Poolathon

The Leisure World Pool Club held its first Poolathon tournament in Clubhouse 2 on Oct. 22 at 1:30 p.m.

Twelve of the club’s best players competed in four different games, with a different opponent in each game. Members started with the old familiar game of eight ball. In the second round, members played nine-ball. Round three was call shot, often called straight-pool and in the fourth round everyone played one-pocket. To speed up the play call, shot was only played to 15 and one-pocket was played with a ten-ball rack and the first player to pocket five balls in their corner pocket won.

After the first four rounds, members repeated the same set of games. After the first four rounds of play, there was a six-way tie for first place, at three wins and one loss, between Paul Snellenberger, Dave Silva, Steve Edrich, Bob Barnum, Ruffy Ramos and Rusty Aquino.

There were two pivotal games that determined the final outcome in the second round of play. Ren Villenueva beat Ruffy Ramos in call shot in round seven, and Bob Barnum beat Dave Silva in the same round. This gave Bob only one loss, and in the last round of one-pocket, Bob beat John Burns in one pocket to take first place with seven wins and only one loss. Ruffy Ramos and Dave Silva both won their final game of one-pocket to tie for second place with six wins.

The idea behind the Poolathon was to have players try games they weren’t used to playing. Dave Silva thinks people found that one-pocket was fun because it is so different from eight ball or nine ball. One-pocket is a very defensive game, where players must play a lot of bank shot. Call shot also requires more defensive shots and breaking the balls out, so members can go on offense.

The club thanks Connie Adkins and Connie Terry for keeping score and Steve Edrich who patiently reviewed the rules for the new games they were playing. Everyone thought the Poolathon was a success, and members hope to do it again next year.

—David Silva