In my second stop on the Rack Starz tour, I got to hang with my pal Borana Andoni. As some of you know, this isn’t the first time I’ve spent some time with Borana. We got to know each other back in November 2010 during the WPBA Amateur Nationals, which, thanks to a pillow fight with Borana, Samm and Gail was quite a memorable night.
Borana decided to do the write up on our Christmas adventures, so without further delay, I present Rack Starz Tour Stop #2:
Frank the PoolDawg spent one whole week with me over the Christmas Holiday. He got to see my everyday, normal life which includes a lot of pool playing and eating! It all started on Thursday’s team 9-ball league at Amsterdam Billiards.
First, I met up with Frank and then we went to meet with the rest of the team named “Bad Juju”. My team is in 1st place in our division and start payoffs next week. This Thursday I didn’t get to play but I sat down with Frank and watched the rest of the team. The team is a very mixed team in terms playing level starting with the lowest handicap of D all the way up to Pro.
Having a diverse mix of players is what makes a killer team so that way the team can always make the right match ups. After the team was done playing, I got to hit some balls with Frank watching my skills 
On Christmas day, team “Bad Juju” decided to have a holiday dinner at Caroline Pao’s house.
If the team is not playing pool, then we are eating….. a lot. This time it was Linda and Jay who cooked some delicious cheese bread, shepherd’s pie, Greek salad and mac & cheese.
Then we ended it with Caroline’s salivating home made cheese cake! God did Frank like that cheese cake!!!!
The next day I had to get back to practice and burn off all that food that I ate over Christmas. I started the day with going to the gym and doing 30 minutes of cardio, 20 minutes of weight machines and 10 minutes of sit ups.
That is my usual routine. In order for me to maintain my stamina playing in 12 hour a day tournaments, I have to stay in strong physical shape. Exercising will not only improve physical strength, but will also improve the ability for the brain to focus for a longer time.
Tuesday morning I had to go back to my 9-5 job and say goodbye to Frank. Thank you Frank for visiting me and spending 2011 Christmas with me! Until next time…
Ahhh, its been a busy time since I got back from the Mosconi Cup. Right after getting back, it was off to upstate NY to hang with Rack Star and WPBA pro Jennifer Barretta at Turning Stone. Since it takes me forever to write anything, I asked Jenn to help me out. Here’s the recap J-Bar style:
My best experience so far as a Rack Star was not the calendar photo shoot, or the Amsterdam Billiards launch party, or even being interviewed by various magazines and websites. It was getting to spend an entire week with Frank himself at Turning Stone Resort for the year end Joss event.
Frank first arrived at Amsterdam via Tony Robles in a big brown box. I promptly took him home and cut him loose. The first thing I noticed were the detailed instructions inside the box. I thought it was going to be a weekend of hard partying, but I soon realized that being Frank’s keeper was a big responsibility.
I couldn’t fit the box in my suitcase, so I carried him New York style. In a small shoulder bag with a cozy blanket, or in this case, bubble wrap.
We drove up the palisades parkway, and I let Frank sample the fresh New York air.
Once we arrived at Turning Stone, we saw that they were in full holiday swing, with Christmas trees, holiday decorations and a giant gingerbread village. I’m sure it was against the rules, but I let Frank sneak in for a little walk.
From there it was into the practice room. I like to get in a good warmup on the first day, and really get acclimated to the conditions, but Frank had other ideas. Like trying to recruit Dawn Fox, Brittany Bryant and Katherine Fairchild to become new Rack Starz. At least he has good taste.
I was surprised how many players had no idea who Frank was, one of them being Joss tour director Mike Zuglan. At first he said there were no dogs allowed in the arena, but when I explained that I was traveling with pool royalty he quickly became star struck.
For every tournament I play in, I always come away with a valuable lesson, and this one was no different. My lesson came during a live stream match to get into the money round.
I was dominating my opponent and playing great pool, when out of nowhere he broke in 2 nine balls in a row and lucked two safeties, which cost me the match, and more importantly the $300 that I was hoping to use to buy last minute Christmas gifts. The lesson is this…sometimes in pool you do almost nothing wrong and still lose. You can’t beat yourself up over it. To become a great player you will first have to win and lose every way possible. One more painful loss down, unlimited thousands to go.
And thankfully, Frank made it home, corkscrew tail and all.
Being the official mascot of PoolDawg does have its perks. Every now and again, I get in to places I really have no business being at. This year’s Mosconi Cup was a prime example. First, I managed to get on the players table to hang out and watch the matches. I spent the entire second day of the event watching Johnny Archer, Shane Van Boening, Shawn Putnam, Mike Dechaine and Rodney Morris go toe to toe with the Euros.
Day one was pretty rough, with the US team digging itself into a 1-4 hole. The second day, the US pulled even to 4-4 before dropping the last two matches to close the day 4-6. Then in the final day, the Euro team finished off the US team, closing out with an 11-7 victory.
Even though I was sitting in the corner for the US team, the European team still let me check out the cup after their victory.
After it was all said and done, I spent a little more time with Team USA before getting on a plane and heading back to Colorado.
I tell you, all the guys on both teams were completely awesome to hang out with. This event was unlike anything I’ve ever seen in pool. The crowd was on fire, the players were into it and I had an absolute blast.
Ok, I’m off to Verona, NY to hang out with Jennifer Barretta at Turning Stone. For the rest of the pictures, be sure to check out our Facebook page or our Flickr Photostream. Frank T. Dawg Out.
