Super Billiards Expo Trip Report

[CreeDo]

This is part 1, I think there will be 8 parts total.
Don't worry, it's not gonna be War & Peace!
I'm just uploading tons of pics, and you're limited to 10 per post.

SBE (or SBX) is an annual trade show + week-long group of tournaments.
There are events for pros, amateurs, women, and seniors.
The major events are barbox 9b, the smaller pro events are 10b, and there's 1p and 3c too.

Amateur, Senior, Women's bracket.
Predator 10b pro event bracket.
One pocket event bracket.

It's put on by retired pool legend Allen Hopkins and has been
going strong for over 20 years.

This was my first time attending, and I didn't realize that SBE = Valley Forge,
it was formerly held in the Valley Forge casino in King of Prussia, PA.
This one was in New Jersey, and I enjoyed it a lot.
But I've heard rumors it may move back to PA.

There were mild parking issues. At peak hours, every spot (legal or not)
got taken. I didn't see anyone get towed unless they were flat-out blocking traffic.
I meant to get a pic of the window graphic (inset)... a huge ad for the JB vs. Lou grudge match.

It's a MASSIVE event, thousands of people, the entire expo center
(150,000 sq. ft.) is rented for a full week, and as my buddy Justin puts it,
it's basically Candyland for pool players.

Top: Tom Rossman has a Keno-like carnival game in his booth.
Center: custom cuemakers come here to buy exotic woods.
Bottom Left: random goofy ball sets.
Bottom Right: An asian lady promotes what is essentially a takeoff of the "slug doctor"...
clear plastic donuts you can put on a table that work like a magic rack.
The blurred guy in front is Jayson Shaw, who expressed skepticism.
The wing ball went when he tossed a CB by hand into the rack.

There's custom cues from a ton of well known cuemakers, and booths
for the big production cuemakers too. There are high end cases,
including JB and Justis cases. You can buy (or arrange to buy) a table, ball sets,
polishers, books, DVDs, magic racks, q claws, tip scuffers, T-shirts...
anything pool related that you've ever heard of, and maybe some stuff you never saw before.

For example - I saw a double ended jump cue. No butt, tips on both ends.
I saw a square cue case the size of a golf bag that must have had 36 slots and a kickstand.
I saw Dennis Dieckman walking a cat on a leash.

His business card just says "Expert on Everything". No mention of cues.

My personal favorites. On the left are Robertson customs.
The highlighter colors are a bit much but I love the blue and green.
On the right are J. Michael Durbin cues. Check out those tight inlays. Mark Wilson uses one.

These also caught my eye.

Top: some collectibles including a Palmer with the window on the butt.
Bottom: Pretty attractive, using more natural wood colors.

A break-rak with built-in radar. A little plastic shield protects the radar.

The new OB jump cue. Midnight blue only.

It's fun seeing the cue guys at work. This one, Dan Dishaw, also makes custom guitars.
On the right: Various Instroke cases. I was hoping to get some pics of JB's unique cases
but all of his customs sold out on the first day.

Various signs. I like what the TAP banner seems to be saying.
"Come meet hot girls and guys. Also, you're welcome even if you have a lazy eye or some other issue."
Did you guys know you can get highlighter orange simonis?
At the bottom right: I like this clothing line and logo. You'd think the slogin would be "get the nuts"
but I look around the corner and it's "sport the nuts". wtf? come on guys.

 

[CreeDo]

There were several food stands, a small 'cafe' (burgers, dogs, soda, chicken tenders, etc.),
and a small bar where you could choose either $5 draft Coors Light, or $5 draft Coors Light.

This was my main sustenance the whole time.
Alligator Bob jerky, especially the Cajun flavor, is amazing.
I bought a pound to take home.

On the subject of food, we were looking for something outside the expo and wandered
into Harold's Deli. We opened the menu,
then all started confusedly flipping the pages. Surely this is the catering menu?
They can't be charging $35 for one steak and cheese, can they?

Yes they can. "Uh, we gotta run, we got an emergency call."

Various candied snacks, trail mixes, empanadas, baked goods.

Top: If these ladies aren't from New Jersey I'll eat my cue.
Bottom: the bracket updater girl. I'm probably going to jail just for looking.

Vaping has become huge in pool rooms, and I'm glad for it.
Some don't care for the weird fruity smells but it beats the shit out of smelling smoke.
These guys were sponsoring Mike Dechaine and I saw some other pros at their booth.

I kinda like Cyclop balls against green cloth.
This was the only green table in the house pretty much.

I heard one guy cry about the cyclop balls but I sweated a zillion matches and saw nothing
that looked remotely like a skid. However several commented on the colors.
On our first day, I played a rack with my boy Perk, and saw he was gonna shoot
the wrong ball due to the weird colors. I let him, and collected ball in hand,
because I figured if he got nailed by it now, he'd remember it in his actual tourney matches.

Most of the barboxes were free, a few were a quarter.
Ever see a 9 foot quarter table? At this price, you probably never will.

A big bertha 10 footer was in regular use.

Dominic the Drill Instructor.

Dominic had a large area to himself and was loud all day, every day.
In some cases using a megaphone or the like. "IF YOU WANT THE SKILLS, GET THE DRILLS."
People gathered to watch his shtick for a while, and he did 1v1 lessons throughout the day.
("normally $175, but today only, $75 an hour, or two hours for $130! Plus my training materials!")

Near the doors there was a small cue locker stand done up in camo netting
and staffed by a bored blonde chick. I was over there making time with her, but probably
would have had a better chance if I showered, shaved, and wore something clean.

Kamui Challenge a pro booth.
Jennifer Baretta got beat by this girl I think, but JB had to bank the 8.
She's was easy to spot with the nuclear pink top.
I like that she mingled a little. I did not see Karen Corr or Allison Fisher on the floor once.

Skyler Woodward signing autographs.
Kind of cool that a kid his age is sponsored and has fans.
SVB is in his famous pink shirt. Not to be confused with Jennifer Baretta.

