IPT News
I have gotten so many nice comments from people who have read my article and I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for reading and supporting On the Wire. To those that expressed concern for Mike's sister, she was laid to rest right before the New Year.
This month has been a little slow regarding our participation with the IPT. Early in January, Kevin Trudeau came out with two new audio recordings on the website at www.internationalpooltour.com. I encourage everyone to listen to this man's vision of what is going to happen in the world of pool, because of his contributions. The payouts for last place changed so that they are paid another $6,000, making at least $13,000 that we will walk away with, even if we don't win a match. Combine that with referrals and profit sharing, and that is going to be a sweet windfall for just showing up.
One thing that didn't happen is that we did not get our table. All that cleaning and painting for nothing, lol. We are still due to get it, but it just hasn't arrived yet. King Cobra Billiards actually went back east and picked up some almost-new Diamond tables that were used at the Derby City Classic tourney.
Another thing of note is that two people lost their spots with the IPT, and Santos Sambajon was one of them. He is now trying to regain his spot by shooting in qualifiers. The reason he lost his spot is because he never got his player agreement returned in time, from the Philippines. Another eight lost their spots when they didn't show up at the player's meeting. Five of them were from Malaysia. Speculation has it that the Asian governing body for billiards prevented them from showing up.
Therefore, there were 5 qualifiers set up to fill those spots. Entry fees were $2,000 and had to be paid up front and online. As of this writing, two events have unfolded. The winners of the first qualifier held at the Derby City Classic are Jason Miller (undefeated) and Alex Pagulayan. Jeanette Lee also participated.
The second qualifier was held at The Pool Room in Marietta, GA. Julie Kelly was the lone female entrant. Brian Groce went undefeated and Shane Van Boening, both of the U.S., won their spots. Poor Vilmos Foldes, he has been a bridesmaid at BOTH qualifiers.
Kevin brought Mike Sigel in to take on challengers two at a time for extra cash and the chance to win free entries into the remaining qualifiers. He also gave $5000 out for running a 6 pack. Incredibly, 3 players accomplished this.
Additionally, KT has also offered the top 4 eliminated players to play free in the remaining 3 qualifiers. There will be two more in the US and one in Europe. You can read all about the qualifiers on the website.
To assist local players with the $2000 entry fee into the Bellflower Hard Times qualifier being held Feb. 17-19, Mike and I, along with Harvey's Billiards in Renton, were going to hold a mini-qualifier on Jan. 29th. The entry fee was going to be $250, so that with 8 players, one person would have their entry paid 100%. If there were any extra funds left over from having more than 8 players, they were going to go to 2nd place, to go toward their entry fee or just to pocket. Unfortunately, the mini-Q was canceled due to a poor turnout. We only got 4 committed players. Even so, we would have had the tournament with only 2 more players, because between Harvey's and us, we were going to kick in the rest.
We called every player of renown from Canada, WA, OR and MT. We were just frustrated that we were handing these guys a way to fulfill their pool dreams and then they couldn't come through. Some are under the mistaken impression that they can just hand over $1000 at another IPT qualifier and get in a tournament and thus, on the tour, and they are dead wrong.
On another note, the local IPTers swept the last Cadillac Island Casino tournament. Stan 'The Man' Tourangeau and Mike took 1st and 2nd, and I took 13th, out of 78 players, even after I lost my first match! The downside was that High Woman got more than I did, but it is great to feel like a player, plus it gave the other 4 women something to play off for.
Travel is consuming a large part of my life. I just returned from Scottsdale, and am leaving tomorrow for Anaheim on business. A bunch of friends from the AZBilliards forum are meeting up with me to play in Danny K's tournament, then we are playing at the Hard Times Bellflower tournament the next night. I also just started a part-time travel business, and I already donated a cruise to the Bahamas to raffle off.
Talisman Billiards just made 2 new cases for Mike and me. They are both smaller and lighter than my old one, yet they carry 3 butts/5 shafts. They both have our name embossed on the back. We love our new cases! I would like to recognize and thank all our sponsors – Viking Cues, Talisman Billiards, Harvey's Billiards, and King Cobra Billiards.
KT activated our lifetime membership to his Natural Cures website. It has a lot of helpful, healthful, and interesting information up there. The site is www.naturalcures.com. If you go to the IPT website, he is hiring for various positions, all with tremendous pay. Things are just starting with the IPT and it's really heating up!
The downside is that we still don't have a firm date for our first real tournament. They rearranged the schedule so that the 2 open tournaments are first, instead of the 2 members-only tourneys. This means that they need to run another 25 qualifiers to get the 50 extra players needed for the first event. We are forecasting the first event to commence in late April to as far away as June.
Meanwhile, we have a full tournament schedule here in the NW until April, so I am not complaining. It will give us more time to practice and possibly get the new blended IPT slow cloth that they tried out in Marietta. So Mike and I will see you on the tournament trail and until then, take care and God bless.