk in hope of gain. That sort of speculation
would not possibly happen at a major pool event.

This is the one time in the whole event my camera flash accidentally went off.
Hence everyone turning and looking surprised. They weren't entirely amused.

To the left under a smiling Larry Kressel (Larry is always smiling) is the
owner of TJ's in Waterville, ME. It's a great room where Mike Dechaine
grew up terrorizing the locals. He was very much rooting for Mike to go
far in the tournament and was quite sad when MD got knocked out.

 

[CreeDo]

I got a new appreciation for the difference between accu-stats, and the rest
of the streaming world. Not knocking the other guys, it's just that
that Accu-stats is on a different level. A half dozen people sit near the booth
with an array of monitors, and a camera operator moves the main camera around
on this giant swivelling arm. The others control 3 other cameras that
hang from the ceiling on all sides, each of these (like the one pictured)
is rigged to pan around.

You can see they had to rig metal scaffolding from the 20ish foot ceilings
and then mount a bazillion lights.

They also set up the famous accustats booth, which is an actual booth
that's glassed in so the players won't be distracted by the commentary.

There was a lot of work that went into the rest of the venue too.. the bleacher
seating, the little columns and walls and curtains around the TV table, etc.
Full-size photo of the whole setup >>> http://i.imgur.com/UXZ2qYB.jpg

The famous giant-ball scoring beads. These things are weathered.

I'd almost bet the guy at the top right is Danny DiLiberto's brother.
Saw them talking and there's an unmistakable resemblance.
Below is the famous US Open trophy. I couldn't help thinking
"that's just 12 feet away from me. I could hop down from the bleachers,
and just grab it and run like crazy. How far would I get?"
Somehow I resisted the urge.

The VIP seats around the TV table. A step up from polythylene wrap.

Random crowd shot. Accu-stats also offered wireless headsets at $5.00 a pop
so you could hear the booth commentary.

The TV Table

Being noobs, my buddy and I just walk right up to the TV table and pick
some seats. We see some closer seats are empty and say "hey, let's just
move to those". So we do, and it's awesome. I'm close enough to flick
Niels Feijen's ears. I'd need to be paid ~$1,000 to actually do it, mind you.

We're as close as you can get to any table in the tournament.
That will change.

They are NOT kidding about the TV table lights and how they affect everything.
There are banks of these things giving the whole arena a crisp glow.
As soon as I sat down, I felt it. We're literally sweating the match.
It's not horrible but the players must feel it.

Ken explains carefully the various rules of the match to Nick.

Just after the lag... so many empty seats? I think this is because it's
not the "big name" players. People know Neils Feijen but Nick Ekonomopoulos
isn't as famous despite being on the winning Mosconi Cup team last year.
I couldn't picture the guy in my head, before this.

What's funny watching these guys is, you get this feeling of unreality.
Their fundamentals are so good, they're so careful, they play so perfect
and risk-free, and they make almost everything. They are better than me,
better than any of my friends, better than anyone in my pool hall,
better than anyone in my state. Both of these guys are gods of pool...
and they're not even favored to win this event. So people aren't watching them.

 

[CreeDo]

Niels vs. Nick

Someone left a random pool mag at our table and I saw an ad for Longoni Cues
with the Niels Feijen special pictured. I look up and sure enough, there it is.

Nick has great fundamentals, like most Europeans. Check out how long that follow
through is. Notice also how far back he's gripped the cue even when he's not
stretching... possibly to add some power to the stroke.
Looks like he moved his head a little prematurely in the upper shot.

One thing I noticed about Nick is he has a variety of funky but extremely firm
bridges. The tips of his fingers go white and red when he plants his bridge.
And he has gumby fingers. Above is his typical open bridge. Notice the back
hand is loose, pinky dangling, typical bridge length, very low to the cue.
He spreads his fingers in a wide 'antenna' open bridge when possible.

Bridging over a ball, he does the 'hightower bridge'... one I struggle with.

Check out the flexible fingers when jumping. That tripod looks very stable.
He's one of the best jumpers I've ever seen, making long cut shots or at least
rattling them if he missed.