Speaking of the pros, let's get to the actual pool playing.
These are the handwritten brackets. There were some gripes that the pro event
is kind of amateurish and underpromoted, and I can understand these.
The event is in a room in back off the main floor and feels almost secret.
There's VIP seating but at $20 it was near empty.
Make it $10 and I think they'd pack those seats. I'd have gone for it anyway.
There's nothing outside this room informing people about matches in progress or results.
One AZer was saying it would make sense to have one or more large TVs along the wall
displaying matches and results. And nobody streamed it this year. Why, I can't fathom.

 

[CreeDo]

I took some panorama shots of the main playing area and the pro event room.
I love this feature but they rarely come out well due to my unsteady hands.
If I had actual coordination I'd be a pool player.

The pro event. Due to a funny glitch in the panorama software, I got shane at table 5 twice.
This shows maybe 1/4 of the big room.
A glitchy one facing the other direction. There were 150+ tables.

The entire left side of the playing area was for the TAP "Rally in the Valley".

Daniel Busch with his POVPool stream setup. He was able to do TAP but not the rest.

Did I mention there was a junior event? All over the place you'd see these little
kids in Hustlin USA clothes, with cues taller than them. It's always eerie seeing the hyper talented ones.
Twelve year olds who I'd need the 7 ball from just to keep it close.

In the ladies event we have Jackie, who I see all the time in our area,
and in orange is April Larson, who I learned about from this TV spot.

Random characters.

At the top left is this little asian lady who'd stroll around in a beekeeper outfit.
Not really, but... sweater, coat, glasses, hat, earplugs, and backpack.
And yes, she could actually play!

Top right, random Indian guy whose pants, shoes, cue, and skin all matched.

Bottom left, a little biker-looking guy who was almost as wide as he is tall.

Bottom right, this guy in the purple shirt and gold chain jumped into the pit
and ran out a touchy rack as smooth as could be.

Budweiser, the nerve helper.

Did I say I'd get to the actual pool? I will eventually.

This is one page of the Amateur Open tournament bracket.
Imagine 16 pages like this. Over 800 players in one tournament,
so naturally it's single elimination. And I know they want to eventually max out at 1024.

This one shows one of my buddy's Michigan crew,
Houston, marching through the ranks. He's a heavyset kid with curly black hair
who is exactly the kind of guy people underestimate. Kind of blunt and sarcastic,
but he can definitely shoot straight. When he finally got knocked out,
he played nearly perfect except for dry breaks.

You'll also see Kenny Rutman, aka Russian Kenny, can play.
At least well enough to cash. He may be a loudmouth and possibly
do some shady shit, but he showed up at 9am looking nervous but ready, like everyone else.

Speaking of 9 am, nothing is set up that early.
You can't get any jerky either. It's an unnatural hour to play pool.

You can't even get a tip pick at that hour.

The people manning the tournament desk deserve an honorable mention.
When people cry about the payouts they need to keep in mind that beyond this group
is another dozen or two dozen staff who all need to get paid.
And renting a quarter-million square feet of expo space for a week is not cheap either.

 

[CreeDo]

This is the hero of our story, a scrappy A-player named "Perk".

He invited me to come up with him and split a room, and it worked out well.
We found a decent place (Red Roof Inn) for just $70 a night, about 14 minutes from the venue.
There are hotels much closer but they're much pricier and Red Roof was not at all scuzzy.

2 minutes after walking in, we see Shoeless Randy, a scruffy looking gambler
from Winchester, whom Perk recently robbed 6 out of 7 sets.
It's absolutely no surprise when he strolls in with a pair of socks in his hands.
And then takes off his shoes and puts them on.

They chat for a bit and Perk asks "who'd you come up with?"
Randy replies "two teenage girls." ...for a second I'm baffled.
How does this guy with dirt stains all over and socks in his hand charm 2 teenage girls?
Then I feel a little ashamed when I realize he means his daughters.
He's a nice guy, just not a big fan of wearing shoes indoors.

Later we see two kids wandering around without cues and no interest in pool,
and we confirm that yes, these are his daughters.

Perk[y] shoots very straight, has great mechanics, and plays aggressive but smart pool.
Notice he jacks up the rear of the cue a little more than most.
He drives through the ball really well and seems to favor force follow shape more than draw.
I never knew anyone who uses inside english as naturally as he does.
In fact it's almost like inside is his default "cinch english".
Where other people might shoot soft with outside, he will drill firmly with inside.

This is the first guy we shoot with. Didn't play great but very friendly.

We get there on Wednesday, before the expo formally starts, but they hold a "Wednesday Warmup"
which is actually a series of simultaneous mini tournaments. It's just like the main event
but a shorter race and once you reach the end of your bracket, you're done.

It is probably the best chance a B or even C player has to win $400 all year.
Any solid A player is stealing.
You just need to beat 4 players, and then you typically just split with the 5th round player
because 2nd place is exactly 0 dollars.

The format is best of 3 sets, each set being a race to 3, playing barbox 9b.
The equipment is clean, level diamond smart tables with standard pockets,
new felt, and new Cyclop balls.

Perk's first Wednesday Warmup match. Result below.

The first opponent is a young guy who probably wears lots of Affliction-brand clothing
and has tribal tattoos or a chinese symbol somewhere. He was actually pretty decent
and not a bad sport, but I knew Perk had him when he started making excuses
about one rail being more lively than the others.

As we check the boards, Perk points out that this scrawny teenager
with a cast is actually the kid who played SVB for thousands not too long ago.
I think he sensed my covert creeper photography and turned around suddenly.
We saw him regularly in the pit. I'd need at least two balls from him, cast or not.

What actor am I thinking of, who this guy looks like? Is it John Wayne?

Perk wins the next couple even with a few mistakes, and his final match is vs. this guy.
Think his name is Callahan. I sort of instinctively don't like him because he has his nickname "Cali"
embroidered on his shirt, and worked in big leather letters on his case.
He looks like a ex-military hardass and acts like one. When Perk asks for the logical split,
he says "no. let's play it out."

