most participants ever in a tournament?

[jay helfert]

for one tourney? What did 1st place get in terms of payout?

That was at the local level. You had to win a small sixteen player tourney to get to play in the Regionals. The top two in the regional tourneys advanced to the finals (nationals) in Vegas, with free room and $50 travel money (this was the early 80's). I think the third and fourth place players could also go to the nationals/finals but had to pay their own expenses.

There were two National finals tournaments, Eight Ball and 9-Ball, each one boasting a $100,000 purse with $25,000 going to the winner. Over 1,000 players made it to Vegas for the finals in each division. I finished second in my regional to Richie Florence, who was the eventuall winner of the Eight Ball division. I came in tied for 33rd and won $900. I lost to Neal Frakes, when I got a little over confident and tried a few dangerous shots instead of playing safe. The matches were two out of three sets, each set a race to two. A very short match!

Ernesto Dominguez won the 9-Ball division that year as I recall.

 

[victhestick]

one pocker

426 at the Derby City Classis for one-pocket.

 

[8ballEinstein]

That was at the local level. You had to win a small sixteen player tourney to get to play in the Regionals. The top two in the regional tourneys advanced to the finals (nationals) in Vegas, with free room and $50 travel money (this was the early 80's). I think the third and fourth place players could also go to the nationals/finals but had to pay their own expenses.

There were two National finals tournaments, Eight Ball and 9-Ball, each one boasting a $100,000 purse with $25,000 going to the winner. Over 1,000 players made it to Vegas for the finals in each division. I finished second in my regional to Richie Florence, who was the eventuall winner of the Eight Ball division. I came in tied for 33rd and won $900. I lost to Neal Frakes, when I got a little over confident and tried a few dangerous shots instead of playing safe. The matches were two out of three sets, each set a race to two. A very short match!

Ernesto Dominguez won the 9-Ball division that year as I recall.

Good memory, Jay, but I think Ernesto placed 2nd behind John Shuput that year. Also, it might've been in 8-ball.

 

[CJ Wiley]

the tournament had more players than people in my home town (Green City Mo had 629).

The Miller Lite World Series of Tavern Pool had quite a few folks. I don't have the numbers unfortunately. Maybe CJ Wiley knows, since he was one of the winners.

Those were huge tournaments....the one at the MGM Grand that I won had 756 players in the Men's Open Singles, and there were several other divisions. I joked that the tournament had more players than people in my home town (Green City Mo had 629).

 

[markgw]

First off, I didn't even name all of the top players in the tournament, including last night's winner, Santos Sambajon....or Carlo Biado or Jose Parica etc etc...'

Secondly, I didn't, and to not knock any action, won't, name the tons of amatuers that play there regularly who are capable of knocking it off but never travel out of socal, so no one knows them.

Thirdly, I obviously wasn't talking about majors with huge international contingents. I was more referring to regional pro or open events, although technically this isn't an open event since pros have to give a game on the wire in a race to 6.

And lastly, If you think it's so much easier than pro events, try playing in it sometime and see how you do...lol.

Jaden

You have to give the Sunday 9 ball tournament some toughness credit when Mika Immonen enters and finishes out of the money...

 

[DRW]

In the middle 90's, The BCA open division at the Riv. had a little over 2000 players. I think it was 1995.

 

[westcoast]

You have to give the Sunday 9 ball tournament some toughness credit when Mika Immonen enters and finishes out of the money...

Mika has been in LA for a few weeks now it seems. Is he relocating or just visiting for a long time? It would be cool to have him in LA on a permanent basis.

 

[Scott Lee]

RJ...Nope. He was talking about the Willard's tournaments, in the early 90's. I think Buddy won the last one in '94. They were held at the Arlington Park racetrack.

I also played one of the Miller Lite events in early 80's, got to Vegas and played in the national tournament, which was played at the Tropicana, and won by the Monk...the real one (Warren Constanza), not Tim Miller. Funny story...after Warren won Bucktooth stepped up and tried to high-roll him with $50K in a briefcase. Of course he wanted a total lock game and Monk didn't go for it.

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

Are you referring to the Windy City Open events at Pheasant Run ? They were quite large, and also I could walk to the event

 

[TorranceChris]

You have to give the Sunday 9 ball tournament some toughness credit when Mika Immonen enters and finishes out of the money...

Yes, we had some local players in last Sunday tournament that knocked out some high-ranked pros at the Swann tournament last year (among those pros who were beaten, I remember Raj Hundal and Dennis Hatch). And someone went hill-hill with SVB.