Weather was not nice, but how was the food? Anyone buy a great New Cue.
Got any good, or funny stories?
Got any good, or funny stories?
So how was the 2026 Derby Expierence?
- Thread starter CocoboloCowboy
- Start date
I can tell you how mine was.
I live two hours from the Derby. I am a pool nut. I have been to the Derby about twenty times. As usual I entered the one pocket and the nine ball. (Dead money.). I bought an arena seat. I reserved a room in Caesar’s for seven nights. I made sure I prepared myself physically for the grind. Business as usual.
Then I read the weather report. I said to myself, “You need to stay home and look after your property.” So I settled in right at home and rode out the unpleasantness. I of course subscribed to Digital Pool, Xpool, and Pool Action TV. I ate well. I burned the fireplace. I lounged in the armchair in my study.
I saw way more pool on-line than I would ever have been able to see if I had been in actual attendance. I was never exhausted. I could watch any table I wanted. I never had to search for a seat at an outer table. I made extensive use of the mute button and frequently played music instead.
I’m a satisfied customer. Don’t tell anyone else, but THIS is the way to attend the Derby now!
I live two hours from the Derby. I am a pool nut. I have been to the Derby about twenty times. As usual I entered the one pocket and the nine ball. (Dead money.). I bought an arena seat. I reserved a room in Caesar’s for seven nights. I made sure I prepared myself physically for the grind. Business as usual.
Then I read the weather report. I said to myself, “You need to stay home and look after your property.” So I settled in right at home and rode out the unpleasantness. I of course subscribed to Digital Pool, Xpool, and Pool Action TV. I ate well. I burned the fireplace. I lounged in the armchair in my study.
I saw way more pool on-line than I would ever have been able to see if I had been in actual attendance. I was never exhausted. I could watch any table I wanted. I never had to search for a seat at an outer table. I made extensive use of the mute button and frequently played music instead.
I’m a satisfied customer. Don’t tell anyone else, but THIS is the way to attend the Derby now!
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Went Tuesday through Saturday.
Played in the 9ball event. Lost 9 to 0 in the first round against a very strong, younger player. Expect to see more from hm in the future. Nice kid and one hell of a shot.
Bought back in and then won my second match 9 to 1.
My third match was probably one of the best matches I have ever played. I won 9 to 8. Had a few break and runs and minimal mistakes. My opponent and myself played above our speeds in my opinion but also didnt over reach our abilities.. It came down to the very last 8 and 9 and I got very lucky. I thoroughly enjoyed that match. To my opponent, if you are reading this, drop me a private message please.
Fourth match I drew another younger very strong player and lost 9 to 3. Everyone I played was very pleasant and complete gentlemen.
As far as how the tournament is ran... its seems to be a lot of organized chaos. I feel like the organizers have a lot of good intentions and mean what they say at the time, but that is not always what happens. An example would be waiting for my third round match. I was told that they would be announced at 10pm Thursday evening, so I hung around the casino waiting and waiting. Now I never sleep well when traveling, hell I barely sleep well at home, so I was dragging ass at this point. My father (who has been my pool traveling buddy for the last 20+ years) went over to the tourney desk at 10:15p and asked about the round 3 matches and they said come back tomorrow before noon. Would have really liked to have known that 3 hours prior.
But like I said, it seemed like organized chaos. I feel like they had a plan and stuck to it as much as they could. There seemed to be a lot of matchless tables at any random time in the main room with people just hitting balls and trying to stay in stroke. I felt like they could have gotten matches off sooner, but also, Im not running a multiple event tournament with a 1000 plus entries, so what the hell do I know. We did not boo timely enough to get a room at the venue, so we were staying about 15mins away.
With the tournament and not knowing/or trusting what you are told about when your next match could be, you are kinda stuck on premises, so the food was very blah. You can only eat so much shit at "The Grill" in the casino before it all starts tasting the same. There are no other food places less then 17 min drive from the venue, so you have to manage your time well and be around in case you get called.
