I got a few hours sleep this morning and am back at work after a grueling weekend at Breaker's Billiards in Mobile.
It was FAR BETTER than I expected. I don't know of many regional or local tournaments that could have brought in a stronger line-up. The field was over 100 players and 30% of them could REALLY PLAY. I won a match against a young man named Troy ? and lost to Will Pay and Denny Fox. I played well against Will Pay after he quit making the nine on the break and running racks on me but lost 9-6. Oh yeah I dogged the second game which would have evened out the momentum and could have had an entirely different outcome. Those bar tables are a break contest for sure. Against Denny, I was already exhausted and up since early Saturday morning. My match against Denny was at around 2:00 am Sunday morning. He played OK, I played poorly and he beat me rather severely.
THE ACTION?
It was EVERYWHERE and with EVERYONE. I loved this tournament. It had all of the tournament bar table players cross-playing on the tight pocketed 9 foot Diamond Tables, playing equal amounts of nine ball and one pocket. I can't even begin to tell you how much actio went on. I saw so much action, well, you can just take my word for it. It was an action player's dream. I even got into the heat of battle a couple of times after I got knocked out. One fellow, a lurker and former very good player (his words) named Joe McNamaro knew who I was and just wanted a friendly game of one pocket for $50 a game. He knew I was just an Internet geek and offered me 10-8 without me asking for weight. We wound up playing some friendly one pocket and I came out ahead. Another local and I matched up and I won also, not much but they showed a visitor a good time.
BILLY INCARDONA is the man. He doesn't play world class but he himself is world class, showing respect to prospective players, competitors and sweaters alike. He has one of the friendliest banter that you could ever imagine all the while gambling. However, he did show his bulldog teeth when another good player (who sat on the side line) insinuated that Billy and Chohan had not played a certain game a certain way. Billy was not pleased and neither would I be. A couple of young stars were standing next to me and said they were in Louisville when Billy played that particular game and Billy was telling the truth. I urged them to speak up because no one else was. Finally one of them did the right thing and agreed with Billy. I was very proud of the young man. He runs with Nick Vitta and I don't know his name. I understand reservation about not wanting to get into two other player's business but when one of them who is by all rights a stand up guy, has his good named sullied, you have an obligation to clarify the truth if you know it and no one else is speaking up.
I saw $10,000 sets, lots of multi-thousand dollar sets, lots of $100 a game stuff. I was probably the cheapest action in the joint at $50 a game. No, I saw Electric Mike and Nick from Houma gambling and I know they weren't betting no $50 a game.
Eddie Brown was palsy-walsy with Lil John. Lil John put his winnings in action faster than Paris Hilton drops her panties on a hot summer night.
Lil John stayed in action all weekend long with stake horses and with his own cash. His play was impressive at times and mediocre at time.s He played Tony Watson aka Shrimp Boat, at least twice losing big the first time playing even up one pocket, the second time he played flawless and won big. Lil John was the winner of the big ring game and had lots of people pulling for him.
Scotty Townsend give Eddie Brown the 7 ball and the last two and spanked him SEVERLY. Scotty can still play! Eddie squirmed and asked for the 6 and the last three and Scotty said he could play 500 jelly beans A GAME with just the 6 and Eddie bowed his head and went after some other action . Eddie STAYED in acton the whole weekend.
There was a steady stream of gambling that went on 24/7 . I just had to hunker down and order my food from the grill out back of the pool room although I don't like to eat hamburgers all of the time but it was a sweater's dream and I didn't want to wake up. When I did sleep which was for just a few hours I couldn't wait to get back. I would watch the bar table action for a while and then move back over to the 9 footers and just kept moving back and forth.
Hillbilly, Jeremy Jones, Jesse Middlebrook, Chuck??, John Schmidt, David Walters, Nick Vitta & running mates, Tony Chohan, Tony Watson, Pablo Matheu, Lil John, Eddie Brown, Billy Incardona (he adds a whole new dimension to a pool tournament), Ronnie Wiseman, Scotty Townsend and the list goes on and on. Tournament promoters should comp him for hotel and travel as he is a magnet for action and doesn't mind mixing it up. Yeah, I was impressed with his gamble and his style. His game was pretty good too.
