Tournaments with the largest first place prizes in the 1980s

R

Raph Cleary

Active member
1. 1986 Resorts International Last Call For 9-Ball- $40,000 (won by Mike Sigel)
2. 1988 JPPA World 9-Ball Championship, Tokyo- $39,000 (won by Jose Parica)
2. 1982 Caesars Tahoe Billiard Classic- $35,000 (won by Buddy Hall)
2. 1983 Caesars Tahoe Billiard Classic- $35,000 (won by Earl Strickland)
2. 1986 Resorts International Last Call For 9-Ball- $35,000 (won by Jim Rempe)
3. 1981 Caesars Tahoe Billiard Classic- $30,000 (won by Mike Sigel)
3. 1985 Resorts International Last Call For 9-Ball- $30,000 (won by Wade Crane)
4. 1982 Lite Beer Series of Tavern Pool Amateur 9-Ball- $25,000 (won by Mike Katsarus)
4. 1982 Lite Beer Series of Tavern Pool Amateur 8-Ball- $25,000 (won by John Shuput)
4. 1983 Lite Beer Series of Tavern Pool Amateur 9-Ball- $25,000 (won by Gary Pinkowski)
4. 1983 Lite Beer Series of Tavern Pool Amateur 8-Ball- $25,000 (won by Richie Florence)
4. 1984 Lite Beer Series of Tavern Pool Pro 9-Ball- $25,000 (won by Dallas West)
4. 1984 Resorts International Last Call For 9-Ball- $25,000 (won by Jay Swanson)
4. 1984 Caesars Palace Billiard Classic- $25,000 (won by Earl Strickland)
4. 1985 B.C. Open 9-Ball Championship - $25,000 (won by Keith McCready)
 
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Looks like the Resorts International event was on quite a path -- $25,000, $30,000, $35,000, $40,000. Can you, or anyone else, give us any additional info on that event?

Also, I'd appreciate knowing the source of your information.
 
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Interesting that Mizerak, as great as he was at 14.1, and I will add Ray Martin, never won any of the top 10 prize money events throughout the 1980s. Did they not compete in most of these events, or, perhaps, they had already been surpassed in rotation games due to the shot making and rotation safety play skills of some younger pros in the 80s.
 
Bob Jewett said:
Most of these events can probably be found in the Goldmine that's on the AZB homepage.

Here's a link in case you can't find the homepage:
www.azbilliards.com

Goldmine - AZBILLIARDS.COM

The A to Z of Pool and Billiards Online
www.azbilliards.com www.azbilliards.com
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Thanks, Bob. I just read about that 1986 Resorts International event. Sometimes we have a few occurrences or "oddities" to discuss with current-day events, but how about this for that 1986 event:

• First prize was $40,000, but second prize was only $6,258. How's that for top heavy? Many pros threatened to not enter, but only a couple did so. And the final match was a race to just 7 (for ESPN taping).​
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• Play was so slow that a shot clock was introduced, but not until they were "Right in the middle of the final six playoffs ...".​
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• During the match where the loser would finish 5th/6th, a 200-pound ESPN camera fell and pinned the cameraman under it. He was just bruised, but this ended the matches until the next day.​
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• In attempting to silk screen a sponsor logo onto the bed cloth provided for the finals, the cloth was ruined. So they substituted some heavy, nappy cloth normally used for crap tables. Then, because that cloth played so slow, they ironed it -- apparently in the middle of the final match.​
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• During the finals, the ref called a foul on Sigel (playing Varner). He was masséing around the 7-ball to hit the 6, and the ref said he hit the 7. Sigel protested, and TV replays did not show any movement of the 7-ball. But the ref (who, according to the article's writer, was way out of position to tell whether the hit was good) held his ground.​
 
raphcleary said:
Would these events be classed as "World Championships"? due to the fact that the 1988 and 1989 Brunswick World Open 9-Ball Championship had lesser first place prizes with $15,000 for the winner.
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No. I think it's reasonable to argue that until 1950, whatever Brunswick said was the World Championship was the World Championship. Between then and 1993, whatever tournament called itself the World Championship and also had a lot of the top players might as well be considered the WC. After that, it's reasonable to require recognition/sanctioning by the WPA.
 
AtLarge said:
Thanks, Bob. I just read about that 1986 Resorts International event. Sometimes we have a few occurrences or "oddities" to discuss with current-day events, but how about this for that 1986 event:
,,,
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It's nice to see that we have made so much progress since then. Well.... in some events, anyways.
 
Bob Jewett said:
It's nice to see that we have made so much progress since then. Well.... in some events, anyways.
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Would be nice if say top 25 Pool players in USA could make a decent living at their sport.

Remember going to Lake Tacho, NV for World Championship Boxing Fight. Local guy from Sacramento,Tony “The Tiger” Lopez was one of boxers.

He won the World Championship, by end of following week he was back to real job that paid bills in lumber yard. He word there do common labor.

Boxes unless they are Heavy Weights do not make crap, bodies take same abuse. Pay is not great.


