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| One week prior to the announcement from R.J. Reynolds that they would not be sponsoring the Camel Pro Billiards Series, we sat down for an interview with Jeremy Jones. There are a couple mentions of the Camel Pro Billiards Series in this interview, so please keep in mind that this interview happened prior to their announcement This is the second part of that interview, the first part is available here. | ||||
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Jeremy: Well, I've played around with a lot of guys. I've messed around with Efren. One of us has exchanged $500 or maybe a little more. I've played Corey Deuel and guys like that. We played a little more serious pool, for a few thousand dollars or so. If you are going to look to gambling for your living, you have to find the people who have money. To be frank, it is just like owning a company. You wouldn't try to sell your product to a company that was broke. It is sad that I have to say this about some pool players, but not all great pool players are able to gamble financially at the level that I like to gamble at. So, I sometimes had to play guys who maybe weren't as good players. They were still good players but could bet the kind of money to make it worth your time to try to gamble with them. I've played players like Brian Gross, who is a great 9-Ball player. We played a set in Baton Rouge for a figure in the 5 digit range. I won that and a few other sessions here and there. I've played one pocket with Cliff Joyner several times, and he is a great player. We have probably played 10 times in my life. It is kind of weird. I think when two great players play each other, there is a lot of timing involved. It has to be the right time for them to play. It has to usually be at a tournament where they both have money and they both feel a little frisky about playing. It is hard to become a good player, if you had the nuts everytime you gambled. You had to want to shine at one time or another. You had to want to come out and play a tough game and perform under pressure because that is how you improve. It should be that a kid who is 12 years old can go down to his local YMCA and play pool, or go to a local youth program to learn how to play the game, but in this day and age, in order to become a great player, it seems like you have to have gambled at one time or another. I think it is fun to watch two great players play. There is nothing better than watching a 6 or 8 hour session of good 9-Ball or good one pocket, as long as it is cordial and gentleman like. I don't gamble as much as I used to because when I gamble, I want to gamble with someone that is not going to argue and is not going to have a problem with losing money. Even though I did gamble a lot for a long time, I always tried not to argue. If my opponent wanted to quit at any time, he could. AZB: Compare the life of a professional tournament player to the life of a professional road player. Jeremy: It is different. I played for money the first two or three years that I was on tour but never played a full season until this year. I would gamble with the guys and beat them but I would draw them in the tournament and could never beat them because it is a different type of pressure. On the other hand, if you take a player who strictly plays in tournaments, he couldn't compete gambling because his endurance wouldn't be as good and the money might get to him. The difference is that a gambler can get very comfortable when he knows that if he loses this set, he can play another one. In the tournaments, it is not like that. In the tournanents, you have one race that you can win or lose and that determines your fate. There is a lot more pressure in the tournaments, but it is a good pressure. It is a pressure that spectators can watch and thrive on and you can learn from and not lose your rent playing. If you are one type of player and you switched to the other type, it might take you a few years but a good player can get used to it. There are some people who can be a gambler and then get right up and play in a tournament. I won several tournaments on a lesser status than the pro tour while I was gambling. I was more comfortable then and I felt I was a better player than most of the people in the tournament. When you step up to the next level, you don't have that same level of confidence. You look around and you see eight hall-of-famers, 17 world champions. you see all the foreign players that are great players. It is quite a different feeling. AZB: How important do you feel gambling is to billiards today? Jeremy: On the level we are at with the tournaments, I think it is a little important, but not as much as some people think. Our first tournament this year was in Olathe, Kansas at Shooters. We had a pretty good crowd. I think the crowd would have been a lot smaller if they didn't know it was a 24 hour establishment that encouraged gambling and loved to see the guys come and match up. They spectate that as well as the tournament. That is a part of the reason that I personally would like to see all the tournaments outside of the pool rooms. Those are great pool rooms and I know a lot of the owners real well and am very good friends with them, but I don't think it is as professional as it should be.
Jeremy: There are several people at fault there. First off, Reed Pierce was at fault. I know Reed well enough to say that if I was to ask Reed about it, he would say that he was at fault. But, there is an argument there. Here is a former US Open Nine ball champion playing in the United States in a very tough match with a very tough competitor. There is a lot of tension and a lot of pressure. The crowd was considerably in Efren's favor. If we played a Filipino Championship in the Phillipines, I don't think you would see it the other way around. Not saying that there is anything wrong with the spectators, because I had plenty of spectators cheering for me and I feel great about that. That makes me feel as good as winning. Maybe Reed brought that on himself. I don't think he did. Reed is a competitor and is very talented. Just like what happened with Earl in Milwaukee, Earl may have had a valid argument but the bottom line is that what he did was flat wrong. On a professional level, what he did was wrong. I think the bottom line is that what Reed did was wrong but there are some other feelings out there that people should know about. It is sad though, because Efren Reyes is a more recognized player in the world than Reed Pierce. That is because of the fact that our tour is not televised as often. I'm not trying to make any spectators upset, but I think that they should pull for the hometown boys a little more. AZB: John Galloway wrote an interesting letter to Billiards Digest recently about his feeling on the Camel Pro Billiards Series. What are your thoughts on this? Jeremy: I didn't actually read the article but I heard a little bit about it. From what I heard about the article, they think that the players don't have any input into the tour. I don't believe that to really be true. I don't think that Camel is going to get us all together so we can do something for ourselves but I think at the same time that all of us could have gotten together and done something for ourselves. I don't think they are going to organize our future, but we could present them with some different angles and options for it. I don't think Camel was at fault. There were 32 guys in the PBT and although I wasn't a part of the PBT, I have nothing against them. Out of those 32, I think around 16 of them had a real influence on the tour. I think a few guys got their feelings hurt when that was taken away from them and I think that is where a lot of the argument against RJ Reynolds came from. I think that is where a lot of the animosity or spite came from. AZB: What do you think the players can do to advance the game and make the tour better? Jeremy: In Milwaukee, we had a charity event. I think that is a big key to the future of the game. If we could raise $40,000 or $50,000 a year for charity, it would be good for the game. I also think some of the name players in a particular area should try to do something to get the youth involved in the game. I'm looking into the YMCA's in Jacksonville to try to get some pool tables put in there for the kids and try to get them some subscriptions to the magazines. Anything to try to get the younger generation involved. While I think the sport has a future without the younger players, it would be much greater with them. As far as corporate, I think we should hire a marketing firm. AZB: Like what the WPBA has done? Jeremy: Right. What the women have done in a sense. I don't exactly know the logistics of what they have done or what they are having done for them. I don't know if it is as great as it sounds. It may be, but, while I understand they are still trying to put in their dues right now, I still see them playing for an average of $6,000 - $7,000 for first place in a tournament. I don't think they are going to get the guys out there to play for that.
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