Just some random thoughts on the tournament. Was my first time seeing and meeting top pros. Well, except Mike D. Anyway. Finals was Johnny Archer vs. John Schmidt.
- John Schmidt is a terrific guy, he really impressed me with how friendly and easygoing he was. I just barely nodded at him and he walked right up, grinned, shook hands, and proceeded to shoot the shit with me for a while, giving tips about pool and telling funny stories and so on. Johnny A wasn't unfriendly but he wasn't nearly as approachable I guess. They both chat a little with the crowd though and make it fun to watch (which is key, as a few people were nodding off when it got close to midnight... a cool quiet room, comfy chair, late night, and watching pool... it can happen.)
...Johnny analyzes his options for about ten minutes, then cuts in a ball, drawing into the rack and leaving himself nothing. Thinking hard about what to do next... John S. pipes up "Maybe you rushed it." John's quick to joke about his own play too... leaving himself terrible: "Mister 400." ...rattling in a combo and doing violent body english... he chalks and says "I wasn't worried at all."
- Seeing pro-level consistency is just depressing. The shots you're not supposed to go for, much less make... they always go for and always make. Leave johnny frozen to the head rail after the break, with a long thin cut on the corner ball that popped out? F___ you, it's in the hole. Schmidt's got nothing but a 70 degree backwards cut into the far corner with the CB 1/4" away? EAT IT, it's going in. Schmidt in particular is an insane shotmaker, he ran 100-and-out twice the first day, and it wasn't until midway through the second day that I saw him miss his first ball. Literally he didn't miss for 300 balls before that. Every time I thought "ok, this is it, he left himself nothing this time, he's GOTTA safe, no flyer can work here"... he'd find something and make it. When he does finally miss (only happened three times that I saw) it's a shot nobody's supposed to make anyway. They don't have those random dogging-a-normal-shot moments that the rest of us have. Johnny missed a little more than John I think, but that didn't stop him from winning it all. One of his misses hung up then got double kissed in by a random flying ball... that's gotta sting for johnny's opponent.
- The only shot I saw him turn down was in the finals, with johnny having just run 80... they exchanged safes, but john didn't get a ball/rail on his first safe so he was -1. Johnny rolled it to the head rail, john rolled it somewhere else, johnny rolled it back forcing john to shoot. John opts to try to roll the CB up on the three ball rather than do the cut, which had no future. Either the hit or the table roll was a hair off and he just bunts the OB to the rail and leaves the CB in the open. Leaves johnny with a long-reach 90 degree cut. Johnny drills it in, goes into the rack, runs out to 150.
3 pages:
- Shaun Wilkie looks like young Johnny Archer with a shaved head and tattoos. He could totally go into a pool hall and pretend to be a banger with a big flatbrimmed hat and knicks jersey, and rob people at 9b who think he's just there to sell weed or something (only joking, he was a total professional the whole time and does not look like a drug dealer).
-Got to put a face to some of those names who are famous for straight pool... guys like Ed Deska, Danny Barouty, Bobby Chamberlain. But the guy who really impressed me was Dave Daya, a serious looking older guy who I'd never heard of. For half the tournament I was calling him Ashland Billiards (logo on his shirt). He's a 300+ ball runner and when he practiced between matches, he'd just go through racks of straight pool effortlessly without a miss, seemingly unfazed by the occasional long shot. I swear he ran 150 just practicing casually. When the time came to play, he sailed to the quarterfinals... the guy who took him out was the guy who eventually won it all, Johnny Archer.
-Speaking of going through racks effortlessly, it's fun to see the difference in speed between various players. Dava Daya 2-3 strokes everything and makes it look easy. John shoots fast and one of his 100's felt like maybe 20 minutes. But he does also stop and hem and haw a little on the tough shots and awkward situations. Johnny seems to recalculate his plan after almost every shot. When the quarterfinals came up, johnny and john started at the same time. Schmidt was beating up on Zion Zvi who had just missed with john needing 10 or so. The balls were open so he conceded. The whole thing was so fast that johnny archer's score when Zvi unscrewed was something like.... 47-20. Schmidt plays well over twice as fast. Wilkie was also enjoyable to watch, he decides what he wants quickly and then does these rapid jittery warmup strokes before tapping the ball in. He leaves himself some pretty rough break balls but he gets through an open rack pretty quickly.
