Sad news for the Itaewon Pool League and the Itaewon community as a whole. Last week, one of the pioneers and true legends of the Itaewon Pool League, Il Sung Woo, passed away. You may not recognize him by that name, as he was more commonly known simply as "Mr. Woo".
Some of you might be wondering who Mr. Woo was. He was the owner of the Woodstock Bar in Itaewon. He was one of the original pool league members back in 2000. He had been out of the league since 2015, but he was a pool league legend. A diminutive little hippie Korean, I would guess in his sixties, but hard living on his part made it difficult to be sure of his age. He was definitely one of the most skilled players ever to play in our league. Scary good. He had Woodoo! He is ranked 9th in the Itaewon Pool League Top 100 of all time with a high rating of 2048. And he was truly that good. He could work a table like an obstacle course. I personally have never seen anyone better at navigating a difficult table. You would have had to have seen him play to understand what I am talking about. If anyone calls me a liar in this regard, that person is a liar.
But more than anything, Mr. Woo was a good person. Eccentric, but good. I can honestly tell you that I don't remember going into Woodstock even once without having him call my name "Ooh, Lenny!!" in his high-pitched voice. This was always followed by a hug and at least one free shot of whisky. The bar was a dive, but no one cared because Mr. Woo was a gem.
Mr. Woo was much-loved by those who knew him. He was instrumental in establishing and building the Itaewon Pool League, and the live music community has much to thank him for, as well. He was a giver, and a lover of life. I am sad that he is gone, and I am sad for the people who knew and loved him. Even more so, however, I am sad for the people who never had a chance to meet him. Their lives would have been greatly enriched if they had.
Rest in peace, Mr. Woo. We love you and thank you.
Lenny Erickson
- Details
- Written by Lenny Erickson
- Category: Announcements
- Hits: 1405
Sheldon started playing in the pool league when it started and served as president in the early days of the league. He was responsible for developing the original website for the league. Even after he had moved on from Seoul, he maintained the website for several years. He was instrumental in putting the rating system into use in the league.
- Details
- Written by Bernard Condrau
- Category: Announcements
- Hits: 1084
We had a server crash last Sunday, which resulted in a website downtime of 2 days. I had to setup a new server and move the data, which took some time to complete. The website is online since Tuesday evening, and all the league data has been preserved. This has interrupted my attempts to bring all the statistics views back to the site, but I hope to be able to do so in the next few days.
- Details
- Written by Bernard Condrau
- Category: Announcements
- Hits: 1327
The Midseason captains' meeting was held on March 26th.
Due to tyrannical measures by the President of the Itaewon Pool League, such as awarding 10 points to all teams represented at the meeting, we had the largest turnout in recent history.
18 out of 23 teams were represented, and collected said 10 points.
Bull and Barrel Misfits
Bulldog Shih Tzu
Bulldog Superpower
Dolce Vita Blame the Cue (in the future, any team that sends JJ "Jack Coke" to the captains' meeting will be deducted 10 points)
Dolce Vita Sweet Life
Fat Alberts Scandal
JR Pub Black Hole
King Pub Seoul
King Pub The King
Phillie's Frigates
Phillie's Pheasants (by a tailfeather)
Scrooge Pub Marvelous
Scrooge Pub Wonky Dics
Shenanigans Boomtown Rats
Shenanigans Rat Killers (by a purely lucky coincidence)
Sin Bin Strokers
Wolfhound Dark Horses
Wolfhound Kozels
The remaining 5 teams somehow decided that they couldn't be strong-armed into attending anything, points be damned!
The meeting kicked off at 5:20 pm with a welcome and a thank you to all attending the meeting.
Item 1: Issues with the website.
Bernard had updated the website recently, and unfortunately it resulted in a lot of problems for the captains in terms of inputing scores. After much back and forth emailing with Bernard, and some "fixes" that fixed nothing, the problem was pinpointed and eliminated. There should be no more problems going forward.
The captains cheered this news lustily, and put their pitchforks away, much to the relief of the Executive Committee.
Item 2: Financials
Our diligent and artistic League Treasurer, Mark Jones, prepared some colorful and informative charts to illustrate the fact that the league has been spending more than it has been taking in for the past few seasons.
This is due to the fact that the current budget had been set based upon 28 or more teams, whereas our league has somewhat downsized to 23 teams. Therefore, the league needs to tighten its belt a little more.
With that in mind, we will be reducing the payouts for tournaments as follows:
Singles tournament:
Previous payout
1st Place 250,000
2nd Place 200,000
3rd Place 150,000
4th Place 100,000
5th-8th Place 40,000
New payout
1st Place 200,000
2nd Place 150,000
3rd Place 100,000
4th Place 80,000
5th-8th Place 25,000
Doubles Tournament:
Previous payout
1st Place 240,000
2nd Place 160,000
3rd Place 120,000
4th Place 80,000
5th-8th Place 40,000
New payout
1st Place 200,000
2nd Place 140,000
3rd Place 100,000
4th Place 60,000
5th-8th Place 30,000
If the league expands into more teams in future seasons, those figures could once again increase.
