Does anyone know what Mark Tadd is doing these days? Last I heard he was in Utah and is a born again Christian. Is he still playing alot of pool? Also, what nationality is he? He looks to be either African American or Indian. That guy was one helluva player. He must still be young, perhaps in his mid 30's. When he ran over everyone in the '93 LA open, I heard he was in his mid 20's, so if he is still playing alot he could probably dominate pool easily for the next few decades.
Mark Tadd
- Thread starter LastTwo
- Start date
Mark's playing pedigree is obviously amazing. Still, he gave the game up a long, long time ago. In (what I beleive to have been) the summer of 1997, I had lunch with Mark Tadd and Tommy Kennedy during the World 8-ball Championships, in which Tommy was but Mark was not competing. By then, he had already given up pro pool and had also given up gambling on pool, and he was already born again.
It has never really looked like Mark would come back, and it doesn't look like it now. Still, even if he did, I'd hardly presume he'd regain his old form. I think it would be very unlikely. It's possible, though. After all, under very different circumstances, Rodney Morris had to walk away from the game and is, once again, a top player.
It would be nice to see Mark make a comeback, but there's no reason to believe he will.
It has never really looked like Mark would come back, and it doesn't look like it now. Still, even if he did, I'd hardly presume he'd regain his old form. I think it would be very unlikely. It's possible, though. After all, under very different circumstances, Rodney Morris had to walk away from the game and is, once again, a top player.
It would be nice to see Mark make a comeback, but there's no reason to believe he will.
I had brought up Mark's name in a couple of threads, nobody seems to know for sure what he is doing these days. He is defineately an amazing pool player, one of the best all around I've seen. I don't know if this is true or not but someone had told me that when Mark was beating all the champions at Hard Times, he had only been playing pool for about 5 years. I am not sure if that is true or not though.
Last Two where did you used to play back in the 90's? We've probobly met I used to go to all the tournaments in Southern California back then.
Last Two where did you used to play back in the 90's? We've probobly met I used to go to all the tournaments in Southern California back then.
thebigdog said:
In the early 90's I was in my early teens, and I didn't start playing pool until 1996. A few people I know were good friends with Mark Tadd, and they told me stories about him. I have seen a couple tapes of him playing also.
Man, I wish I could have played like him when I hit my 5th year. I am such a streaky player, one day I play great, the next I play like crap, its an ongoing cycle. I hear Mark rarely had a bad day.
ramdadingdong
Banned
LastTwo said:
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I am real good on predicting future champions before they have won. When this guy first came out and had done nothing, I saw him practicing and stopped and sat down to watch him. He played six hours non stop and I never left my chair. He was in my home room before a tourney began. He was on a table with 4 l/2" pockets and was just smoking them in and never missing. I was amazed, he was nothing but a black Earl Stricklin. He could have been the tiger woods of pool and brought black people into the game as tiger did for golf. If there ever was a natural, he was it.
He would have won more world titles than Earl imho. He was a mental flake, looking around, no focus. He was only interested in getting in the back room to gamble and some say lost early on purpose in order not to give weight or receive it. He had more interest in gambling and money than in tin cups.
He left pool once he raised enough money to enter the world of poker.
One can only assume that met with a bad ending, I really do not know and he went off the map then. Many when they get their clock cleaned and end up in the gutter with nothing, reflect, see the error of their ways and turn to Jesus for help. Such a current example of this is blackjack and Steve Lillis, both today are shining examples of ex gamblers and roadies who are out standing moral people today.
Today I am not sure if it was a tradegy he did not go on to become a world champion and dominate or it was a good thing that did not occur and he screwed it up. We will never know now. He apparently had the talent, but not the head to sit on a champions body.
Tiger had focus and purpose, Tadd did not.
Rama, all I know today, is I now know nothing...
I don't know. I sent money to BJ last year for a book and never got the book and he does not answer my emails. I know he was sick, and if he needs my $15 that bad he can keep it, but...
I was there at Hard Times when Mark started coming in and beating everyone in sight. I met him at the old Hollywood Billiards and I new right away that this guy was good, real good! The best banker I've ever seen. He started running around with a guy named Kevin, now deceased, and I think Kevin was his stake horse. I mentioned in an earlier post about playing one guy giving up the 7, then playing another, getting the 7. Well, it was these two guys, Kevin and Mark. I haven't seen Mark in at least 10 years and it's sad to hear that he doesn't play anymore, because he had what it took to be the best. Nice guy too, off the table, but when he was playing against you, woooweee, very intimidating!LastTwo said:
ramdadingdong
Banned
______________________________________________________________Rude Dog said:
Rude Dog
You are not the first person to be tossed in jail and come back from it. Francious Minguax was in for years, and in jail he had them put in a table where he invented the leather tip and he is the father of just about what we know today, circa 1827.
Ralph Greenleaf while drunk killed a man and they covered it up so he would not go up. There are more, but it serves no purpose to divulge them.
