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

Straight pool in the heart of Tuscany

Siena, Italy - Piazza del Campo
viewed from the Arch

 I have the pleasure of sometimes working in Siena, Italy.  Siena has become one of my favorite places in the world, and if you ever go to Italy I recommend visiting this incredible town.  To this day, the city projects a medieval aura through architecture and tradition, perhaps most evident during the two horse races that are run each year in the middle of the city on the Piazza del Campo.

View Larger Map

All that is great, but there is ABSOLUTELY NO POOL OR BILLIARDS in Siena.  The closest pool hall is about 20 km away in a town called Poggibonsi.  A couple of weeks ago, I made my way to Poggibonsi to try to find me some pool, and was lucky enough to meet a great player there, Vittorio.  


Vittorio's game is straight pool, which.... I suck at.  He trounced me a few times that night, but we exchanged information to try to match up in the future (oh and he also trounced me at 10-ball).

The next day, he contacted me saying that he would be having a few people over for lunch that Saturday at his house.  Awesome!!!

I went over there, through buses and taxis - he lives in the Tuscan countryside, absolutely amazing views from his place- lots of Chianti wine and olive oil is produced around here, as you can see :)

Vittorio's olives

View from Vittorio's driveway

The house is about 200 meters from a small castle, the Castello della Paneretta.  Vittorio's house actually incorporates an 11th century tower which served as outpost to another castle which no longer exists.

Il Castello della Paneretta

Vittorio's 11th century tower

The house was amazing - especially the setting for his beautiful 8-footer - you can see some of Vittorio's collection, including a crossbow, various pool trophies, porcelain dishes etc...

Vittorio destroying me at straight pool

A classy chalk holder

Check out his pool lamp : the fixing is made from an old yoke from an ox cart.  Fits in great with the fireplace, the house, and the entire countryside for that matter!

Coolest lamp fixture I've ever seen

Vittorio cooked up some amazing food - part of it traditional italian, but also RIBS.  Yes, ribs - and he did have to specify "I did not make these special for you, I have been planning on trying to make ribs for the last three months"!  Indeed, ribs are hard to find in Italy...

Ribs cooking in the fireplace :)

In addition to the ribs, some fantastic turkey and chicken, beef steaks, prosciutto, artichoke paste, potatoes, peppers, and myriad other traditional Italian food was served.  It was a feast.  

The other meats

 The wine :

Non-traveling wine

See the label?  That's the castle pictured earlier in the post - talk about local products!

Turkey and chicken, cheese and prosciutto, bread, honey

After lunch, we went to the tower, where we proceeded to jam out a bit, me on piano, Vittorio on drums and a friend of his on bass.  It was OK, but I really suck at playing the standards, even with the fakebook.  Turns out Vittorio is an excellent jazz drummer as well.
After that short jam session, we shot some pool.  Scratch that, we shot a TON of pool.  Plenty of straight pool, plenty of one-pocket, a couple other silly games, but we played for hours and hours.  took a bit of time to get used to the table, but I got in stroke after a bit and enjoyed every second.

While Vittorio and I were indulging in our addiction to billiards, a couple of the other guests went out into the woods to pick mushrooms - they came back with a nice, full basket of all different kinds of mushrooms.   Vittorio went through the lot and threw out all the poisonous/untasty ones and this is the filtered result.

Mushroom harvest!

Vittorio drove me back to the bus station in Poggibonsi just on time for me to catch the last bus to Siena.
Back in Siena, I sat down at some random restaurant and wound up talking the whole time to this guy from Ecuador who was telling some crazy stories about how he was in jail in Tijuana and how he got stabbed in the back in Ecuador.  Great stuff!  All in all, that was one of the best Saturdays I've had in a while.
Cool thing is that Vittorio has a buddy in Siena that is willing to drive me over to Poggibonsi whenever so that we can all shoot some pool!