Tunica is always fun.
I drove down for a couple of days and had a great time, playing pool, seeing many old friends, and eating (and drinking) too well. I chatted with Greg Sullivan about the future of pool at casinos, BB, and the pro player situation (and watched him be very cool with Richie Richardson). I ate dinner one night at the ’37 bar, sitting across the way from Danny Diliberto and Al Metzinger (thanks again, Al!)
The pool was tough. I was told there were almost 130 players in the 1pocket, down from 150 something the previous year. I lost to Michael Dolawder of Orlando 2-3 (bobbled my set ball at 2-1) and fellow St. Louisian, Justin Bergman, 0-3. Not to take anything away from my opponents but I always struggle after practicing on an old GC3 and then traveling to play on Diamonds. I must have missed close to a half a dozen baby, “electric chair,” cross table banks, that would repeatedly come up a ball short. I’d be down on the shot and say to myself “Self, shoot it long” and still could not get the ball wide enough. And the speed of the tables is near impossible for me. It’s as though I could not hit the ball soft enough and several times, on touchy safety play, watched helplessly as the cue ball rolled a diamond or more past it’s intended resting spot, which, for all intents and purposes, is the 1pocket equivalent of committing seppuku.
Still, it was a great time playing, sweating some of the money matches in the action room, watching players never seen before like Wang, as well as some of the real road dogs like Cliff, and Ike who came up to me and conveyed greetings from Monsignor Lavin. (Thanks John. You must have really put “the fear” into Ike because he said “you insisted.”) And, it was good to see Vivian Villareal and Melissa Little get into the mix, seeing the pros like SVB and Corey Duel walk by left and right, and warming up on the table next to Efren, who, to this day, still shows an almost child-like enjoyment of the game.
Chatting at the casino Dunkin’ Donuts with Greg Sullivan, it was hard to listen to him talk about some of what has transpired lately in the world of pool and how some of the pros have behaved (to say nothing of the guys operating out of Las Vegas). I’m not comfortable sharing much of it but, if you’re willing to take me at my word, let me just say that some of these guys have acted shamefully.
I will share one quick story from dinner with Danny and Al. They were sitting across from me at the bar and we were all enjoying some pretty fabulous cooking coming out of the kitchen and Danny asked if I was a pool player. And I said, “Yes.” And he asked, “What’s your name?” And I replied “Lou Figueroa” and he said, “Never heard of you.” And so then I started talking about being at the US Open One Pocket tournaments up in Kalamazoo and the Louisville DCC at the Executive West, and listening to Danny on Accu-Stats, and how Al is always sitting front row on the tapes in his trademark white Panama hat, with his wife Marsha always at his side (who passed a few years ago) and suddenly Al said, “”You’re the guy with the three-piece cue!” And we talked about the Sheldon Lebow three-piece I used for many years when traveling (until my wife graciously bought me a “travel” Ginacue for our 25th anniversary.
All of which led to a great discussion on pool.
I had the chance to ask Danny about his infamous $20K match with Ronnie Allen, hear him tell some great Jack Cooney, Jimmy Reid, and Billy Incardona stories, his opinion of aiming systems (you don’t want to know
, his DVD commentary and who his favorite co-commentator is/was. And so Danny is on a roll telling stories, and I stop him at one point and tell him, “You know, I love your commentary, Danny, except for one thing.” And he said, “What’s that?” And I warned him, “You’re not going to like it.” And he insisted, “Tell me!”
So I told him: “I don’t know how many times I’ve heard you say during a 1pocket match that you’re doing commentary on, and a guy plays a safety and you say, ‘Ah. He didn’t do much there.’ Or similarly, ‘That was just a survival shot.’ And Danny, I’m sitting at home watching this and saying to the screen, ‘There was nothing else he could do.’” And Danny responded, “I feel there’s always something you can do.” And I say, “Sure. From the booth that’s easy to say. But sometimes you just have to accept what the table affords you and I think you could phrase your commentary so it doesn’t sound so negative.” And you know what he said? He said. “OK. I’m going to change that. Thank you for saying that. And when that comes up, I’m going to say it was because of my conversation with Lou Figueroa.”
How cool is that?
And so, I went to the Southern Classic, got beat up -- can’t say I really played badly (or exceptionally) -- but as always there are the shots, and strategies, and techniques, and most importantly, things to learn about yourself that make an experience like this invaluable. Bitter truth be told, there’s really no other way to learn some things about your pool game (and your mental pool game) other than the school of hard knocks. All of it makes you a smarter player, a tougher player, and a better prepared player for the future. It’s a tough dish to swallow and right about now it’s tasting pretty salty, but I guess that’s “the seasoning” we often talk about here.
