Message from Allen Hopkins

spiderwebcom...I don't fault you in the least for posting AH's comments. It is not right to shoot the messenger.

But I assume AH is computer literate enough to read this forum and if not...then he cannot POSSIBLY be "TOTALLY up to speed" as you assert becuase a LOT of information about what is going on is unique to this forum.

And if AH is monitoring this forum I ask him the following question.

As a general rule Allen...are you in favor of doing business with people who do GREAT things for SOME people while lying to and cheating others?

Take the age old practice of "dumping" for example. When a player dumps, he is obviously helping other people...those in on the scam...and in some well known examples of that dispicable practice...some on the dumper's side won more money than they ever had in their LIVES.

But ooops....a lot of other people were CHEATED. So Allen...is it OK with you to get in on the winning side of a dumped match...and do you want to keep doing business with the dumper?

The analoby is exactly apt re: what has happened so far, on the IPT. Some Hall of Famers...like you for example...got basically a free ride to win money that you otherwise would not have been a favorite to win...with all due and genuine respect.

Then there are several dozen other players who at least won back their travel expenses to Vegas...who might not have done so if they finished as low as they did on any other tour event. Very cool!

But how about the MANY, MANY dozen others who have LOST money...in some cases very large losses...in the $10,000.00 and UP range who paid dearly to qualify for Reno and have not gotten a dime?

Stevie Moore, for example TRAVELED TO ROME because there were fewer players in a qualifier and he has LOST HIS A$$ because of that.

I'm sorry to have to be critical of such a GREAT CHAMPION and personal hero and while you are CERTAINLY entitled to your opinion...it amounts to saying "Hey...it's OK if a tour promoter screws OTHER people...as long as it's not ME."

Jim
 
av84fun said:
spiderwebcom...I don't fault you in the least for posting AH's comments. It is not right to shoot the messenger.

But I assume AH is computer literate enough to read this forum and if not...then he cannot POSSIBLY be "TOTALLY up to speed" as you assert becuase a LOT of information about what is going on is unique to this forum.

And if AH is monitoring this forum I ask him the following question.

As a general rule Allen...are you in favor of doing business with people who do GREAT things for SOME people while lying to and cheating others?

Take the age old practice of "dumping" for example. When a player dumps, he is obviously helping other people...those in on the scam...and in some well known examples of that dispicable practice...some on the dumper's side won more money than they ever had in their LIVES.

But ooops....a lot of other people were CHEATED. So Allen...is it OK with you to get in on the winning side of a dumped match...and do you want to keep doing business with the dumper?

The analoby is exactly apt re: what has happened so far, on the IPT. Some Hall of Famers...like you for example...got basically a free ride to win money that you otherwise would not have been a favorite to win...with all due and genuine respect.

Then there are several dozen other players who at least won back their travel expenses to Vegas...who might not have done so if they finished as low as they did on any other tour event. Very cool!

But how about the MANY, MANY dozen others who have LOST money...in some cases very large losses...in the $10,000.00 and UP range who paid dearly to qualify for Reno and have not gotten a dime?

Stevie Moore, for example TRAVELED TO ROME because there were fewer players in a qualifier and he has LOST HIS A$$ because of that.

I'm sorry to have to be critical of such a GREAT CHAMPION and personal hero and while you are CERTAINLY entitled to your opinion...it amounts to saying "Hey...it's OK if a tour promoter screws OTHER people...as long as it's not ME."

Jim
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It would be hard to believe if he didn't get paid he would not wonder why? He's well off enough that the small amount $5,000 he did not recieve affects his life zilch, unless he already got paid hummmmmmm. He ain't no dummy. But if he treated the vendors etc. at his super billiards expo with the same flair KT did, where do think he would be now, divorced at minimum?
 
Ah Seems To Be A Pretty Up Front Guy And A Good Promoter Of The Game.he Should Set Up An Acct. On The Forum And Tell Us Of His Dealings With Kt As A Member Of The Ipt...has He Gotten Paid..
I Dont Understand How Ah Can Support This Action,,,
 
Allen Hopkins has always been and hopefully will remain my friend. Hell, he once gave me 8-5, so how can I not like him. I have known Allen since he was a teenager, and already a damn good player, with tons of heart. He had more gamble than anyone else in the New York contingent.

