Here’s all my stuff:

1. Aramith ball case (I received this courtesy of Seyberts when it first came out)
2. Super Aramith Pro balls, custom Delta-13 rack, new Delta-13 tray and cover
3. Tiger IceBreaker
4. Chris Byrne Custom Cue w/ two Predator z2 shafts
5. Predator towel for hands, microfiber towel for balls, cloth for practicing jump shots
6. Sammspocket.com coin holder (fits BCA tokens)
7. Jelly Belly sport beans
8. Jim Murnak custom cue case
9. Advil
10. Paul Frank lip balm
11. Blue Diamond chalk
12. Hand sanitizer
13. Joint protector
14. iPod with Paul Frank case
15. Timex digital watch set with 35 second timer
16. Ultimate tip tool
17. Bowtie tip tool
18. Retractable pen
19. Wish Garden Herbs Serious Relaxer
20. Charmin toilet seat covers
21. Pool theme tissue holder
22. Rev energy powder (I don’t even know where this came from)
23. Tums Assorted Berries flavor
24. Monkey band-aids
25. Single-use hand sanitizer gel & Single-use dental floss
26. Brillianize wipes
27. Moosehead bridge (aka the “Batman bridge”)
28. Tiger leather bridge head
29. Tiger LEDR Burnisher
30. Tiger Shaft & Smoother Burnisher
31. Q Wiz shaft cleaner & polisher
32. BCAPL rules book
33. Goody ouchless small hair elastics
34. Sponsor patches
35. PoolDawg table spots

And, here’s what’s in my teaching bag (this is always kept in my car along with my rack and balls):

Here is a complete archive of all the case interviews I’ve done thus far:

Jasmin Ouschan
Ralf Souquet
Efren Reyes
Johnny Archer
Niels Feijen
Oscar Dominguez
Landon Shuffet
Marcus Chamat
Sarah Rousey
Fatboy Eric Petersen
John Schmidt
Scott Frost
Kelly Fisher
Tyler Edey
Marc Vidal
Eric Yow

These are coming soon! (brought to you by PoolDawg.com)

Sylver Ochoa
Jennifer Barretta
Thomas Engert
Liz Ford
Raj Hundal
Rodney Morris
Tony Robles
Gail Glazebrook
Alison Fisher
Rafael Martinez

This post is the 11th in a series of posts written in coordination with other pool bloggers entitled "PoolSynergy".

This month's theme is "GEAR: What’s in my case & why?"
To see others, go to:
http://www.pooltipjar.com/2010/09/synergy-cases/

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I have to admit, this year’s stint was much less focused on competing and a little more focused on relaxing, managing my time better, spending time with new & old friends, and doing some great work. Truthfully, there will be plenty to time for great pool and more tournaments in the future!

This year in Vegas…

• We drove 1,547 miles round trip in 23.5 hours
• I took 275 photos, 135 of which included Frank
• We stayed 14 nights, 13 of which were in a kick-a$$ poolside suite
• I played 10 total pool matches between 3 events (that’s pretty bad, actually)
• I had 3 double-doubles from In-n-Out
• I tried 5 new restaurants (some were better than others)
• I got about 5 hours of poolside sun (3 of which were with J-Bar at the Encore – that was super fun!)
• I got 1 wicked tan
• I sold 2 Inspiration Bracelets
• I received 1 beautiful new custom Jim Murnak case
• I conducted 5 player interviews for AzBilliards.com (Sarah Rousey, Johnny Archer, Allen Hopkins, Allison Fisher, and Ralf Souquet)
• I did 11 “Samm’s on the Case” player equipment profile interviews (Sylver Ochoa, Jennifer Barretta, Mika Immonen, Thomas Engert, Liz Ford, Raj Hundal, Rodney Morris, Tony Robles, Gail Glazebrook, Alison Fischer, and Rafael Martinez)

Aurora to Las Vegas to Aurora

Aurora to Las Vegas

Las Vegas to Aurora

Early in the tourney, we got to sneak away to our favorite little secret restaurant with one of our favorite pool couples.

Dinner with Gail & Tony

I grabbed some dim sum with my NW friends.

Dan Louie, me, and Stan T. at dim sum

I also got to stop by the LV Cue Club with Summer for Julie‘s elegant service. Everything was very nicely done.

In Loving Memory of Julie Nogiec

Mike‘s team snapped off the Open out of nearly 700 teams. That was pretty exciting!

"Who Needs A Billiard Coach?!" (Jared Bailey, Dustin Morris, Jesse Engel, Brian Haffner, and Mike Fieldhammer)

Frank with the plaque

We caught Earl “The Pearl” on a good day.

