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9-Ball state champion
Published October 22, 2009
Jonathon Tedder, of Boaz, rates himself among the top 150 pool players in the nation.
Tedder, 24, laughs when he recalls he used to not even play the game.
“I didn’t even like pool before I saw I could make money,” he said.
“I had a pool table in my house, my dad had it, and I never would even go play. And one day I went to a poolroom and basically I watched people make money in there, just saw it, and it just got me. I’m competitive, so it made me want to do the same.”
Tedder began playing pool when he was a 16-year-old junior at Boaz High School.
Eight years later, his mastery of billiards has put money in his pocket.
The weekend of Sept. 12-13, Tedder won the Alabama State 9-Ball Tournament championship at Bumpers Billiards in Hoover.
“Once a year, they have the best players in the state come out there,” he said. “There were 42 players this time, which is pretty big for a tournament.
“There are 10 players (in Alabama) who are all kind of close in speeds, and the rest of them are kind of weaker. The best 10 were there though, so it was a pretty big deal.
“I made a statement when I got there. I told everybody I was going to win it and I did, so it was kind of crazy.”
Tedder took home $1,600 for winning the state championship. He defeated Scotty Waters, of Tuscaloosa, in the finals.
“You play races to nine, the first one to win nine games,” Tedder said. “I lost my fourth match and got put in the losers bracket. I got beat 9-7, I think.
“I came all the way back and made it through the losers side and got to the finals, and I played the same guy that beat me. We just played one race to 13, and I beat him in the finals.”
Tedder began competing in professional events two years ago when his skills reached the elite level.
“One summer I played four months straight for like six hours a day. I never missed a day,” he said. “That’s where I made my jump and got a lot better.”
Competing in the U.S. Open
On Saturday, Tedder will compete in the U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships in Chesapeake, Va.
He’s expecting the field to feature 300 players from around the world.
“It’s a pretty big event,” Tedder said. “It’s going to be real hard to win because everybody’s there, the best players in the world. It’s real tough.
“You don’t ever see somebody my age win that. It’s usually somebody in their 30s. I think a couple of years ago a kid won it who’s 25, but it’s real rare.”
Tedder has sponsors who will pay his $700 entry fee. He said first place in the U.S. Open pays $50,000.
“There’s money in pool, just like the other professional sports, but it’s just there’s not as much money in pool,” he said.
“In the future, I think there’s going to be a lot more money just because of certain sponsors.
“For instance, they just had a tournament in Texas that was the biggest tournament in the history of pool. It was like a million dollars added to the tournament. It wasn’t like one tournament, they had like seven tournaments that all paid like $100,000 for first place.
“If you’re in the top 500 in the world in basketball, you’re a millionaire. If you’re in the top 500 in pool, you’re not necessarily a millionaire. That will change on down the road.
“If pool had the money basketball has right now, I’d have a house on the lake or something, because I’m probably in like the top 150 in the country. I would say right around that level.
“You can still make good money playing pool. It’s a way for me to still be competitive. I can’t just go play basketball and stuff anymore. It’s kind of hard. I play pool.”
Cool under pressure
Birmingham, Huntsville, Montgomery and Chattanooga are the primary cities where Tedder competes in tournaments. He also travels to other out-of-state cities for events.
“The two biggest things in pool are you’ve got to know where your cueball is going to go every shot, and then shot making,” he said.
“Something I’m a lot better than most people at is it doesn’t really matter where the cueball is, I can make a ball from anywhere. My shot making is real strong, just from anywhere on the table.
“Pressure is what I’m real good at for my age. If I think I can win a big challenge match for like $10,000, a lot of people get nervous and it makes them miss balls, but I just love it. I handle pressure real well. That’s probably actually my strength more than shot making.
“If you’re nervous at all on a tough shot and you both need to win one game and you just barely move or something, you’re going to miss the ball.
“Pressure is a big part of pool, and you have to really learn how to handle it. That just takes a lot of playing and stuff to do that.”
Tedder doesn’t practice much since he’s reached the elite level.
“It’s just like once you get to a certain level of pool you don’t really have to … it’s not like something you have to do every day,” he said.
“I would say don’t play pool unless you love it a lot, and you really want to play like six hours a day for a long time.
“You’ve got to play that long at least over a six-month period to really learn everything, and then you have to play all the time after that to get better.
“If you like to make money, it’s definite you can make money.”
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