Pool Cue News and Review

Well, there’s finally something of an official ranking for male pro pool players, but it doesn’t cover up what a sorry state men’s pool is in here in the United States. To really understand how bad it is, you need look no further than the Billiards Digest power rankings. Here’s a ranking system that has to go back to 2006 in order to get a full slate of rolling tournaments in. Even with the new system, there are only five events. Hell, the ladies tour has seven full events plus the Generation Pool championships. Of course, the ladies actually have an organized tour, not a mish-mash of men’s events.

At any rate, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the robot formally known as Shane Van Boening is sitting on the top of the leader board. What was a bit more surprising though was the number of events those in the Top 10 have skipped.

As you can imagine, the UPA players are all ripshit about it, although I really don’t understand why. The UPA “tour” is a joke. Its not like they shell out much dough for these events, considering that two of the tour stops are the BCA/Gen Pool 9 Ball Tournament and the US Open. They’re planning on having their players boycott the Qatar World Championships since they’re all pissy with the WPA, but apparently even though they’re “shocked and disappointed” with the BCA, they won’t be skipping the event next month in Charlotte.

It is a nice coup for AZ Billiards that they’ve been asked to manage and assist with the point system. It’d just be nice if the players being ranked cared enough about their own rankings to actually show up to all the events. I know making it to five whole events is a lot to ask, but I’m pretty sure most of them can make it, especially the ones that don’t live in the Philippines.