Jimmy Wetch
Encyclopedia
Jimmy Wetch is an American
professional pool
player nicknamed "The Kid". He was at one time a feared , later becoming an accomplished tournament pro, having won or placed in numerous competitions. He was ranked fifth in the world by the Pro Billiards Tour (PBT) in 1996.
, he has one sibling, Sharon, who is four years his junior. His early life was characterized by instability. Wetch's parents divorced when he was 9, remarried when he was 17, and again divorced after a short time. Wetch would sometimes live with one parent, and sometimes with the other, or both when they were together, and each of his parents moved a number of times, though always in or around the Twin Cities area. Wetch never went to the same school for more than two years in a row. "It still probably affects me," said Wetch in a 1999 interview, "To this day I'm not very good at interacting with people."
At a young age, Wetch became fascinated with gambling, so much so that his mother threatened to enter him in Gamblers Anonymous
. He pitched coins, played cards, bet on sports, and even on pinball. His other gambling pursuits tapered off when he discovered a pool table at 13 while playing cards in a friend's basement. Wetch was soon hooked, spending as much time as possible in a local pool room called the Rack & Cue, playing eight ball
and nine ball
for 20 cents a game or more. He earned free table time by recording high scores on the room's video games.
Wetch's talent was quickly evident: A month after taking up the sport he was already beating his father who was a decent recreational player. Pool became his passion. He would practice his at the kitchen table, attempting to keep his stroke perfectly level by passing it through a hollowed out cube of pool chalk without touching the sides, and stain his father's towels wiping down the of his cue stick
. Every night after completing his homework, he would head to the pool room to practice. He was known there for pestering all the better players for tips to improve his game.
By 15 years of age, Wetch had 50 balls at straight pool
, calling each shot in advance, as is mandatory in the game. At 16, he posted a run of 131 balls, and at 17 he won the 1985 Minnesota State Championship. Wetch had theretofore been a decent student, but pool had become all he thought about. He soon dropped out of St. Paul's Humboldt High School, to take up the life of a . He set off with a family friend, one Joe Saad, who acted as his on the road. By that time, he had already earned the nickname, "The Kid", given to him by a manager of Minnesota Billiards, one of the pool rooms in which Wetch had cut his teeth.
However, Wetch's love for gambling and for pool did not translate into a love of the hustle. He did it because it was the only way he knew how to make money doing what he loved, but he never liked "the , the moving, the mismatches, the phony names."
The event that finally took him off the road came in Houston in 1993. He had made a large score playing high-stakes pool one night. The following morning while attempting to leave his hotel room with his then girlfriend, two men shoved the two back into the room and at gunpoint demanded the money he had won. Not satisfied with the amount of money Wetch handed over, they placed a bag over his head and beat him. Though he escaped the ordeal with only minor injuries, he promised himself he would only make one more road trip to gather a stake, and then he would quit. He made that final trip and used the money to open up a pool room with partner David Wagner, Jimmy's Pro Billiards in Columbia Heights, Minnesota
. The following year, in 1994, he took the ultimate step for a road player, shucking aside his anonymity by going pro.
, he finished third, knocked out by the ultimate winner, dominant pro Mike Sigel
with a score of 9 to 8. Later that year he took first place at the McDermott Masters and was ranked sixteenth in the world by the PBT and named their rookie of the year. In 1995 he won the Huebler Cup and in 1996 a major tour stop at Great Gorge, New Jersey, as well as three second-place finishes at tour events, including a tense 8-6 loss in the finals of the 1996 Camel World 9-ball Championship at the hand of the Magician, Efren Reyes
. His PBT rank increased that year to fifth in the world.
Despite his success on the pro tour, Wetch couldn't make enough money on tournament purses alone. He said in a 1999 interview: "Back in 1996, I thought this game was going somewhere. We were on TV, we were making pretty good money. I was proud to be a pool player back then ... [but now] I'm just going to put more effort and time into my room.... The bottom line is, you gotta make money to survive. I don't want to be another statistic." Today Wetch lives in Eagan, Minnesota
, not far from his pool room.