Perk shoots well but dogs a 9 ball... he settled just a little on shape and left himself long.
A couple of times he has already scratched in the kitchen corner just cinching shots like this.
So this time he plays it with a little extra inside. But somehow hangs the ball and gives away a freebie.
Callahan gets a 9 on the break too and we determine that it does count -
if you rack your own, it doesn't. But if you rack for the opponent, it does.
My horse has lost a set and is not happy.

He goes into the next set with determination and makes few mistakes and takes it.
At some point, Callahan dogs a critical shot and is definitely irritated though he hides it well.
I think Perk got an early 9 too. Sometimes the rolls even out.
Perk takes the third set and has won his Wednesday Warmup.
Instead of splitting for 200, he takes 400 and has already recouped most of his expenses.

Callahan strides off rapidly and probably finds a dog and kicks it.

I'm starting to spot a few pros wandering the floor, like Dennis "Thug Lyfe" Hatch.

Local boys Danny & Joey Mastermaker (Danny on right).
Danny took 17th in the US Open and had the same finish in Turning Stone.
The kid can shoot. His high finishes in certain events meant he was barred from the Amateur Open.

GRUBB.
Jordan Grubb has a distinct style, I wish I'd gotten a real photo of him.
Kind of bored and heavy lidded eyes, baggy clothes, doesn't look too far from teenager.
I saw him talking with an unlit cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth.
He looks like the kind of dude who was probably born with a cigarette in his mouth.

Dominic Noe, a regular top-3 finisher in the Action Pool Tour.
I apologize for the quality of Dominic's hair.

The first night is slow, not much action in the pit, but some guys got into pitching quarters,
closest to the wall for $20. The distance is maybe 40 feet. The guy on bottom
was winning a lot, and is strenously arguing that his quarter that rolled behind the support beam counts.
It ended up maybe 2 inches from the wall. I was invited to jump in and to try
pitching closest to the spot, but I'm nitty and don't have hand-eye coordination.

 

[CreeDo]

System of a McCreesh.

This is Ryan McCreesh. One of the more interesting people to watch at SBE.

If you google image search him, you can sort of see his gradual transformation.
Starts out looking like a typical young guy, cleanshaven, or with a tiny goatee,
hair starting to thin up top. As the years go on he gets a bit bigger,
his hair goes, but his beard grows thick and wooly with prominent gray streaks.

Now, he's slimmed down and fit again, and looks ten years younger. He kept the beard but has trimmed it
with machine-like precision, including a tiny razored mustache and sideburns.
With the buzz cut and Army cap, he looks like a cross between
a hasidic jew and someone in System of a Down.

He is kind of intense and nervous and excitable when he plays, smacking his stick
after a careless mistake and yelling "YES!!!" after taking out Brandon Shuff
in the quarterfinals of the Pro-Am. Fun to watch.

Jennifer Aniston entered on a lark. Just kidding.
This is Gail Glazebrook, one of the stronger women there and wife of super nice guy Tony Robles.

I ran into a million people from my area at SBE. This is Sue Yen,
who came there with her man Pat Carosi, another APT regular who has been known to make a bet or two.
In the background is Beekeeper lady.

On the right is the famed Kirkwood, one of the better barbox players in the USA.
Kind of a rugged looking dude, but seemed friendly enough.
Perk has a funny story about how he almost unknowingly
trapped his buddy into a game with this monster player,
back when Kirkwood had more hair and less noteriety.

I think he was banned from the Amateur tourney. He has played John Schmidt
in a TAR match (TAR 10) for 20k, and has come in 2nd in DCC banks before.
Kirkwood is one of the Michigan contingent. Perk is originally from there, and his buddies
Houston and Matt both went pretty deep in the Amateur open, so he had plenty of people to root for.

Here's Perk getting ready to break in his match vs. Sam Gilmer. He has a solid break,
almost 100% arm, his cue ball usually pops up and dies near the middle.

One thing I learned from this event... with a small table, new balls, and new cloth,
you have no excuse not to make the wing ball 90% or more.
Especially since racking your own is an option, and you may check the opponent's rack too.
Nobody in the final four was casual about racking or flaky about making that wing ball.
Unfortunately, on a bar table, flying balls after the break almost always kick the cue ball around.
Nobody was immune. Even if you semi-soft break, you may not end up ok on the 1.

Slow-mo of Perks' break.
He dogged the wing ball on this one, but notice how the cue ball dies nicely.

The Road to ...doing pretty good.

Perk did great to win the warmup, after driving for hours and not playing much on the tables.
He seemed confident in his ability to cash, having won or split several times before.
I wondered how he'd fare in the open.

We go to bed thinking we'd get up at like 10 or 11, have a leisurely bite, warm up,
and then head to the assigned table for Perk's 1 pm match.

At 12:35 pm, Perk wakes me up by saying. "Oh shit. We gotta go. Right now."
He curses our distance from the venue, stressing the whole way. I don't think he can miss his match
but he's sure as shit not going to hit too many balls, and he's gonna play on an empty stomach.

The first match is against Joe Valania, I recognize him from other events.
I feel like Perk's kind of caught a roll. I have him clocked as a B player, though my memory may be faulty.

For having just rolled out of bed, Perky hits them pretty well. The other guy
seems a little mentally weak and dogs a few pressure shots. Perk does quite well under pressure
and rarely loses just because his opponent left him tough or he's down a few racks.

He wins and advances, we breathe a sigh of relief, and have terrible chinese.
His next match is not til 5 pm.

Johnny "Frenchie" Yorke

This is Johnny Yorke. He has the equipment, he has the stroke... but he doesn't seem
to have the will. He is a little careless with whitey and gets into trouble on his own outs sometimes.
He also seems to kick a little weak and the one time he tried to jump, he hit the obstructing ball.
Not a bad player but not well-rounded. Made some awesome shots but has holes in his game.
Perk takes him out without too much difficulty.

Fffuuuuucccckkk... next match at 9 am. Are you serious?

Danny "Jude Law" Smith

In a strange twist, I warn Perk about my snoring, but somehow I wake up randomly
around 6 am and can't get back to sleep, possibly due to his mild snoring.
I feel only about 30% human or awake but I'm determined to watch the match.
Perk seems a little apprehensive about it, telling me that Danny Smith is a real bracket-buster.

