Dandelions, Diamonds and Turning Stone
MomWonder, KidWonder and I just returned from a road trip to Verona, NY, where I entered in the Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour season finale at the Turning Stone hotel and casino. It was a great trip, and my first big time 9-Ball tournament since KidWonder was born, 2 years and 2 months ago. The drive wasn’t bad… MomWonder occupied herself taking scenic pictures–I really like this one:
I have been a pool enthusiast for some time now. When I was 13, during the summer I helped out at the local library re-shelving books, and came across Byrne’s New Standard Book of Pool and Billiards
. I couldn’t put the book down–soon afterwards, I found myself spending hours in the rec room at my high school, practicing bank shots and navigating a table with dead banks with a warped house cue. Nothing could dampen my excitement for this game–I wanted to play all the time.
After high school, I moved to NYC, and life conspired to keep me away from the table for a while. That all changed when I walked into Amsterdam Billiard Club one day in 2003. I played, entered a team 8-Ball league, and have been a regular player ever since. In 2005, I started dabbling in tournaments, first on the local Tri-State Tour, then various open tournaments, some local, some regional. Then came KidWonder… and I’ve been mainly Dad since then.
As soon as I arrived at Turning Stone for the player meeting, it all came back. The room was set up for big time action, with 16 tables in 2 rows of 8, 2 sets of bleachers, a walkway lined with tables and chairs, and a camera focused on the feature table for live internet streaming of matches.
The tournament was played on Diamond Pro-Am tables, tight pockets and Simonis cloth. In other words, great pro equipment. The tour director, Mike Zuglan, kept the player meeting entertaining and went about finishing the draw. The draw is a big deal with these tournaments, especially when unseeded, which was the case at Turning Stone. Without seeding, the top 2 players can play each other in the first round, which can make the path for certain players to the finals a lot harder than with others. IMO, it makes the tournament more interesting, but for those counting on prize money as a primary source of income, I can understand why it causes a fair share of anxiety.
I drew a local player in the first round, and played the match at 10pm. He had a lot of difficulty getting used to the table and the spectators, and I took advantage of some good opportunities to win 9-1. A word about the format–this tournament was played with races to 9, meaning the first player to win 9 games wins the match, or the “set”. For the first game, a coin flip determines who breaks, and for all subsequent games, the winner of the previous game breaks. The loser of the coin flip, or the previous game, racks the balls.
I was very excited to win my first match. If I had lost, I would have still been in the tournament, as this was a double elimination tournament, but for those on the one-loss, or “B” side, there are many more matches to play to reach the finals. In the second round, I drew Charlie Bryant, nicknamed Hillbilly. Hillbilly is currently ranked #11 in the BCA points list, a respected US ranking authority for pro pool. In other words, he is one of the top 11 players in the country. I took advantage of a few opportunities early, and he took a break at 3-3, only to come back and wipe me out 9-3. The outcome was not too surprising given his talent level, and on I moved to the dreaded B side. Hillbilly in action:
I played a pool room owner in my first match on the B side. It was a long, grueling match in which the momentum changed several times before I ended up on top 9-7. The win afforded me the “privilege” of playing at 10am the following morning, small comfort given that the match I had just finished playing ended at 1:30am. Such is life on the B side.
Prying my eyes open at 8am to get ready for my next match, I grabbed some coffee and looked at the brackets. 3 matches were needed to finish in the top 25%, and get a share of the prize money. An intimidating 6 matches lay ahead if I wanted to still be playing on the final day of the tournament. I swallowed hard and moved on to my table… where I promptly stunk up the joint. Not sure what happened there, I guess my luck just ran out. Still, my opponent and I went back and forth, and he won 2 games from 7-7 to take the match 9-7, ending my tournament. I finished tied for 48th place, thus meeting my goal of winning 2 matches. AZBilliards has the whole story.
I love going to tournaments and being able to talk to top pros about the game they love, about the equipment they use and getting tips on improving my game. I love that the tournaments are open for all–it gives a lot of enthusiasts such as myself an opportunity to show our stuff, without raising the bar to entry too high to participate. One of these days, pro pool will get a great sponsor and the top pros will be too high and mighty to help a lowly amateur like me–I just hope that day doesn’t come too soon.
KidWonder was a bit too active to sit still and watch the matches, so the lovely MomWonder had to set a non-pool watching agenda while in Turning Stone. Here is KW, on the ride home, enjoying the view and his juice. Maybe when he’s a bit older he’ll be the one playing!
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