Some DCC comments

Just returned home last night from the DCC at the Horseshoe. It was a relief to get out of the snow and ice!

As one would expect there were top pool players hanging from the rafters. There were always excellent tournament banks and 1P matches to watch. Especially thrilling were John Brumback's bank pool matches. He ended up winning the tournament over a very tough field of about 400 players.

The action room seemed to stay pretty busy as well. I watched a little of Sparky Ferrell and Ricky Byrd play 1P at half a bag per game. Lil D and Tater seemed to live in the action room, playing many races. And of course SVB beat Efren 23-19 ten ball for 20 bags.

The action room was adequate for 5 tables, but there was very little room to watch the contests. People always seemed to have to stand out in the hallways, peering in at the action through 3 doorways.

Likewise the AZ/onepocket.org room was very small. There again, two tables could accommodate the players, but there was only room for a handful of spectators to wedge in around one corner.

Bob Jewett's 14.1 room was small, with usually only one of the two tables being used. I was flabbergasted how Bob could sit there all day, every day, keeping score for the guys trying to get the highest run. I don't know if he ever saw any of the other events! When I left, John Schmidt's run of 154 was leading the pack, with a run of 153 by Corey Duell a paper thin second place. Someone said the 153 was Corey's personal best. I watched quite a bit of Bobby Hunter's run of 80, ending with a miss on a very simple shot. Bobby is still a threat!

IMO the table layout was very awkward. It took me two days to figure out where the 40 numbered tournament tables were located. On the main floor the tables were too close together. I'd guess 5 feet from table to table. It was like in a small poolroom where you always have to step away, or wait for another guy to make his shot on the next table.

My biggest gripe about the whole affair concerned the distance between the hotel and the event center. I'll guess that it was 300-400 yards to walk. It reminded me of landing at an airport in one terminal, then having to walk clear over to another terminal for the next flight-- several times a day. It got to where you had to plan when you wanted to make the trek back to your room, because it wasn't likely you'd want to do it more than once or twice a day! There were moving walkways on two legs of the covered hallway, but the distance still made it a major drawback.

The rooms were very nice. A couple guys complained to me about paper thin walls, and that the noise didn't allow them to sleep soundly. I must have gotten a lucky floor. My room was very quiet.

I suppose the food prices were in line with an isolated casino/hotel. However, buying any food or drink from the bars or deli's they had set up around the pool areas was very expensive. I bought a 10 oz. bottle of Starbuck's coffee drink-- it cost $6.75! On another day I bought a small coffee and a cookie- $7.00. At that point I decided to bring my own soft drinks, or buy a coffee "to go" at one of the restaurants.

Unfortunately the hotel layout, plus the possibility of bad weather interfering with travel will undoubtedly preclude me from attending another event there. It's always wonderful to play with, and watch all the great players, but in my case the minuses outweighed the pluses. Hopefully they'll be able to find a more suitable location. I'd suggest the southern U.S.

Doc

Dcc

Dcc

Geez Doc, just when I thought I'd make it down there in the next couple of years, I get my plans shot full of holes. I do hope that it's farther south next time, so it's warmer, we had 3 to 4 inches of snow yesterday in south Michigan. I'd hate to travel and still contend with snow and cold. I hope you had a good time overall.

the floor plan here dosent lend itself to the event like the other joint did, but i'm not sick this year form what ever infectious disesases were in the air at the Executive West. The fod was better-hospital food would have been better. But it was expensive, it wasnt casino prices-they made it "Event" prices for sure.


It is my understanding from a real reliable source that this will be the venue next year-if its still in business(my opinion) I spoke to a girl who has worked here for a couple years and she said 30% of the people have been layed off-all the people working here this week were temps(for this event only), she continued to tell me how slow it is here, Harrahs ownes 50 properties and is ass-deep in debt. REAL bad so a few store fronts will probably be closing, its possible this is one of them(I dont know just spectulative on my part) but look around at everything and its not a streach to see a few casino's closing. I hope this one dosent, I'd rather be here than Ececutive west.

Like Doc, I didn't like the hike form the rooms, the tightness of the tables (I was bumping my 58" cue in the main tournament on table 40! The same comments on the AZ/One Pocket Room, just a little too tight a space.

Food was better, Steak house was good, and the parts of the buffet not closed down was o.k. I brought a ton of food with me and most of my drinking materials, always have.

Maybe a lot of us were just confortable with the old set-up after so many years, it took a while to get accustomed to where everything was.

In my opinion, we are still probably looking for a better venue if they can't get more room for tables and spectators. I did like the over look of the main room, where, aside from the lights blocking, you could sweat ten or so matches.

Not having our match schedules show up in the room on the room TV was lame.

Otherwise, I won't ever be anywhere else in late January.

DeeMan

In my opinion the minus's are far outweighed by the plus's at this, and prior DCC's. It still is one of the great pool events of all time, and for those who have never been, you are cheating yourself.

1 Food was much better
2 Rooms were nicer
3 Internet was pricey in the rooms, but free in the lobby
4 All the rooms with tables were tighter: the main tourney room, the AZ, the action room, all. But still they had 5' between tables. Players had to wait for each other to shoot, but did not need to sit on adjacent tables like in some poolrooms. They sure could use another couple of thousand square feet.
5 The men's field was better than ever, with Van Cortezza (sp) among the newcomers. The women's field was reduced, probably because there was only a single "Master of the Table" bonus category this year, whereas last year they had something special for women, seniors and juniors.
6 The action was dominated on a day-to-day basis by a swarm of young guns, with an occasional heavy set chipped in by the old guard

The weather was bad, but let's be realistic, that storm was a rarity for the Derby. Until the storm hit, people I talked to liked the alternate hotel better than the casino hotel, because even though it was a drive, you could park close to the action once you got here, you had free internet, and it was cheaper.

My only regret is that I wish I could somehow be more places at once and visit with more different people -- there is just so much happening, and so many people from across the country, actually the world, that I could not keep up. The week just flies by.

I have already been told that our HOF dinner next year will be in the Legends bar, which sounds great for us (it even has a small stage), and less disruptive for the tournament than this year.

I'll be back, for sure!!