Up until about two months ago Tommy was coming into the Corner Pocket pool room in Beaumont, TX, to practice quite frequently. He is still in the car business (wholesaler). His game is still impressive. He said he played in a tournament earlier this year (at Legend's I think) and came in third or fourth. Also, I've heard he recently was planning to move to Round Rock, Tx, near Austin. My guess is he may start playing in a few tournaments soon, there's one in July at Fast Eddie's in Austin, just a guess.
I first saw Tommy play when he arrived in the Beaumont area in the late 1970's. He was probably about 18 years old. He used to play a guy named Phillip Hyde, who was a great player around here, They played some great matches. Tommy's game got a lot stronger and for the next 5 to 10 years Tommy's name was on the "Player's to Avoid" list for road players. I remember many, many times winning a few $$ betting on the side on Tommy, of course I also donated to him by staking a player(joemac) getting the eight... Tommy ran something like 8 to 12 games of nine-ball before we had seen enough. Tommy has matched up with such player's as Earl Strickland, Mark Tadd, Louie Roberts , Gabby just to name a few. And BTW Tommy is a very friendly classy guy. A good friend of mine says the way to beat him on the pool table is to get him to start talking about fishing. LOL. I wish Tommy the best, and hope he continues playing... what a stroke he has.... makes that cue ball dance.