- Got to see Borana. It's kind of tired to say it, but man is she gorgeous. Didn't do well in this tournament but it's cool that she's game to invest 275 bucks to go up against these straight pool beasts who have run 300-400 balls.
- Wish I could comment on the other pros but to be honest, when there are three legends in the room (did I mention Parica yet?) everyone goes to watch them. It's a shame because guys like Zvi or Mike Davis are still better players than me or anyone I know, and normally I'd be glued to the chair watching guys shoot at their level. But they kinda get overshadowed by the giants.
-Johnny's cue extender (both johnny and john used them several times) looks like a giant pink lint roller.
- Stuff ran smoothly and it was a great room. They kept bs like temperature issues, cell phones, etc. under control. They locked the doors during the finals and didn't rent tables during day one. Tables were beautiful and I heard no complaints about rolls or dirty equipment. Ironically the only "cell phone foul" came from the TD himself. People were quiet and respectful during the play, although the old guy in front of me drove me batshit whispering for thirty straight minutes about his chile recipe during the finals. John had a funny story about an event he played where they literally kept the doors wide open in freezing march weather and backed a semi into the room behind a curtain while the players froze their nuts off.
Here are some shots I remember (multi-page):
1. Dava Daya gets out of line on his key ball and plays a sweet bump for shape. I think I'm misremembering the shot but it was clear he was playing a bump because there was no other choice.
2. John Schmidt gets buried somehow after a breakout attempt, and it's hopeless, and he's already on one. Plays a clever safe that would leave johnny nothing but long combinations if the 8 had covered up the 4 a bit. But the 8 falls just short as does the CB. A hair harder and he freezes johnny to the rail and leaves him nothing. Johnny of course makes the 4.
3. One of the retarded tough shots John Schmidt had to make (rack not shown).
4. One of Johnny's after he gets utterly shafted on the break shot. He loaded up with outside and actually deflected into the ball to cut it. Hit it about 827518 mph.
5. Parica just messing around in practice. Think this was straight draw.
- John Schmidt is a terrific guy, he really impressed me with how friendly and easygoing he was. I just barely nodded at him and he walked right up, grinned, shook hands, and proceeded to shoot the shit with me for a while, giving tips about pool and telling funny stories and so on. Johnny A wasn't unfriendly but he wasn't nearly as approachable I guess. They both chat a little with the crowd though and make it fun to watch (which is key, as a few people were nodding off when it got close to midnight... a cool quiet room, comfy chair, late night, and watching pool... it can happen.)
...Johnny analyzes his options for about ten minutes, then cuts in a ball, drawing into the rack and leaving himself nothing. Thinking hard about what to do next... John S. pipes up "Maybe you rushed it." John's quick to joke about his own play too... leaving himself terrible: "Mister 400." ...rattling in a combo and doing violent body english... he chalks and says "I wasn't worried at all."
- Seeing pro-level consistency is just depressing. The shots you're not supposed to go for, much less make... they always go for and always make. Leave johnny frozen to the head rail after the break, with a long thin cut on the corner ball that popped out? F___ you, it's in the hole. Schmidt's got nothing but a 70 degree backwards cut into the far corner with the CB 1/4" away? EAT IT, it's going in. Schmidt in particular is an insane shotmaker, he ran 100-and-out twice the first day, and it wasn't until midway through the second day that I saw him miss his first ball. Literally he didn't miss for 300 balls before that. Every time I thought "ok, this is it, he left himself nothing this time, he's GOTTA safe, no flyer can work here"... he'd find something and make it. When he does finally miss (only happened three times that I saw) it's a shot nobody's supposed to make anyway. They don't have those random dogging-a-normal-shot moments that the rest of us have. Johnny missed a little more than John I think, but that didn't stop him from winning it all. One of his misses hung up then got double kissed in by a random flying ball... that's gotta sting for johnny's opponent.
- The only shot I saw him turn down was in the finals, with johnny having just run 80... they exchanged safes, but john didn't get a ball/rail on his first safe so he was -1. Johnny rolled it to the head rail, john rolled it somewhere else, johnny rolled it back forcing john to shoot. John opts to try to roll the CB up on the three ball rather than do the cut, which had no future. Either the hit or the table roll was a hair off and he just bunts the OB to the rail and leaves the CB in the open. Leaves johnny with a long-reach 90 degree cut. Johnny drills it in, goes into the rack, runs out to 150.