Danny does play pretty well, but tells me he was up 48 hours gambling and is more
about getting into action than trying to beat a zillion players in the tournament.
His break comes up dry a few times and Perk nails him with some really nasty safes.
Danny takes a set, and I worry Perk has finally ran into someone who is just plain better.
But Danny made a few errors and Perk gets out when he's supposed to.

Just like that, he's cashed in his first Open Amateur.
I believe this is another 400ish bucks, making this a profitable trip.
Danny goes on to play in the pit and narrowly misses robbing Russian Kenny out of a nice sidebet,
when he takes 3-to-1 odds on a young underdog racker winning, and the kid dogs the 10-ball.

Don "man of" Steele

Perk lets me drive his car back to the hotel to sleep, which shows poor judgment
on his part, given my driving record. I avoid getting killed by NJ drivers and
doze until 4:30, when my alarm reminds me it's time to sweat the match.

I narrowly avoid death and consider asking (Jokingly) "hypothetically, what's
a new bumper run on that thing you drive?" ...but I don't want to stress him out before his match.

Don I recognize from APT events, he's pretty old and kind of salty.
He's at that age where you just don't give a f*ck.
I saw him change shirts in front of ~1,000 people on the main floor.
His wife watches his match silently and unsmiling, like a hostage.

Don does better on a barbox than on a big table I think, obviously distance
is less of a factor for older eyes. There's no detectable shake in his stroke
and he seems to play the right shot usually, no flyers.

If Perk has any big edge, it's in his break and kicking and jumping.
Don also struggles with the fast, ultra-springy barbox rails. He made a position mistake
that I also had made on my first day. A low outside 3-rail route that is simple and safe
on a standard 9-footer, comes in very sharp on these barboxes and lands you on top
of the ball instead of next to it.

Like the guy on day 1, he tries to claim it's the rail, that one of the rails plays dead.
I can't help thinking it's funny that whether you're 20 or 70, making excuses is making excuses.
Don misses a few kicks and Perk dutifully gets out.

We joke that he has added another 12.5 barrels to his bankroll for the $10 challenge table.

Bill "going to Florida" Duggan

Perk seems to know all the strong players. I might know some obscure pros, but Perk
seems to be familiar with all the A, AA, and AAA players. He tells me this is a tough match.
He seems a little nervous and drops a set... the guy snaps an early 9 and also runs out Perk's dry break.
I worry that his run is at an end.

Bill does seem a little nervous himself, but gets out anyway. Perk pulls out a few break and runs
and keeps it close. Initially it's just his wife and I sweating it, but a few people wander around to watch,
even though it's in a far corner. Like maybe they know this is a tense match and it's gonna get good.

Perk snaps in a 9 and pulls out some retarded-good runouts from very awkward layouts.
I think he is able to handle weird layouts better than most people.
He is smart about settling on shape to avoid all risk of getting hooked.

I can feel Bill momentum shifting and Bill starts to look worried and even a little defeated.
He's starting to break dry.
He's starting to make resigned comments.

The run continues.

Sam "Eyebrows" Gilmer.

I can't help it. Sam's a good guy and a great player, but where did those eyebrows come from?
They're almost demonic.

Anyway, this guy's game is rock solid. In the first set, Perk miscues on the break. I don't think
he scratched on the break this whole trip, but this miscue counts as a foul and the other player
has the option. Sam breaks and promptly snaps in the 9b. It's on his own rack but obviously
he couldn't have planned it so we don't complain.

On 2 other occasions he also makes some good firm kicks that fluke 2 rails into a pocket,
with shape for the next ball. Perk is starting to look a little down and is muttering to himself.
I think he fought his way to the third set, but made some uncharacteristic misses and just
plain played bad. It's hard to go a whole week (or even weekend) without playing bad once,
but unfortunately there are no second chances in this single elim tournament.

The run ends.
More tomorrow.

 

[CreeDo]

The great white hope

With Perk and Houston out, the last hope for the Michigan contingent is Matt Beckwith.

Matt is one of Perk's closest friends from up north, and I could tell he really wanted Matt to take it down,
so of course I'm rooting for him also. Though I wouldn't mind a VA/DC/MD player going all the way.

He seems like a good guy, a little reserved, but easy to get along with.
He works construction, but doesn't really fit the construction worker stereotype.
Looks like he'd be at home on a golf course or maybe doing something woodsy.

Matt sights down his shaft before breaking. I'm told he breaks
with a slightly warped BK2, so he must 'tune' the cue before every break.

Beckwith is on a neighboring table when Gilmer crushes Perk's dreams,
so of course we watch Matt finish off his opponent, who is unfamiliar to me...
I think the name is Brandon Hallett. No doubt a barbox monster, but so is Matt.

Perk tells me Matt plays a ball or so better than he does, he won the BCA Advanced division
recently in Vegas, and they bumped him up to Master or possibly Grandmaster division.
I get the impression cashing this event is sort of automatic for him, though he's never won it.
But he's won his bracket and is in the final 16.

Like Perk he has a conservative break that squats right in the middle.
He plays very careful shape, but settles less than Perk. He tries to get closer
to the ball even in situations where it might make the shot tougher
or have a small risk of hook. When it works, his whole out looks perfect and easy.

You can see from the pic he grips very loose in back and also curls in his wrist a lot.
He holds the cue like it's made of eggshells. He shoots soft and has great directional
control with the cue. Which freaks me out a little... he aims a little above center on his warmup
strokes and doesn't come very close to the cue ball. Then on his final stroke he dips down
to hit center or a hair below or draw. On one tricky out he had no way to deal with a 7-8 cluster
except to hit the 6 perfectly and send whitey like 4 feet near the side pocket to separate them.
Nailed it and got out.

We don't watch him nonstop because there are other matches and I get the sense
Matt gets kind of intense during his match and doesn't want anyone bothering him.
We don't want to add pressure but at the same time I know it helps to have people supporting you.
I like that he gets a little nervous and can admit it, I'm skeptical of people who claim
they thrive on pressure and love it and never get a little shaky.