On Friday after my last match, we went to Angel's Envy distillery for the tour and tasting. That bourbon has been one of the regulars on my shelf for a while now, so I wanted to make it a point to get to the distillery this year provided I had the time after getting knocked out of the tournament. The tour and tasting was great and we had a very knowledgeable guide (Tony) who was also a pool player and great to talk too. I picked up one of the Distillery Exclusive bottles to fly back home with us since their other offerings I can pick up back home.
I wanted to hit up some other distilleries but I faired better then I expected in the tournament by making it to the 4th round.
As for the casino. This is my third time to Derby and my second time playing in it. (2 yeas ago I played in the 1p tournament and went 1 and out). I was familiar with the Casino of course and their offerings. I will say, this has to be the tightest casino I ever visited, especially when it comes to slot play. We dumped a good bit into the slots with barely any features popping. I don't think I will ever gamble in that casino again. I went in expecting to lose of course, I just didnt think it would go so badly. Like there was no attempt to keep you in it or entertained. Like I said, this was my third time traveling to Derby but it was my father's first time. I warned him that the Casino looks nice at first, but after 2 days there (and 1000s lost) the cracks really start to show.
I think I'm going to take a break from the event for a couple years and maybe go back another time. Personally, I had more fun the first year I ever went when I was just spectating.
Played in the 9ball event. Lost 9 to 0 in the first round against a very strong, younger player. Expect to see more from hm in the future. Nice kid and one hell of a shot.
Bought back in and then won my second match 9 to 1.
My third match was probably one of the best matches I have ever played. I won 9 to 8. Had a few break and runs and minimal mistakes. My opponent and myself played above our speeds in my opinion but also didnt over reach our abilities.. It came down to the very last 8 and 9 and I got very lucky. I thoroughly enjoyed that match. To my opponent, if you are reading this, drop me a private message please.
Fourth match I drew another younger very strong player and lost 9 to 3. Everyone I played was very pleasant and complete gentlemen.
As far as how the tournament is ran... its seems to be a lot of organized chaos. I feel like the organizers have a lot of good intentions and mean what they say at the time, but that is not always what happens. An example would be waiting for my third round match. I was told that they would be announced at 10pm Thursday evening, so I hung around the casino waiting and waiting. Now I never sleep well when traveling, hell I barely sleep well at home, so I was dragging ass at this point. My father (who has been my pool traveling buddy for the last 20+ years) went over to the tourney desk at 10:15p and asked about the round 3 matches and they said come back tomorrow before noon. Would have really liked to have known that 3 hours prior.
But like I said, it seemed like organized chaos. I feel like they had a plan and stuck to it as much as they could. There seemed to be a lot of matchless tables at any random time in the main room with people just hitting balls and trying to stay in stroke. I felt like they could have gotten matches off sooner, but also, Im not running a multiple event tournament with a 1000 plus entries, so what the hell do I know. We did not boo timely enough to get a room at the venue, so we were staying about 15mins away.
With the tournament and not knowing/or trusting what you are told about when your next match could be, you are kinda stuck on premises, so the food was very blah. You can only eat so much shit at "The Grill" in the casino before it all starts tasting the same. There are no other food places less then 17 min drive from the venue, so you have to manage your time well and be around in case you get called.
On Friday after my last match, we went to Angel's Envy distillery for the tour and tasting. That bourbon has been one of the regulars on my shelf for a while now, so I wanted to make it a point to get to the distillery this year provided I had the time after getting knocked out of the tournament. The tour and tasting was great and we had a very knowledgeable guide (Tony) who was also a pool player and great to talk too. I picked up one of the Distillery Exclusive bottles to fly back home with us since their other offerings I can pick up back home.
I wanted to hit up some other distilleries but I faired better then I expected in the tournament by making it to the 4th round.
