Seven-Foot Tables, Alternate Breaks, and Two Titles in Mobile

On the seven-foot Diamond table at The Billiard Club in Mobile, Alabama, the gap between a perfect break and a dead cue ball is measured in fractions of an inch. In the decisive frame of the Alabama 9-Ball Open final, Devin Poteet cut the 3-ball into the corner, applied inside english to send the cue ball two rails into perfect position, then finished with a 3-9 combination to seal a 7-3 win. That shot was not luck. It was the product of a chain of decisions calculated before the cue ever touched the ball. The mistake of that year taught me to read the shape of the table before the names of the players, and every time I sit in front of a results sheet like this one, I ask myself what actually happened on the surface, not what was retold afterward.

The event took place at The Billiard Club, the opening stop of the Making It In America Tavern Series, a circuit tied to the bar and local-club model in the American South. This is not a WPA or Matchroom stop. This is pure American pool, with two divisions running side by side across one weekend: One Pocket and the Alabama 9-Ball Open.

One Pocket drew 19 players with a 300 US dollar entry, plus 2,000 US dollars added by the promoter. The 9-Ball division drew 91 players with a 150 US dollar entry, and the added money is listed at two different figures, 10,000 and 12,000 US dollars, a point I will return to. There was also a 48-player Nine Ball Mini, where Ian Jones defeated William Perry in the final.

The discipline must be fixed at the outset: this is American pool, not snooker, not Chinese 8-ball. Centuries, 147 breaks, and snooker-style safety percentages do not apply here. The break follows alternate convention, one player breaks one rack and the opponent breaks the next, rather than winner-breaks. That rule choice directly shapes the structure of every match.

The first thing to read is the table, not the name. The seven-foot Diamond table, the standard bar-box size in American taverns, compresses the playing space considerably compared with a professional nine-foot table. On a seven-footer, the cue ball needs only one rail to reach the cushion, meaning positional margins are narrower and the break becomes more decisive as a weapon. Paired with alternate breaks, the advantage of a dominant breaker is neutralized, raising the premium on converting each break and running out clean. Each position is a confession; my job is to listen to it.

Poteet's break-and-run sequence in the decisive frame is the most valuable technical data sample of the entire event. He made three balls on the break, cut the 3-ball with inside english, sent the cue ball two rails into perfect position for the 3-9 combination, and closed the match at 7-3. This is not ordinary technique. This is fine cue-ball control, consistent with the record of a player who has won the Derby City Classic Banks Ring Game.

Poteet's path to the title is the larger story. He lost in the second round to Haas, who later placed third, then won ten consecutive matches from the one-loss side to take the title. Ten straight from the one-loss side is not luck; it is the profile of stamina and pressure tolerance in a discipline that demands continuous focus. He closed out several tight matches, including the final 9-ball and the 3-9 combination in the final.

In One Pocket, Tony Chohan won the final 4-1, with three near-shutout games, the scores reading 8-0, 8-4, 8-1, 8-0, 8-1. One Pocket is a game of controlling the four-ball zone around your own pocket, of moves and blocks, not of finishing power. Chohan's lopsided win in this format places him in the move-play specialist group, a distinct skill set within American pool, different from the rotation-style run-out skill.

Josh Roberts is the reverse case. He beat Chohan 3-0 on the winners side, then lost 1-4 in the final. The sample is a single event, so I will not conclude quickly. But this is a signal worth tracking regarding conversion in deciding matches.

Sergio Rivas, the reigning Buffalo's Pro Classic 8-Ball champion, lost his opener 0-3 to Roberts, then won five straight before falling 2-1 to Chohan. Shane McMinn, the Music City Open winner, placed fourth after a dogfight with Poteet. Kim Davenport, a member of the BCA Hall of Fame and the 2026 Senior One Pocket Classic champion, was also in the field. The mix of long-tail veterans and prime-age cue artists is a signature of the American regional pool scene.

There is a point I want to set against the usual reading. This tournament's structure, with winners-side races of only 2-3 games in One Pocket and 9 or 7 games in 9-Ball, creates enormous variance. Only the extended final truly functions as a strength filter. That means most early-round results are not sufficient to assert anything about a player's class. Look at Chohan winning 4-1 in the final and you see dominance. Look at Roberts beating Chohan 3-0 on the winners side the same week and you see the opposite. Both are true within their own contexts.

The added-money figure for the 9-Ball division is recorded at two different levels, 10,000 and 12,000 US dollars, within the same source. I cannot verify the exact number, so I temporarily treat both as pending verification. For a tournament whose financial mechanism relies on entry fees and a player auction, the calcutta familiar to American pool, the accuracy of the added figure directly affects how the event's scale is assessed.

The 8-1 score in one One Pocket game in the source also likely reflects a notation error. Negative scores are not standard in One Pocket. I treat it as an 8-1 result pending confirmation.

When the stands are empty, data becomes the only applause I trust. The next stop of the Making It In America Tavern Series will be the verification point. If Poteet continues to run deep over the next one or two stops, his rising-contender file will be reinforced. If Chohan keeps dominating One Pocket, the degree of specialization in American pool becomes clearer. If prize levels or field sizes fall at later stops, that is a signal about the health of the regional circuit. The data will answer. My job is to keep watching, keep recording, and only conclude when the numbers agree.