Had a great time this year as always at the Expo. Although I play terrible in the Open I played well the few times I tried my hand at the money tables. I got down to the action tables around 10am friday and saturday and was able to find some good people to play some cheap races and one ahead set.
The action was great and spent many an hour sweating the many ahead sets. My two thoughts overall on all the action I saw are the that Matt Clatterbuck(?sp) is a monster on a barbox for the cash he never seems to get himself in a really bad game and he has heart for days. The other thought is that Mark Painter is a machine. While his game is very strong (not at Matt's speed) his endurance is second to noone. He played an ahead set with a young player out of Mich. I think and they played thru the night and well into the next day before the kid took it down. As the young gun sat down totally winded Painter kept playing when the table turned to $10 or $20 a rack. He just keeps drinking the beers and talking the whole time and never seems to give up.
The vendors were packed to the rim with cues,cases, and anything else your could need or want. I stayed away the cue booths as much as possible because I didn't want to get out of hand and spend too much money on cues.
The two vendors I did spend sometime at were Ron Thomas cue case booth and the X-Breaker booth.
Ron Thomas is one of the nicest guys to deal with. I'm one of those pain in the ass customers that looks for ever before making a choice. He was very helpful and tolerant of me and my many visits to his booth before making my pick. I got myself a great brown ostrich print 1x2 that I'm very happy with. I will recommend to anyone looking for a great classic look case look Thomas up and you won't be disappointed.
Richard Chan and the X-Breaker booth was my other stop and Richard was very helpful with my lack of jumping ability and my crappy break. Alright my break isn't that bad and I really liked the new X-Breaker shaft. I was so shocked how hard it hit and that I was able to control the rock. I got home yesterday and went right to the poolhall and pulled out my X-breaker jump cue and started trying to jump the cue ball when it was 4 or 5 balls away from the blocking ball and after about 15 minutes I was not only able to jump the ball I was able to jump and make contact with the object ball with precision. I never would jump the ball before and always went for the three or four rail kick but Richard opened up my eyes to those times were the jump is the correct choice. Anyone in the CT area that would like to try the jump cue or the break shaft please send me a PM and I would be happy to let you try mine. Thanks again Richard and I will be in contact with you at the end of the week.
All in all the Valley Forge Expo is one of the best all around events and one I plan to attend for years to come.
The action was great and spent many an hour sweating the many ahead sets. My two thoughts overall on all the action I saw are the that Matt Clatterbuck(?sp) is a monster on a barbox for the cash he never seems to get himself in a really bad game and he has heart for days. The other thought is that Mark Painter is a machine. While his game is very strong (not at Matt's speed) his endurance is second to noone. He played an ahead set with a young player out of Mich. I think and they played thru the night and well into the next day before the kid took it down. As the young gun sat down totally winded Painter kept playing when the table turned to $10 or $20 a rack. He just keeps drinking the beers and talking the whole time and never seems to give up.
The vendors were packed to the rim with cues,cases, and anything else your could need or want. I stayed away the cue booths as much as possible because I didn't want to get out of hand and spend too much money on cues.
The two vendors I did spend sometime at were Ron Thomas cue case booth and the X-Breaker booth.
Ron Thomas is one of the nicest guys to deal with. I'm one of those pain in the ass customers that looks for ever before making a choice. He was very helpful and tolerant of me and my many visits to his booth before making my pick. I got myself a great brown ostrich print 1x2 that I'm very happy with. I will recommend to anyone looking for a great classic look case look Thomas up and you won't be disappointed.
Richard Chan and the X-Breaker booth was my other stop and Richard was very helpful with my lack of jumping ability and my crappy break. Alright my break isn't that bad and I really liked the new X-Breaker shaft. I was so shocked how hard it hit and that I was able to control the rock. I got home yesterday and went right to the poolhall and pulled out my X-breaker jump cue and started trying to jump the cue ball when it was 4 or 5 balls away from the blocking ball and after about 15 minutes I was not only able to jump the ball I was able to jump and make contact with the object ball with precision. I never would jump the ball before and always went for the three or four rail kick but Richard opened up my eyes to those times were the jump is the correct choice. Anyone in the CT area that would like to try the jump cue or the break shaft please send me a PM and I would be happy to let you try mine. Thanks again Richard and I will be in contact with you at the end of the week.
All in all the Valley Forge Expo is one of the best all around events and one I plan to attend for years to come.