Tony Lopez (boxer) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
 
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mikemosconi said:
Interesting that Mizerak, as great as he was at 14.1, and I will add Ray Martin, never won any of the top 10 prize money events throughout the 1980s. Did they not compete in most of these events, or, perhaps, they had already been surpassed in rotation games due to the shot making and rotation safety play skills of some younger pros in the 80s.
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I heard Miz say in an interview once that the most he’d ever won in any tournament was $10,000,
 
raphcleary said:
This list took me a while to put together, does any one have any information if there was a Resorts International 9-Ball Championship in 1987, I couldn't find anything.
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Did you look through the NBNs I mentioned above?
 
raphcleary said:
1. 1988 World Pro Tournament- $41,000 (won by Jose Parica)
2. 1986 Resorts International 9-Ball Championship- $40,000 + Trip to Bahamas (won by Mike Sigel)
3. 1982 Caesars Tahoe Billiard Classic- $35,000 (won by Buddy Hall)
3. 1986 Resorts International 9-Ball Championship- $35,000 (won by Jim Rempe)
5. 1981 Caesars Tahoe Billiard Classic- $30,000 (won by Mike Sigel)
5. 1985 Resorts International 9-Ball Championship- $30,000 (won by Wade Crane)
6. 1983 Caesars Tahoe Billiard Classic- $25,000 + $10,000 Car (won by Earl Strickland)
7. 1984 Resorts International 9-Ball Championship- $25,000 (won by Jay Swanson)
7. 1984 Caesars Palace Billiard Classic- $25,000 (won by Earl Strickland)
7. 1985 B.C. Open 9-Ball Championship- $25,000 (won by Keith McCready)
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Sigel won Resorts in 1987 I believe. I think Mike and Nick chopped up 1st and 2nd place money. Earl won $33,000 plus the car in Tahoe in 1983. I was at all but one of these events, working as a co-TD. I missed the BC Open but staked Keith in it. We chopped the 25K, but it took a month for me to get my half from the promoter. The camera man was on a platform that fell over sideways. We saw it going down and it took about ten seconds to finally tumble to the ground (about 15' up). He was lucky, not badly injured, just very shook up, and went back to work later that day. In 1985 at Resorts the overhead camera fell (about 25-30') while it was being installed and missed Mizerak by only a foot or two. It would have killed him if it hit him on the head. It was a very loud crash. They filmed some scenes for the Color of Money at the Resorts tourney and Paul Newman came up to the directors podium to watch Sigel play. He sat right next to me while I was announcing the players and after I was done I turned and looked into his crystal blue eyes. I was too dumbstruck to say anything other than Hi. :)

I also met Mike Tyson there. I had worked for Bill Cayton (Tyson's manager) when he put on the Legends of Pool and Tyson was fighting (his fifth fight) next door in another arena. Bill sent someone to get me and I sat in the booth ringside with him and Jimmy Jacobs. This big guy came out that looked awesome but I was told that's not Tyson. Then a much smaller man enters the ring. TYSON! He took off his robe and I saw how huge his thighs were, as big around as my waist. In the first round they sparred around for maybe 45 seconds and then Tyson got an opening and hit this big guy (Arthur Harris or something like that), square in the chest. It sounded like Mickey Mantle hitting a home run - BOOM! The big guy went down and didn't get up. They had to carry him off on a stretcher. I had never seen anyone hit that hard before. Maybe 45 minutes later Cayton brought Tyson into the Pool tournament and up to the podium where I was sitting. He introduced Mike to me and he said, "Hi" in this very high voice, almost sounded like a girl. Mike was very smart though and spoke well. He had been educated somewhere. I don't know why but I told him that he would be a great Champion one day. I just knew this guy was a special boxer. He just said, "thank you."

One more thing. In 1986 when Rempe played Efren in the finals it was 35K for first and only 13K for second. Efren's team approached Jimmy to make a deal and he refused. He told me after the match that every time he made a deal before, he lost, and he wasn't going to do it this time. Jimmy played great and shut Efren down.

Ralph left out Willards International in the late 80's (or early 90's), played in Chicago. 25K for first place each year. Buddy won one and I think Sigel won the other. I lost to Jeff Carter 11-10 in a money match where I missed a long combo on the nine to win the match.
 
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raphcleary said:
That's a great story about the Miz, it would only happen to him! Sigel won Resorts in December 1986 Rempe won the same event early in the year, Mike won the biggest prize in history at the time in 86, he also set the record prize money for winning the 1981 Caesars Tahoe Billiard Classic, $30,000. Would you class the Resorts International Championships as "world championship" considering the prize money was a lot more that WPA sanctioned World Championships in the 90s.
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You're right it was December, 1986. I went by bus to New York after the tournament to visit my relatives there. I was due to fly out in a snowstorm and opted to wait a day. That night a plane crashed into the Potomac leaving Dulles Field. It was either after that one or the Caesars Boardwalk tourney (won by Sigel also for 15K) in the mid 80's. Too many trips to Atlantic City back then. The last Resorts event had 357 players in it, the who's who of pro pool was there. The entry fee was only $100, with 40K added.

Whether you called any of these tournaments a World Championship, they damn well were. All the best players played in them. The so called World Championships back then usually had a $10-15,000 first prize. The Sands Tourneys were the next most important for the pro players in the 80's and 90's. 10K cash to the winner, twice a year!
 
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