Pool Cue News and Review

I don’t know if any of you have been following this story, but over the weekend there were pro and amateur tournaments held in Florida.  To call them an absolute fiasco is probably the understatement of the year.  In the pro event, two of the top men’s players, Shane Van Boening and Corey Deuel, were DQ’d for “missing” their matches.  From what I’ve been told by others who attended the event, the match start times were vague and they were both told two “potential” start times for their match of 11AM and 1PM.  To make matters even fishier, it was apparently quite obvious that someone changed the match times on the tournament board with the magic of a pen and some white out.

On the amateur side, well, lets just say that the promoter didn’t exactly make it worth while for players to travel for the event.  Players reported that the promoter took a huge chunk of every entry fee, leaving a prize pool that was borderline embarrassing for a high profile amateur event.

Not surprisingly, this circus of an event led to the inevitable as Corey Deuel ended up throwing a punch at Charlie Williams, the event TD.  Regardless of what you think of any of this, it is pretty clear that this is just another example of why no one takes pool in the US seriously.  Really now, why would any non-billiards company spend their money sponsoring an event where things like this happen?  And can you imagine any other sport where participants no-show because it isn’t clear when their match starts?  Even Mickey Mouse would say that this is pretty Mickey Mouse.