It’s that time of year again. Time to pack up and head out to the Derby. The Harrah’s Casino on River Road in Elizabeth, IN, is once again the venue and it is just across the river from the Louisville airport, about 20-30 minutes away depending on traffic and weather. To make your plans you begin by reviewing the tournament page here at AZB and there are links there to take you to the Derby City page where you can reserve rooms at a discount and see more details, get contact info etc.
It is at the DCC where everyone can get in on the action as there is always someone who likes the other side of a match. And there are matches literally around the clock. Once the tournament room shuts down in the wee hours everyone just moves upstairs to the action room and the party grabs a second wind.
Official tournament action begins with the 9-Ball Bank competition beginning on January 24th. Francisco Bustamante will be defending his 2013 crown where he defeated Justin Hall in the finals. This is commonly called short-rack banks as instead of using 15 balls only 9 balls are used and they are racked in a diamond shape as in 9-Ball. Also on the 24th the annual Diamond Bigfoot Challenge begins with $16,000 in added money up for grabs. Dennis Orcullo won this event contested on 5' X 10' tables in 2013.
The One Pocket miracles begin on January 26th. Last year Corey Deuel defeated Francisco Bustamante in the finals to take this one down. But there have been quite a few One-Pocket specialists developed of late and the new kids on the block will be looking to upset the old established One-Holers like Scott Frost and, of course, Efren Reyes if he decides to make the trip over this year. The Straight Pool Challenge also begins on the 26th so we can expect pros such as John Schmidt, Thorsten Hohmann, Danny Harriman and Mika Immonen to be putting up yet another series of impressive numbers. If Mosconi’s high run is to be beaten in front of witnesses this is the likely venue for that to happen.
On January the 29th the DCC will begin the 9-Ball competition. Alex Pagulayan defeated Shawn Putnam in the finals of this event in 2013 and both players should return in 2014 along with scores of their friends looking to unseat them. The $3,000 added Banks Ring Game also is held on this day.
Everything raps up on Saturday, February 1st so everyone has that Sunday to get back to the real world. One thing to truly look forward to this year will be the new buffet. In past years we have had to suffer with the Paula Dean Buffet. But dear old Paula stuck her foot in it this year and was fired. So perhaps this year we will have a buffet where everything does not taste like a stick of butter. Our heartfelt thanks to Paula for getting herself canned.
