Wasn't going to happened.
I never really had the time since the Monkey and I were there to support Mika and since he was on the one loss side it made for some seriously long days. (He played from 11am to 2am with no real breaks in between. Ouch.)
He won by the way.
Unbelievably, he won.
After winning his first match he lost his second match to Chris Bartram and had to win his next 14 matches to repeat as US Open Champion.
(Only the second person ever to repeat as back to back champion.)
I honestly still can't believe he won because he, quite frankly, played like shit.
(But a World Champion playing like shit is still 1,000 times better than your average everyday hack like me.)
I have never seen him miss so many wide open straight in the hole shots ever.
In his 2008 run to the US Open Championship he was on fire. He was dropping 5 and 6 packs on almost everybody and was rarely down in any of his matches.
Break, make a ball, run out with almost dead perfect shape on every shot.
He was in the zone.
This year? He had to GRIND his way to the Championship.
He was basically down in every match and found a way to win. (He got lucky at some points too - but every championship run requires a little bit of luck.)
It's was interesting to see and there was a lot learned, it's hard to put into words, but I was glad to be there to see my friend make history.
As most pool magazines and websites have covered the win I'm going to move on to some interesting observations I had while down there.
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The soft break/cut break is going to ruin competitive 9-ball. Everyone inspected/rejected the rack for like 10-15 minutes to get it "perfect" - where they can hit the break and make the wing ball or the 1 ball in the side and then run out. It made it where a guy who might not be as good as a lot of other players in anything but reading the rack and soft/cut breaking was knocking those other guys out of the tournament. There really need to change the rules and make everyone break'em hard.
Way too much of this shit going on delaying the event.---
I was watching Shane Van Boening play Mike Davis. Mike had just won another rack and had just broke dry. SVB goes up to the table, looks at the beads and sees that he's down like 7-2 or something. There's a look on SVB's face like "How the fuck am I losing to Mike Davis?" and you can see a change in SVB's demeanor, like he's suddenly really pissed off that he's fucking losing to Mike Davis. He runs out that rack, breaks and runs out the next rack...and eventually SVB wins that match.
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Beau Runningen. Is. Freakin'. Good.
Beau ready to make that 9-ball.He's one of those great rack readers and cut breakers but you can also see that he's highly skilled as well. He had a great demeanor and mannerism around the table and it was really enjoyable watching him play. I was surprised that I never really heard of him before but I think I will be hearing more about him in the future.
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Chris "I lost so much weight my head is now too big for my body" Bartram.
Everyone looks better in Sepia tone.Fantastic gambler who seems to be making that switch to world class tournament player. (Yeah, I think there's a difference between gambling and tournaments.) He had a great tournament and showed some seriously skills knocking out some big names. Only person to beat Mika in the tournament too.
Still...I think he looked better with a little bit of weight on him. I mean, great, now he can move his head left and right, but he looks kind of like a booble head doll.
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Stevie Moore.
Pool Hippie.---
Barry Behrman.
The new "mouth".Most tournaments the promoters are "behind the scenes" and there's a good reason for that - it's because it's the players that the people came to see.
The US Open has way too much of Barry B. on the mic.
One, it's distracting for the players.
Two, you delayed matches and made the players wait until you could free yourself up to give your 10 minute speech. (One night matches ran until 4am.)
Three, you're not funny.
Honestly, you should only be allowed to give a speech before the finals. THAT'S IT. You're not the show, the players are.
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Ralf Souquet's cue.
wtf?I got a theory and it goes like this:
Dave Kikel and Paul Drexler bet Dan Janes that there's no way he can make a uglier cue than them. Dan not only agrees to the bet but doubles down by saying he can also get a World Champion to play with it.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
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Last, but not least, never mess with drunk people.
Rar!
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