I'm just going to start off by saying that this may be a long read so turn away now if you're not down for it.
So this was my first Professional Event I have attended. Living in Canada there are not many big events that come within a reasonable driving distance. This one was only 5 hours away, so I decided to go.
I went with a fellow AZ member NathanDumoulin who you might know as the creator/producer/director of www.runoutmedia.com which features The Mastering Pool with Mika Immonen Instructional Series as well as the new Venom Trickshots dvd release.
I arrived at Nathans House Friday night shortly after 10pm. When I got there Nathan told me that Mika had lost in his last match and was Eliminated from the tournament. I very dissappointed because Mika is my favorite player and I was really looking forward to seeing him play all weekend. Anyway Nathan called Mika to make sure that he was going to stay around for awhile anyway rather than to drive back to New York because Nate had a business meeting planned with Mika to pitch a big new idea to him.
So we left around 6am Saturday morning from Toronto to make it to Turning Stone for the start of the Noon matches.
We went in to the event center and began watching some live pool.The feature table was Ralf Souquet vs. Shane Van Boening B side elimination match. The venue is great for spectators because of the raisied seating you can watch and follow up to 3 or 4 matches at a time. We finished watching the first two rounds and then met Jerry Forseith to present him with the very first copy of Venom Trickshot DVD. He was excited to watch it as soon as he could and told us he would be writing a review for Azb.
We then got a call from Mika to meet us for lunch and hold the meeting where we discussed some future projects.
We went back to the tournament and watched some more great pool. We met some players like John Schmidt (actually recognized Nathan from his AZ picture), Corey Deuel and Charlie Williams.
Mika asked us if we wanted to go for dinner and drinks with him later. We headed off to check into our hotel ( The Inn at Turning Stone. Great deal only $75 for the night and a free 2 min shuttle ride back and forth to the Main Resort. So we headed back to the room and hit the liquor store on the way back to grab a nice bottle of wine to go with dinner.
We got back to the Resort and met up with with Mika and Rodney Morris (who I might add was the coolest ****ing guy around) who just finished a 36 minute 9-0 white wash that put him into the final 4 on the winners side. We went to a fancy Italian Restaurant inside the resort and sat down the 4 of us for a wonderful dinner. We talked about the tournament, Nathans movies, the state of pool in the US, Past tournaments they had played in (IPT etc....) and their upcoming schedule of events including the WPA team cup and a tournament in Spain in January. After dinner we headed up to mika`s room for drinks and the premiere of the Venom Trickshots DVD. It was me Nathan, Mika, Rodney Morris and Marcus Chamat. We threw the movie on on Mika`s computer and sat back and watched as Mika, Rodney and Marcus were all blown away by the movie. Shot after shot was getting ohh and ahhs from 3 of the greatest pool players on the planet. After the video was finished we went to club Lava located inside the resort. As soon as we arrived Mika bought a round of drinks for the 4 of us. The rest of the night he had a drink ordered for us anytime our glass was under half full. Slowly more and more pool players started showing up, Mike Dechaine, Marc Vidal, Stevie Moore, John Alicea, etc.....thats when the shots started. At one point Mika was walking around with a pen and paper taking orders for who wanted to join in a round of Patron shots.
The night got crazier and crazier and to be honest I`m a little fuzzy about the happenings but I know we didn`t get back to the room until 4am ish.
On Sunday we made it to the 11am Rodney Morris vs Charlie Williams match. After the match Nathan and I went to go for Lunch. While waiting to be seated, Rodney Morris and John Schmidt showed up, so we shared a table and plenty of storys. Just for the Record John Schmidt is a really nice guy and even more of a " poolfan". He knows the history of the game like no one else and during the tournament he watched more pool than any other pro during breaks form his matches as well as after he was eliminated.
We than headed in to the Arena to watch the rest of the tournament There were some great matches none better than the Rodney vs. Hatch Match up.
In the end Johnny was a deserved champion as he played excellent all week. Rodney had a great week as well and a congratulations to him.
After we the tournament we said goodbye to Mika who came down to watch the Finals and headed back home.
I must say what an awesome weekend I had and cannot wait to go to the Super Billiards Expo in March and return to The beautiful Turning Stone resort for the event in August.
