Ninth Annual Derby City Classic Opens to the Rail

Ninth Annual Derby City Classic Opens to the RailMiller recovers in banks ring game triumphBy Paul Berg, Inside POOL MagazineLike all great champions that yearn to heard up the plush corridors and invade the expansive rooms of the Executive West Hotel during the Derby City Classic, Dayton Ohio’s Jason Miller loves coming to Louisville. The heart and soul of pool has descended on Kentucky, and appropriately, the reigning All-Around World Champion started his title defense with a stirring ring game comeback against a thoroughbred local banker. Miller upended Truman Hogue in the first of two 10-ball banks ring games Friday night, taking a tidy $12,000 to the legendary Hogue’ s respective $6,000. Perhaps suffering from an adrenaline letdown, Miller took an unexpected loss afterwards in the second round of play for a sprawling 469-player 9-ball banks field.Derby City Classic image gallery
No favorites have met early demises in the first of the three events that compose the All-Around Title, but the Derby City Classic is so much more than the main attractions. Also the definitive mecca for gamblers, drifters, hangers-on, backroom match-up wizards and silent assassins of the baize, if it is pool, it can and will happen in Louisville. Reports from the backroom (the illustrious Derbyshire Dining Room) are an information minefield, as bombs of inaccuracy and omissions of secret betting arrangements explode as often as the racks on the Diamond tables.Diamond Billiards founder Greg Sullivan has added more improvement to pool paradise. Adding to the focus on rails over pockets, a slate of qualifiers to the U.S. Open of three cushion billiards joined banks action on the first day of play. Awards have been added for best finish by a female, and similar bonuses for juniors and seniors as well. And yes, the Hustlin’ booth is still in the midst of a cue crazy consumer’s dream.At $3,000 a man, the 10-ball banks ring game would lead to purchasing power for the top two finishers. With the joint forces of Billiards Club Network and Accustats filming the fourth year of Grady Matthews’ exciting creation, Friday night belonged to Miller. Facing five other world class bankers, Miller quietly stayed at the top of the money list through the progressively spiraling bet per ball. Indianapolis’ Brian Gregg, winner of the first two DCC banks ring games, had designs on a third consecutive victory, but in the fourth rack, the doubling of the bet to $400 won from each of the other five players for a made bank changed the leaderboard drastically.Floridian by way of Michigan Richie Richeson was the first to fall, as Hogue elevated his game with the wager and eliminated the gritty gambler. Benton Harbor MI’s Tony Coleman nearly followed him, but the colorful Coleman mustered a run of two banks with four lethal shooters waiting for a crack at his remaining stake. Hogue took the last of the ten $400 balls to build a sudden large lead, with $7,800 to Miller’s nearest $4,600.The bet reached $800 per bank in rack five, and the casualties were swift. Hogue made the first $3,200 jump by making the first ball, then ran a stirring five banks in his next inning. Each trademark rifle shot cross side and speed controlled straight back brought his home crowd closer to sweet redemption for Hogues tough ring game luck in the past. The second of the five dropped Gregg and fellow Indianapolis native George Breedlove from the ranks, and the fourth put Hogues drinking buddy Coleman to the curb. A sixth would have ended Miller as well, but Hogue missed it, and a couple other chances to put Miller out went by the boards.For his part, Miller rallied from all in at $600 against Hogues $17,400 to $2,800 and breathing room for himself by the sixth rack. He fortified his position by earning over a third of the total pot before a deciding seventh rack, where each ball was an all-in proposition for the trailing player. Hogue had one chance to put miller out with a cross corner, but it rattled, and Miller turned the tables with two consecutive banks that switched his position with Hogue, then won him the lion’s share of the pot. A fresh group of bankers will do it all over again tomorrow night, as play in the division carries on throughout Saturday.

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