Shane Van Boening on "60 Minutes," December 4, 7:30 p.m. Eastern

She even mentioned, when asked about cash games/gambling, how she did not want to mess with the history of the game, and I was screaming in my head: "then what about the purple 5????"
I also want to bring back the purple 4, but I think we all just need to drop it as it is clear she won't change it.

All things considered, it is a minor issue. I still get confused once in a while, but I'm mostly adjusted as a viewer
 
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I sometimes provide written documents for TV shows and documentary films, and it is amazing how many hours they film, to include B rolls, just to get 13 minutes, as in this case, of video. I would venture to guess the "60 Minutes" crew filmed several hours and thereafter edited it to this brief 13-minute segment.

I thought the segment was brilliant. Jon Wertheim wrote a book about pool, "Running the Table," featuring Kid Delicious, which was supposed to be turned into a movie by Lions Gate, though Lions Gate dropped it land did not proceed with the movie. I met Wertheim in 2004 at the Glass City Open in Toledo where he was following Danny Basavich around and interviewing others about pool in general. He was working for "Sports Illustrated" at that time.

It was fun to see people we know on the "60 Minutes" segment "The South Dakota Kid," even though it was so brief. I saw Jay Helfert whispering to Alex Pagulayan on the rail, sweating a match, quite a few Filipino pool stars, Fedor, Joshua, Jayson, Karl Boyes, one of the Ko brothers, Van-Van, and many others at Derby City Classic. The tall guy gambling in the photo, that's Jean-Robert Bellande, a well-known poker player who goes to the DCC and gambles high as the Georgia pine and pays off in bitcoin, so I was told. That's LilJon behind him on the rail.

A little tidbit about the life of a professional pool player: "Shane Van Boening spends 300 days a year on the road playing professional pool." This should put the rumor to rest that so-and-so makes $100,000 in pool and it's doable because if the best player in the world says after taxes, it is less than six figures, that tells the story. Expenses and taxes are brutal in professional pool.

Finally, the truth comes out about how much money one can make in pool.
WERTHEIM: What can a top player make?
SHANE: A top player in pool can make only six figures. After expenses, maybe five figures.
WERTHEIM: No one is making a million bucks—
SHANE: No.
WERTHEIM: —as a pool player?
SHANE: That's never happened.


Who is the jerk-off in Tennessee that threw a cueball into young Shane's chest when he was on the road with his uncle? That's when Shane said no more gambling on the road. I get it. I had a gun pulled on me in Dalton, Georgia, when my counterpart was gambling on a bar box. It's legal to carry guns in Georgia—well, at least it was back in the '80s.

I thought he segment was great. Shane was perfect! Best line of the show. SHANE: "Jayson who?" Hahahahaha!

A few screenshots which need no labels. Y'all know who's who.

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I filmed 10 years of Derby.
I have the poker players playing pool😉 JRB, Nick Schulman, John (Cornflakes) David (Viffer).
 
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pool wont get an audience until it changes the games it plays. no one wants to watch someone just play himself and run balls. they want a back and forth contest with another person. shot by shot.
tennis. golf to a measure. soccer. basketball etc. it needs to be a moving sport with many instant wins, excitements and loses.
its too much like bowling now, and it needs changing for the public to come around.
look how bowling has died as a tv sport.
That's why I lke watching one pocket matches at the pro level.
 
I don't know if Wertheim was just playing it up for the camera, but it is strange that he seems to know so little about pool if he has written a book about it (the astonishment about a stop shot). Not an insult, just an observation- I'm happy they ran this segment. Hopefully more mainstream coverage will follow
Artistic license. He has been around a LOT of pool.

Have your seen The Kid Delicious book?? He wrote that plus some stuff for sports illustrated too.
 
The link I provided above has the segment in it's entirety- https://www.cbsnews.com/video/shane-van-boening-pool-60-minutes-video-2022-11-27/#x

Nice profile of Shane. However, they did somewhat misrepresent him as he is known for being a great money player- far from really opposed to gambling.

Nevertheless, I'm happy pool is getting attention in the general public.
I think they were trying to church it up a little. Trying to put pool/ Shane in a nice light.
 
I also want to bring back the purple 4, but I think we all just need to drop it as it is clear she won't change it.

All things considered, it is a minor issue. I still get confused once in a while, but I'm mostly adjusted as a viewer
I watched much of the Mosconi Cup, almost every rack I had to look at the bottom of the screen to see what color ball was after the 3. Its irritating as hell.
 
I have always heard that a child starved for attention will seek and accept attention of any kind, even if it is not the type of attention he really desires. While the 60 Minutes program was not "bad", per se, it did not focus on the aspects of pool that I enjoy. I refuse to quietly accept the demise of the pool hall culture that I came up in. I never considered pool as a profession in which one might make millions and achieve fame and celebrity, but it certainly delivered much in the way of competition, intrigue, friendship, and, oh yeah, gambling. If you were not there, you really cannot appreciate what has been lost.
 
The link I provided above has the segment in it's entirety- https://www.cbsnews.com/video/shane-van-boening-pool-60-minutes-video-2022-11-27/#x

Nice profile of Shane. However, they did somewhat misrepresent him as he is known for being a great money player- far from really opposed to gambling.

Nevertheless, I'm happy pool is getting attention in the general public.
They did mention that Shane played a lot of money games but has sense got away from that, which is accurate. When I first started going to Derby City, Shane was upstairs in the action room a lot. Now you won't catch him up there unless it is a tournament match.
 
sponsors have a lot to say on how you live your life.

shane is a great ambassador for pool. thats for sure.

but on tv more would rather watch earl and his antics. who would you pay more for on a tv show if you were producing it.
 
I was involved in this production from beginning to end! Jon Wertheim and I began talking about a segment on pool in 2019. The pandemic put everything on hold until late last year, when Jon called to say they were ready to go again.

I was introduced to the two producers and we had several calls working out the logistics of the shoot. I recommended DCC because most of the top players would be there. I also put them in touch with Shane, and what made him special among all the players. I touted them on were Jayson, Dennis (this was before his ban), Filler and Gorst. Also let them know about the main tournament promoters Matchroom and Predator.

They flew me back to DCC to guide them around there. In February they flew me to New York for a three hour interview with Jon. Sorry to say it didn’t make the Final Cut. They did over 100 hours of taping that needed to be edited for a twelve minute segment.

This piece evolved as they were working on it, and ultimately they found Shane’s story to be the most compelling. That is how a show like this works. And I think they did a wonderful job, giving our sport the most exposure it’s gotten in many years. And Shane’s stock just went up volumes!

Twelve million plus people watching this show is not a bad thing! I felt that all aspects of our sport were handled tastefully and accurately. Thank you 60 Minutes!
 
I was involved in this production from beginning to end! Jon Wertheim and I began talking about a segment on pool in 2019. The pandemic put everything on hold until late last year, when Jon called to say they were ready to go again.

I was introduced to the two producers and we had several calls working out the logistics of the shoot. I recommended DCC because most of the top players would be there. I also put them in touch with Shane, and what made him special among all the players. I touted them on were Jayson, Dennis (this was before his ban), Filler and Gorst. Also let them know about the main tournament promoters Matchroom and Predator.

They flew me back to DCC to guide them around there. In February they flew me to New York for a three hour interview with Jon. Sorry to say it didn’t make the Final Cut. They did over 100 hours of taping that needed to be edited for a twelve minute segment.

This piece evolved as they were working on it, and ultimately they found Shane’s story to be the most compelling. That is how a show like this works. And I think they did a wonderful job, giving our sport the most exposure it’s gotten in many years. And Shane’s stock just went up volumes!

Twelve million plus people watching this show is not a bad thing! I felt that all aspects of our sport were handled tastefully and accurately. Thank you 60 Minutes!
Thanks for your work there Jay. I think most really liked it. Great job!(y)
 
The tall guy gambling at Derby is JRB. He was on Survivor back in the day and is always on late night poker for huge action. He is always in action at Griff's as well for big money playing one pocket. His one pocket game has got much better over the years and everyone always gives him huge spots because he has all the money!
I have a feeling Jay Helfert would love to get in a poker game where JRB was sitting at the table. After donking off all his money to the poker pros, he managed to get a private game going at the Aria casino with some rich high rollers who were purportedly worse at poker than him. The problem with that is: it's against Nevada gambling laws to have a private game inside a casino. However, if you tried to get on the list to get in the game, I heard the poker manager would not put you down unless it was okayed by JRB, and JRB would not let anyone play who was better than him. JRB must have been tipping pretty well.

Based on what I've read and seen, I doubt that JRB is a winner playing poker, and he seems like such a degenerate gambler that I doubt he could beat pool sharks out of any money, either. The question is: where does he get his seemingly unlimited cash flow? I expected him to be long gone from the gambling scene by now.
 
I have a feeling Jay Helfert would love to get in a poker game where JRB was sitting at the table. After donking off all his money to the poker pros, he managed to get a private game going at the Aria casino with some rich high rollers who were purportedly worse at poker than him. The problem with that is: it's against Nevada gambling laws to have a private game inside a casino. However, if you tried to get on the list to get in the game, I heard the poker manager would not put you down unless it was okayed by JRB, and JRB would not let anyone play who was better than him. JRB must have been tipping pretty well.

Based on what I've read and seen, I doubt that JRB is a winner playing poker, and he seems like such a degenerate gambler that I doubt he could beat pool sharks out of any money, either. The question is: where does he get his seemingly unlimited cash flow? I expected him to be long gone from the gambling scene by now.
As I said his pool game has got much better over the years. Pros give him crazy weight and try to outrun the nuts for the chance to make a big score. Sometimes the weight is just too much and JRB ends up winning. As far as his poker game I have no idea I have only watched him play pool at Griff's regularly.
 
Based on what I've read and seen, I doubt that JRB is a winner playing poker, and he seems like such a degenerate gambler that I doubt he could beat pool sharks out of any money, either. The question is: where does he get his seemingly unlimited cash flow? I expected him to be long gone from the gambling scene by now.
His Herndon Mob stats are pretty good. I bet most top pool pros would like to have $3MM in career tournament earnings.

 
His Herndon Mob stats are pretty good. I bet most top pool pros would like to have $3MM in career tournament earnings.

What most people would want is $3 million in net winnings. Looking at the stats there, he does seem to have outrun his entry fees, which ran as high as $50k for a single tournament. However, you don't know if he had to split his winnings with a backer, so those poker site stats don't really mean much. Also, are those stats for his top 10 finishes and cashes or every tournament he entered?
 
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