Billiards: Shootout at Riviera

Tim Graham

Friday, Aug. 9, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Like balls scattering on the break, the status of professional billiards has exploded in recent years.

No longer epitomized by stogie-chomping hustlers, the professional game has gone from smoke-filled pool halls to ballrooms and convention centers, where today's top players dress up for millions of dollars on an organized tour that features television contracts and corporate sponsorships.

Those players are fighting for a $100,000 purse tonight at the Riviera Convention Center Ballroom in the semifinals and finals of the Pro Billiards Tour World 8-Ball Championship. This Las Vegas event, the third of the 15-stop PBT Camel Pro Billiards Series, is the only 8-ball tournament on the circuit, while the rest are 9-ball.

The semifinals are at 5 p.m. when Steve Mizerak will play Jimmy Wetch and Johnny Archer will play defending champion Efren Reyes. The final between those two winners is at 8:30 p.m. The trick-shot competition final will be held at 7:30 p.m.

"Now, suddenly, pool has grabbed the scene," said Mizerak, who last year started the senior tour, which also has a TV contract. "It's not latched on yet, but it's at the best point it's ever been. We're starting to get people interested and that's important."

The sport recently gained critical recognition from the International Olympic Committee, which agreed to make billiards an event in the 2004 Summer Games.

There are many reasons people are starting to take notice, but the one that set everything in motion is the fascination of 9-ball, which in the 1970s overtook straight pool as the game of choice.

"Now there's a whole generation of players who are into 9-ball," PBT commissioner Don Mackey said. "It's easier to understand. It's faster. It's an offensive game as opposed to the defensive game of 8-ball. It has an energy level that's perfect for young guys."

With a growing number getting hooked on a game that also is fun to watch, the players decided a few years ago to create an organization similar to those of other touring sports.

"The Pro Billiards Tour was formed by the players exactly like golfers did in the 1930s and 40s," Mackey said. "We now own rights to all our events. We handle all the contracts, all the sponsorships, all the TV deals."

And when the players became organized they found out how lucrative the sport could be, especially after R.J. Reynolds, maker of Camel cigarettes, added its financial backing.

"We see a whole lot of untapped potential in this sport," Camel Sports Marketing manager Larry Kiger said. "It really surprised us that other corporations didn't see the value that's there. It can evolve into a major-league level sport.

"Last year the total purse for the year was $790,000. This year its $1.5 million, plus a quarter million more in bonuses from Camel."

That's money like Mizerak has never seen.

"If you finish in the top 12 in the rankings, you should make a minimum of $50,000 and as much as $150,000 in prize money, or maybe even more," said Mizerak, who claims to weigh "way too much" to consider making those dollars now. "If you finish in the next 12, you should make $30-50,000."

Archer, the reigning world 9-ball champion and winner of 18 tournaments, is only 27 years old. That means he's in the prime of his career just in time for the sport to blossom.

"This is definitely something that's so much different than when I started," said Archer, who entered his first pro tournament at 17. "We've gone from pool rooms where the fans were getting drunk and loud to the penthouse of the Riviera Hotel.

"We're playing for a million-and-a-half dollars this year, and now we have a set tour to play, whereas before you didn't know where you were going to be playing from week to week.

"I thank the Lord every night for giving me the talent to be in this situation, to play for this kind of money. I'm very fortunate to be where I am."

Such an attitude does not belong to the stereotypical pool player, who used to make his way hustling.

"The player mentality has changed," Mackey said. "Ten years ago, to exist financially, a pro pool player had to go out on the road and gamble to make money. You had the gunslinger mentality, where a guy would walk into a room and want to destroy everyone in the room. He was a predator.

"Today, we know we're all in it together. We're going to make it together or break it together. We have an identity, a conscious awareness of what it takes to be big in sports."