You should be judged on what you are today, not what you were in the past.
ramdadingdong said:_________________________________________________________________
He would have won more world titles than Earl imho. He was a mental flake, looking around, no focus. He was only interested in getting in the back room to gamble and some say lost early on purpose in order not to give weight or receive it. He had more interest in gambling and money than in tin cups.
He left pool once he raised enough money to enter the world of poker.
One can only assume that met with a bad ending, I really do not know and he went off the map then.
I have never heard of Mark dumping to get weight or not to give it up.
I only have seen him walk in and offer to play anyone in the place even
or he would give up weight. I saw him offer Johnny Archer the eight and
he turned it down. He give my buddy the 5 out and it was a joke. That was
on a bar box. That was the first time I had ever seen him not on a 9 footer.
He won a game and ran a buch and then lost a couple and then won another and ran a bunch more and did this for a while.
IMO
He liked to play. He might have been a flake but I never saw him not focused and looking around. He would play (practice) by himself for hours.
This would be in the same pool room he was trying to get a game. Thats not
laying down.
I have heard that he still plays both pool and poker from reliable sources but the pool is at his house or a close friends and is only for fun and every now and then and that he plays poker online. I actually had a friend tell me
that he played with Mark online in a poker tournament. He quizzed him a
bit and determined that it really was Tadd. Mark saw my buddys pool screen name and asked him a couple Q's then said he used to play. They
carried on a chat for a second and see said he was Mark Tadd. My buddy has
watched him play a few times and asked him specifics. He thinks it was him.
I wish he would have saved the table records just to have a look at the
player chat.
I wish Mark would come back but whats to come back for??
ramdadingdong
Banned
frankncali said:
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Exactly what is there to come back to, the smart ones bailed out several years ago. When the PBT died, rempe wrote, I guess we will all have to go out now and get day jobs, most of them did not believe him at the time. Good times were right around the corner, those guys are still waiting. The PBT as they knew it with a real tour, never came back. Who at that time could have ever believed that, answer, no one.
The word out on Tadd was he would lose early on because he would become bored with the tourney, they felt is was not a dump, just an escape. He was only interested in getting in the back room to gamble, the tourney part bored him. Going out early did not hurt him on matching up either. Some guys win more in the back room than the winner in the front room does. History has shown us many fine players who excelled in the gambling arena but could not perform well under the lights for tin cups. That is a very interesting study I would love to see someone go into deeper.
Rama, all I know now, is I am a ding dong who knows nothing...
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ramdadingdong said:
Agreed that the PBT was the highest pinnacle men's pro pool ever reached, at one time consisting of 16 different $100,000 added events. As you say, it was a sad day when it died.
Still, the statement that "the smart ones bailed out" is a little absurd and a bit disrespectful of those who tried to stay the course. Is Jim Rempe, who had been a pro for over twenty five years when the PBT went belly-up, to be viewed as having faced the same decision as the young players in their primes (Archer, Strickland, Morris, Ellin, Wetch, etc.) and those just coming in to their own (for example, Michael Coltrain).
The younger players, for the most part, stayed the course. Does this mean they weren't among the smart ones? I think not. It just means that they had more hopes going forward than Jim Rempe, Nick Varner, or Buddy Hall, all of them with at least twenty years of pro competition under their belts when the PBT folded, and all having Hall of Fame credentials by that point in time.
ramdadingdong
Banned
sjm said:
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You forgot to mention Mr. 100 also, Mike Sigel, who bailed first. My immediate apologies, no dis respect was intended nor implied to all these young and current champions. I just feel sorry for them and the ones in their primes who are not being given the platforms to show case their great talents to millions on TV. They are being short changed by fate which is not their fault. Many players in many sports have been born at the wrong time and played their best games during the wrong periods.
Please excuse my ramblings, for I am nothing but a ding dong who really knows nothing.
ramdadingdong said:
Generally well said, Ramda. Sorry if I misinterpreted you.
Sigel is rather another story, as his decision to bail came some six years before the fall of the PBT and came at a time when many alleged he had a substance abuse issue and when Brunswick had just dropped him.
I'm glad to see that Mike is doing so well. He's a successful businessman with a lot of focus in his life. I saw him play countless times in his prime, and he was nothing short of amazing. He brought a lot of excitement to pool in his day.
ramdadingdong
Banned
sjm said:
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Yes, the Japanese alleged the same thing. He won 100 tourneys and ended up dead broke. It's a wonder he turned his life back around to become a success.
Somebody tell me what this damn v cash is, how do I get my hands on the loot?
ramdadingdong
Banned
sjm said:
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Yes, the Japanese alleged the same thing. He won 100 tourneys and ended up dead broke. It's a wonder he turned his life back around to become a success.
I was with him the day he quit the game at the riveria, spent hours trying to talk him out of it, he was so determined, so bitter. I could not believe he actually went through with it.
ramdadingdong
Banned
JustPlay said: