SJM at the 2026 Derby City Classic

[sjm]

Stu, your narrative about the DCC is most relevant. Do you have an opinion as to the future status of the DCC?

I'm sure that, from a moneymaking standpoint, the Derby is doing very well. Record-sized fields and long waitlists tell you all you need to know. The Caesar's Horseshoe is fully booked within a week of the announcement of the booking code by Diamond. The stream was a good one, and the post-match player interviews were solid. Many things are right about the Derby City Classic.

From an attendee standpoint, however, the Derby is in steep decline. No shot clock in the arena ruined the fan experience and, because of it, I spent less time in my arena seats than in any previous year. Over the ten days, numerous people asked me why I wasn't in my seats much, and that is the reason I always gave. Championship Sunday was devalued as fans had to miss the nine ball semifinals unless they wanted to skip the bank pool final. From an administration and scheduling standpoint, the Derby City is a growing, uncontrollable mess and it is no surprise that fewer top pros are attending.

 

[sjm]

Failed to note that the first prize checks in each of the three major disciplines was $20,000 and this represents good progress. Bravo!

 

[60inchcueguy]

Miscellaneous
The lack of a shot clock on the stream table for the first nine days, to me, almost justified a refund for those that, like me, paid good money for arena seats. With no shot clock, I spent less time in the arena than in any previous year. The “slow play forgiveness” implied by the lack of a shot clock on the stream table came back to bite the event producer and anyone that thinks that it was the bangers holding up the event wasn’t paying attention. For the most part, it was the best players who, invited to play at snail’s pace, did so time and again. Lethargically paced pool is not very entertaining.

Quite a few players, including far too many of the most elite, did not seem to take their appearance very seriously, many of them dressing in a slovenly manner. Let’s hope no potential sponsors were watching.

This right here!

 

[Bob Jewett]

Saturday, 1/31
I reckoned it would take a miracle to finish by 6:00 AM and that I should be ready for worse.
...
At 2:00 AM and a few rounds remaining, Diamond called off the remainder of the 9ball, which would continue Sunday. There was little doubt that had they not done so, the session would have gone past sunrise. Fans may now have to miss some 9ball matches if they watch the bank pool and/or the one pocket final, once again devaluing the fan experience, which had little to no priority all week. ...

Going into Saturday, they were three and a half rounds behind. They were half way through Round 5 and they should have been starting Round 9 which turned out to have 25 players holding 7 buybacks.

They were behind because the tables were not kept full during the tournament. Now that DigitalPool records duration of matches (although somewhat imperfectly), it is possible to see how many hours the tables were actually in use. It turns out that on average the tables had matches on them only 63% of the time during playing hours. That's a problem.

If they get the usage up to 90%, they can easily be down to five rounds on Saturday and players and people can have reasonable bed times. Maybe even time for a nice dinner.

 

[decent dennis]

Going into Saturday, they were three and a half rounds behind. They were half way through Round 5 and they should have been starting Round 9 which turned out to have 25 players holding 7 buybacks.

They were behind because the tables were not kept full during the tournament. Now that DigitalPool records duration of matches (although somewhat imperfectly), it is possible to see how many hours the tables were actually in use. It turns out that on average the tables had matches on them only 63% of the time during playing hours. That's a problem.

If they get the usage up to 90%, they can easily be down to five rounds on Saturday and players and people can have reasonable bed times. Maybe even time for a nice dinner.

They don’t record duration of matches( very imperfectly). I can think of at least 4 matches I was watching that cut out before the end. They need to fix this if they are going to charge for it.

 

[sjm]

Going into Saturday, they were three and a half rounds behind. They were half way through Round 5 and they should have been starting Round 9 which turned out to have 25 players holding 7 buybacks.

They were behind because the tables were not kept full during the tournament. Now that DigitalPool records duration of matches (although somewhat imperfectly), it is possible to see how many hours the tables were actually in use. It turns out that on average the tables had matches on them only 63% of the time during playing hours. That's a problem.

If they get the usage up to 90%, they can easily be down to five rounds on Saturday and players and people can have reasonable bed times. Maybe even time for a nice dinner.

In my experience, Bob, if they finish Round 7 by end of day Friday, they are always in good shape.

 

[Bob Jewett]

In my experience, Bob, if they finish Round 7 by end of day Friday, they are always in good shape.

This year, that would have left six rounds for Saturday. That can certainly work, especially if the players step lively, but there seems to have been at least one two-hour match in every round. Sadly, Filler's sub-30-minute matches don't compensate for those. Meglino and Patsura went deep.

 

[Baby Huey]

Bob and Stu, this lack of full utilization of tables has led to complaints of “slow play.” In the streamed match between Garcia and I think Megliano (spelling not correct I think) you could see at least 4 tables open for over an hour. I think this occurs in part due to the time allotted for buybacks. Something has to be done about the time allotted for buybacks which can be 12 hours. I know because I lost at 10 pm and had until the next day at 10 am to buy back then the redraw could happen.

 

[sjm]

Bob and Stu, this lack of full utilization of tables has led to complaints of “slow play.” In the streamed match between Garcia and I think Megliano (spelling not correct I think) you could see at least 4 tables open for over an hour. I think this occurs in part due to the time allotted for buybacks. Something has to be done about the time allotted for buybacks which can be 12 hours. I know because I lost at 10 pm and had until the next day at 10 am to buy back then the redraw could happen.

Yes, reassignment of tables was a big problem. It was not handled efficiently. Tables in the main arena that were empty for hours at a time were far too common.

 

[Bob Jewett]

Bob and Stu, this lack of full utilization of tables has led to complaints of “slow play.” In the streamed match between Garcia and I think Megliano (spelling not correct I think) you could see at least 4 tables open for over an hour. I think this occurs in part due to the time allotted for buybacks. Something has to be done about the time allotted for buybacks which can be 12 hours. I know because I lost at 10 pm and had until the next day at 10 am to buy back then the redraw could happen.

There is a system in place such that they can do a partial draw for the next round while the current round is still playing and not all the buybacks are in. If they use that system, they can keep the tables busier. I'm pretty sure they were doing this on Saturday when matches from two rounds were happening at the same time. I think they had also made buyback mandatory by then, so there was no guessing about intent.

If one match gets really far behind, then you can't do a redraw because those players will be two rounds behind. And if one person -- not pointing any fingers -- consistently takes over two hours the TD has to have the gumption to get out a 30-second shot clock. This is mostly a problem when they are down to so few players that the entire round can play at once on the 47 tables. The round cannot go faster than the slowest match plus whatever break you allow between matches.

Even when there are lots of players in the round, you need to be careful to start the snails as early as possible. If you start a snail's match last in the round, everyone else can have a nice, long dinner break.

Here are the longest matches by round on Saturday (Sunday):
Round 5 -- 2:16
Round 6 -- 2:32 Patsura-Sniegocki
Round 7 -- 2:15 Teutscher-Carman
Round 8 -- ~2:10 three matches
Round 9 -- ~2:03 two matches
Round 10 -- 1:54 Meglino-Wallace
Round 11 -- 2:10 Ruuger-Pinegar
Round 12 -- 1:24 Meglino-Patsura speed demons! (Sunday)
Round 13 -- 1:51 Meglino-Patsura back to normal (Sunday)

My conclusion is that unless the matches are sped up for the final rounds, you have to budget two and a half hours per round. I think all players should have at least a 15-minute break between rounds.

For the entire nine ball event, the average match was close to 1:30.