What a Break Contest!

At the pool room where I practice, Rusty's Billiards in Fort Worth, Texas, they have this break contest with their Monday and Tuesday night tournaments. I never, honestly, gave it much thought, until I was practicing on an abnormal-for-Melinda-playing-on-a-Tuesday-night on July 22nd. I'm hitting balls on the 9-foot table by myself with my ipod on, minding my own business, when all of a sudden I realize the place is packed and all these people I hadn't seen in a while, much less seen play in the weekly tournament, are milling around.

Someone comes up to me to say hi (he's not intimidated by my ipod) ;) and I ask him, "what are you doing here? I didn't know you played in this tournament?" He then explains that the break contest is high enough to bring him out to play because he has a chance to win a lot of money. (Ironically, he's the one called that night to break, but doesn't make a ball on the break! Wow - so close!).

I was so intrigued (people keep talking about, players from Dallas are showing up, and the tournament filled by 6pm this past Tuesday [ it doesn't start until 8pm! ]), so I decided to look into all the nitty gritty details and get the scoop on every angle of this contest everyone keeps talking about. Here it goes:


The Tournament:

• The Tuesday night tournament at Rusty's is a handicapped nineball tournament on 8foot tables.
• The entry is $10, they limit it to the first 32 players paid.
• Rusty's Billiards adds $50 if more than 16 enter the tournament.
• They will add $25 if 16 or less play.

Raffle Tickets:

• Every entrant into this Tuesday night tournament gets one raffle ticket.
• That one raffle ticket is really for a dollar - they put the dollar in the pot and the raffle ticket in a bucket. Therefore, $9 of every entrant goes to the tournament payouts.

• Raffle tickets are $1 per ticket, and players in the tournament can buy as many raffle tickets as they want to.
• The break and run contest on Monday is a separate pot and raffle than the one on Tuesday. The Monday break and run contest is currently kind of low (it was busted a few weeks ago).

The Break:

• Only one name is picked per Tuesday.
• If your name happens to be picked, you break a rack of nine on the 8foot table.
• If you make any ball on the break and don't scratch, you get to try and run out.
• For every ball made AFTER the break, you get the amount of money per ball that equals the pot size divided by nine.
• If you make the nineball on the break, you get paid for that ball automatically, but any other ball on the break, you don't get paid for, BUT, you get to continue shooting and have a chance to run out!
• So, to be clear, to get paid for all nine balls, you'd have to make the nine on the break and then run out the rest of the rack.
• If you make two balls on the break and run out the other 7 on the table, you get paid for those 7 balls made.
  

The Carry Over:

• Rusty's does not take any money out of the nineball break pots or from the tournament entry fees.
• Whatever is left in the break contest pot, is carried over to the next Tuesday.
• The tickets raffled off that night are not carried over to next Tuesday, only the money.

The break and run pot for August 5th is a record-breaking $3,122!!! That's BEFORE ticket sells on Tuesday! I heard one crazy rumor that almost $500 was bought in raffle tickets just recently by the tournament players on a Tuesday night! Yep, many, many players want extra chances to get their little red raffle ticket picked!

The tournament is filling up so fast, there are now new rules to enter - sign up begins at 5pm on Tuesday and you have to be there with money in-hand, no call-ins are accepted any longer. This past Tuesday, 32 players entered, 16 were on the waiting list!

Also, Tracie Voelkering, the manager at Rusty's, says that they always add $50 to the break and run pot when/if it gets busted.

So, let's do the math! 3,122/9 = $346.88 a ball! For every ball you make (after making a ball on the break), you would get that amount per ball. WOW!

That one night, as I said above, my friend didn't make a ball on the break. This week, another friend made a ball on the break, but couldn't see the 1ball (tho try as he might, he sure made a valiant attempt at kicking it in!). So, the pot carried over again. I am gonna try and play this coming up Tuesday. I think I might be too nervous and would miscue on the break, if they happen to pull my name, LOL!