Lou Figueroa
I drove down for a couple of days and had a great time, playing pool, seeing many old friends, and eating (and drinking) too well. I chatted with Greg Sullivan about the future of pool at casinos, BB, and the pro player situation (and watched him be very cool with Richie Richardson). I ate dinner one night at the ’37 bar, sitting across the way from Danny Diliberto and Al Metzinger (thanks again, Al!)
The pool was tough. I was told there were almost 130 players in the 1pocket, down from 150 something the previous year. I lost to Michael Dolawder of Orlando 2-3 (bobbled my set ball at 2-1) and fellow St. Louisian, Justin Bergman, 0-3. Not to take anything away from my opponents but I always struggle after practicing on an old GC3 and then traveling to play on Diamonds. I must have missed close to a half a dozen baby, “electric chair,” cross table banks, that would repeatedly come up a ball short. I’d be down on the shot and say to myself “Self, shoot it long” and still could not get the ball wide enough. And the speed of the tables is near impossible for me. It’s as though I could not hit the ball soft enough and several times, on touchy safety play, watched helplessly as the cue ball rolled a diamond or more past it’s intended resting spot, which, for all intents and purposes, is the 1pocket equivalent of committing seppuku.
Still, it was a great time playing, sweating some of the money matches in the action room, watching players never seen before like Wang, as well as some of the real road dogs like Cliff, and Ike who came up to me and conveyed greetings from Monsignor Lavin. (Thanks John. You must have really put “the fear” into Ike because he said “you insisted.”) And, it was good to see Vivian Villareal and Melissa Little get into the mix, seeing the pros like SVB and Corey Duel walk by left and right, and warming up on the table next to Efren, who, to this day, still shows an almost child-like enjoyment of the game.
Chatting at the casino Dunkin’ Donuts with Greg Sullivan, it was hard to listen to him talk about some of what has transpired lately in the world of pool and how some of the pros have behaved (to say nothing of the guys operating out of Las Vegas). I’m not comfortable sharing much of it but, if you’re willing to take me at my word, let me just say that some of these guys have acted shamefully.
I will share one quick story from dinner with Danny and Al. They were sitting across from me at the bar and we were all enjoying some pretty fabulous cooking coming out of the kitchen and Danny asked if I was a pool player. And I said, “Yes.” And he asked, “What’s your name?” And I replied “Lou Figueroa” and he said, “Never heard of you.” And so then I started talking about being at the US Open One Pocket tournaments up in Kalamazoo and the Louisville DCC at the Executive West, and listening to Danny on Accu-Stats, and how Al is always sitting front row on the tapes in his trademark white Panama hat, with his wife Marsha always at his side (who passed a few years ago) and suddenly Al said, “”You’re the guy with the three-piece cue!” And we talked about the Sheldon Lebow three-piece I used for many years when traveling (until my wife graciously bought me a “travel” Ginacue for our 25th anniversary.
All of which led to a great discussion on pool.
I had the chance to ask Danny about his infamous $20K match with Ronnie Allen, hear him tell some great Jack Cooney, Jimmy Reid, and Billy Incardona stories, his opinion of aiming systems (you don’t want to know
, his DVD commentary and who his favorite co-commentator is/was. And so Danny is on a roll telling stories, and I stop him at one point and tell him, “You know, I love your commentary, Danny, except for one thing.” And he said, “What’s that?” And I warned him, “You’re not going to like it.” And he insisted, “Tell me!”So I told him: “I don’t know how many times I’ve heard you say during a 1pocket match that you’re doing commentary on, and a guy plays a safety and you say, ‘Ah. He didn’t do much there.’ Or similarly, ‘That was just a survival shot.’ And Danny, I’m sitting at home watching this and saying to the screen, ‘There was nothing else he could do.’” And Danny responded, “I feel there’s always something you can do.” And I say, “Sure. From the booth that’s easy to say. But sometimes you just have to accept what the table affords you and I think you could phrase your commentary so it doesn’t sound so negative.” And you know what he said? He said. “OK. I’m going to change that. Thank you for saying that. And when that comes up, I’m going to say it was because of my conversation with Lou Figueroa.”
How cool is that?
And so, I went to the Southern Classic, got beat up -- can’t say I really played badly (or exceptionally) -- but as always there are the shots, and strategies, and techniques, and most importantly, things to learn about yourself that make an experience like this invaluable. Bitter truth be told, there’s really no other way to learn some things about your pool game (and your mental pool game) other than the school of hard knocks. All of it makes you a smarter player, a tougher player, and a better prepared player for the future. It’s a tough dish to swallow and right about now it’s tasting pretty salty, but I guess that’s “the seasoning” we often talk about here.
Lou Figueroa
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