Mobile..The Best of Times, the Worst of Times (long)

Mike Templeton

Mike Templeton

Confidence........
Silver Member
Mobile..The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

I don't usually post action and tournament reports, but I have to let everyone know what happened in Mobile this weekend. First, I got to meet Ted Harris, who did the cue work at the event, and Ronnie Allen who I have admired for a long time.

Before I get into things, let me say that it was one of the best tournament experiences in my pool lifetime.

We got into town Friday around midnight and got to Breakers around 1 am. The ring game was down to 2 players, Reed Pierce and LittleJohn. And not to knock anyones action, but LittleJohn has improved at least 2 balls since the last time I saw him play (which hasn't been that long ago). The ring game went on for about an hour after we arrived with great 10 ball being played. LittleJohn won the money (I think $8000) with great play and the help of several opportune 10 balls on the break.

Of course the banter being exchanged was classic between LittleJohn, Scotty Townsend, Shanon Daulton and many of the other "action" heroes in the room, with quite a few heated exchanges. If this didn't interest you, you could just turn around and watch Cliff Joyner, Richie Richeson, Tony Chohan, Ronnie Allen and other champions playing several thousand dollar sets of one pocket. I saw many old friends that I hadn't seen in years. Awesome.

I finally left Breakers around 6:30 am to get a couple of hours sleep before the tournament started at noon. I didn't realize at the time how critical these couple of hours would be.

1 pm Saturday.....There was of course a full field (or at least 125 players) with many, many champions. The calcutta didn't get started till around 3. I think around 20 players went for at least $400, and many other in the $250-$300 range. I'm not sure of the calcutta total, but it was huge. The matches started around 4 or 4:30, and this is where the real fun started.

With 125 players and 8 tables, things progressed at what seemed like a snails pace. The tournament director finally made the decision that if they were going to finish on Sunday that there could be no break in play. This was a new experience for me. It's the first tournament I have ever seen that ran matches continuously from Saturday afternoon till completion without a break in play. The players that were able to get a couple of hours sleep between matches were lucky. I played at around 6 pm Saturday, 2 am Sunday morning, 7 am Suday morning, and around 1 pm Sunday afternoon. I never left the poolroom except to check out of my hotel (which I didn't get a chance to use). How players can run out on no sleep amazes me. And with just a few exception, most playes were on time for their matches.

And with the players that were there; let me just say that you should hear the woofing and matching up when these guys are working on no sleep for about 30 hours. Bear and Ricky ran a great tournament, and Mobile is getting to be classic for high stakes action.

This is getting too long, so......I left around 3 pm Sunday with no sleep and an 8 hour drive back to SC ahead of me. The ride home was long, and the weekend was certainly exhausting, but the experience was amazing. I hope someone (Vagabond or Ted???????) can clue me in on what happened from 3 pm till completion.

Isn't pool the greatest sport ever?

Mike
 
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Mike,
Thanks for the update. Yes, pool is a great sport. I've had to try and explain to people for years that going to a weekend or a 4-5 day tournament is not like a vacation. It can be a lot more grueling than a 50 to 60 an hour a week job. Sometimes you can see this look on their face, yea your playing pool and thats not work. Well, we have to take the bad with the good. Sam
 
Mike Templeton said:
I don't usually post action and tournament reports, but I have to let everyone know what happened in Mobile this weekend. First, I got to meet Ted Harris, who did the cue work at the event, and Ronnie Allen who I have admired for a long time.

Before I get into things, let me say that it was one of the best tournament experiences in my pool lifetime.

I finally left Breakers around 6:30 am to get a couple of hours sleep before the tournament started at noon. I didn't realize at the time how critical these couple of hours would be.

1 pm Saturday.....There was of course a full field (or at least 125 players) with many, many champions. The calcutta didn't get started till around 3. I think around 20 players went for at least $400, and many other in the $250-$300 range. I'm not sure of the calcutta total, but it was huge. The matches started around 4 or 4:30, and this is where the real fun started.

With 125 players and 8 tables, things progressed at what seemed like a snails pace. The tournament director finally made the decision that if they were going to finish on Sunday that there could be no break in play. This was a new experience for me. It's the first tournament I have ever seen that ran matches continuously from Saturday afternoon till completion without a break in play.
The players that were able to get a couple of hours sleep between matches were lucky. I played at around 6 pm Saturday, 2 am Sunday morning, 7 am Suday morning, and around 1 pm Sunday afternoon. I never left the poolroom except to check out of my hotel (which I didn't get a chance to use). How players can run out on no sleep amazes me. And with just a few exception, most playes were on time for their matches.

Isn't pool the greatest sport ever?

Mike
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Mike,
Thanks for the report and yes this is an example of pool at its best and worst. The best part was the pool being played and all the action that followed. The worst was they only had 8 tables and 128 players. You had to sit around for 4.5 hours on a 128 man calcutta. I think at 128 man fields the calcutta should start when the field is at the final 32 players. I myself think the calcutta's should start at 10 or 11 am of any tournament. Most calcuttas take up too much time from playing and that players suffer the most by playing into the early morning hours and then get stuck coming back to play only 2-4 hours later and that sucks. Anyway, thanks for the updates.
 