As for the casino. This is my third time to Derby and my second time playing in it. (2 yeas ago I played in the 1p tournament and went 1 and out). I was familiar with the Casino of course and their offerings. I will say, this has to be the tightest casino I ever visited, especially when it comes to slot play. We dumped a good bit into the slots with barely any features popping. I don't think I will ever gamble in that casino again. I went in expecting to lose of course, I just didnt think it would go so badly. Like there was no attempt to keep you in it or entertained. Like I said, this was my third time traveling to Derby but it was my father's first time. I warned him that the Casino looks nice at first, but after 2 days there (and 1000s lost) the cracks really start to show.
I think I'm going to take a break from the event for a couple years and maybe go back another time. Personally, I had more fun the first year I ever went when I was just spectating.
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The casino moving the security and now metal detector was a pain in the ass! If you were by yourself like me , anytime you wanted food(lol), a drink or the little gift shop you had to open your case.
Most of security was satisfied with opening the top and one pocket. One feminazi wanted me to open every pocket on my case. I told her forget it and went back to the arena.
Most of security was satisfied with opening the top and one pocket. One feminazi wanted me to open every pocket on my case. I told her forget it and went back to the arena.
Adding a bit more:
So when we arrived I met up with some back home friends who were already there and playing in the 1p. Both of them played very strong 1p. One had a bad draw and a bad roll that killed him in the first round. My other friend made it to round 8 and lost his his buyback to Josh Roberts Hill Hill. We spent a good bit of time sweating his matches.
In the 9ball, my father drew Arseni in round 1... that went about as expected. It's the nature of open events like this and drawing a champion round 1 is bound to happen sooner or later... just this was his first time in the event. We didnt get to watch each others slaughter unfortunately as we were both playing at the same time.
I did sign up for the Digital Pool subscription so we can go back and rewatch some of our matches, but the one I wanted to rewatch the most (my 9 to 8 win mentioned in the previous post), isnt available for some reason. I reached out to Digital Pool support. Hopefully there is something they can do. I know it streams because some friends were watching it from home, just there is no recording now.
I dont think what I think about the Xpool arena... half of me doesnt really care. The other half misses not seeing Accu-stats. I will say the xpool online portal is kinda garbage and the stream quality wasnt great at times (it's not my connection, Im on wired gigabit).
I did hit with the Pagulayan Pristine Shaft. It was good. I gave a review of it in that thread. Basically, I like my current shaft more. At a lesser price point I would probably pick one up just to mess around with.
Seemed like more vendors there this year. Lots of jerseys... I still can't get on that trend. Castillo cases were there and awesome. Mike Capone was there with some beauties and the rest of the usual suspects of makers and dealers.
So when we arrived I met up with some back home friends who were already there and playing in the 1p. Both of them played very strong 1p. One had a bad draw and a bad roll that killed him in the first round. My other friend made it to round 8 and lost his his buyback to Josh Roberts Hill Hill. We spent a good bit of time sweating his matches.
In the 9ball, my father drew Arseni in round 1... that went about as expected. It's the nature of open events like this and drawing a champion round 1 is bound to happen sooner or later... just this was his first time in the event. We didnt get to watch each others slaughter unfortunately as we were both playing at the same time.
I did sign up for the Digital Pool subscription so we can go back and rewatch some of our matches, but the one I wanted to rewatch the most (my 9 to 8 win mentioned in the previous post), isnt available for some reason. I reached out to Digital Pool support. Hopefully there is something they can do. I know it streams because some friends were watching it from home, just there is no recording now.
I dont think what I think about the Xpool arena... half of me doesnt really care. The other half misses not seeing Accu-stats. I will say the xpool online portal is kinda garbage and the stream quality wasnt great at times (it's not my connection, Im on wired gigabit).
I did hit with the Pagulayan Pristine Shaft. It was good. I gave a review of it in that thread. Basically, I like my current shaft more. At a lesser price point I would probably pick one up just to mess around with.
Seemed like more vendors there this year. Lots of jerseys... I still can't get on that trend. Castillo cases were there and awesome. Mike Capone was there with some beauties and the rest of the usual suspects of makers and dealers.