Earl and me

Earl and Mike

We decided to stay an extra day after the big team win. It was EXTREMELY cold that day.

poor lifeguard

We got to visit my friend Steve at the Beef Jerky Store. He’s so great!

Beef Jerky Store

The trip would not have been complete without one final stop for sushi at Todai‘s.

mmmmmm.... sushi.....

And, we saved the best for last. What trip to Vegas would be complete without a visit to Fatboy’s pad. I love the guy! He’s a good egg, for sure!

Snooker with Fatboy

Click here for the complete non-Frank photos from Vegas

Here are the Frank photos:

Frank-ventures in Vegas

Frank attends the 2010 BCAPL Nationals
Las Vegas, Nevada
May 12-22, 2010

102 Photos

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Mike and me in NYC (photo courtesy of WilliamFuentes.com)

It’s one thing to just get to visit the beautiful city of New York, but it’s an indescribable experience to have such amazing hosts that live in the heart of the town. Mike and I had the honor of spending a couple days with Tony & Gail (aka Tonail, LOL) at their place which is, and I’m not lying, blocks from EVERYTHING!

That was the good part. The bad part was that we were only there for two days. Who plans a trip to NYC for only two days?!?? UGH! Well, at least it’s better than nothing. Oh! The other not-so-great part too was that it was spring break and I felt like we were fighting our way through mobs of teenage girls everywhere we went.

On our first night, T&G took us to their favorite Mexican restaurant which was “a couple blocks” from their place. It was fantastic! I had the crab quesadillas.

Dinner with Tony & Gail

On our second and final night in town started with some pool at the famous Amsterdam Billiards, aka “ABC” before we headed to Monster Sushi with the gang for the most lovely meal, including a couple surprise out of towners.

Dinner with the gang

We had to stop for a couple post-dinner photo on our way back to ABC.

photo couresty of WilliamFuentes.com

photo couresty of WilliamFuentes.com

Mike introduced the gang to “Flip-it.” I think it must be a MN game because I’ve never seen it played anywhere but here. Maybe it will take off in NYC now.

Tony and I discovered that we have matching sweet teeth.

SUGAR!!!

A late night visit to the M to M (Morning to Midnight) Asian store give us hours of fun and enjoyment.

photo courtesy of WilliamFuentes.com

photo courtesy of WilliamFuentes.com

Sushi, sugar, pool, and good company. What else does a girl needs?

Pool at ABC

photo courtesy of WilliamFuentes.com

It was the perfect ending to our tournament weekend, and just before getting stranded.

photo courtesy of WilliamFuentes.com

There is so much talent in NYC. I don’t know how William Fuentes finds the time to edit all his photos. Click here for more photos from Will. And, if you are not familiar with Wei, make sure you check out his new website Pool.bz (formerly Cue Table). And, of course, we all know the lovely, Alison Fischer of NYCGrind.com.

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Stranded

I’m currently writing from Minneapolis. After the expo, Mike and I headed to NYC for a couple days for a little play-cation. Mike flew home to MSP Wednesday evening but my DEN flight got canceled due to snow in Denver from the day before. After standing in line for three and a half hours, I finally got up to the front to hear my options.

1. Spend $70 in round trip cab fairs to return and fly to  DEN at 6a.m. by way of a 3 hour layover in Dallas or some not-on-the-way place.
2. Stay another week in NYC and fly to DEN on the next available direct flight on Tuesday.
3. Fly to MSP by way of Milwaukee that night and get in by midnight.

I chose the third option. Maybe it was a rash decision but I was ready to get out of there.

Good news: I got a $200 Frontier travel voucher that will come in handy.

Bad news: The earliest flight back to DEN without costing me my first born is next Thursday.

So, until then, I’m stranded in Minneapolis for the next week. I even tried to get a standby flight courtesy of my United-employee friend but spring-breakers made that an impossible option. The other good news is that there’s a 14.1 tourney this here this weekend. Just lookin’ on the bright side.

The SBE

I spent most of my time at this year’s SBE bouncing between my three show sponsors: Chris Byrne Custom Cues, PoolDawg, and Tiger. I was also doing a photo contest with Frank, along with covering the amateur event for AzBilliards.com.

As a special treat this year, when I wasn’t working or competing, I was planted in the 14.1 Challenge booth run by my new friends Heather & Steve Kurtz, and Charlie Eames.