Interlude

As Matt advances we also catch other matches. The pro event has been going steadily
and we learn that somehow a past-his-prime Tommy Kennedy has put heavy favorite SVB
into the loser's bracket.

I also watch the opening matches of the Pro-AM, which is identical to the amateur tournament
except they allow pros to enter and extend the races to 6. It's apparently limited to 32 players.
I'm not sure if that's by design, or if people just don't want to enter.

I'm a little surprised to not see more pros in it. I wanted to see SVB's famed barbox game.
I ask Ralph Eckert why and he says maybe they don't want to lose to amateurs.
With this format and the small table, a top pro like Mika might lose to someone like Kirkwood,
even though Kirkwood would probably need the last 3 or more on a big table.

At the same time, the amateurs probably don't enter because who wants to play a pro even?

Gail Aniston-Robles-Glazebrook plays the women's event while
Shaun 'get some Flappy Bird' Wilkie plays the pro-am on a neighboring table.

This room, off the main pro tournament room, allows us to watch some pro event matches
from more comfortable chairs, on carpeting. It feels like a hotel conference room.
It's a nice break from the concrete and noise of the main floor.

Eckert won 2 (including vs. this guy, a Euro whose name I forgot) but then lost two.
In the distance, Matt Krah faces a kid named something-Olson, who seems to
just systematically take him apart. With his jutting jaw, mean expression, and military hair,
Olson looks like he could be a German interrogator. He's in the 2nd small pic along the bottom.

In the first pic is Paul Helms (right) who made it to the quarterfinals of the 1-pocket.
Against the wall is Thorsten 'Toaster Oven' Hohmann, looking like a European banker
in glasses and suit. It's amazing that some of these guys shoot like god without wearing their glasses.

Paul is a tremendously nice guy with an inhumanly straight stroke, completely humble.
He's a regular at my favorite nearby pool rooms and most small-time action players duck him.
I'd have loved to see him win it all.

I clock him at AA speed or better. I've seen him run racks looking straight down the whole time,
he says he can play 1-pocket at 70% of his normal speed that way.
"KNOCK KNOCK" "Who's there?" "CreeDo, queering your action."

The third pic is Ralf wearing a hilariously pink sweater.
The fourth pic is a sort of scruffy looking white guy challenging Ike Runnels to some one pocket.
Ike has taught me not to underestimate guys with a lazy eye.

Some older guys from the 1p event argue about whether it's base of the ball,
or the whole ball. A classic rules argument and of course it's not clearly defined beforehand.
Someone ended up talking to Allen H. and they ruled "the whole ball" even though
someone said at least one written rule specified base of the ball, which IMO makes more sense.
The racker used what may have been this new 1p break I heard about.

This is Alex Olinger. He's a heavyset young guy with a buzzcut who almost never smiles
and has these cold eyes. Think russian mafia.
Perk tells me his match vs. this McGee guy will be really good.
I hadn't heard of McGee and barely heard of Olinger but I join him and we sweat it til the end.

Olinger came in 2nd in this event last year and posted on Facebook that he wasn't going to
let it slip away from him this year. But McGee plays almost flawless, pouncing
on every mistake and making some tremendous kicks under pressure,
including a nasty lockdown safe requiring an unnatural 2-rail kick that would have
resulted in a 3-foul loss had he whiffed it.

I felt bad for Alex, he is mostly emotionless while playing but as errors
piled up he got upset and smacked his cue. McGee, a good looking kid with unlikely
looking gray hair at the temples, stayed composed except for a sort of token
basball-bat-swing motion with his cue, which looked more for show than actual anger.
Olinger seemed to struggle with speed and ran long on shape a few times,
failing to get out on his own successful breaks. He lost a close one.

McGee's back.

Back to Beckwith

Beckwith's in the final 4 and must face the guy who KO'd Perk, Sam Gilmer.

Above: Gilmer vs. Beckwith.
Below: Daniel "Lil D" McKenney vs. Billy Pinion, with Houston looking on.
Perk started a little pool where players could pick a full group from various regions, plus a wildcard.
He went with Michigan, but also had Billy as a wildcard. So he had 2 shots to win the pool.
Corey Sykes however had Mississipi and was therefore equally likely to take it.


Matt and Sam make very few mistakes and I see Matt convert a garbage layout that requires
2 breakouts into a runout. He's breaking pretty well and parks the cue ball perfectly.

I learn how to do an Elmer, which is a private way of putting
the jinx on someone. We both apply it to every one of Gilmore's breaks,
but he seems to make a ball and have a look at the one anyway.

He also kicks great, I'm not sure if he whiffed a single one and he picks the right speed
to leave distance or get safe after. I didn't like some Sam's decisions but you can't argue with success.
Sam takes the first set and I can see Matt is feeling the heat a little.
But he is extra careful in the next set and gets out when he's supposed to, taking it 5-3.

The final set is tough to watch. Matt is running out smoothly and slides the cue ball parallel
to the rail playing shape from the 7 to the 8. Perk and I both like how he hit it.
No risk of scratch, no risk of being on the rail. But it's actually not in a great spot.
If he cuts the 8 with natural follow he probably runs into the 9, and may scratch off of it.
If he draws a little to avoid the 9, he may scratch anyway. He has to hit a near perfect center-ball
shot to beat both scratches, but by hitting it firm with center he spins out sharply
2 rails and ends up very thin on the 9.

You almost must bank it. Another few inches and it'd be cuttable into the wrong corner.
He opts for a 70+ degree cut and takes his time, but just misses it.
Sam mops up, which I notice he does very consistently. Once this kid is on
cleanup duty, he's not going to cock up and blow the runout and give the table back.

Matt also loses the cue ball into the side pocket on a break and is dropping his lead.

Matt has one more decent chance and once again faces a squirrely 8 ball.
He misses, but leaves it semi safe. It miraculously ends under the 9.
Sam can see half of it, but would probably scratch if he went straight at it.

They call over a ref.

