US Open 10 ball & 8 ball is Back!

For your information LETO1776 my brother and I have been to the last two CSI pro events in Las Vegas and unlike most people paid serious money for the VIP seats. Jack flew in from Pittsburgh and I drove up from Phoenix. That will not be happening this year. Bar tables are for bars and the drunks that frequent them. They are not suitable for professional level pool. This sucks.

I'd like to point out that the pros for years complained about how easy Gold Crown III's were and this was the driving force for the use of Diamond tables with their deeper pocket shelves. Now they are reduced to bar boxes. Hey, here's an idea let's use Valley's with their buckets. Then SVB and Thorsten can shoot blindfolded and still get out. PATHETIC.
 
Last edited:
dnschmidt said:
For your information LETO1776 my brother and I have been to the last two CSI pro events in Las Vegas and unlike most people paid serious money for the VIP seats. Jack flew in from Pittsburgh and I drove up from Phoenix. That will not be happening this year. Bar tables are for bars and the drunks that frequent them. They are not suitable for professional level pool. This sucks.

I'd like to point out that the pros for years complained about how easy Gold Crown III's were and this was the driving force for the use of Diamond tables with their deeper pocket shelves. Now they are reduced to bar boxes. Hey, here's an idea let's use Valley's with their buckets. Then SVB and Thorsten can shoot blindfolded and still get out. PATHETIC.
Click to expand...

Bahahahahhaha nice post!
 
dnschmidt said:
For your information LETO1776 my brother and I have been to the last two CSI pro events in Las Vegas and unlike most people paid serious money for the VIP seats. Jack flew in from Pittsburgh and I drove up from Phoenix. That will not be happening this year. Bar tables are for bars and the drunks that frequent them. They are not suitable for professional level pool. This sucks.

I'd like to point out that the pros for years complained about how easy Gold Crown III's were and this was the driving force for the use of Diamond tables with their deeper pocket shelves. Now they are reduced to bar boxes. Hey, here's an idea let's use Valley's with their buckets. Then SVB and Thorsten can shoot blindfolded and still get out. PATHETIC.
Click to expand...

This ^^^^^^^^
 
Valleys don't have buckets. They have 4 1/2" corners, like a diamond. They just have a shallow shelf.
 
I think someone needs to reach out to Barry Hearn for some consultation. He's been able to bring back snooker and darts, so he has some idea how to build a sport/game/competitive activity. I really don't think the answer to reviving the pro game in the US is format or tables.

Before Barry Hearn took control over snooker, they were trying power snooker and 6 red snooker. Barry has done wonders for the game and for the most part has kept snooker relatively intact (not withstanding a shorter format at the UK championships).
 
dnschmidt said:
For your information LETO1776 my brother and I have been to the last two CSI pro events in Las Vegas and unlike most people paid serious money for the VIP seats. Jack flew in from Pittsburgh and I drove up from Phoenix. That will not be happening this year. Bar tables are for bars and the drunks that frequent them. They are not suitable for professional level pool. This sucks.

I'd like to point out that the pros for years complained about how easy Gold Crown III's were and this was the driving force for the use of Diamond tables with their deeper pocket shelves. Now they are reduced to bar boxes. Hey, here's an idea let's use Valley's with their buckets. Then SVB and Thorsten can shoot blindfolded and still get out. PATHETIC.
Click to expand...

I think they run out more on Diamond , they play so good and rails so fast it's a chip and putt table ,, I run more racks on a Diamond no question about it

1
 
Cameron Smith said:
I think someone needs to reach out to Barry Hearn for some consultation. He's been able to bring back snooker and darts, so he has some idea how to build a sport/game/competitive activity. I really don't think the answer to reviving the pro game in the US is format or tables.

Before Barry Hearn took control over snooker, they were trying power snooker and 6 red snooker. Barry has done wonders for the game and for the most part has kept snooker relatively intact (not withstanding a shorter format at the UK championships).
Click to expand...

At his HOF induction speech Barry basically said without TV there is zero chance for pool in the US. And that ESPN sucks and no one else is interested. I believe the words "Its a shame" were said once or twice.
 
JCIN said:
At his HOF induction speech Barry basically said without TV there is zero chance for pool in the US. And that ESPN sucks and no one else is interested. I believe the words "Its a shame" were said once or twice.
Click to expand...

I completely agree that TV is a key ingredient, and it has to be more than just content fillers. But even that is better than nothing.

I just wonder how someone like Barry might go about making people interested enough to put it on television.
 
AtLarge said:
... I wonder if Ignacio has ever before played on 7-footers. Do they have such things in the Philippines?
Click to expand...

On American Billiard Radio tonight, Geoff Conway (who is currently "managing" Ignacio in the US) answered my question. Until Monday of this week in Reno, Ignacio had never played on a 7-foot table. And then he won the first tournament he played on one.
 
I feel like the real problem was brought up early in this thread. Pool is not promoted in a way that will catch the attention of people who do not play pool regularly.