3 pages:
- Shaun Wilkie looks like young Johnny Archer with a shaved head and tattoos. He could totally go into a pool hall and pretend to be a banger with a big flatbrimmed hat and knicks jersey, and rob people at 9b who think he's just there to sell weed or something (only joking, he was a total professional the whole time and does not look like a drug dealer).
-Got to put a face to some of those names who are famous for straight pool... guys like Ed Deska, Danny Barouty, Bobby Chamberlain. But the guy who really impressed me was Dave Daya, a serious looking older guy who I'd never heard of. For half the tournament I was calling him Ashland Billiards (logo on his shirt). He's a 300+ ball runner and when he practiced between matches, he'd just go through racks of straight pool effortlessly without a miss, seemingly unfazed by the occasional long shot. I swear he ran 150 just practicing casually. When the time came to play, he sailed to the quarterfinals... the guy who took him out was the guy who eventually won it all, Johnny Archer.
-Speaking of going through racks effortlessly, it's fun to see the difference in speed between various players. Dava Daya 2-3 strokes everything and makes it look easy. John shoots fast and one of his 100's felt like maybe 20 minutes. But he does also stop and hem and haw a little on the tough shots and awkward situations. Johnny seems to recalculate his plan after almost every shot. When the quarterfinals came up, johnny and john started at the same time. Schmidt was beating up on Zion Zvi who had just missed with john needing 10 or so. The balls were open so he conceded. The whole thing was so fast that johnny archer's score when Zvi unscrewed was something like.... 47-20. Schmidt plays well over twice as fast. Wilkie was also enjoyable to watch, he decides what he wants quickly and then does these rapid jittery warmup strokes before tapping the ball in. He leaves himself some pretty rough break balls but he gets through an open rack pretty quickly.
- Got to see Borana. It's kind of tired to say it, but man is she gorgeous. Didn't do well in this tournament but it's cool that she's game to invest 275 bucks to go up against these straight pool beasts who have run 300-400 balls.
- Wish I could comment on the other pros but to be honest, when there are three legends in the room (did I mention Parica yet?) everyone goes to watch them. It's a shame because guys like Zvi or Mike Davis are still better players than me or anyone I know, and normally I'd be glued to the chair watching guys shoot at their level. But they kinda get overshadowed by the giants.
-Johnny's cue extender (both johnny and john used them several times) looks like a giant pink lint roller.
- Stuff ran smoothly and it was a great room. They kept bs like temperature issues, cell phones, etc. under control. They locked the doors during the finals and didn't rent tables during day one. Tables were beautiful and I heard no complaints about rolls or dirty equipment. Ironically the only "cell phone foul" came from the TD himself. People were quiet and respectful during the play, although the old guy in front of me drove me batshit whispering for thirty straight minutes about his chile recipe during the finals. John had a funny story about an event he played where they literally kept the doors wide open in freezing march weather and backed a semi into the room behind a curtain while the players froze their nuts off.
Here are some shots I remember (multi-page):
1. Dava Daya gets out of line on his key ball and plays a sweet bump for shape. I think I'm misremembering the shot but it was clear he was playing a bump because there was no other choice.
2. John Schmidt gets buried somehow after a breakout attempt, and it's hopeless, and he's already on one. Plays a clever safe that would leave johnny nothing but long combinations if the 8 had covered up the 4 a bit. But the 8 falls just short as does the CB. A hair harder and he freezes johnny to the rail and leaves him nothing. Johnny of course makes the 4.
3. One of the retarded tough shots John Schmidt had to make (rack not shown).
4. One of Johnny's after he gets utterly shafted on the break shot. He loaded up with outside and actually deflected into the ball to cut it. Hit it about 827518 mph.
5. Parica just messing around in practice. Think this was straight draw.
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many times and have been on the receiving end of a 150-and-out. And it doesn't bother me one bit to rack for him because of the pace he plays at. I just sit there and try to absorb everything I can. And sometimes when it looks like he got out of line, he'll play a shot that will leave the mortal man's jaw on the ground. His cue ball control and what he can make the cue ball do are just mind boggling.