Dave:smile:
So this was my first Professional Event I have attended. Living in Canada there are not many big events that come within a reasonable driving distance. This one was only 5 hours away, so I decided to go.
I went with a fellow AZ member NathanDumoulin who you might know as the creator/producer/director of www.runoutmedia.com which features The Mastering Pool with Mika Immonen Instructional Series as well as the new Venom Trickshots dvd release.
I arrived at Nathans House Friday night shortly after 10pm. When I got there Nathan told me that Mika had lost in his last match and was Eliminated from the tournament. I very dissappointed because Mika is my favorite player and I was really looking forward to seeing him play all weekend. Anyway Nathan called Mika to make sure that he was going to stay around for awhile anyway rather than to drive back to New York because Nate had a business meeting planned with Mika to pitch a big new idea to him.
So we left around 6am Saturday morning from Toronto to make it to Turning Stone for the start of the Noon matches.
We went in to the event center and began watching some live pool.The feature table was Ralf Souquet vs. Shane Van Boening B side elimination match. The venue is great for spectators because of the raisied seating you can watch and follow up to 3 or 4 matches at a time. We finished watching the first two rounds and then met Jerry Forseith to present him with the very first copy of Venom Trickshot DVD. He was excited to watch it as soon as he could and told us he would be writing a review for Azb.
We then got a call from Mika to meet us for lunch and hold the meeting where we discussed some future projects.
We went back to the tournament and watched some more great pool. We met some players like John Schmidt (actually recognized Nathan from his AZ picture), Corey Deuel and Charlie Williams.
Mika asked us if we wanted to go for dinner and drinks with him later. We headed off to check into our hotel ( The Inn at Turning Stone. Great deal only $75 for the night and a free 2 min shuttle ride back and forth to the Main Resort. So we headed back to the room and hit the liquor store on the way back to grab a nice bottle of wine to go with dinner.
We got back to the Resort and met up with with Mika and Rodney Morris (who I might add was the coolest ****ing guy around) who just finished a 36 minute 9-0 white wash that put him into the final 4 on the winners side. We went to a fancy Italian Restaurant inside the resort and sat down the 4 of us for a wonderful dinner. We talked about the tournament, Nathans movies, the state of pool in the US, Past tournaments they had played in (IPT etc....) and their upcoming schedule of events including the WPA team cup and a tournament in Spain in January. After dinner we headed up to mika`s room for drinks and the premiere of the Venom Trickshots DVD. It was me Nathan, Mika, Rodney Morris and Marcus Chamat. We threw the movie on on Mika`s computer and sat back and watched as Mika, Rodney and Marcus were all blown away by the movie. Shot after shot was getting ohh and ahhs from 3 of the greatest pool players on the planet. After the video was finished we went to club Lava located inside the resort. As soon as we arrived Mika bought a round of drinks for the 4 of us. The rest of the night he had a drink ordered for us anytime our glass was under half full. Slowly more and more pool players started showing up, Mike Dechaine, Marc Vidal, Stevie Moore, John Alicea, etc.....thats when the shots started. At one point Mika was walking around with a pen and paper taking orders for who wanted to join in a round of Patron shots.
The night got crazier and crazier and to be honest I`m a little fuzzy about the happenings but I know we didn`t get back to the room until 4am ish.
On Sunday we made it to the 11am Rodney Morris vs Charlie Williams match. After the match Nathan and I went to go for Lunch. While waiting to be seated, Rodney Morris and John Schmidt showed up, so we shared a table and plenty of storys. Just for the Record John Schmidt is a really nice guy and even more of a " poolfan". He knows the history of the game like no one else and during the tournament he watched more pool than any other pro during breaks form his matches as well as after he was eliminated.
We than headed in to the Arena to watch the rest of the tournament There were some great matches none better than the Rodney vs. Hatch Match up.
In the end Johnny was a deserved champion as he played excellent all week. Rodney had a great week as well and a congratulations to him.
After we the tournament we said goodbye to Mika who came down to watch the Finals and headed back home.
I must say what an awesome weekend I had and cannot wait to go to the Super Billiards Expo in March and return to The beautiful Turning Stone resort for the event in August.
Dave:smile:
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