 

[CreeDo]

Contrasting styles in the break. Niels goes for a power break but had
mixed success making the wing ball. His cue ball dived close to the side
every time. Nick did a cut break that looks pretty similar to Shane's...
soft, low outside, made the wing ball pretty reliably and occasionally
the 1 in the side. Cue ball hits the side rail well south of the side,
then cross the table and contacts the opposite side rail north of that side.
Should settle near the head rail and if your 1 didn't drop, it may end up
banking near the top corner pocket so you have a hanger to start.

Nick is a real animal with the safeties. Niels spent a lot of time
having to line up kick shots.

And on top of that, he found a way to miss lucky too. Rattled a 6-9 combo
and left the 6 right in front of the 9. But Neils is hooked.
Neils desperately wanted to kick off the foot rail and used up his 40 second
clock plus most of his extension trying to line it up. Then he gave up,
and rushed to kick off the head rail. He missed the 6 entirely.
This may be the only time I saw a player clearly get hurried by the clock
and miss as a result. At the same time, he put himself in that spot by taking
70 seconds to decide that he just had to take his medicine and kick long.

Niels meanwhile didn't catch much in the way of rolls. His cue ball here could
have scratched but barely stayed up with a look at the 3.

He also got a nice angle to carom in the 9 to solve this cluster problem.

Seating Wars

The number and quality of match photos takes a big nosedive from here.
As the match progresses, my buddy Perk and I slowly get a clue that all of these
seats in the front row are reserved and we may get asked to move.
They got filled with people wearing yellow lanyards. We felt like
the only guys in an upscale restaurant not wearing ties.

Just as Niels reaches the hill in the match, a guy casually slides his
coffee in front of my buddy without saying a word. Perk looks up.
"Yes?" ..."You're in my seat." He then makes a shooing motion.

I get up as well, they paid for the seat so of course they should get them.
Just, you know... "excuse me" would be nice.

So we find a friendly area up at the top, near Dave "the Killer Driller" Hunt,
who somehow plays A-speed despite having a real day job as a dentist.
He didn't have a terrible open, beating three players, two of whom I'd heard of
(Jesse Engel and RJ Carmona). Perk and I are both regulars at the local
tour stops and near him is another VA player, one of the Mastermaker brothers.

The view from the nosebleed seats is not nearly as nice.
The guy sitting next to us explains that they actually cost the same as
the front row seats, and 100% of the TV table seats cost extra and are reserved.
In fact, this guy had a front row seat but someone else was in it and
I guess he didn't feel like confronting them.

This seems weird to me, the back rows should cost less than the front and
it would be nice to have a row of unreserved nosebleed sets for the general
public. Barry announced that those who bought VIP seats get first dibs
on their seats next year.

Detail shot showing the TV booth... faintly visible are Wych & DiLiberto.
>>> http://i.imgur.com/aHa9zrH.jpg

Despite few rolls and a less consistent break, the terminator comes out on top.
He's a great sport and was perfectly composed the whole match.
Ditto for Nick, who faded tough rolls with a wry grin.

 

[CreeDo]

Shane vs. Chris Melling

I love to watch Shane but I really like Chris' game ever since seeing some of
his creative shots in the last Mosconi Cup. He's "the other white Efren".
He has the smoothest backswing I've ever seen, every shot looks is like butter.

We manage to find a decent compromise where we didn't get booted.
You can sit on the steps between bleachers and it's close enough to see it all.
You can stand up for a better look around people's heads and you aren't
blocking anyone's view.

Panorama from the cheap seats: >>> http://i.imgur.com/8XT5tiE.jpg

Pretty much any match with Shane becomes standing room only, not so many
sweating the main room that you can see in the background.
The tall guy in black (top right) is Donny Mills I believe.

Detail shot from the cheap seats. >>> http://i.imgur.com/UXZ2qYB.jpg
I believe the striped shirt bottom right is Yukio Akagariyama.
In front of him is Shannon Behrman. Blocked by the pole is a view
of Omar Shaheen, who gave Shane a tougher time than you'd expect from the score.

Shane looks contemplative as Chris tries to figure out how to get out of a trap.

