U.S. OPEN 2026, Frisco, Texas, August 25-30

Interestingly, a friend of Keith's on-site said Joe had bodyguards with him.

Here's the Joe Rogan interview with Natalie Pike and FSR, right after FSR beat Filler. The question Natalie asked at the end made me cringe a little I'm not sure if she was trying to be nice or if she really did not know much about who Joe Rogan was. I like her, though. She's a nice addition to the WNT team.

View attachment 927457

WNT NATALIE: Joe, I know you're a huge, huge supporter of 9-ball, a big, big supporter of the sport as well. And I heard in your commentary. You were talking—you said it is one of the most underrated sports in North America. For anybody to watch that, how could they not be obsessed with this sport?

JOE ROGAN: I think the real problem with pool is you really only appreciate it if you play it. I think that's the problem. And then when you see guys who play as good as him, it almost looks easy. So it's good to have a game like this where there are some mistakes and you get a few "ooh," a few scratches and a few tense moments and a few bad safeties. And it's—you know, it is a beautiful game. It's an unforgiving game. It's a precise game. And when you watch it played beautifully, like that runout he you just did when you know it's on the line for the—you know, to get to 10 like that, it was just fantastic.

WNT NATALIE: Joe, are you sticking around? What's your plans?

JOE ROGAN: I'm here for two days.

WNT NATALIE: Amazing. Well, thank you. I hope we can get you back on the comms table because—

JOE ROGAN: Yeah, for sure. Definitely. It was fun.

WNT NATALIE: You could have a future in 9-ball commentary.

JOE ROGAN: I'm pretty busy, but every now and again, I would love to come by.

WNT NATALIE: Well, thank you. We really enjoyed your commentary.

JOE ROGAN: My pleasure. Thank you.
Wake up Natalie! Great response by Joe.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JAM
Yes, a few times.

Brunswick doubles championship in the 80’s. No surprise, Sigel won with Ewa (Mataya) Laurance over Loreejon and Hopkins.

PBT Championship - Earl crushed Efren in the finals. Lots of empty air time, so fortunately they had Mike Massey doing trick shots. Earl had beaten George Breedlove in the west side finals earlier.
First major 9-Ball was Caesars Tahoe in 1982 on ESPN. Caesars Boardwalk and Caesars Palace events followed during the next year.
 
Is he really that much better than Fedor Gorst, KPC, SVB, FSR of late, etc. though? I still think he's the best but the gap between him and the other top tier players is not enormous by any means IMO.
There is no one dominant player today. That much is obvious. Any one of 25-30 guys now capable of snapping a big one, and they know it!
 
Sometimes it’s good to have a guy you love to hate. Respect the game, but rubs you the wrong way. Capito fills that role.

Something about when he gets down on the shot.

I remember when the Bears D was lining up presnap. The camera would always zoom in on Mike Singletary’s eyes. A picture of extra intense focus.

View attachment 927684


You can tell this dude has bad intentions.
Derby City Q&A Series: Robbie Capito

game face. lil ko and mario he also looks like genghis khan when down on the ball. noone looks meaner than niels though
 
There is no one dominant player today. That much is obvious. Any one of 25-30 guys now capable of snapping a big one, and they know it!

What’s interesting to me is that a number of players have had a year or two where they seem like they are better than anyone else. But then it fades and tney are “just” another top 5 or 10 player.

Filler
FSR
Fedor
Yapp

But it’s not new really. Mika had a couple of those years. Alex. Darren. Shane.
 
And the national anthem being performed by some dude they pulled from the third row when he volunteered.

"Yeah, I think I can do it. Ya'll got the lyrics on a teleprompter? Ok. I'm in."
The harmonica player at the open ceremony nailed the National Anthem. I asked Emily to put it on youtube but she said that was not her department. They need to figure out whose job it is and get it out there. Americans will hit that link for years it was done so right.
 
It’s really challenging not to join in the political back-and-forth on this thread about Joe Rogan. He graciously came because he has a passion for pool and even stated that it is his favorite game. His logic about why pool is having difficulty growing as a sport on television was right on the money.

It’s fun for me and for other people who enjoy and/or play pool to watch three hours of pool on ESPN because we know the game. We understand how it is played. We recognize the difficulty of the shots on pristine equipment. We know the players and their personalities from social media and from attending pool tournaments.

We often hear that pool needs to grow to become a mainstream sport. Here’s an interesting comparison using the best available worldwide participation estimates:
• Snooker: 110–120 million players
• Pool/billiards: 200+ million amateur players*
• Darts: 17–20 million regular players
• Golf: approximately 66 million players

*The pool/billiards figure is from the World Confederation of Billiards Sports (WCBS) and includes the broader billiards family, so it should not be interpreted as 200 million pool players alone.

Darts has far fewer recreational players than pool or snooker, yet it has surpassed both in professional payouts and has developed an incredibly successful television product. Golf has the highest payouts of the four and an enormous television presence. Snooker has better payouts than pool and enjoys a substantial following, particularly on television overseas.

And then there’s pool. Pool is at the bottom rung of the ladder financially and in mainstream television exposure, yet look at how many people play it socially and recreationally around the world. That’s the fascinating part. Participation does not necessarily translate into mainstream visibility.

And therein lies the opportunity. There are millions upon millions of people who already know how to hold a cue, play a game, and love the competition. So how do we turn that enormous existing pool-playing population into fans of professional pool? Therein lies the question.

And FWIW, while people are busy spewing their political views about Joe Rogan, nobody seems to notice or perhaps nobody seems to want to discuss the billions of dollars being spent and the enormous number of controversial decisions being made in Washington, D.C. We’re talking about gold-leaf paint on statues, hundreds of trees being removed for a golf course to be named after you-know-who, a proposed $200+ billion ballroom, changes to historical building names, military deployments and questions about supplies (no toothpaste) and readiness, senior military leadership being removed leaving our country vulnerable to attacks, tariffs creating turmoil with long-established allies, and on and on it goes.

But Joe Rogan came to a pool tournament because he loves pool and wants to see the sport grow. And that’s what people want to argue about? Stop. Hey, what’s that sound? Everybody look what’s going down.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top