Wetch remains an active player at professional pool events but has not broken into the top ten since his high finish in 1996. In 2006 he was selected as one of 150 players to compete on the International Pool Tour
. He finished 77th in the rankings, earning a total of $15,000 in prize funds. Wetch is currently sponsored by Schön cues.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
professional pool
Pocket billiards
Pool, also more formally known as pocket billiards or pool billiards , is the family of cue sports and games played on a pool table having six receptacles called pockets along the , into which balls are deposited as the main goal of play. Popular versions include eight-ball and nine-ball...
player nicknamed "The Kid". He was at one time a feared , later becoming an accomplished tournament pro, having won or placed in numerous competitions. He was ranked fifth in the world by the Pro Billiards Tour (PBT) in 1996.
Early years
The son of Jimmy, Sr., the owner of a painting business, and Janice Wetch, a switchboard operatorSwitchboard operator
In the early days of telephony, through roughly the 1960s, companies used manual telephone switchboards and switchboard operators connected each call by inserting a pair of phone plugs into the appropriate jacks. Each pair of plugs was part of a cord circuit with a switch associated that let the...
, he has one sibling, Sharon, who is four years his junior. His early life was characterized by instability. Wetch's parents divorced when he was 9, remarried when he was 17, and again divorced after a short time. Wetch would sometimes live with one parent, and sometimes with the other, or both when they were together, and each of his parents moved a number of times, though always in or around the Twin Cities area. Wetch never went to the same school for more than two years in a row. "It still probably affects me," said Wetch in a 1999 interview, "To this day I'm not very good at interacting with people."
At a young age, Wetch became fascinated with gambling, so much so that his mother threatened to enter him in Gamblers Anonymous
Gamblers Anonymous
Gamblers Anonymous is a twelve-step program for problem gamblers. GA began in Los Angeles on September 13, 1957. As of 2005 there were over 1000 GA meetings in the United States and meetings established in the United Kingdom, Spain, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Israel, Kenya, Uganda, Korea and...
. He pitched coins, played cards, bet on sports, and even on pinball. His other gambling pursuits tapered off when he discovered a pool table at 13 while playing cards in a friend's basement. Wetch was soon hooked, spending as much time as possible in a local pool room called the Rack & Cue, playing eight ball
Eight ball
Eight-ball is a pool game popular in much of the world, and the subject of international professional and amateur competition...
and nine ball
Nine Ball
Nine-ball is a contemporary form of pool , with historical beginnings rooted in the United States and traceable to the 1920s...
for 20 cents a game or more. He earned free table time by recording high scores on the room's video games.
Wetch's talent was quickly evident: A month after taking up the sport he was already beating his father who was a decent recreational player. Pool became his passion. He would practice his at the kitchen table, attempting to keep his stroke perfectly level by passing it through a hollowed out cube of pool chalk without touching the sides, and stain his father's towels wiping down the of his cue stick
Cue stick
A cue stick , is an item of sporting equipment essential to the games of pool, snooker and carom billiards. It is used to strike a ball, usually the...
. Every night after completing his homework, he would head to the pool room to practice. He was known there for pestering all the better players for tips to improve his game.
By 15 years of age, Wetch had 50 balls at straight pool
Straight Pool
Straight pool, also called 14.1 continuous or simply 14.1, is a pocket billiards game, and was the common sport of championship competition until overtaken by faster-playing games like nine-ball...
, calling each shot in advance, as is mandatory in the game. At 16, he posted a run of 131 balls, and at 17 he won the 1985 Minnesota State Championship. Wetch had theretofore been a decent student, but pool had become all he thought about. He soon dropped out of St. Paul's Humboldt High School, to take up the life of a . He set off with a family friend, one Joe Saad, who acted as his on the road. By that time, he had already earned the nickname, "The Kid", given to him by a manager of Minnesota Billiards, one of the pool rooms in which Wetch had cut his teeth.
On the road
Wetch kept at the for a number of years. Joe Saad would back him with thousands of dollars, sometimes accompanying him on his trips, and sometimes not. Wetch was soon playing matches for huge stakes; Up to $10,000 bet on a single . In addition to Saad, Wetch was fostered by others such as veteran road player Jack Cooney, a hustler who often went under the assumed name George Carlson and was twenty years Wetch's senior. "He taught me how to survive out there, to be patient for decent games and to manage my money right."However, Wetch's love for gambling and for pool did not translate into a love of the hustle. He did it because it was the only way he knew how to make money doing what he loved, but he never liked "the , the moving, the mismatches, the phony names."