Sam elects to kick, and plays soft to kick safe. It's EASY to sell out here.
But he hits it like god, bunting the 8 just out of reach and freezing the CB to the 9.
I got video of it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZPyjIeIb6E

From here, Matt can try to hit the footrail with spin, but even
from the chair I felt like this was near impossible.
There's no room for the spin to develop and turn the cue ball far enough
to dodge the back of the 9. I think he had to go 2 or 3 rails instead.
But he was in a better position to see it so maybe 1 rail was doable.
In any case he caught 9 first, and Sam calmly marched across the finish line.

The finals would be all Mississippi - Lil D took out Billy Pinion.
So the guys who rode up with each other had to face each other.

I know at least one AZer who was pretty happy with this development.
Corey S. was guaranteed to win the regional pool that Perk started,
before they even played the finals. Which we figured they'd split anyway.

Matt however was visibly pissed, and we elected to give him some time
to digest the saltiness before trying to offer any words of sympathy.

I didn't see the finals but Sam Gilmer took it in straight sets, 5-1 and then 5-3.
Lil D tells us that he plays regular 500 dollar sets with Sam, and for them that's just
how they keep in stroke and it's no big deal. Apparently down south,
gambling for thousands is routine. If that's true I'm sure it helped him fade the pressure better.

Perk at least gets to say the only guy who beat him is the one who eventually won it all.

 

[CreeDo]

Now that everyone's out of the Amateur event (which feels like the main event
even though it's not), I decide to sweat a few pro-am matches.

Shaun Wilkie in front, Brandon and Skyler in the rear.

None of the top pros bother with this event, I still don't quite get why.
Possible scheduling conflict? Are they really worried about a loss on their resume?
They think the format's dumb? Maybe there's an unspoken rule that they are barred?

Mosconi Cupper Dennis Hatch falls in the first round, and Mike Dechaine gets taken out by Klatt.
Mastermaker loses too.

After a few rounds we end up seeing mostly the mid-tier pros... Klatt, Shuff, Wilkie, and Stottlemyer,
plus Skyler Woodward and McCreesh.

Three of these guys are basically VA locals, Shuff is regularly robbing the First Break 9b tournaments
and playing in APT events. He'll occasionally come to the room where I have league, too.
Wilkie and Stottlemyer I don't see in public rooms much but I've seen them at least a dozen times
at various APT tournaments within short driving distance. I think McCreesh is from somewhere nearby too?

Brett "toofers" Stottlemyer drops some vapor clouds while Wilkie analyzes the table.
Jeremy "unfortunate last name" Seaman watches on the right.

I set up my chair near Wilkie, who I really enjoy watching.
Shaun looks like a younger, thuggier Johnny Archer sort of. He's slender and sorta hawkish,
has Johnny's nose and goatee, but you probably won't see Johnny with the flat-brim hat.

He is incredibly mechanical and precise on every shot. He can get sort of jittery and OCD-ish
as he figures out what to do with each shot, slicking the shaft and rechalking and such.
But he doesn't go nuts with it like Kid Delicious, once he starts running balls he keeps a great pace.
He kicks and jumps very accurately. About the only thing he does that's a little wild is his break.
On the bar table he crushes it compared to the other guys, getting the CB to bounce back at least
to mid-table a la SVB. Here's a video link though it's not his best break:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=eNZs6C1ecjo&t=14

He's also a super nice young guy who will talk to you and share tips he's learned.

For example he showed me how he noticed that Shane was measuring his 2 rail kicks using
a common system where you take the midpoint between the cue ball and object ball.
Except he noticed SVB plays a midpoint between the cue ball and a ghostball.
The ghostball lies at a point close to where you'd make contact to sink the ball.
Except it's a little high or low from that point so you can favor missing to 'get lucky'.
If you run a little long you make it, if you come up short you clip it and the cue ball gets safe.

I showed off my Flappy Bird score to Perk earlier in the week (330), and he promptly forwarded it
to Wilkie who has a mind-melting 383 or so. I think the highest legit record is 414.
I told Wilkie I'm gunning for him and we had a little laugh.

Wilkie KO'd Perk in his last APT event.

Stottlemyer looks weathered. Sort of like a pirate. He's friendlier than you'd think though.
He has an efren-like grin. I tried to talk him into some cajun jerky, he says he can't handle it.
"why, you don't like spicy?" ..."well that also, but I don't got my teeth!"
He looks too young to have no teeth. But at the same time he's no spring chicken.
He'd be right at home on a lobster boat in Maine.

He has played Wilkie a thousand times in APT events and this was like a typical APT final.
He shoots extremely straight and has no fear of any cut shot.
He has this very stable looking tripod bridge and pretty much refuses to miss.
When he loses on a bar table I'd say it's because he sometimes gets out of line,
and his safes are a bit passive.
Wilkie is a jump cue scientist and you just can't leave him a foot away from the blocker.
Shaun takes him out to make the quarterfinals, but on any given Sunday Brett could also win.

Brandon runs long on the 6 and ends up with this.
It's too thin to realistically cut. It doesn't pass the 9. What would you do here?

Periodically I glance up at Brandon and Skyler. They seem pretty friendly with each other.
Brandon has a great 9b break and his CB just hops a few inches and sits there while the wing ball slots in.
It looks like that on the big table too. He is done with Skyler pretty quickly, I thought Skyler
looked a little nervous and he got out of line where he normally wouldn't.

Another stumper. You can't see enough of the 3 to make it,
and the bank is blocked. You can't hit enough of the 4 to make the 9, even off the rail.
What's the play?

Brandon struggles in his quarterfinal match with Ryan McCreesh. Perk tells me that Ryan
is fond of a move whereby he grabs the ref for every possible close hit, even if they're not
really close and the outcome will be obvious. Sure enough, he whistles over the ref
at least 3 times during this match. Then Brandon has the ref watch one of Ryan's hits.
I didn't see much of this set, but I knew Brandon was done when Ryan yelled YESSS!!!.

Shawn meanwhile plays pretty well against Klatt, but loses anyway. It seems like
every kick he makes a good hit but still can't get a roll. He also was getting kicked around
violently on the break and often had nothing on the 1, and was forced to roll out.

Eventually, he falls to Klatt... who goes on to take out McCreesh and win the whole thing.
All the local guys got shot down by the straight-shooting Canadian.

Next up: The Pit!