No one seemed to be distressed by these reductions to the payouts. Other ideas were bounced around about how money could be saved, but the league is running about as lean as possible at the moment.
Item 3: Bob Denny Award
The current method of determining the Bob Denny Sportsmanship Award winner (a website poll near the end of the season) seems to foster apathy and neglect. There has been very little voting each season. In order to make the award more meaningful, a new tyrannical approach seems in order. Seeing as I am a heavy-handed tyrant by nature, this seems like the perfect problem for me to tackle. Therefore, after I twisted the arm of every captain present at the meeting, and the arms of a few unfortunate bar staff, all present agreed to have the award determined by individual Kakao Talk messages between the President and the captains at the end of the season, with the Executive Committee tallying the votes and determining the winner. The captains agreed to consult their teams before putting in their vote.
Item 4: Hall of Fame Committee
Each season, someone is inducted into the IPL Hall of Fame. We are proposing that a committee be formed of current and former executive committee members to determine who the inductees should be.
This was met with blank stares and the shrugging of shoulders. Such is the life of being league president.
Dominic Johnson then reminded me to address the issue of teams having two byes during the season. I thanked him for his timely reminder, and proceeded to explain the following:
The schedule was a nightmare because of the number of teams and bars. In spite of computer programs and three people caressing it into 21 weeks, we couldn't avoid two teams having two byes each. They randomly turned out to be JR Pub Pinoy Mafia and Fat Albert's Scandal.
Since they have two byes, one bye will be scored as a "0", the same as for everyone else. For their 2nd bye, they will get their average match score (their total game wins, divided by 19) with a minimum of 8, and a match win point.
Miscellaneous Items:
1) We addressed the ever-present issue of slow play.
Due to some league members being military personnel, curfew is sometimes a factor. It was asked that teams accommodate those who must leave early by letting them play their games early.
Also, teams should be ready to rack and get the next game going as soon as the previous game has finished. This could potentially shave quite a few minutes off of each match.
Teams also need to be more strict in keeping timeouts to two minutes or less.
At this point, JJ "Jack Coke" said something incoherent. We did our best to smile and carry on.
2) Rules clarifications
We discussed some rules issues.
A) A ball or balls leaving the table and ending up off of the playing surface results in ball-in-hand, and the rogue ball staying down (except the 8-ball, which would result in a loss). However, if a ball leaves the table momentarily but ultimately comes back onto and remains on the table, it is not a ball-in-hand.
B) If, after a scratch on the break, the other player tries to shoot from outside the kitchen, the referee should inform the player of their impending mistake. It was decided by all present, that anyone present could inform the player without being penalized. This only applies to after a scratch on the break.
At this point, JJ "Jack Coke" interrupted again, and less smiling ensued.
c) If an obvious foul occurs without the referee noticing it, the foul should be enforced. If it is a questionable foul, the referee has final say. This should be resolved peacefully and civilly between the captains and the parties who witnessed the foul.
d) Mark Jones demonstrated that if the cue ball is frozen against an object ball, the shooter may shoot straight through the object ball without it being a foul. This is reflected in the IPL rules. JJ "Jack Coke" then wasted about 10 minutes disagreeing with this, with some very animated gyrations and demonstrations. When he would not shut the hell up, your esteemed president told him to shut the f*** up. He kind of did.
3) Sportsmanship
All present were reminded that this is a fun, recreational bar league, so we should try to keep it fun and conflict-free.
Larisa gave an impassioned plea for consideration and proper manners during matches, so that players will enjoy league night and not want to smash loud-mouthed people in the face and quit the league. She received a chorus of amens.
Mark Barnes then brought up a proposal to implement a "drink challenge" aspect to the league, where a player could challenge their opponent for a drink on any given game. He also proposed that drink challenges could be recorded on the website, and a Drink Challenge Champion award could be given at the end of the season. It was decided to bring this up for vote at the organizational meeting next season.
At this point, JJ "Jack Coke" went into the most mind-boggling tirade that this president has ever witnessed at a captains' meeting. He worked himself up into an impressive lather over the fact that bars no longer provide drinks to the visiting team, and informed us that he established the league, and ... Everyone present told him to shut the f*** up.
Russel John then suggested that the league adopt the dart league format where teams only play teams within their respective divisions. It was brought to his attention that it would reduce the chances of meeting other players and teams throughout the course of the season, and that it would result in a reduced season. It was agreed to not pursue this any further.
When it was determined that there was no other business to discuss, the meeting was reluctantly brought to a close at 6:06 pm.
Everyone wanted to stay longer, but I was not having it.
- Details
- Written by Lenny Erickson
- Category: Announcements
- Hits: 983