For the first time ever I noticed Shane breaking with a break cue (to his left)

instead of his playing cue. I didn't get the name of it. It had big grayish
silver text on the side, sort of like the Predator VX's but it wasn't.

Chris jumps pretty good. But I think his kicking has some holes.

Chris staying cool as Shane runs out.

He doesn't get excited and lean forward in his seat if Shane gets faced
with any sort of semi-tester like this 7. Because Shane of course drills it.
Shane barely raises an eyebrow when this shot comes up.

Chris looks on suspiciously as Shane racks. Shane was blasting the balls
right in the face and making the wing ball. This isn't supposed to happen.
At one point Chris got up to inspect Shane's rack, but didn't see anything
worth discussing. However right after this, Shane breaks dry.

Did you know they make telephoto lenses for cell phone cams?
Half tempted to buy one. Shane didn't spend much time in his chair,
Chris's break wasn't as productive and he often had nothing to look at
after making a ball. Shane went on to win 11-6.

There's something about the guy, he puts out an aura and I expect any player
who faces him will feel it. I think someone on AZ once described it as
"otherworldly". You know you're in the presence of superhuman talent.

Famous Faces

Ken Shuman doing his thing. He's been helping this and other events go smoothly
for decades and he's rock steady in the booth as long as he gets some water.

Not so famous faces for many of you, but people from the VA pool scene will
recognize (left to right) Chris Bruner, Larry Kressel, Joey Mastermaker.
Chris has won an Action Pool Tour event, tournaments that feature the likes of
Shaun Wilkie, Mike Davis, Brandon Shuff, and others. His mom works at the
event and seems pretty cool. Larry is a VA state 9 ball champ.
Joey is a strong player and his brother has also won an APT event.
Danny Mastermaker had the bad luck of drawing Shane pretty early.

 

[CreeDo]

Niels Feijin. Cheating with Photoshop makes a mediocre cell phone shot look pro.

Even if you don't hear his name or see "HELLAS" on the back of his shirt,
Nick just has that classical greek look. He works that beard.
He's grinning here because he made one of his awesome jump shots and promptly
got hooked again right after.

Wang Can watching the action in the main room. Somehow this guy just looked
really lonely every time I saw him. No posse of buddies. Never saw him smiling
and chatting with anyone. Hung out at Q-Masters but just watched silently.
It must be tough coming here without many countrymen and no English.

I pestered Jayson Shaw for a pic. He's playing at Q-Masters, doing scotch
doubles with Rita, the knockout in purple. I see her at various events and
our weekly pool tournaments and it looks like she can play.

Their opponents were Huidji See and a female I didn't recognize.

Ralf Souquet stepped up to watch the Shane match. Seems a shame that former
US Open champs are stuck standing on the sidelines with the rabble.

Big thank you to this guy, Perk, who made my trip possible.
He did all the driving and kept it fun.

Q-Masters

Finally got to experience this famous pool room. It's billed as the home of the
US Open. I don't know the history that well, was the Open played there?
Or maybe it's just where everyone goes before and after the tournament.

Where to begin... it's a huge place but divided into different areas.
Each area feels like a separate pool room and has its own bar, servers,
counter, dining area, etc. Any one of these sub-rooms would make a perfectly
decent pool hall by itself in any medium sized city in America.

From the outside you can see it's massive. For perspective, to the left
is a typical Big Lots or some other dollar superstore, and Q-masters probably
equals it in floor space.

One room is full of Diamonds, the other has Gold Crowns. One's smoking,
another isn't. This is the smoking + gold crowns room. The blur is Jayson Shaw.

The first main room has a cool TV room, a few tables for sit-down
dining, and a decent array of cues on display. I believe I also saw signs on
a door for a Pro Shop but didn't go in. I'm not much of a cue guy.
They sell touristy shirts and such too.

Panorama of the first room: >>> http://i.imgur.com/rdJrGpf.jpg

The whole place has a family feel and there's sort of a old-fashioned
sentimental vibe at times, which actually is not a bad thing.
You don't feel like you're going to get stabbed at Q-Masters.