 

[CreeDo]

The Pro Event

I expected this to take up most of my time when I came up,
and instead it took up almost none of it.

I liked the room, the players, and the format, but the bleacher seating was uncomfortable
and you were kind of far from the players. The VIP seats solved that problem
but $20 is a little more than I cared to spend. So we just ignored this mostly.

Up top we have two of the young guns, Oscar Dominguez and Mike Dechaine.
They lost in the same round to legends Warren Kiamco and Rodney Morris respectively.
Mike seemed teed off and is currently figuring out where his next cue is coming from.

So they end up facing each other, Oscar wins and then takes out euro champs Ralf and Mika.
It took Earl to finally put him down, cementing a 3rd place finish.
If Oscar beats three Mosconi Cup players in a row, maybe he should be on team USA this year.

Speaking of Immonen and Earl, I saw some of their match.
Earl dogged a few balls but also made some unreal shots to get out of trouble.
Mika knocked him into the loser's bracket in the third round and Earl comments
"you don't have half the talent I do". Mike liked that enough to post it on facebook.

Kind of a funny comment because that would imply Mika just works harder.

Actually, I was lucky enough to have Joe Tucker hang out next to me in the bleachers
and he tells me nobody (not even Shane) practices more than Earl.
Shane did spend time practicing between his matches and the crowd always gathered to watch.

Shane practicing is a little different from how he plays. He tries stuff like being
frozen to the foot rail and drawing across the table, or jumping full-cue over fairly close blockers.
He also does the occasional fancy stroke shot. He makes everything he tries,
except those jumps, he hits the blocker as often as not.

In the bottom pic we had a trio of vibrant shirts which I failed to capture very well.
The orangey red is Wilkie I believe, Morra is in yellow, and Matt Krah is in blue.

The inset is Shane's match vs. Wilkie. Shaun was up for most of the match by a game or two,
and I was really pulling for him. Then I saw Shane kick in a ball that was at least
a diamond from the hole, get hooked, and pull out his jump cue
to make a rail cut along the head rail. Dick.

Just kidding. You can't call Shane a dick and mean it.
After the match, all of Wilkie's friends and fans came over and told him
he played great and better luck next time.

Nobody came over to Shane at all, I almost felt bad for him.
Nobody likes the overdog I guess.
He broke down his cue and then helpfully removed the name placards on the light
and brought them to the tournament desk.

I think he was wandering around with his kid sister or something,
maybe she told him "good job" at least!

Inset: I notice that when Shane's shooting, both Shaun and Brandon watched.
It's hard not to watch Shane.

We watched Shane vs. Earl, and gawked at Earl's ridiculous hospital splint
and electrical-taped extended cue. Shane met Earl in the loser's bracket,
which must have felt pretty unfamiliar. To the right we see him watching calmly
as Earl... does something. Nice camera, bro.

The real story is... somehow an aging Tommy Kennedy took out, in succession,
Archer, Mika, Ralf, and then Shane. Holy shit.

I guess whatever it is that makes a US Open Champion, he still has some of it.
I don't know what caused him to catch fire like that but I hope whatever it is
can be drank, snorted, or smoked... I'll be first in line to buy some.

Shane lost after going pretty deep (check out that hangdog look in the left pic)
so it looks like he got another round with Kennedy right away.
To nobody's surprise, he won this time. That's two in a row for him.

Action

Ok, I gotta be honest. I didn't see or hear about any big sets.
Saw a few for hundreds but nothing for thousands.
Mostly what I watched was The Pit.

2 or 3 tables in the corner of the Expo become the focus of all the action.
They mostly played 10 ball on one of the barboxes, using 9-ball rules
(10 on the break counts anywhere, slop counts, no passback, etc.)

Typically you'll have a $10 table, a $20 table, and a $40 table.
On the first day, mostly everyone was at the cheap table, and they played 8 ball.
By the end of the week, there was only 10b on the the $40 table...
nobody paid attention to the others. It's a brutal environment,
not just because of the money and rowdy crowd but because
you are only doing a race to 1. You pay up if the other guy runs out or snaps the 10.
Then you put up your quarter and wait for your next turn which might not be for an hour.

Some talked of a hundred dollar table but I didn't see it.
Everyone who stepped up was invited to make side bets if $40 per rack felt too cheap.

Sitting down is Danny Smith, to his left his is Shayne "the other Shane" Winters.
Standing next to him is System of a McCreesh, and the shooter is Jeremy Seaman,
who bravely stepped in when Morra took over the table, and won.
Behind Sha[y]ne is Joey Mastermaker, who was a fixture on the sidelines 24/7,
and the grinning guy to the far right with the jewfro is Joe Dupuis, who briefly dated my ex.

Lots of people would point excitedly and hold up money.
I guess they wanted change, maybe for the quarter tables!
Then a nice young Russian man would take their bills. But he never seemed to have
enough change and often had to hand money back to people

I think someone told me this guy's name was Mike [something french-ish].
edit: this is probably Michael DeLawder.
He was awesome to behold. He shot very fast, he never missed, and he never got out of line.
He held the table for several rounds.

Here's Morra in the pit. He held the table for a while, maybe 5 racks or so, but eventually
everyone falls. One young kid got 3:1 odds, got an opportunity, then ran down to the 10 perfectly
before nervously rattling it. That cost poor Danny Smith a few bucks.

Morra is quiet and has these beautiful textbook fundamentals. He gets his dominant eye
dead centered over the cue, takes practiced warmup swings, pulls back slooooowwwwly,
then strokes cleanly through the ball.
I never talked to him but I'm told he's a nice guy.
I think he was born with a naturally smug facial expression that just never goes away.

People talk about bar table legends who held the challenge table for hours before.
In 10b, I can't see it. Eventually you'll break dry or your push won't work out,
or you'll just catch a shitty roll. I heard Shane went into the pit but I missed it.
If anyone could stay up there forever playing 10 ball, it's him.

Here you can see when the crowd starts to cluster.
If you're smart you'll grab a folding chair and fight your way to the front early.
The shooter, in dark blue, is Shayne Winters, who held the table a few rounds.