"I never felt good about the hustling. No matter how much money I made at it, I knew I didn't want to keep doing it. Frankly, when no one knows how you play, it's like putting a gun to someone's head. It wasn't a matter of whether you were going to win, but how much you were going to win, Early on, you make money everywhere you go. Then it all disappears."
– Wetch, in Billiards Digest (1999)
The event that finally took him off the road came in Houston in 1993. He had made a large score playing high-stakes pool one night. The following morning while attempting to leave his hotel room with his then girlfriend, two men shoved the two back into the room and at gunpoint demanded the money he had won. Not satisfied with the amount of money Wetch handed over, they placed a bag over his head and beat him. Though he escaped the ordeal with only minor injuries, he promised himself he would only make one more road trip to gather a stake, and then he would quit. He made that final trip and used the money to open up a pool room with partner David Wagner, Jimmy's Pro Billiards in Columbia Heights, Minnesota
Columbia Heights, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 18,520 people, 8,033 households, and 4,731 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,368.7 people per square mile . There were 8,151 housing units at an average density of 2,362.9 per square mile...
. The following year, in 1994, he took the ultimate step for a road player, shucking aside his anonymity by going pro.
Turning pro
In his first pro event, the 1994 Super Billiards Expo in Valley Forge, PennsylvaniaValley Forge, Pennsylvania
The Village of Valley Forge is an unincorporated settlement located on the west side of Valley Forge National Historical Park at the confluence of Valley Creek and the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania, United States. The remaining village is in Schuylkill Township of Chester County, but once...
, he finished third, knocked out by the ultimate winner, dominant pro Mike Sigel
Mike Sigel
Mike Sigel is an American professional pool player.Sigel has won over 102 major pool tournaments, including 3 US Open Nine-ball Championship tournaments and 5 world pocket billiard championship titles...
with a score of 9 to 8. Later that year he took first place at the McDermott Masters and was ranked sixteenth in the world by the PBT and named their rookie of the year. In 1995 he won the Huebler Cup and in 1996 a major tour stop at Great Gorge, New Jersey, as well as three second-place finishes at tour events, including a tense 8-6 loss in the finals of the 1996 Camel World 9-ball Championship at the hand of the Magician, Efren Reyes
Efren Reyes
Efren Manalang Reyes is a Filipino professional pool player and a two-time world champion. Reyes is considered by many to be the greatest all-around pool player in the history of the game. He is affectionately nicknamed "Bata" and "the Magician".-Early life:Reyes was born in Pampanga in 1954...
. His PBT rank increased that year to fifth in the world.
Despite his success on the pro tour, Wetch couldn't make enough money on tournament purses alone. He said in a 1999 interview: "Back in 1996, I thought this game was going somewhere. We were on TV, we were making pretty good money. I was proud to be a pool player back then ... [but now] I'm just going to put more effort and time into my room.... The bottom line is, you gotta make money to survive. I don't want to be another statistic." Today Wetch lives in Eagan, Minnesota
Eagan, Minnesota
Eagan is a city south of Saint Paul in Dakota County in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies on the south bank of the Minnesota River, upstream from the confluence with the Mississippi River. Eagan and nearby suburbs form the southern portion of Minneapolis-St. Paul, the fifteenth largest...
, not far from his pool room.
Wetch remains an active player at professional pool events but has not broken into the top ten since his high finish in 1996. In 2006 he was selected as one of 150 players to compete on the International Pool Tour
International Pool Tour
The International Pool Tour is a professional sports tour created in 2005 by Kevin Trudeau and hosted by Rebecca Grant. It aims to elevate pool to the level of other modern sports. Closely modeled on the PGA Tour, the IPT offered the largest prize funds in pool history in its first year. The tour...
. He finished 77th in the rankings, earning a total of $15,000 in prize funds. Wetch is currently sponsored by Schön cues.