JustPlay said:
Mike,
Thanks for the report and yes this is an example of pool at its best and worst. The best part was the pool being played and all the action that followed. The worst was they only had 8 tables and 128 players. You had to sit around for 4.5 hours on a 128 man calcutta. I think at 128 man fields the calcutta should start when the field is at the final 32 players. I myself think the calcutta's should start at 10 or 11 am of any tournament. Most calcuttas take up too much time from playing and that players suffer the most by playing into the early morning hours and then get stuck coming back to play only 2-4 hours later and that sucks. Anyway, thanks for the updates.
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Who won the tournament? I left around five pm. An eight hour drive after no sleep was grueling.
 
Chuck Raulston said:
Who won the tournament? I left around five pm. An eight hour drive after no sleep was grueling.
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Glad you made it home safe, Chuck. JAM posted this on Southernbilliards.com.

Scott Lewis (sp) won $4,000 for first, and Will Hagerson (sp) won $2,000 for second.
 
On Sunday i told Ted harris that I should have worn my black t-shirt that simply says: I'M TOO OLD FOR THIS SHIT.

Folks, I'll be honest, I can't do it any more. I did hear one player mention that he wouldn't make it without 'help'.

Enjoyed meeting Ted and some of the folks from the other boards. Talked with several about coming to the Gulf Coast Classic in December. I'm going to try and get together a mini fishing tournament for some of the players that are interested in taking a charter. We can split the cost of the charter and I'll kick up some prize bucks for most poundage and biggest caught.

Ricky, Ms Cindy, Bear, and a host of super bar personnel worked their behinds off to pull this thing off. Oh well, Bear has plenty to spare.

Later, Pel
 
Mike Templeton said:
How players can run out on no sleep amazes me.
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The greatest hustlers have tended to have this quality, able to go on adrenaline alone.

A great example of yesteryear was road legend Johnny Irish. It was said that his backers would regularly call him, wake him up in the middle of the night, and he'd be at the poolroom and ready to go if the action was right, and played some of his best pool without sufficient sleep.

In more current times, Jose Parica often showed the ability to play on little or no sleep. In the twentieth consecutive hour of a fifteen-ahead race, Jose would play at his highest speed, to the great amazement of onlookers.
 
Hey Mike, sounds like you had a good time. I had no idea when I called you from the tournament in Queens this weekend that you were all the way down in AL at a tournament. I kinda know what you went through except I didn't have to play. I got up @ 0530 on Fri morning for work, drove to NY, watched the tournament, and then headed to the bar with a few people until they kicked us out at 4am...we dropped a few people off at their hotels, grabbed some food and got back to my buddy's house in Staten Island as the sun was rising. After being up about 25 hrs I got 4 hrs of sleep and did it all over again on Sat only to get 4 hrs of sleep again. Sounds like my 8 hrs of sleep this weekend was more than you got! Thank goodness I only had a 3 hr drive home! I can't wait until the end of Sept to do it all over again in Grand Central Station.

If you got my voicemail and happen to have the info I asked about, could you send me a private msg? Are you going to the GA tournament in Oct? I'm going to price a ticket and see what it would cost me...would love to go if it's feasible.

Hope all is well,
T
 
Timberly said:
Hey Mike, sounds like you had a good time. I had no idea when I called you from the tournament in Queens this weekend that you were all the way down in AL at a tournament. I kinda know what you went through except I didn't have to play. I got up @ 0530 on Fri morning for work, drove to NY, watched the tournament, and then headed to the bar with a few people until they kicked us out at 4am...we dropped a few people off at their hotels, grabbed some food and got back to my buddy's house in Staten Island as the sun was rising. After being up about 25 hrs I got 4 hrs of sleep and did it all over again on Sat only to get 4 hrs of sleep again. Sounds like my 8 hrs of sleep this weekend was more than you got! Thank goodness I only had a 3 hr drive home! I can't wait until the end of Sept to do it all over again in Grand Central Station.

If you got my voicemail and happen to have the info I asked about, could you send me a private msg? Are you going to the GA tournament in Oct? I'm going to price a ticket and see what it would cost me...would love to go if it's feasible.

Hope all is well,

T
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T,

I was playing a match when you called and didn't remember to call you back. I will send the info you wanted to your private messages. Hopefully you can get back down this way soon.

Take care.

Mike
 
sjm said:
The greatest hustlers have tended to have this quality, able to go on adrenaline alone.
Click to expand...

I think they also need about $10 to purchase the little nuggets of adrenaline.
 
Pelican said:
On Sunday i told Ted harris that I should have worn my black t-shirt that simply says: I'M TOO OLD FOR THIS SHIT.

Folks, I'll be honest, I can't do it any more. I did hear one player mention that he wouldn't make it without 'help'.

Later, Pel
Click to expand...

Pel,

I was having a discussion with someone Sunday morning on the percentage of players we thought might be getting a little "help" with things.

Mike
 
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