Derby City Classic

The Derby City Classic is an annual pocket billiard convention held every January at the Horseshoe Southern Indiana casino in Elizabeth, Indiana near Louisville, Kentucky.^[1] It is eight days long and offers various disciplines of pocket billiard competitions for pool players of all caliber.^[2] It is often referred to as the DCC.

History

The annual convention has been in existence since 1997. Diamond Billiard Products,^[3] manufacturer of Diamond-brand pool tables, the official table of the US Open Nine-ball Championship, is the title sponsor of the event, and the lead tournament promoter is Greg Sullivan. Over $100,000 is added to the tournament payouts. Sullivan was inspired to create the DCC by the Johnston City Classic, a former one-pocket tournament held in Johnston City, Illinois and first organized in 1961 with the purpose of bringing America's top pool gamblers together.^[1]

During the eight-day-long convention, competition is held consecutively in three major disciplines, bank pool, nine-ball, and one-pocket. According to Sullivan, "I made it where you're a sucker if you didn't enter."^[1] All tournaments are "buyback" competitions in which players can buy their way back in after being first eliminated; matches are races to three sets, much shorter than standard matches; and the entry fee for a tournament is less than that for a spectator's ticket.^[1] An All-Around Champion title is awarded each year to an individual player who participates in all three disciplines, and is determined by an ascending point scale and high quality of play, with a prize of $25,000.

The late "St. Louis" Louie Roberts, a legendary American player known for an entertaining style of play and high-stakes gambling action, is memorialized by the annual Louie Roberts A&E Award, which stands for "action and entertainment". Attendees of the event vote, and the pool player who displays the most action and entertainment a la Roberts each year wins the award and is thereafter granted lifetime free entry to the Derby City Classic, including a free room at the Horseshoe's hotel during the event.^[1] The title was awarded by the DCC from 2003 until 2014, and although it continued in 2015 and 2016 (via fans and not associated with the DCC), it officially stopped being awarded in 2017.^[4]

There are also smaller age-restricted competitions for under-16, over-21, over-62, and over-70 divisions, as well as a ladies-only tournament held. Pool industry members bring their wares to the DCC and set up vendor booths, providing a billiard expo for attendees. The vendor booths display a large variety of cue sticks, pool paraphernalia, billiard clothing, books, and instructional DVDs.

To commemorate the great one-pocket champions, OnePocket.org, a website dedicated to the pocket billiard game of one-pocket, hosts an annual dinner gala at the Derby City Classic and inducts two people each year into the One Pocket Hall of Fame.^[5]

A ring game formerly run by the late Grady Mathews is another attraction, a ten-ball contest which consists of six players who post an entry fee of $3,000, winner take all. This is recorded live and broadcast via the Internet. Shane Van Boening won the January 2008 event.^[6]

Added to the event in recent years is a straight pool competition. The competition begins where players are given an assigned number of chances to make a high run. The players with the 8 highest runs will qualify into a single elimination tournament where every match is race-to-125 points.

Winners

Players who participate in the nine-ball, nine-ball banks, and one pocket competitions get the chance to win the overall title called "Master of the Table." It is also possible for a player to win the overall title without winning any of the three competitions.

Year	Nine-ball	Nine-ball banks	One pocket	Overall	Louie Roberts Award
1999	Troy Frank	Nick Varner	Efren Reyes	Efren Reyes	n/a
2000	George San Souci	Shannon Daulton	Nick Varner	Dee Adkins	n/a
2001	Shannon Daulton	Jose Parica	Buddy Hall	Shannon Daulton	n/a
2002	Mika Immonen	Larry Price	Cliff Joyner	Jose Parica	n/a
2003	Shannon Daulton	Danny Harriman	Jose Parica	Larry Nevel	Alex Pagulayan
2004	Ralf Souquet	Jason Miller	Efren Reyes	Efren Reyes	Tony Watson
2005	Efren Reyes	Dave Matlock	Efren Reyes	Efren Reyes	Scott Frost
2006	Ralf Souquet	Jason Miller	Efren Reyes	Jason Miller	Cliff Joyner
2007	Niels Feijen	Stevie Moore	Efren Reyes	Efren Reyes	Chris Bartram
2008	Ralf Souquet	Larry Price	Gabe Owen	Francisco Bustamante	Shane Van Boening
2009	Shane Van Boening	John Brumback	John Schmidt	John Brumback	Scooter Goodman
2010	Efren Reyes	John Brumback	Scott Frost	Efren Reyes	Jeanette Lee
2011	Dennis Orcollo	Alex Pagulayan	Shane Van Boening	Shane Van Boening	David Peat
2012	Shane Van Boening	John Morra	Shane Van Boening	Shane Van Boening	Tony Coleman
2013	Alex Pagulayan	Francisco Bustamante	Corey Deuel	Francisco Bustamante	Chris Gentile
2014	Shane Van Boening	Dennis Orcollo	Efren Reyes	Dennis Orcollo	Richie Richeson
2015	Warren Kiamco	Shannon Daulton	Alex Pagulayan	Alex Pagulayan	Danny Smith[7]
2016	Shane Van Boening	John Brumback	Alex Pagulayan	Alex Pagulayan	Jason Kirkus[8]
2017	Dennis Orcollo	Francisco Bustamante	Billy Thorpe	Dennis Orcollo	n/a
2018	Chris Melling	Corey Deuel	Francisco Bustamante	Francisco Bustamante	n/a

Other winners

Along with the three competitions mentioned above, two new competitions have been added and are gaining importance. Although the pre-tournament high run trials for the 2018 straight pool event took place, the tournament itself did not due to scheduling conflicts as the players who were to participate were competing in other events.

Year	Straight pool	Ten-ball (10' table)
2007	Mika Immonen	n/a
2008	Darren Appleton	n/a
2009	Danny Harriman	n/a
2010	Charlie Williams	n/a
2011	Darren Appleton	n/a
2012	Ralf Souquet	n/a
2013	Max Eberle	Dennis Orcollo
2014	Dennis Orcollo	Shane Van Boening
2015	Ruslan Chinakov	Shane Van Boening
2016	Dennis Orcollo	Jayson Shaw
2017	Chris Melling	Jayson Shaw
2018	Tournament cancelled	Roberto Gomez

References