About 5000 posts ago it was just 7 months since I had quit my job as General Secretary at the second biggest political youth party in Norway, after we did our best election so far, and two friends and I started Norway’s biggest poolhall, the ElbowRoom, in Oslo. I had only been involved in pool for a couple of years, but I thought it could be cool.
After the first months in business we had organized a Eurotour for women, which Charlotte Sorensen from Denmark won, and Niels Feijen was there cheering on his girlfriend, Katrine Jensen. When I got the news that he was coming to our poolhall for this event I remember I was very excited.
I managed to get his phonenumber, and I called him and asked him if he would play a challenge-match at our poolhall. I set up a tournament with the winner playing Niels a race to 9 in 9-ball for 80 % of the prize money, which became almost $ 1000 to the winner. Niels thought it was a great idea, and he was very satisfied when he arrived, especially since I had a list of 15 people willing to play him sets of $ 20 – 100 action. Niels played for 12 hours with no breaks, winning in total more than $ 2500 that weekend.
Niels was the first international professional player I ever met, and I became friends with him and Kat that weekend. I had watched pro players on TV before, but never cared much. After watching Niels play superb for 12 hours, my interest in pro pool got sparked, and I wanted to travel to events, watch more pro pool and promote tournaments myself.
Well, how to learn more about the pros? After a couple of days on the internet, it lead me to AZBilliards.com. Here I started to promote the IPT qualifiers we had, and the majority of my posts the first year was in the IPT forum.
During those last 3 years I have organized a couple of big tournaments, broadcasted live on TV, open for bets on betting-sites, lots of media-attention and with players such as Niels Feijen, Ralf Souquet, Thomas Engert, Oliver Ortmann, Nick van den Berg, Mika Immonen, Thorsten Hohmann, Darren Appleton, Karl Boyes, Tony Drago, Roberto Gomez, Jharome Pena, Imran Majid, Raj Hundal, Jasmin Ouschan etc. Most of these players said that our pool hall was one of the nicest they had ever seen. I sold my share in 2007, because of many reasons, but the main reason was I got tired of the hard work and I needed a change in my life.
From then on I only focused on playing pool and left the promoting-stuff behind me, and I have played in a couple of Eurotours and Open events around Europe, been “manager” for the Norwegian players during 3 different European Championships for men, women and juniors (2006 and 2007), and I have played in tournaments like Villards Cup in Cebu, qualifier for the World 9-ball Championship in Manila 2007, and the 2009 Derby City Classic.
I now know most of the pro players in Europe and Philippines, and one proof that I do know a lot of what is going on in the poolworld was when a World Champion approached me and asked for advice about the speed of a player. He was negotiating before a money match and wanted to get my inputs. I thought that was pretty cool
I have fallen more in love with pool since I joined AZBilliards, and I would for example never get to play Efren Reyes for minimum 20 hours, or know him well enough to share breakfast with him at DCC, if it weren’t for the great reports that Jay Helfert wrote from the 2006 World Championship.
“Pooladdict” and I decided to go to Manila in Feb 2007 only because of Jay’s fantastic travel reports. Thanks a lot Jay. Your reports certainly changed my life – in a positive way, and I am planning for a fourth trip to the "Mecca of pool" now. Imagine that!
I spend most of my time here on AZ to read and post about pro tournaments. I seldom join threads about aiming-systems, what to do etc, but my average of 4 posts a day are almost guaranteed to be in threads about pro events, or lately, in action-related threads. I care for the players and their rights, and my dream is that they will get the respect they deserve from a bigger audience.
The first step to achieve this, imo, is a players union…
Since Januray I have had some problems with my arms, and now with my shoulders, and I have not had the motivation to play pool like I had just 1 year ago. 90 % of the pool I have played in 2009 happened at the Derby City Classic. I hope I will get my motivation back...
I plan to return to Derby City Classic in 2010, mostly because of the fantastic experience I had this year when meeting so many fantastic AZ’ers.
Hopefully you American’s will still welcome the “European Cheerleader” with smiles and open arms even after the Yankees have been humiliated in yet another Mosconi Cup this coming December…
My life wouldn’t be the same without AZBilliards, and all it’s members. AZ is a great site, and I encourage all of you to support it with becoming Club Members.
