I was there for the last day of the Ultimate 10B and for the entirety of the Southern Classic. I played in all 3 Open events and bought back each time. I'm very much an amateur. This was my vacation. So, here are my answers, FWIW:
1. I honestly don't know. My gut feeling is yes. Badi gave a great speech about unity in the sport of pool at the end of the U10B. He even seemed to get a bit choked up. I have no doubts that the guy LOVES pool.
2. I don't know. Really can't even speculate on it.
3. I don't know. I DO KNOW that the amateur side with the NAPA events was pretty darn packed every time I went over there. That, in itself, might have paid for the whole event, but I don't know how all that stuff works in conjunction with the Open tournaments.
4. I don't know. I pray that there is. I hope it's still in Tunica. Or at least somewhere in the Mid-South. I'm in north central Arkansas and there's nothing here. Tunica is 3 1/2 hours away and very doable for me. I met a lot of people from Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, Louisiana and Missouri.....so, there was a bit of a local draw.
5. I don't know (is this starting to sound familiar?). Only Greg Sullivan and Harrah's probably have the answer to this.
6. Jay Helfert (for sure) and possibly Greg Sullivan will know the answer. I know I enjoyed it. Those Diamond 10-footers are the cat's pajamas. I got a chance to play on them quite a bit and honestly I liked them better than the 9-footers. It forced me to bear down harder and actually shoot slower, smoother and focus on pocketing balls.
7. I can't imagine why the length of the 9B race would affect entries. As an amateur, I went down there to play the best players in the world. I was lucky enough to draw a world class player in Chris Melling.......some super, super strong "amateurs" (of whom I'll allow to remain nameless) and I hit balls with CJ Wiley for hours on end, over the course of 3 occasions. Sure, I wanted to win some rounds, but I had expectations of mingling with the best, watching great pool and learning. Anything else was gravy. I did win my 1st round in Bank Pool, so a small, short-term goal was achieved.
Anyway, I never heard anyone utter a word about 9B racing to 9 (instead of the previous year's 7) in a negative or positive light. It was just a race. If anything, while I know it teeeeechnically should lower a lesser skilled player's chances of winning in a longer race, at least you're getting more bang for the buck. I would have loved to have played Melling a race to 25. Lol.
I know that there were concerns about skeeters (or mosquitoes, for you Yankees), as they were pretty bad. At least most people thought that. I didn't like them for sure, but I've been many places that were 100 times worse than that. I just found them mildly annoying. I also didn't get bit much, as skeeters don't seem to like me as much as they do others.
The action rooms were hit and miss. I saw some great match-ups and probably missed out on a lot more, as I was in the Open Event area a lot, but I feel it was a bit down from what I saw last year.
Everything seemed to logistically run smoothly. Bank Pool and 1P were in the 120's this time. They were around 140-150's last year. So, down a bit. I think 9B was in the low 80's, as opposed to around the 130's in 2012.
After talking to some people at the event, I've come to the conclusion that Bank Pool will generally have the most entries, as it has the cheapest entry fee. That allows a person to get a Player's Badge, so that they're pretty much golden for the duration of the event. They pay that one entry fee, play in a match, hit balls pretty much when they want and watch the rest of the tournaments.
9B costs the most, and since the pro's can run out like water, I could see some of the lesser "hardcore" amateurs that aren't a glutton for punishment (like myself, cuz I don't mind taking my licks)......not ponying up for the most costly event.
I REALLY, REALLY was hoping that the number of entries would at least equal last year or be within 90-95% of it. Bank Pool and 1P was probably about 85% of what it was last year. 9B was probably only around 60% of where it was last year.
All of the above are approximates and only my opinion. I'm really looking forward to hearing some facts from people in the know, such as Greg Sullivan, Jay Helfert and Jeremy Jones (President of NAPA).
I'm crossing my fingers.
Notice that I never once mentioned Bonus Ball...................dammit. Now I have.