 

[PocketSpeed11]

What's this lol

 

[CreeDo]

After hearing his rambling corny intros at the Open, you can tell that
Barry Behrman is responsible for the signage in the room (it's everywhere),
which encourages good manners, no wifebeaters, and advertises specials
like "age 14-19 play free Saturdays!" etc.

Buddy's Palace Theater! Buddy is Barry Behrman's dachsund and there are
Glamor Shots of him with his dog throughout this little TV room.
The sign under the TV says "This TV is for the viewing of pool-related
DVD's only". Shane was lounging on the couch watching himself in last
year's US Open. Towards the end of the evening I saw guys sleeping
on these couches, cue cases tucked under their arms.

Throughout, there are big US Open posters, tons of signed player posters,
and endless rows of trophies and plaques.

The rooms have different light levels and the gambling room is distinctly darker
than the others. The room with the restaurant and vending machines is bright
and airy. The waitresses are pretty (of course) and friendly.

Shane and Shaw, friendly at the vending machine though they must face each
other in the finals the next day. To the right is a throwback that I haven't
seen much, a cigarette vending machine.

One of the coolest features... in the room where everyone was gambling,
they have movie-theater style seating. Servers float by and bring you
food and drinks while you sweat matches comfortably.
The photo's rough because it's really dark here. The tables are pretty much
the only source of light.

Typical view from the theater seats. The left table has a guy whose name
escapes me (Sykes?) facing some unfortunate who doesn't realize an APA 6
has no shot against an A or AA player. From what I understand he started
out getting a ball from the guy, then 2 balls, then 3, and I'm fairly sure
he lost every set. Maybe just an off-day.

To the right is Bryan Deska (son of straight pool legend Ed Deska) playing
Larry Kressel. They see each other all the time on the APT and both have
won several of those events. I think Bryan would be a more famous name
if he got out and played more. Maybe I've got him clocked wrong but I think
he plays at Brandon Shuff's speed. They're doing some $100 1p games here.
When I left Bryan was up a few racks I think.
I shoulda got a better picture for JAM, she'd say he's dreamy.

Morra in the "where's Waldo" shirt seemed to barbecue Tony Watson to the tune
of $3,600 I believe. Every time I looked up, Morra was at the table.
Tony's backer was very vocal and said if they switched to RYO 9b that
"the sky's the limit". He or some other guy was also yelling at someone
in the stands, egging them on.."Coward! put someone in the box!"

I think that's Shaw standing off to the right, but Morra was the most famous
player to get into action that night, AFAIK. I guess the others needed to rest
up for the tournament.

Watched one more bit of action before finally heading out, Mike Wong vs.
an older white guy I didn't recognize. Mike is infamous for his slow play
and is supposedly the reason they implemented the shot clock this year.

His opponent at one point smacked the table while Mike was racking
(Mike's headphones make it hard to get his attention) and the guy proceeded
to chew him out for taking 20 minutes to rack and racking low to help
his wing ball in.

Further down, Chris Bruner is taking a beating from another VA player,
and Danny Mastermaker is on the sidelines grinning.

==========================================

Some closing thoughts:

• This came up last year, and deserves to be mentioned again.
Rack-your-own is terrible for this thing because it leads to suspicion
and arguments. A ref racked in years past, and that's 100% how it should be.

Shane was blasting the rack in the face and making the wing ball.
I used to think that was possible but without a magic rack I find it
just doesn't go in. I asked a strong pro player who fell to shane
(someone who has made the final 8) how he's doing it, and he said
"well because he's racking it himself" and he pantomimed the rolling motion
players make when they're trying to spin balls into place in the rack.
I then asked "so you think he's leaving a gap in the rack then?"
"Oh, absolutely he is."

I'm still up in the air whether this is intentional or what.
But I am starting to believe there is a helpful gap there.

People ask why didn't players 20 years ago didn't nitpick about the rack and
inspect it carefully. The answer is: Joe Tucker's Racking Secrets.
Pro players know how to play and how to break but that doesn't mean they always
looked at the break scientifically.
They know a tight rack is good and if you hit it from the side, something goes.

