Las Vegas Trick Shot Scene

As many have found out by now, I recently moved to Las Vegas, NV. In theory, this sounds great for my pool career. Smoking and gambling are prevalent here, which are two activities most pool players engage in (unfortunately, not myself), so there should be a large built in audience. There are quite a few pool halls in the area supporting the assumption that the number of pool players is high. In addition, most of the national leagues hold there championships here throughout the year which only adds to the number of pool players here. Finally, Las Vegas is a destination town with plenty of parties, so there should be more opportunities for gigs.

Admittedly, I haven't leveraged my position here to its full potential, but there are other factors in play. First of all, there are actually a number of trick shots artists in the area including Ken 'Sarge' Aylesworth, Stefano Pelinga, and Jamison Neu. Recently, Jason Kane also moved here. Not to mention, many pros are moving here at least semi-permanently with the advent of Bonus Ball. This obviously increases the competition on my end.

What's perhaps most aggravating at this point is that I live near Fremont Street Experience with poor practice options within walking distance. This limits my practice time and quality of practice, which definitely showed during the 2013 Masters Trick Shot Championship.

First off is Drink and Drag. I don't mind that it sells itself as a gay bar or that it's staffed by drag queens. At least this place has 9-ft tables and Brunswick's at that. Pool's $1/hr up until 9pm too! That's about where all of the advantages end though. The cloth on the tables is super slow and some of the rails play funky, not quite dead, but not true either. Being a club, it doesn't open until 6pm and they like to keep the lights low. Even the table lights aren't super bright. Making it worse is that there are disco lights above which flash bright spots intermittently on the table while you're shooting which is a huge distraction. Even when I go when it opens and there's no one else there, it's tough to see anything.

Around the time I moved here, Backstage Bar and Billiards opened up about a block away from my apartment. The big plus is they have Diamond tables with Simonis cloth. They are 7-fters though and they still charge $10/hr, which is probably a more typical rate among pool halls. But, also being a club, they don't open until 6pm, the lighting sucks (the lights over the table are blue), and it's super loud.

Just this past weekend, the Gold Spike held a grand re-opening, repositioning itself as a bar/lounge instead of  a casino. They put in two 7-ft, coin-operated pool tables. I didn't even bother checking the brand. At least the lighting was decent and the place will be open 24/7.

While downtown Las Vegas may be undergoing a revival, they missed out on the pool scene. It's too bad I have to get out of the neighborhood to find a good place to practice because it's otherwise pretty nice here. I just hope I can get enough practice in to make a good showing at the 2013 WPA World Artistic Pool Championships.

Tapping Balls

If you've ever seen a trick shot exhibition or tournament, you've undoubtedly witnessed the performer hitting one pool ball on top of another. We call this tapping the balls. What it does is create a little divot in the pool table felt for the ball to rest in. As a trick shot artist, this is an important skill to learn to do correctly, and it can help you out in a number of ways.

Whenever I do a show, inevitably, someone in the audience always asks why I need to tap the balls. The main reason is so that the pool ball stays exactly where I want it. It's not half an inch to one side or the other.
Older, well-worn tables have divots or other irregularities in the pool table cloth already. This can make setting up a trick shot difficult as the balls will tend to roll one way or another. By creating new divots, the balls end up where I need them to be.

This is particularly important for artistic setup shots where a number of balls are set up in a cluster. These shots typically don't work if there are gaps between the balls. By tapping the balls in place, I can ensure that these balls are in the right place and that they are all touching. There are shots where the gap between balls needs to be precise as well, and tapping helps with that.

If the balls are tapped in well, you can usually find these divots again. When I'm doing exhibitions, I'll usually try to show up early to a venue and tap in a number of shots beforehand. During the exhibition, this makes setup of the shots faster and easier as they seem to just roll in to place. It also makes trick shots look effortless, but the audience didn't see the work I put in beforehand.

When I'm practicing, tapping the balls is helpful so I can set up the shot again in the exact same way. I can try different spins and speeds or other adjustments and see what effect they have on the shot. On the flip side, if I tap the balls in and miss, I can also set it up again and, if I know one of the balls missed to the left of the pocket, I can adjust it slightly to the right and make a new divot. It's certainly possible to have too many divots in a certain area which can get confusing.

In tournaments, if I'm shooting a shot someone else has made, sometimes I can find their divots. Then I usually don't have to worry about if my setup is correct. It's tougher if I'm the first guy up. In a head-to-head match, the other option is to make as many divots as possible so my opponent doesn't know which one I've used. Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes it's not. It depends how difficult the shot is otherwise.

Artistic Pool

Artistic Pool, as far as I can tell, is a term coined by Tom "Dr. Cue" Rossman that encompasses the competitive aspect of "trick shots". It is governed internationally by the World Pool-Billiard Association - Artistic Pool Division (WPA-APD). It is defined by eight disciplines:

1. Trick/Fancy
2. Special Arts
3. Draw
4. Follow
5. Bank/Kick
6. Stroke
7. Jump
8. Masse

While there are technical definitions for each of these disciplines, there are shots that are interdisciplinary, demonstrating skills and characteristics across two or more of these. Interestingly, using these definitions, the term "trick shots" only applies to the first discipline and typically covers setup shots with multiple ball configurations. Hence, Dr. Cue will use the phrase "Trick shots and so much more" as a tagline for Artistic Pool. Oddly, the North American governing body is called the Artistic Pool and Trick Shot Association, implying they are separate entities.

