Will Skins Be Must-See TV?
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| Show them the money: Braun, left, and Hopkins believe the key to bigger ratings is bigger purses. |
In game nine of the race-to-12 final, Feijen shattered the rack with his balletic, high-kicking break, and then ran out. He was on his way. Under the Skins' rules, each game had a value that would roll into the next until a player could take three games in a row, winning the total accumulated value. Unfortunately, after a player's first game win, his opponents had the option to break. First up against Feijen was Charlie Williams, who broke successfully but promptly missed a shot on the 1. Feijen's gutsy table-length bank on the 1 dropped, leading to another run-out. One more game to go.
With $35,000 now riding on the outcome, former world 9-ball champion Thorsten Hohmann strode to the table. His break kept him on the table, but it cruelly concealed the 1 behind the 7. After a Hohmann push and a missed bank by Feijen, Hohmann tried a chancy 1-9 combo almost two feet from the intended pocket. It just missed, leaving Feijen to mop up. He circled the table with a frozen expression, but his insides quivered as he knocked in the 9 ball.
"It was intense," the jubilant Feijen said afterwards. "I mean, I was almost going to faint after I made the 9. I was super-shaking."
On the strength of that three-game surge, Feijen took the first-ever Skins Billiard Championship title with $42,500 in total winnings - an altogether gaudy sum in the underfunded world of pro pool.
Perhaps more importantly for the sport, the event appeared to fulfill its promise as an improvement over traditional TV pool tournaments by exploiting the trend toward gambling-style programming.
"It's much more interesting than watching a race-to-11 or something," said longtime player and promoter Hopkins. "… If we can find a formula that's successful, we can move on and push it. I mean, we've been playing tournaments all our lives, and it doesn't seem to go anywhere."
Most of the players at the event's premiere agreed that the Skins format brought more excitement to the game.
"It's very fan-friendly," Williams said. "Every game is like a hill-hill game. … The value of each game is higher than normal. I think it will be good for TV.
"I think we should be trying different things out. I think, definitely, the standard format of pool events on television doesn't seem to be catching on. So maybe it's time for a change."
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