They may not have been aware that a gap in the right place is a good thing.
Danny DiLiberto often says in the booth "why are they agonizing over it?
who cares?" and to me that says that the old school simply doesn't understand
the 9b rack like modern players. Otherwise they'd know a paper thin gap matters.

The guys running this tournament and making decisions about the rack
are too concerned about getting yelled at by pros over inadequate racks.
Or having the pro demand reracks repeatedly. But either of those is preferable
to having some doubt that maybe someone cheated to help themselves break better.

• Barry may be a drunk, and ramble, and pay his players late, and he may
routinely **** up in other ways. But basically he's running the best show
in pool and putting in buckets of his own time and money to make it happen.
I enjoyed it enormously and I felt like it went smoothly. I can't help but
feel grateful to him for it. And I think he runs a great poolroom too.

• How DO they make that room successful, when it's massive, open 24 hours,
and has like $750,000 worth of tables, not to mention piles of staff and
infrastructure? I don't know but it's encouraging.

 

[CreeDo]

What's this lol

shit I almost made it lol.

If you have a long post and you know it will require multiple pages,
the easiest thing is to just reply to yourself and write 'reserved' or something
so you can reserve your 2nd page ahead of time.

Otherwise it'll be like page 1, then 10 dudes replying,
then page 2, then 3 dudes replying, then page 3...
you get the picture.

This one needs 7 pages, not cuz it's so much text, but because it's a lot of pictures.

 

[Cory in DC]

Awesome, thanks for the great recap!

 

[billiards102]

Great report! Thanks for taking the time to post.

 

[Houstoer]

wow; great report. I've never been but after your post I feel like I got a representation of how it is. Super job thanks for posting.

 

[NYC cue dude]

Thanks for the thoughtful critique. I've been to many events over the years and nothing beats seeing these great players in person. I'm very glad that you enjoyed yourself. I was quite pleased to see the pictures of the TV table area, including the lighting trusses and cameras. It is helpful, and timely, for a project I am working on.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[JMuck]

Thanks for your pictures and side notes.

 

[ShoreShot]

Sounds like you had a blast! Thanks for the outstanding report!

 

[Ky Boy]

Great write up and thanks so much for doing so!! I have never been to the open but hope to one day. I imagine the Open is a great show but hard to believe it is better than DCC. Maybe one day I will see for myself!!:thumbup:

 

[Ktown D]

Great write up and thanks so much for doing so!! I have never been to the open but hope to one day. I imagine the Open is a great show but hard to believe it is better than DCC. Maybe one day I will see for myself!!:thumbup:

It is a cool event and Q-masters is a great room but it doesn't hold a candle to DCC IMO. I haven't been to the Open since it moved away from the convention center but even then it was not DCC level, for me anyways.

I have found ways to lose plenty of money at both events though lol.

 

[PocketSpeed11]

shit I almost made it lol.

If you have a long post and you know it will require multiple pages,
the easiest thing is to just reply to yourself and write 'reserved' or something
so you can reserve your 2nd page ahead of time.

Otherwise it'll be like page 1, then 10 dudes replying,
then page 2, then 3 dudes replying, then page 3...
you get the picture.

This one needs 7 pages, not cuz it's so much text, but because it's a lot of pictures.

Oops...sorry to interrupt it lol. Thanks for the thread though, this is great.

 

[JB Cases]

Probably the best trip report I have read since Jenny stopped writing hers.

Thank you very much and you have given me a new quote to use.

"What's funny watching these guys is, you get this feeling of unreality.
Their fundamentals are so good, they're so careful, they play so perfect
and risk-free, and they make almost everything. They are better than me,
better than any of my friends, better than anyone in my pool hall,
better than anyone in my state. Both of these guys are gods of pool...
and they're not even favored to win this event. So people aren't watching them." - Creedo

 

[beetle]

Wow, thanks very much for writing up your experiences and providing the great photos and captions. I enjoyed my 1 (and only) US Open experience 4 years ago (the last time they had a full field). I probably won't be back but will try and get to the Derby City Classic next, since I've not experienced that one yet. You just never know when these classic events are going to end, so I recommend everyone try and get to one.