It’s funny, this was my seventh consecutive year attending this tournament. I’ve only cashed in the thing twice. It’s very far from home and an expensive event to travel to. The tournament format itself is a complete crap shoot and quite honestly, I hate to admit this,  but the payout is not great. But, there is something special about this four-day event that keeps people (myself included) coming back year after year after year.

Perhaps it’s the wonderful people we’ve met over the years. Maybe it’s the way Allen Hopkins greets you and genuinely makes you feel like you’re part of the family every time you see him. Maybe it’s the perfect warm up on 7′ Diamond Smart Tables just two months before Vegas. Or, maybe it’s just, for whatever reason, one of my favorite tournaments of the year. It really is a lot of fun.

I’ve attended this tourney through good times and bad. I was there for the big snow storm a few years ago and this year, the weather was gorgeous. It was so nice in fact that it appeared to be effecting the temperature control downstairs. The heat and humidity on the lower level was unbearable this year! You can only imagine how this effected the way the balls played.

14.1 Challenge

My new BFF’s Charlie, Heather, & Steve were nothing but welcoming every time I stepped into the challenge. There were two pristine newly recovered 9′ Diamond Pro-Ams with fresh balls and your own personal scorekeeper. When Charlie was there, he would even rack for me.

Objective: $25 gets you five attempts starting with ball-in-hand. Highest 8 accumulative score after 5 innings enter into a single-elim bracket.

I won’t mention how many attempts I had this weekend. I am proud of the fact that I didn’t miss a single break shot and only scratched off one. It didn’t matter though. I kept trying not because I felt I even had a remote chance of making it into the top 8, but because, for me:

• It’s such a rare pleasure to run balls on such perfect conditions.
• It was the closest thing to a professional straight pool tournament that I’d ever played in.
• I was playing the best game in the world with the challenges of being in the middle of the room with spectators watching, players walking by, and the 100 degree heat.
• Getting coached by John Schmidt. I would’ve played some scotch with him if there was time.
• How often would I get the chance to play my favorite game alongside some of my favorite players at it?
• Lastly, I love the game so much that I believed every dollar I spent was going toward a good cause. Steve, Heather, and Charlie put this entire thing together with their own money and some donations from others. It wouldn’t have been possible without them. That alone was worth my contribution.

On Saturday morning, after I dogged out of the amateur event, I went downstairs to pout and get the taste out of my mouth. I ran a 29 & some other 10′s. As I sat and sulked, John started on a run. He appeared to be struggling a little with his speed but the next thing you know, he’s at 50, then 100, then 150, then 200. He ran 204 balls before finally narrowly missing a bank shot after getting a little funny.

Watching John run those balls was so inspiring. Even when he got out of line, he just sucked it up and cinched the ball in the hole with good speed. That was the one important thing he shared with me. He said to just cinch the ball and make sure I made it when I got out of line. Don’t try to do too much with the cue ball. Of course I know better, but it was still a nice reminder. He also helped me with my side-pocket break shot (I still prefer the traditional corner-pocket break the best).

I am absolutely IN LOVE with straight pool. I could play nothing but straight pool for days and days…. I love it so much!!! So, after it was all said and done, I only put up two 29′s, only one was during the actual challenge. Both times, I made my third break shot and had a tricky opening shot. I’m so close to making a break through…

I would like to thank everyone that was kind enough to show their support by purchasing an Inspiration Bracelet from me at the tournament!

I have so much more to share, but I will leave you with these photos for now.

2010 Super Billiards Expo [Frank-ventures]

Day 1 of the SBE
Through the eyes of Frank T. Dawg

18 Photos

2010 Super Billiards Expo

March 17-21, 2010
Valley Forge Convention Center
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania

28 Photos

2010 Super Billiards Expo [Pool Shirts]

March 17-21, 2010
Valley Forge Convention Center
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania

11 Photos

2010 Super Billiards Expo [Frank's Photo Contest]

March 17-21, 2010
Valley Forge Convention Center
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania

73 Photos

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The flowers are blooming, tournament season is in full force, and I’m getting ready for the Super Billiards Expo. This will be my 8th consecutive year and though I’m not a huge fan of the race-to-4 / best-2-out-of-3 / single-elim format, there’s something special about this tourney that makes it one of the highly anticipated ones for me. It’s become a staple on tournament calendar.

This year, I will be running around again with PoolDawg’s mascot, Frank. This year, PoolDawg will be offering $25 in Dawg Dough to five lucky winners!

The top five most fun, creative, original photos will receive $25 PoolDawg gift certificates!

So, if you see me with Frank, make sure you come get your photo taken.
[Please try to keep them clean]

Here are some of my favs from last year:

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