Super Billiards Expo 2012

Landing in Philadelphia

After 8 months of galivantery around Europe, Africa, Asia and Europe again, it was time to return to one of my two lands of my roots. The stars and planets lined up perfectly (for real) and I would make it to Philadelphia on time to attend the largest pool expo in the world, the Allen Hopkins Super Billiards Expo. I bought in to the Amateur Open, a gigantic affair topping out at 984 players. Single elimination, two sets of race to 5 of 9-ball on barbox. I did not play well at all, losing 5-4 5-4 in the first round. After roughly 12 hours of anger and self-loathing I was back in the pool mood.

Billiards Show!

                                                                     


My entry fee to the open included access to the expo on all 4 days, and I was planning on taking full advantage of that. The last time I had been to expo, I did not follow pool very closely. This time, I knew much more about the pool world, had some very interesting people to meet, some old friends to see again and plenty of time to spend.

    Mixed feelings about the new venue. It was a bit further into the middle of nowhere than the Valley Forge expo center, although still quite close. The problem with that is that there are fewer hotels within walking distance, complicating transportation and partying logistics. On the other hand, everything was on one floor, and although this meant easier access and flow throughout the expo, I missed the awesome feeling of seeing the pool tables roll out endlessly as you made your way down the stairs. 

Pedro Piedrabuena, pondering the last shot of the 3-cushion tournament

The 3-cushion invitational and the trickshot competition were held right by the amateur open and TAP events - this surely brought some increased visibility to these cue sports which are too often forgotten. In fact, I watched quite a bit of 3-cushion and with the knowledge of the game that I acquired in Germany, this was very enjoyable. 

The last match, between Pedro Piedrabuena and Hugo Patino was quite amazing. Pedro was up 33-24 on the race to 35, and Hugo ran a 7 to get to 33-31. Pedro made one more to get to 34, and Hugo made two to get the match to 34-33. Pictured above, Pedro playing white on what turned out to be the last shot of the tournament. If you know about 3-cushion, and some of you do, you can immediately see the difficulty in this layout. Since the three balls are aligned, and the two object balls are far from each other, the options are very limited. Pedro went off the yellow for a difficult short-long-short, executed perfectly for the win.

Pool Cube paraphernalia

The very open layout of the expo also meant that you were constantly bumping in to pros and pool personalities going about their billiardly business.

I particularly enjoyed watching Ralf Souquet and Mika Immonen play Pool Cube, a variation with elements of backgammon. The setting sun was shining in through windows near the roof, and I got to take some rare pictures of pool pros playing in natural lighting - see the shadows projected by the balls? 

Ralf "The Kaiser" Souquet

Ralf Eckert trying his hand at the 14.1 challenge. He made the called 11 in the corner on this choochoo train combo.

One-Ball One-Pocket, Dominican rules

No trip to Super Billiards Expo would be complete without losing a few bucks betting on the rail at the action tables. This year, there was a contingent of Dominican players quite successfully introducing their game of choice : Dominican rules one-ball one-pocket. Each player gets a diagonally opposed corner pocket, and must make the ball in their pocket to win. Scratches don't "count", you simply get ball in hand behind the line. Making the object ball in the "wrong" pocket is loss of game. I watched a good bit of this game, and it seems particularly well adapted to railbird infested barbox action.

I had the pleasure to watch some of the pro action along with some knowledgeable friends. The pro arena was separate from the rest of the venue, and the silence in there brought a nice relief from the loud main area.

Darren Appleton

Shane Van Boening

I watched the whole final match, Stevie Moore vs. Shane Van Boening - this was not a "true" double elimination, they just increased the race to 13 from 10. Shane plays unbelievably well, And Stevie really didn't make many mistakes but was still down 8-0 at one point. In alternate break format, that is really impressive. Even being down by that much with a $13,000 swing on the line, Stevie kept his composure and did manage to stage a comeback while Shane was on the hill. Stevie got from 12-2 to 12-6, never losing his confidence. Shane did make a couple of mistakes at this point. Finally, Stevie missed a two ball entirely trying to thin it for a safe, and Shane got out for the win.

Stevie Moore during the finals

Shane Van Boening and Stevie Moore at the trophy ceremony. $20,000 for Shane, $7000 for Stevie. 

I had a blast, thanks to friends old and new, to good food, and to the heavy dose of pool radiation I absorbed all week long. Who knows where they will hold this event next year, and where I will be by then... This was sort of a homecoming for me, after being out of the country for so long and having acquired so much new knowledge of the game and its characters. I'm now off for some American adventures, heading across the continent in what could be a circuitous journey. I'm taking suggestions for pool rooms to come visit so please let me know if you would like me to stop by yours. 

Quotes from the rail :

"I got up there and played the game the way it's supposed to be played, and he didn't like that" - Earl Strickland to Stevie Moore, at the next table over in the pizza joint

"The moral of the story is, don't ever let your wife talk you into getting fixed" - One-handed 9-ball bandit

"Inconceivable!" - Hypothetical livestream commentary for the yet-to-happen Princess Bride 10-Ball Invitational Battle of Wits

SPECIAL THANKS! --

Pros :

Michael Kang

Pedro Piedrabuena

Nachito Block

Sarah Rousey 

Robin Dodson

Ralf Souquet

Rob Saez

Shane Van Boening

Earl Strickland

Stevie Moore

Hunter Lombardo

Brandon Shuff

Allen Hopkins

Not-so-average pool nuts :

Hung N. 

