Pool Cue News and Review

Pool in the Olympics is never going to happen. There, I said it. For years (and do I mean a lot of years), the squeaky wheels in billiards have screamed at the top of their lungs “look at us Olympics!” in a futile attempt to get the game/sport/whatever included in the Summer Games. 2012? Not a chance. 2016? Negatory. The next shot for billiards is going to be 2020, but don’t hold your breath.

Every four years, the whiners piss and moan about pool not getting enough respect and not getting included in the Olympics. Now all you out there who just call me a “hater” and claim I don’t have love for the game, you couldn’t be more wrong. I’d love to see more people playing. I’d love to see pool halls opening instead of shutting down. But you know what? The Olympics won’t have one ounce of difference on how well the industry does. If it did, sports like Curling and that whole prancing with the ribbons thing would be freakin’ huge!

Anyway, I’m not one to bash and run, so I’m going to be constructive for a moment. Let’s say we really want to get pool into the Olympics. The first thing that would need to happen would be to give the entire industry a good delousing. Every day there are reports of people getting robbed, shot, beaten and murdered in or around pool halls. Yeah, I know its different in the Far East, most people still think of pool as a game for lowlifes.

You want to be in the Olympics? Then its time to clean up your hizzle fo’ shizzle, yo!

“Hey, so you gonna watch dem pool players in da Mosconi Cup dis year?”

“Oh yah, youbetcha!  Where is it dis year?  London?  Las Vegas?”

“Noo… Malta dis year donchaknow.  Don’t dat just frost yer butt?”

“Oh yah”

“Yah, fer sure”

No friends, it isn’t in London or Vegas.  Instead, this year’s Mosconi Cup will be hosted in Malta.  No, I’m not kidding, although I wish I was.  No offense to the Maltese folks, but really?  Malta?  Is that what its come to?  This isn’t exactly an easy destination for fans to get to, although if you do manage to find your way there, you’ll be treated to some very cool architecture and history along with some tasty grub.

In the 14 year history of the Mosconi Cup, its been held in London 8 times and Vegas 3 times.  The other locations (Essex and the Netherlands) were still fairly accessible.  This makes about as much sense as the annual BCA expo being in North Carolina (Ok, that was probably a bit of a low blow).

Anyway, all I can say is that I hope they sell beer, facepaint and airhorns in Malta because I don’t think you can bring those with you on a plane.

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.