That said, we do not always agree on things. And this is one of those instances. Once again I believe Allen has made a bad choice of alliances. Years ago he aligned closely with Mackey at a fateful meeting of promoters that effectively ended any hope for a national pool tour. And now by supporting Trudeau, he has again made what I consider a bad choice.

No matter how you slice it, KT has not done right by the players. PERIOD!!
The KOH tourney and the NAO were great events and substantial money was paid out. Allen got his share. On the other hand, we have the endless Qualifiers and the World Open disaster and all the lying that has followed. This negated anything good that had come before, and destroyed any good will that KT had established.

Until KT makes FULL restitution to all 200 players, his credibility in the pool world is ZERO! So to get on his bandwagon now makes absolutely no sense to me. KT made loud and bold personal guarantees about the IPT. All excuses aside, they turned out to be lies made by a well documented liar. I, for one, wouldn't be hitching my wagon to his star. Look where it has gotten Deno. He may have trouble finding work in this town again.
 
SpiderWebComm said:
Mark - read my post above. He doesn't know how to setup an AZB account, and I didn't feel like explaining it. E-mail him - I'm sure he'd like to talk to you.
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What's to know about setting up an AZB account?. If Allen can set-up a hotmail account and knows how to use that, how can he not know how to create an AZB account?. Makes zero sense.

My 65 year old father uses the internet regularly, he has no idea how to use email. If Allen can use Hotmail he can use AZB. :rolleyes:

Tell him to have Jerry Forsyth set it up for him, he's older than Allen and posts here regularly.
 
What if?

What If

KT fired DA and LE and make AH Tour Director and COO. Players and fans have a lot of respect for AH and he has shown that he can run tournaments and get them on major TV.

This way KT can step out of the limelight and let AH carry the ball. Everyone will like the fact that he fired DA for Fill in blank whatever reasons. Maybe give AH a piece of the action plus hire his wife for his assistant. Sounds like a plan to me. Johnnyt
 
What A Crock

I sleep all day and miss being in the begining jump on this one. AH wants people to do what!?!?!?! Uses the excuse that he is computer Illiterate.......I wonder and this message is delivered by the person that does all the video work for IPT who, the last time I saw, posted asking everyone to give KT a chance because he is doind business with him..........

I have had a question to ask however the opportunity did not come up until now......Spiderwedd......did you not get paid for your work either and decide to get compensation by having your banner on the IPT or did you actually PAY him for this sponsorship..........if you did ellect to trade for the sponsorship what in the hell do you know that everyone else doesn't that makes you feel comfortable continuing to do business........


I know someone visited the office of the IPT and the way it looks it is a front............nothing but computer screens in what should be the reception area for the office..........mmmmm what the hell........there isn't even boxes everywhere...........


so now do tell spiderwebb.......how do you feel comfortable trading your work for the spnosor slot?????
 
SpiderWebComm said:
To All IPT Players:

Please calm down and give KT a chance. At the first chance, I'm hearing talk about lawsuits. Why not talk about what we can do to help KT make this tour successful? He still has paid more money to professional players than any other promoter or organization ever.

I believe he was a little unlucky because of the government banning gambling on the Internet. If his intentions were not to pay us at all, he wouldn't even pay a million-dollar prize fund. Before KT came around, we never played for this amount of money before. It's not all his fault anyways, if the players were organized - we would not be in this situation.

I believe for any hope of pro players making serious money on a televised tour, we need to stick together and support KT and the IPT for the future of professional pool.

Regards,

Allen Hopkins
Professional Pool Player
allen.hopkins@hotmail.com
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Folks,
Allen Hopkins does not deserve to be flamed like this. Although you may disagree with him, he too is also looking out for the best interests of the players.