Jason B.

Angel L.

Abdel

Rick S.

Tony C.

Jill R.
Brian P.

Zack N. 

Rob P.

Christine P.
JimboArmy

Cue Makers :

Joss Cues - thanks for the free joint protectors!

Eric Crisp - SugarTree Cues

Murray Tucker - Tucker Cue Works

Dennis Dieckman

Marine biologists :

OMGWTF

Valley Forge Super Billiards Expo

I have many things I should have blogged since last post... Let's see, when I left off I was in Basel, Switzerland, it was right before Christmas.

Since then:

French alps for new years, Normandy for a couple days with my parents, Liverpool, Manchester, Marburg (Germany), Siena (Italy), back to Basel, Zurich, Liverpool, Philadelphia, Raleigh, Philadelphia, Boston, Siena, Marburg, Frankfurt, Philadelphia, Raleigh, Philadelphia.

Today is Sunday, March 21st 2010, the last day of the 2010 Super Billiards Expo at valley Forge.

This event has been going on for a few years now, and is one of the largest pool expos in the world. It also happens to take place in one of my ex- "home" neighborhoods, as I lived in this area for about 7 years.

Now if you haven't been to expo, let me tell you about expo. IT IS AWESOME. They have all sorts of events, amateur and pro, everything on bar-sized tables. That's right, every table is a 7 foot diamond, and there are HUNDREDS of them.

For 4 full days and nights, this place is filled to the brim with everything POOL. It doesn't close. Pool 24/7. Thousands of shooters of all skill levels. Trickshot events. Cue vendors. Cue repairmen. The parking lot is full of campers, from all the road players and other pool junkies coming from far away lands such as Florida or Arizona. Hustlers everywhere.

The local Philadelphia suburb area shooters simply call it "Expo". Elsewhere in the country, is it usually referred to as "Valley Forge". It is quickly becoming famous for the ridiculous amount of action that takes place, in particular in the "pit".

You see, most of the tables are used for the pro and amateur tournaments. But they keep about a dozen tables open for anyone who wants to shoot. These are infested with hustlers, most of them playing 9-ball and 10-ball. Out of that dozen tables, there is one that has MASSIVE amounts of action. This is what people refer to as "The Pit". Imagine 300 people in a circle around a 7-foot Diamond with some of the best shooters in the world playing no-call 10-ball for several hundred dollars a rack, winner-stays-on. And the people around this are not just watching, they all have part of the action. You wouldn't believe this place. Each rack, even before the 10-ball is sunk, you start hearing yells : "I got the breaker for $100!!!" "Who likes the racker??? Who wants the racker for $300" You gotta see this, I don't think there is anything like this anywhere else in the world.

I flew in from North Carolina thursday evening, headed straight to my friend Brian's place in Conshohocken, and later shawn picked me up from there and we headed to expo. Shawn had never been, so I showed him around a bit. I bet some racks for $20, some for $40 and actually made $100 thanks to the shooter I was betting on who ran 3 racks. I was about to stop betting, but got convinced to take the breaker again for $40 and lost.

Friday night, I went back with my brother and his girl to see my friend Robyn play in the women's 9-ball open. Unfortunately, she lost in the first round. We met up there with Doug (the guy in the red hat at the beginning of the video) and Rob (our APA league operator). We drank beers and bet on pool for a while, did allright. I got my tip redone. There were flyers at the expo saying that Markley Billiards was open 24/7 during the expo and that they had a 1-pocket tournament on Saturday at 2pm!! One-pocket tournaments are a rarity in this area.

At about 2am saturday morning, we headed to Markleys, where they were playing winner-stays-on 1-pocket for $500 a rack (pic).

Also, poker in the back. We stayed until 5am. The next day, got a cab back to Markleys and played in the one-pocket tournament. I lost my first match, but then won 3 and was 1 win away from the money when Adam Kieler (?) destroyed me 8 to -2. He proceeded to win the tournament, I actually have the whole final match on video. The guy he beat in the finals was the guy who beat me in the first round, so I didn't have the luckiest of draws. Still proud of myself tho. My bro picked me up from there and we went to BJ billiards with Brian, Scotty and Shawn and had a more relaxed evening, messing with Brian's new camera (I think we took some really good pictures, about to check them out with Brian).

I took 20 min of walkabout video of expo on Friday night - all one continuous shot. Check it out and get a feelof the Valley Forge Super Billiards Expo!

Doug gets his tips back from Big Sexy over here :

0:00 to 3:31 - quick tour of the upstairs : vendors, open tournaments.

3:35 to 3:56 - the "small money" tables

3:56 to End - THE PIT

Beginning: I get paid lol

1:10 - the women's open

2:25 - The poor girl gets to be filmed missing this shot...

2:35 - just walking around the TAP event, some vendors and the food stands

6:25 - THE PIT again.

6:45 - Check out the break. lol.

9:15 - Gambloor wants the racker for $100

Written Sunday, March 21st at noon in Conshohocken, PA