Pool Cue News and Review

As most of you know, there was an incident at the Great Lakes Classic where Sarah Ellerby “allegedly” threw an elbow at Jennifer Chen during a break.  Since then, we’ve been waiting for the WPBA to at the very least release a statement about this incident.  Most were expecting a suspension from the US Open, but we all know that didn’t happen.

In fairness, I decided to send an inquiry to the WPBA about this incident.  My email was happily ignored (not a surprise), leaving me to my own speculations and opinions which is never a good thing…

At any rate, word has it that the internal response to this incident was to… wait for it… hand out the WPBA Code of Conduct to all its members.  When the WPBA drops the hammer, they really drop the hammer.  Damn WPBA, that’s hardcore.  Anyway, someone was nice enough to leak the Code of Conduct, which then got leaked to the AZ Billiards forum, which I then grabbed to be enshrined here.  For anyone interested, here it is (allegedly):

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WPBA Code of Conduct

Complaints
All questions or complaints must be directed privately, in writing, to the tournament director or to a WPBA board member. Any public criticism or complaints are not permitted and the person responsible will be fined ($100.00 up to $5000.00)

Code of Conduct
Players are under scrutiny at all times as a professional and, as such, must avoid behavior that would discredit their fellow professionals, the WPBA, or the sport of billiards.

All players will be responsible for following all rules and regulations as set forth by the WPBA by-laws, the policy handbook, and any other regulations mandated by the on-site tournament officials and hosts.

Members of the WPBA must not make or cause to be made any statements (whether verbal or in writing), or take or cause others to take action which may, in the opinion of the wpba board, bring that member, the wpba or its agents, or the sport of billiards into disrepute.

The wpba may take action against any player member convicted of a felony and restrict their participation in the wpba events.

Player members shall not address criticism of fellow players, tournament personnel, equipment, or facilities to fellow members, the press, or any others. All such complaints should be submitted in writing to the tournament director or to a wpba board member.

Tournament officials may penalize any player abusing rules or regulations of the tournament or code of conduct at their discretion, including calling fouls, awarding games to an opponent, or forfeiting the offending players match.

Code of conduct violations inside the arena- unsportsmanlike conduct, intentional sharking, abusive or profane language, public abuse of equipment-physical or verbal, drinking during a match, rudeness to officials/players/spectators/sponsors, etc.

1. Written warning (verbal inside the arena with a write-up to go in the file)
2. Fine (minimum $100) + possible penalty TBD by tournament official (fouls, loss of game, loss of match.)
3. Fine and suspension

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I just think its funny that an (allegedly) official document uses the term “sharking”.

The shootout ended last night and the world collectively yawned.  Here are your results:

Corey Deuel - $20,000 + The Mr. T Bracelet
Shane Van Boening - $12,000
Dennis Orcollo - $10,000
Francisco Bustamante - $10,000

Nice score for Corey.  Gotta say, the guy is money when he’s got his own lettuce on the line.

Well, the crappy economy and the pool and billiards downturn doesn’t seem to be stopping players from getting sponsored.  This weekend there were a couple more announcements of small sponsorship deals.  Vermont state 8-ball and 9-ball champion Dave Fernandez scored a sponsorship from Samsara and Omega Billiards announced the sponsorship of Justin Bergman.  In both cases, we’re likely looking at product and swag sponsorships, but I certainly wouldn’t mind scoring a Samsara cue or a Justis Case!

When you look at these as well as the recent sponsorship announcement of WPBAer Debbie Schjodt, it does look like sponsorships are there for the taking.  The reasons behind each of these sponsorships had very little to do with winning titles and championships.  It seems to be more about finding the right rep that will bring a company notoriety.

Congrats to Dave and Justin on your sponsorships!  Nice to be able to report on some good news for once.

Ok, I officially refuse to refer to this event by the name the promoters gave it since the advertised prize pool is off by $940,000.  Despite the list of 190+ “interested” players that Hopkins listed, the total number of players to actually show and play this event was 12.  Yep, 12 players.  The real player list is as follows:

1. Johnny Archer
2. Marlon Manalo
3. Francisco Bustamante
4. Shane Van Boening
5. Dennis Hatch
6. Corey Deuel
7. Daryl Peach
8. Evan Broxmeyer
9. Tony Chohan
10. Matt Krah
11. Stevie Moore
12. Dennis Orcollo

Obviously, this event isn’t going to make it to prime time, but the TAR guys were nice enough to set up their gear and broadcast these events online.  You can catch the stream at http://www.theactionreport.com.

Because of the low turnout, the prize money will be paid out as follows:

1st: $20,000
2nd: $12,000
3rd/4th: $10,000
5-12th: $1000 each

$20k is a very decent prize, as are the payouts for 2-4, but to call this thing the Million Dollar Shootout takes hyperbole to a whole new level.  Not to be a downer, but you’re simply not going to find 200 players willing to pony up $5,000 to enter this thing.  The goal was to make this the WSOP for pool, but there’s a huge difference between pool and poker.  If you’re got a chip and a chair, you can win a poker tournament, but for pool you actually have to have skill.  There is no hope for some APA or VNEA player to come in and beat the likes of Johnny Archer, Shane van Boring and Francisco Bustamante.  This point is being hammered home by the last place showing of some guy named Evan Broxmeyer.  To win this style of tournament, you have to play consistently well for the entire event.  There’s no catching pocket aces or going runner runner on people in pool.

Anyway, as it stands right now, Dennis Orcollo is in the lead with 64 wins followed by Shane, Francisco and Corey with 54 wins and Johnny Archer at 53 wins.

Standings After 4 Rounds
Dennis Orcollo           64
Shane Van Boening     54
Corey Deuel                54
Francisco Bustamante 54
Johnny Archer             53
Dennis Hatch              52
Tony Chohan              52
Marlon Manolo            51
Stevie Moore               50
Darryl Peach               49
Matt Krah                    40
Evan Broxmeyer          26

I’ll be back tomorrow to give you the final results, but I really recommend you check out The Action Report and watch some of these matches live.  The TAR guys do a great job with these streaming events.

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.