I can think of one very good reason why the payouts should be reduced by 1/3. And that is to put the IPT business model back on a sound financial footing. The previous business model with $3-million dollar payouts is simply not sustainable. The income from sponsorships, tv revenues, qualifier events and IPT memberships, simply isn't high enough to support 3-million dollar payouts. Despite what KT has said about personally subsidizing the IPT for the first two years, KT has apparently realized that bankrolling the payouts isn't a viable business model when expenditures far exceed incoming revenue.

So while I agree that KT has mislead the players and the fans many times over, the reality is that everyone is going to have to scale back their expectations if the IPT is going to be successful.

If push comes to shove and players start sueing the IPT, then bankruptsy becomes a very real possibility...in which case, nobody wins.
 
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Johnnyt said:
What If

KT fired DA and LE and make AH Tour Director and COO. Players and fans have a lot of respect for AH and he has shown that he can run tournaments and get them on major TV.

This way KT can step out of the limelight and let AH carry the ball. Everyone will like the fact that he fired DA for Fill in blank whatever reasons. Maybe give AH a piece of the action plus hire his wife for his assistant. Sounds like a plan to me. Johnnyt
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When I first saw the Allen H. post I was thinking good thoughts with him wanting to go ahead and create a unified body for the pros and so forth.
When I read the thread, all I could do was shake my head and laugh in disgust. It reminded me of his earlier years when he was doing announcing. Here's what happened. The camera panned to him, he immediately tilted his head back, shook his head postured up and made sure his hair was parted propely before speaking, all I saw was arrogance, and we're seeing it again. Old habits die hard.
 
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. The bamboozle has captured us. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.

-- Carl Sagan --
 
PoolSharkAllen said:
So while I agree that KT has mislead the players and the fans many times over, the reality is that everyone is going to have to scale back their expectations if you want the IPT to succeed.
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This is the part the absolutely floors me. People still think that there's going to be a tour next yr. Please, tell me what leads you to believe this? Is it because KT or Deno said so? What credibility have either of them showed since Reno? I don't think either one of them have spoken the truth to anyone about anything.

If every player accepted this offer, I guarantee you, and would bet everything I own, that there would still not be a tour. Once everyone was paid a small percent, KT would be gone.

Regardless of what choice the players make... the settlement offer or their own decision to go after all of the money, KT is done.

If KT could get out of this, legally, without paying something, he would. The fact that he's offering to pay something means that he has to. If he doesn't, then he leaves himself open legally. If he settles then he can say, I've settled my debts with this endeavor and he's legally free to go about his merry way.

KT has a weight loss book coming out. This is the kind of guy he is... a few weeks ago he walks into the Chicago office, brags to everyone about his new weight loss book coming out soon and how much money he's going to make on it. THEN he calls the employee's into a meeting and tells them that some of them will be laid off the following week. The following Fri (with KT nowhere in sight) Deno and two others let 13 people go.

The writing has been on the wall for awhile now and becomes clearer with each passing day. It is beyond me how anyone can possibly think that there will still be an IPT. Obviously none of the big red flag warning signs have caught some peoples attention and nothing short of KT closing the doors and shutting down will get them to believe what most of us already know.
 
Hey

I think Hopkins is just applying for Deno's job on the off chance there is one.

give him a break.....

You may not like him or agree with him, but at least he has done things for pool rather then just Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk... like most people...

There's "Doers" and "Talkers" where do you fit in ???
 
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Timberly said:
This is the part the absolutely floors me. People still think that there's going to be a tour next yr. Please, tell me what leads you to believe this? Is it because KT or Deno said so? What credibility have either of them showed since Reno? I don't think either one of them have spoken the truth to anyone about anything.
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I certainly agree that the IPT has lost much of its credibility. The way things are going, it's anyone's guess if there will be a tour next year.

The IPT may very well go belly-up even if it did pay out $1-million instead of $3-million. However, this business model of paying out far more money than what is coming in is simply not sustainable. If expenditures (payouts) aren't eventually adjusted to match income, then the IPT will most certainly go bankrupt (without a sugar daddy to bankroll it).
 
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JC51534 said:
I think Hopkins is just applying for Deno's job on the off chance there is one.

give him a break.....

You may not like him or agree with him, but at least he has done things for pool rather then just Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk... like most people...

