The Year 2017 at Big Tyme Billiards

What a year it has been for the management and staff at Big Tyme Billiards! What a year it has been for the pool & billiards industry as a whole! So many things, good & bad, to remember that it’s hard to know where to start but I will do the best I can and try to remember as much as I can about the awesome year. I will start with the sadness that has been felt throughout the year every time someone in the pool world has passed on or been diagnosed with a terminal and/or debilitating illness or condition. It seems that almost every week there has been at least one that I have read about or heard about. My heart goes out to all of those who were directly affected by bad news. I hope that the year 2018 holds better things in store. Was it my imagination or were there quite a few more weekly, monthly and yearly tournaments held in 2017? It became a master chore to coordinate an event without conflicting with some other great event. I suppose this is a good problem to have for the sport of pool. It can only mean that the sport is building in participation and perhaps fewer pool rooms will have to close due to not having enough people interested in playing. In addition to the tournaments it also seems that there are more and more leagues forming and growing in participation. What a great thing for pool! Speaking of leagues, where would we all be without them? We value our league players! Leagues are a great way to spend a night out with friends having fun and learning more about this great sport. I can’t think of a better way to get out and have some down time away from the challenges of every-day life and work. It’s a great way to meet new people and create new friendships. Big Tyme has a variety of leagues to choose from, including APA and BCA, and your choice of 8 Ball or 9 Ball. We also recently started a Scotch Doubles 8 Ball league as well. Play one or play them all. Speaking of leagues, there are not enough words to express our appreciation of Roger Schuett and the North Harris County APA. Vernon (Bubba) Wall is running our BCA league on Wednesday nights and his help is greatly appreciated as well. What would the year have been without Houston Best of Billiards? If you don’t know about it, check it out. This ladder system has created so much fun for so many players. Mike Fabacher started this ladder system in the Houston area and it has been a great success. Teresa Garland serves as Mike’s valued assistant and where would it be without her tireless work? Our general manager, Billy Sharp, is proud to serve on the committee and help out with ranking players as well as contributing his knowledge and experience in the pool industry to the discussions regarding rules and other situations that may arise. Also assisting is David Taylor who is certainly no stranger to pool and has proven to be a great asset to this program. The management and staff at Big Tyme have spent a great deal of time and money keeping our pool room the best. This has been a year of extraordinary accomplishments. We made some changes this year that we feel has been great for our customers and for Big Tyme. I won’t detail every one of them because some of them, even though they definitely add to our quality, aren’t really noticeable to most people but I will mention the main ones that improve our appearance and quality and make your experience better when you visit our room. We replaced our 8’ tables with 7’ Diamond tables, giving us a total of 24 7’ tables now. We feel that this is better for the players wanting to improve their game and for those players who plan on playing in Las Vegas. This change also allows us to have more and bigger tournaments. We replaced the carpet throughout the room and we think it has improved our appearance tremendously. We just recently installed 8 new Purifans to help control the smoke and they seem to be doing a good job. In fact, we intend to install even more of them in the near future to make things better for the non-smoking customers. If you haven’t visited us recently you don’t know what you are missing. The year 2018 holds some great things in store for the sport and for Big Tyme Billiards. We will start the year with OB Cues Ladies Tour that will be coming to Big Tyme January 6th and 7th. These ladies hold one of the best run tournaments around and if you haven’t seen them play, you are missing out on the wonderful talent and sportsmanship that they exhibit. Our Big Tyme Classic was once again a success for 2017. As most of you probably know, we held the classic on Easter weekend. Due to the challenges mentioned above, it just seemed like the best time to hold such a big event without conflicting with others. Our goal is not to try and outdo others or hurt their tournaments. We believe that there is room for everyone and the ultimate goal is to grow the sport. If that goal is achieved everyone associated with this sport benefits, from the vendors and spectators to the players. We also made some changes for the 2018 Big Tyme Classic to try and accommodate more players, vendors and spectators. Be sure and look for our flyers for the next Big Tyme Classic. It will be bigger and better than ever! Be sure and check out our website, bigtymebilliards.com and like our Facebook page. You can also find us on Twitter and Instagram. Until next time – Have a wonderful 2018 and practice, practice, practice. Deborah Sharp