Hope you have enjoyed my contribution to the forum so far, and thanks for all the friendships that I have made.
After the first months in business we had organized a Eurotour for women, which Charlotte Sorensen from Denmark won, and Niels Feijen was there cheering on his girlfriend, Katrine Jensen. When I got the news that he was coming to our poolhall for this event I remember I was very excited.
I managed to get his phonenumber, and I called him and asked him if he would play a challenge-match at our poolhall. I set up a tournament with the winner playing Niels a race to 9 in 9-ball for 80 % of the prize money, which became almost $ 1000 to the winner. Niels thought it was a great idea, and he was very satisfied when he arrived, especially since I had a list of 15 people willing to play him sets of $ 20 – 100 action. Niels played for 12 hours with no breaks, winning in total more than $ 2500 that weekend.
Niels was the first international professional player I ever met, and I became friends with him and Kat that weekend. I had watched pro players on TV before, but never cared much. After watching Niels play superb for 12 hours, my interest in pro pool got sparked, and I wanted to travel to events, watch more pro pool and promote tournaments myself.
Well, how to learn more about the pros? After a couple of days on the internet, it lead me to AZBilliards.com. Here I started to promote the IPT qualifiers we had, and the majority of my posts the first year was in the IPT forum.
During those last 3 years I have organized a couple of big tournaments, broadcasted live on TV, open for bets on betting-sites, lots of media-attention and with players such as Niels Feijen, Ralf Souquet, Thomas Engert, Oliver Ortmann, Nick van den Berg, Mika Immonen, Thorsten Hohmann, Darren Appleton, Karl Boyes, Tony Drago, Roberto Gomez, Jharome Pena, Imran Majid, Raj Hundal, Jasmin Ouschan etc. Most of these players said that our pool hall was one of the nicest they had ever seen. I sold my share in 2007, because of many reasons, but the main reason was I got tired of the hard work and I needed a change in my life.
From then on I only focused on playing pool and left the promoting-stuff behind me, and I have played in a couple of Eurotours and Open events around Europe, been “manager” for the Norwegian players during 3 different European Championships for men, women and juniors (2006 and 2007), and I have played in tournaments like Villards Cup in Cebu, qualifier for the World 9-ball Championship in Manila 2007, and the 2009 Derby City Classic.
I now know most of the pro players in Europe and Philippines, and one proof that I do know a lot of what is going on in the poolworld was when a World Champion approached me and asked for advice about the speed of a player. He was negotiating before a money match and wanted to get my inputs. I thought that was pretty cool
I have fallen more in love with pool since I joined AZBilliards, and I would for example never get to play Efren Reyes for minimum 20 hours, or know him well enough to share breakfast with him at DCC, if it weren’t for the great reports that Jay Helfert wrote from the 2006 World Championship.
“Pooladdict” and I decided to go to Manila in Feb 2007 only because of Jay’s fantastic travel reports. Thanks a lot Jay. Your reports certainly changed my life – in a positive way, and I am planning for a fourth trip to the "Mecca of pool" now. Imagine that!
I spend most of my time here on AZ to read and post about pro tournaments. I seldom join threads about aiming-systems, what to do etc, but my average of 4 posts a day are almost guaranteed to be in threads about pro events, or lately, in action-related threads. I care for the players and their rights, and my dream is that they will get the respect they deserve from a bigger audience.
The first step to achieve this, imo, is a players union…
Since Januray I have had some problems with my arms, and now with my shoulders, and I have not had the motivation to play pool like I had just 1 year ago. 90 % of the pool I have played in 2009 happened at the Derby City Classic. I hope I will get my motivation back...
I plan to return to Derby City Classic in 2010, mostly because of the fantastic experience I had this year when meeting so many fantastic AZ’ers.
Hopefully you American’s will still welcome the “European Cheerleader” with smiles and open arms even after the Yankees have been humiliated in yet another Mosconi Cup this coming December…
My life wouldn’t be the same without AZBilliards, and all it’s members. AZ is a great site, and I encourage all of you to support it with becoming Club Members.
Hope you have enjoyed my contribution to the forum so far, and thanks for all the friendships that I have made.
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