There's "Doers" and "Talkers" where do you fit in ???
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I think Allen Hopkins has done a phenomenal job promoting pool. I watch his events on TV and I go to Valley Forge every yr. The fact that Allen is so proactive in the pool world is what baffles me about his thoughts on the IPT.

I'm truly at a loss here and cannot think of a logical reason for someone (esp Allen) truly believing the message he has put out. :confused:
 
PoolSharkAllen said:
I certainly agree that the IPT has lost much of its credibility. The way things are going, it's anyone's guess if there will be a tour next year.

The IPT may very well go belly-up even if it did pay out $1-million instead of $3-million. However, this business model of paying out far more money than what is coming in is simply not sustainable. If expenditures (payouts) aren't eventually adjusted to match income, then the IPT will most certainly go bankrupt (without a sugar daddy to bankroll it).
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You have a firm grasp of the obvious. It is what most of us have been saying from the start and has never made any sense. But, Kevin said he didn't care and if all went bad then he was having fun anyway, his words. He, (big surprise) when it came time to pay, didn't. All anybody was doing as players was taking him at his word. The fact is, there was no reason for them to not get payed, again if you could take him at his word.

To use Kevins words, "We have tens of millions of dollars behind us to make this thing work". "If we come to a river we can't cross, we will build bridge, "We will go as far as we can see and when we get there we will be able to see a little farther". You know the spiel, except now that the obvious has happened, they don't want to take responsibility. They want the players to cover their loses. I personally don't think they have the money to pay, Kevin is a phony and a repeated bustout and he has just done it again for the forth or fifth time in his life.

Let me ask you something, if they pay off the players and get out from under both financially and legally, why would they want to continue what is an almost certain losing propitiation? All the people who think there may still be an IPT have to answer that question, "Why". You answer it in your last sentence, there is no reason.
 
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Which Allen?

Timberly said:
I think Allen Hopkins has done a phenomenal job promoting pool. I watch his events on TV and I go to Valley Forge every yr. The fact that Allen is so proactive in the pool world is what baffles me about his thoughts on the IPT.

I'm truly at a loss here and cannot think of a logical reason for someone (esp Allen) truly believing the message he has put out. :confused:
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I've known most of the folks hanging round this site fo Damn near 50 years[ {if you are as old as me }, like most, trust only as far as I can see { not far any more } believe only what I see and won't swear to that. I'm almost completely computer ill.,but can type with two fingers when I wish!! Are there not two Allen Hopkins essss.???? Allen Sr. is pretty SHARP, not sure about his son or sons--they may be gullable-- I will only say 2 dimes paid is better then 3 mil promised- take the third, sign nothing. See ya JoeB
 
joeb said:
I've known most of the folks hanging round this site fo Damn near 50 years[ {if you are as old as me }, like most, trust only as far as I can see { not far any more } believe only what I see and won't swear to that. I'm almost completely computer ill.,but can type with two fingers when I wish!! Are there not two Allen Hopkins essss.???? Allen Sr. is pretty SHARP, not sure about his son or sons--they may be gullable-- I will only say 2 dimes paid is better then 3 mil promised- take the third, sign nothing. See ya JoeB
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To the best of my knowledge, we're discussing Allen Sr, not Allen Jr
 
Today I was reading an article about the bankruptcy reforms and one point they make is that the person has to attempt to repay some of the money owed and the person has to take counseling requirements prior to filing.

So with the partial payment he has completed that part of the bankruptcy requirement. I imagine he will take a conseling course shortly.

The article didn't state if this applies just to individuals or to businesses too.

But it looks like he is getting his ducks in order. Banktruptcy is around the corner. That 1/3 offer is looking better and better.
 
I have a question.........Lets just say that everybody accepts KT at his word and accepts the partial payments. After everybody gets their 1st payment, what is stopping KT from holding out on the remainder of the payments and then 2 months down the road say... Oh well i tried. I have no more money. so please be thankful with what you have already received...Since people have already accepted the partial payment, can he just turn around to anybody that wants to know and say. Hey, i tried... but was just not able to cover the losses. And then walk away free and clear. Only paying out about 300k instead of the 3 million promised....................mike
 
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