I couldn't stay much longer and had to leave. I was worn down to the nub. Jesse Middlebrook and Hillbilly were fighting it out on bar tables when I left.
A little scuttlebutt, although I missed seeing the reason for the outburst, Hillbilly and Jeremy Jones were playing and I walked up just after Jeremy had broke the balls and the balls didn't spread well, Jeremy picked up a couple of balls and threw them at one of the pockets and unscrewed his cue and left. I didn't see the rack but a lot of attention was being given to the racks by racker and the breaker throughout the tournament. I had to ask one of my competitors to fix the rack 4 different times.
Hillybilly can JUMP DRAW with the best and it is obvious he can play and is one of the best. I don't know how Hillbilly faired with that Jesse Middlebrook guy but Jesse doesn't miss much.
Tater or something close to that deserves honorable mention for being in the thick of it. I think he is from Alabama, Ohio or somewhere but he was staying in action. Oh, yeah Lil Sal, if you like a small pit bull, try some of him on for size. You might win a bundle as he really has a lot of gamble. He lost two sets in a row playing even nine ball and just wouldn't quit. He kept raising the bet and finally won some of his money back from Tater. Tater quit saying he was tired but continued hanging around trying to change the game from an ahead set to a race but Sal would have none of it.
I left with DOZENS of gamblers and players everywhere. The stakehorses came to gamble and they did 24/7. Wish I could have stayed.
$4000 for first place, Second was I think $2,000 or maybe$2500 but it wentdown FAST from there. Thatwas tournament money. Maybe someone else can put the details out there later on.
JoeyA (It was a FIVE-COOL TOURNAMENT)
It was FAR BETTER than I expected. I don't know of many regional or local tournaments that could have brought in a stronger line-up. The field was over 100 players and 30% of them could REALLY PLAY. I won a match against a young man named Troy ? and lost to Will Pay and Denny Fox. I played well against Will Pay after he quit making the nine on the break and running racks on me but lost 9-6. Oh yeah I dogged the second game which would have evened out the momentum and could have had an entirely different outcome. Those bar tables are a break contest for sure. Against Denny, I was already exhausted and up since early Saturday morning. My match against Denny was at around 2:00 am Sunday morning. He played OK, I played poorly and he beat me rather severely.
THE ACTION?
It was EVERYWHERE and with EVERYONE. I loved this tournament. It had all of the tournament bar table players cross-playing on the tight pocketed 9 foot Diamond Tables, playing equal amounts of nine ball and one pocket. I can't even begin to tell you how much actio went on. I saw so much action, well, you can just take my word for it. It was an action player's dream. I even got into the heat of battle a couple of times after I got knocked out. One fellow, a lurker and former very good player (his words) named Joe McNamaro knew who I was and just wanted a friendly game of one pocket for $50 a game. He knew I was just an Internet geek and offered me 10-8 without me asking for weight. We wound up playing some friendly one pocket and I came out ahead. Another local and I matched up and I won also, not much but they showed a visitor a good time.
BILLY INCARDONA is the man. He doesn't play world class but he himself is world class, showing respect to prospective players, competitors and sweaters alike. He has one of the friendliest banter that you could ever imagine all the while gambling. However, he did show his bulldog teeth when another good player (who sat on the side line) insinuated that Billy and Chohan had not played a certain game a certain way. Billy was not pleased and neither would I be. A couple of young stars were standing next to me and said they were in Louisville when Billy played that particular game and Billy was telling the truth. I urged them to speak up because no one else was. Finally one of them did the right thing and agreed with Billy. I was very proud of the young man. He runs with Nick Vitta and I don't know his name. I understand reservation about not wanting to get into two other player's business but when one of them who is by all rights a stand up guy, has his good named sullied, you have an obligation to clarify the truth if you know it and no one else is speaking up.
