![]() "One year I was doing well in one-pocket, and it totally ruined my 9-ball stroke. "Switching games was hard to get used to the first couple of years," said reigning World 9-Ball Champion Thorsten Hohmann, among the most focused and fit. Even the fittest of players can get mentally and physically fatigued by the pace. After beating Orcollo to reach the One-Pocket final, Reyes raced to the main playing area to take on Karen Corr in 9-ball, knowing that he would then have to race back to the TV arena to compete for the one-pocket title. Indeed, watching Reyes sprint from table to table seemed like something that should be reported to AARP. "Sometimes I don't remember what game I am playing," said all-everything legend Efren Reyes, who is teetering on 60. Participants are required to be around the arena first thing every morning, as draws and re-draws for match assignments during the day's multiple discipline action are served as breakfast. For railbirds, signage to the contrary notwithstanding, the opportunity to post a friendly wager or twenty is too juicy to pass up … particularly in the 24-hour "action" room, where $30,000 head-to-head matches offer heavy sweating for insomniacs.īut perhaps the most interesting part of the Derby City Classic is the confusion that is created by overlapping events and continuous re-draws. For players, the DCC buffet offers nine options, from the Big Three - 9-ball, 9-ball banks and one-pocket - to mini-tournaments for each, a bank pool ring game, a straight-pool challenge and the semi-invitational 16-player Bigfoot 10-Ball Challenge. Sullivan's creation caters to two distinct crowds - action players and railbirds - and both get their fill in the ballrooms of the Horseshoe Southern Indiana hotel and casino in Elizabeth, Ind. ![]() "I decided that I wanted to put on the type of tournament that I liked." "I found there were things that I liked and things that I didn't like about tournaments," Sullivan said in an interview on. Sullivan, the founder of Diamond Billiard Products and the brainchild behind the "DCC," as it is known, has been producing the Classic since 1999. Part iron man triathlon, part tough mudder, all circus, Greg Sullivan's annual homage to Johnston City (with a doff of the cap to the Lexington Opens of the late '80s) is a nine-day test of skill and endurance on the green sward, requiring steely nerves, multi-tasking abilities and a reliable alarm clock (for the older players who actually sleep). ![]() Ask a player to describe the Derby City Classic (for maximum value, wait until the eighth or ninth day!), and you're bound to get rolled eyes, extended exhales and shaking heads. ![]()
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