If I turn on ESPN late at night I'm very likely going to see a bunch of guys playing poker. Personally I have no interest in it. I don't see the appeal of watching people sitting down and playing cards. What poker has done is promote itself very well. It has promoted itself so well that it's on almost all of the major sports networks and some not related to sports for hours out of the day.

Pool is a game where the skill to be a professional is more of a visible thing. You are more likely to see something spectacular to happen in a pool match than at a poker table.

Both games have a culture around them that draws the attention of gamblers.

The question I feel we have to ask is, "What is poker doing to attract large sponsors and television networks that pool isn't?" Why don't we have the Bud Light or Monster Energy 10 ball world Championships?

I do understand that they can fit a larger number of participants in a small space. What I don't understand is how pool isn't being sponsored and promoted by multimillion dollar companies even though their product is not necessarily pool related. This is what poker seems to do better than pool and it has made them very successful.
 
Poker is ancillary...

GFC said:
I feel like the real problem was brought up early in this thread. Pool is not promoted in a way that will catch the attention of people who do not play pool regularly.

If I turn on ESPN late at night I'm very likely going to see a bunch of guys playing poker. Personally I have no interest in it. I don't see the appeal of watching people sitting down and playing cards. What poker has done is promote itself very well. It has promoted itself so well that it's on almost all of the major sports networks and some not related to sports for hours out of the day.

Pool is a game where the skill to be a professional is more of a visible thing. You are more likely to see something spectacular to happen in a pool match than at a poker table.

Both games have a culture around them that draws the attention of gamblers.

The question I feel we have to ask is, "What is poker doing to attract large sponsors and television networks that pool isn't?" Why don't we have the Bud Light or Monster Energy 10 ball world Championships?

I do understand that they can fit a larger number of participants in a small space. What I don't understand is how pool isn't being sponsored and promoted by multimillion dollar companies even though their product is not necessarily pool related. This is what poker seems to do better than pool and it has made them very successful.
Click to expand...

Poker itself is an ancillary income that companies use to attract people. What I mean by that is that casinos and other travel destinations use poker to draw people in to spend money on other things/games...

That's why you see it on the travel channel.

Of course it wouldn't be a draw if it hadn't been marketed correctly.

The big boom in poker happened after the movie rounders came out.

The big booms in pool happened after the hustler and then the color of money came out.

The popularity of the movie "Rounders" was then capitalized on and the world series of poker was then marketed correctly and these travel destinations saw the benefit of promoting poker because it became a draw to people.

Pool would have to be marketed slightly differently because no one travels to a destination (except us junkies) specifically to play pool.

I won't lie here, I'm not sure what the best way to market pool would be.

I have some ideas, but not the means to follow through and or pilot some of the ideas to find out the feasibility of them at this time.

I'll tell you one thing though, until we start seeing some secondary sources of information (not pool related) marketing and advertising pool, nothing will change.

Jaden
 
Jaden said:
Poker itself is an ancillary income that companies use to attract people. What I mean by that is that casinos and other travel destinations use poker to draw people in to spend money on other things/games...

That's why you see it on the travel channel....
Click to expand...

you just connected the dots for me! when i would lay in bed at 2am & nothing else on TV but fricken boring POKER - i found myself watching it. why? cause i'd be looking out the backdrop windows of the Strip, and wishing i were there.... trying to discern which casino they were at....

Vegas is, poker. all day. all night. everyone can do it. everywhere.

the only pool table i know of, is at Cosmo.
 
are brackets for this tournament online?
I can't find any information other than a PPV stream.
 
Poker versus Pool

I believe there are significant differences between pool and poker.

First, I play a bit of poker at Foxwoods Casino. In one $300 entry tournament a couple of years ago which had around 350 entrants, I came in 16th and collected $2500. First place was $42,000.

Second, I have played with some high level players and won. Did they have an advantage against me, absolutely. But, lady luck can give you good cards which give you a statistical advantage or you can play like an idiot drawing to low percentage hands and hit. Watching Poker tournaments on TV some of the people who make the final table are clueless but got hot. If I played any pro pool player even up, I would have no chance regardless how lucky I got.

I played at the $1500 WSOP Monster Stack last year. There were 7862 entrants and first place was 1.3 million dollars. The player base is much larger than it is for pool.

I am not disputing anything said to this point, but the numbers involved are vastly different.

Al
 
I have a question.... how many of the people were complaining about how easy bar boxes are, were the same people who say they like seeing "packages" being run? No better place to see big "packages" than on a bar box.
 
one pocket

with all the good one pocket that is out there, olson, chohan, bergman, hall, frost just to name a few and who knows how many more monster player out there, not having the one pocket tournament would be disappointing to me and a lot of people that have gone and watch these great players play i remember in 2013 that there were a lot of people that just came and watch and came from a distance. would there be a seperate us open 1 pocket tournament?
 
Bar Pool is fine but there's nothing like playing on a nine footer. It will be fun to watch but I doubt the International Field will assemble for this event. I'm sure Mark Griffin and company have their reasons to stage it in such a manner and being a room owner myself, sometimes things just have to go the way that makes the most sense for the person putting up the doeraeme.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top