Confusingly, the two of the most popular events of this nature have been titled Trick Shot Magic and the World Cup of Trick Shots, broadcast on ESPN, neither of which use the term Artistic Pool. One or both of these events have been sanctioned by the WPA in the past, so there are clearly some discrepancies within the organization about the enforcement of the use of the term. What's more, in the early days of Trick Shot Magic, they described shots as either being "artistic shots" or "skill shots", "artistic shots" being setup shots with multiple ball configurations and "skill shots" being everything else, essentially the inverse of what the WPA has drawn up.

Even though there has been sanctioning by the WPA of Trick Shot Magic and the World Cup of Trick Shots, neither has counted for official world ranking points. These tournaments are invitation only, have only 8 players, and do not necessarily cover all eight disciplines of Artistic Pool. In ranking tournaments, players shoot five shots of varying difficulty levels in each of the eight disciplines, for 40 total shots scoring points depending on the number of attempts it takes to make a shot. This score determines a players final position in the tournament and their ranking points.

2013 WPA World Artistic Pool Championships

If you're not on anyone's special email list, the 2013 WPA World Artistic Pool Championships have been announced and are taking signups. It will be held July 18-21, 2013 at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV during the BCAPL National Championships, which should ensure a great turnout for players and fans alike. Sign up fee is $300, but goes up to $350 on June 1, 2013, so get your entry in! Email me if you want more details on either the sign up process or the shot program.

Dr. Cue Classic Artistic Cup VI

From November 29 to December 2, 2012, I played in the Artistic Cup 6 event held at the Marriott East in Indianapolis, IN. The event was held in conjunction with the Indiana APA state invitation tournament, so there were lots of pool players around. I got grouped up with Dave Nangle and Gordon Hedges for the first 3 rounds. I guess we were a little speedy as we tended to finish 30-45 minutes ahead of the other groups we were shooting with. After the trick/fancy and special arts disciplines, I was barely gripping on to a top 10 spot, even though I scored enough points to take the special arts medal. I was able to make a move in the draw and follow disciplines up to 6th place though. The jump may sound small, but with a program of easier shots, you can't take anything for granted. After bank/kick and stroke, I was in fourth place, actually tied for 3rd but Tom Kinzel beat me on the tiebreaker. I was actually surprised at that considering that I missed a shot in each of those disciplines. For the final day, the groups were shuffled up based on position, so I was matched with Florian 'Venom' Kohler, Curtis Robertson, and Kinzel as the top four players. In the jump discipline, I made the first three shots on my second attempt and the last two shots on my first attempt. However, the other guys scored zero on the second jump shot, while Robertson and Kinzel faltered on at least one more each, leaving me in 2nd place heading in to the masse discipline, down by 3 points to Kohler. Oddly, we took a 'halftime' break between the jump and masse disciplines which threw things off a little bit. We cruised through the first masse shot and I made the second masse shot on my first attempt. Kohler missed his first two attempts, finally making it on his third attempt but his lead had shrunk to one point. We kept pace with each other for the next two shots. On the final masse shot, I went first, missing my first attempt by not putting enough spin on the ball. I made my second attempt though, but left Kohler with some breathing room. He needed it too as he clipped the wall of balls on his first attempt, gathered himself, and nailed it on his second attempt to preserve his one point victory! It was exciting all the way down to the last shot.

So second place, special arts medal, and a nice weekend hanging out with the guys again. It was a fun time and I'm certainly looking forward to the next one.

World Class Artistic Pool Masters Cup, Shenyang, China

The China tournament was quite the spectacle. I got picked up at the airport and taken to the hotel where they were getting the arena ready. All the other guys were milling around the lobby getting checked in as well. The first night had a big reception with dignitaries and press. A rep from the US Embassy was even there. Nice spread, but they didn't reload the food, so I only got one round. We were all anxious for the practice tables, but they were getting set up that evening. We finally got on one and rotated through for a while. The second one opened up a couple hours later. The opening ceremony was the next morning, again filled with dignitaries. My first round was on the TV table with searing lights, but our group shot well and finished in decent time. We had a bit of a break before our second round that afternoon. That was also on the TV table and I managed to keep myself in it. The third round that evening killed me. My group was on the other tournament table which was super slick, making some of the shots pretty difficult, especially after we had broken in the practice tables already. That's pretty much where I crashed out of contention, but it left me in 8th place that evening. The Sat morning round, we were re-grouped based on our rankings. The 9-12 guys went first, so I knew what I had to do to beat them. There wasn't a ton of motivation after that since 5-8 took home the same prize money and it would've taken catastrophe's from other players to make it to 4th. So I managed to squeeze into 8th while securing the follow discipline medal and putting myself in position for the masse medal as well. Gabi had a perfect masse discipline going into the final round, so I didn't hold out much hope. He shot in the next round and teased me by missing the shot twice before nailing the 3rd attempt.

Masse's in Walnut Creek

Had a fun session with Juan who contacted me last week and wanted to get together. Man, my 8 ball and 9 ball game have gone to crap. We went out to Masse's in Walnut Creek. We played a few games and I showed him some shots. I had him hit a few too and he seems really excited to learn more. Maybe I can get him up to speed to play in one of the tournaments later. Masse's was ok. It's a sports bar but was pretty quiet for a Monday night. The tables are mostly 9-ft Olhausens with skinny rails. The cloth was quality except for all of the stains from spilled drinks, food, and who knows what else. And I think there was only one bridge in the whole place, so maybe we were lucky not many other people were playing. Anyway, should be a fun time to show Juan some more stuff.