I saw $10,000 sets, lots of multi-thousand dollar sets, lots of $100 a game stuff. I was probably the cheapest action in the joint at $50 a game. No, I saw Electric Mike and Nick from Houma gambling and I know they weren't betting no $50 a game.
Eddie Brown was palsy-walsy with Lil John. Lil John put his winnings in action faster than Paris Hilton drops her panties on a hot summer night.
Lil John stayed in action all weekend long with stake horses and with his own cash. His play was impressive at times and mediocre at time.s He played Tony Watson aka Shrimp Boat, at least twice losing big the first time playing even up one pocket, the second time he played flawless and won big. Lil John was the winner of the big ring game and had lots of people pulling for him.
Scotty Townsend give Eddie Brown the 7 ball and the last two and spanked him SEVERLY. Scotty can still play! Eddie squirmed and asked for the 6 and the last three and Scotty said he could play 500 jelly beans A GAME with just the 6 and Eddie bowed his head and went after some other action . Eddie STAYED in acton the whole weekend.
There was a steady stream of gambling that went on 24/7 . I just had to hunker down and order my food from the grill out back of the pool room although I don't like to eat hamburgers all of the time but it was a sweater's dream and I didn't want to wake up. When I did sleep which was for just a few hours I couldn't wait to get back. I would watch the bar table action for a while and then move back over to the 9 footers and just kept moving back and forth.
Hillbilly, Jeremy Jones, Jesse Middlebrook, Chuck??, John Schmidt, David Walters, Nick Vitta & running mates, Tony Chohan, Tony Watson, Pablo Matheu, Lil John, Eddie Brown, Billy Incardona (he adds a whole new dimension to a pool tournament), Ronnie Wiseman, Scotty Townsend and the list goes on and on. Tournament promoters should comp him for hotel and travel as he is a magnet for action and doesn't mind mixing it up. Yeah, I was impressed with his gamble and his style. His game was pretty good too.
I couldn't stay much longer and had to leave. I was worn down to the nub. Jesse Middlebrook and Hillbilly were fighting it out on bar tables when I left.
A little scuttlebutt, although I missed seeing the reason for the outburst, Hillbilly and Jeremy Jones were playing and I walked up just after Jeremy had broke the balls and the balls didn't spread well, Jeremy picked up a couple of balls and threw them at one of the pockets and unscrewed his cue and left. I didn't see the rack but a lot of attention was being given to the racks by racker and the breaker throughout the tournament. I had to ask one of my competitors to fix the rack 4 different times.
Hillybilly can JUMP DRAW with the best and it is obvious he can play and is one of the best. I don't know how Hillbilly faired with that Jesse Middlebrook guy but Jesse doesn't miss much.
Tater or something close to that deserves honorable mention for being in the thick of it. I think he is from Alabama, Ohio or somewhere
but he was staying in action. Oh, yeah Lil Sal, if you like a small pit bull, try some of him on for size. You might win a bundle as he really has a lot of gamble. He lost two sets in a row playing even nine ball and just wouldn't quit. He kept raising the bet and finally won some of his money back from Tater. Tater quit saying he was tired but continued hanging around trying to change the game from an ahead set to a race but Sal would have none of it. I left with DOZENS of gamblers and players everywhere. The stakehorses came to gamble and they did 24/7. Wish I could have stayed.
$4000 for first place, Second was I think $2,000 or maybe$2500 but it wentdown FAST from there. Thatwas tournament money. Maybe someone else can put the details out there later on.
JoeyA (It was a FIVE-COOL TOURNAMENT)
I eased over to him and whispered an apology and he was very gracious saying it didn't bother him at all. He wasn't shooting and there was no harm done. Me, I don't want my best pal talking to another person on the other side of the room let alone some yahoo asking me for the bar stool I retrieved for myself.