To the left, wearing a blue sweatshirt that says S.H.I.T., is the infamous Russian Kenny.
Next to him is the kid-who-played-shane (I keep forgetting his name)
and some dark haired bowlcutted guy who was apparently kenny's #1 hangout buddy.

For every rack, Kenny would yell out "I'll take 20 on the breaker" (or the racker).
If nobody would bet he'd scold the crowd for being nitty and then offer odds.
He definitely seemed to generate action.

At one point he went away for a while and then came back saying
"sorry, I had to go the bathroom and puke after I lose like
six fuϲking hundred dollars backing this guy".

He's one of those guys who has to be the center of attention and drama.
At one point a hispanic guy who made lots of sidebets was offered $100 to $120 or some such,
and Kenny rushed while the breaker was preparing to swing and said "right now, decide, bet?"

Afterwards, the guy asked Kenny to clarify and then said "wait, no, I though it was $120 for the other guy".

Kenny throws a tantrum, saying he'll never bet with the guy again, he always pulls this shit, rah rah ree ree.
Then he stomps away and angrily smacks some guy's red gatorade out of his hands,
splashing a nearby black guy's sneakers and white warmups.

The guy held his hand up with a face that said "come on man, you expect me to take this shit?"
Kenny apologized, ran off somewhere, got paper towels, and mopped the floor.
The black dude demanded compensation for the pants.

Kenny turns to the hispanic guy he'd bet with earlier, and says "you can just pay him the fuϲking $100
you owe me" or something like that. The guy demurs, and Kenny suggests that they flip for it.
The hispanic guy goes for it, flips, and Kenny loses. He looks disgusted as he pays the black guy off.

Interlude

I hang out for a bit with Justin, a chill friend of Perk's who I met at his house a while ago.
He only shoots around APA 4 or 5 level but he's a quick study and has a lot of fun.

We find an unused table on the tap side of the room and play for a while.
Two TAP guys come in, and I enjoy holding the table against them.
I gotta be honest, a B-player can feel like god for a little while,
running out repeatedly on a barbox vs. midlevel league players.

We wander back over to the Pit, where Perk has been sweating matches and occasionally
jumping in now that he has some prize money to spend.

To my delight, Perk is at the table against Warren Kiamco.

Perk can't say his name for shit. "I played warren kamaco!"

Justin and I excitedly snap lots of pics, but Perk is KO'd with no opportunities except
a flyer at an off-angle carom. However he managed to stay on the $40 table for several rounds,
at one point getting odds before Kenny smartened up. So he came away from the pit
unscathed, maybe ending + or - $50 from when he started.

Later, on our final night, we start heading out and spot some AZers, who suggest a doubles game.
We play for a while and have a pretty good time.

Overall this was a lot of fun, my first time but certainly not my last, whether they move
back to Pennsylvania or not. It was quite a different experience from the US Open,
where my focus was mostly on getting front-row seats to top pros.
Here I got to learn about some of the local talent and lesser-known semipro players,
and I learned a LOT about barbox play, which really is deceptively different from
pool on 9 footers. It's not easy and it's not an equalizer if you have an experienced barbox pro
vs. any lower level player, or someone who is exclusively used to big tables.

I wanna thank Perk for the great experience, I'd never have tried to go on my own,
and I also wanna say hi to all the people I met.
Next year, wear a nametag with your forum name. Let's meet!

 

[naji]

Thanks much, great job, can't wait for next ones.

 

[Sloppy Pockets]

Nice report! Can't wait to see the rest.

 

[beetle]

As always, thanks for the great reports and photos! Sorry I couldn't make it this year….

 

[Scott Lee]

CreeDo...Thanks for all the pics. Who is the "Jackie" in the picture with April. You said she was from your area (VA/DC). Looks somewhat like Jacqui Herrera, but she's from the Chicago area.

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

 

[CreeDo]

Scott, that's Jackie Rivera, I see her at most APT events and I think her regular room
is Fast Eddies in Springfield, VA. I remember the first time I saw her, I was like
"am I really seeing a teenage girl playing one pocket? For money?"
She's probably not actually a teenager but it's still confusing to see.

 

[Scott Lee]

ty! Love to see skilled lady players, wherever they are from! :thumbup:

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com

Scott, that's Jackie Rivera, I see her at most APT events and I think her regular room
is Fast Eddies in Springfield, VA. I remember the first time I saw her, I was like
"am I really seeing a teenage girl playing one pocket? For money?"
She's probably not actually a teenager but it's still confusing to see.

 

[Houstoer]

Dude you frickin rock ! thanks so much for posting these. I've never been but want to go now I want to go more! thanks again; you're getting Greenies! :thumbup:

 

[trob]

excellent post and pics! Lot of good stuff there. I wish I could have gotten to see mcreesh play this year. A few years a go he played in the pro even and cashed. I knew he was a hell of a player seeing him play at the money tables but watching him play in the pro event and how he carried himself and his demeanor showed he belonged there. Very calm and focused and really played flawless. You had to beat him because he was going himself with carless mistakes.

 

[JAM]

This is the best trip report I've ever read on this forum. Well done, Creedo. The pictures and the descriptions made me feel as if I was there.

What the heck is going on with Ryan? He moves to New York, and is he now an Amish man? I don't get that beard.:embarrassed2:

 

[JB Cases]

Well done. You and Brian now write the best trip reports.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

 

[sfleinen]

[...]

Jennifer Aniston entered on a lark. Just kidding.
This is Gail Glazebrook, one of the stronger women there and wife of super nice guy Tony Robles.

[...]

CreeDo:

I wish I would've known you were behind me in that pic, as I would've introduced myself and bought you a beverage of your choosing. I was the guy in the bright yellow-orange "Play the Game: Straight Pool" long-sleeved collared shirt sitting next to Tony Robles and Phil Capelle. (All three of us were sweating Gail's match on that table, and we're j-u-s-t below the field of view.)

Probably one of the best trip reports I've ever read on AZB -- Wow!

Well done -- looking forward to the forthcoming chapters!

-Sean

 

[fishless]

Nice report. I mean WOW what a nice report. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers.