Las Vegas Hardbat Classic

The first annual Hardbat Classic took place from June 26 to 28, 2009 at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, California. The hardbat competition drew over 700 contestants of wildly varying skill levels, with over 40,000 players participating in the preliminary events across the United States. In the final, a 23-year-old unranked player, Jack Baker, took on California veteran player, 73-year-old Wayne Obertone. In a best of three challenge, Jack Baker came out the winner and took home the prize of $100,000, as reported by Melissa Arseniuk in the Las Vegas Weekly and in the Las Vegas Sun.

It's great to see such a high cash prize and attention focused on ping pong. Since the Hardbat Classic wasn't an official ITTF or USATT event, some of the rules were different. The bracketing of players between hardbat classic players, pros, bar players and basement players seemed rather odd. With the Hardbat system of handicapping some of the better players, it gives everyone a chance to win, but it also means the best player is not likely to be the winning player. In games to 21 points, some pro players had to spot a lot of points to lower-ranked players, sometimes as many as 17 out of 21. It would be nice to see the professional players, and ultimately the better players, playing without handicapping systems and receive the cash prizes. Afterall, as in any sport, they are the ones who dedicate their lives to table tennis. 

Hopefully the final event wasn't as much as a shit-show as the preliminary hardbat challenge at the Bell House here in Brooklyn. The events were incredibly disorganized and the officials from Budlight, which sponsored the event, and the D.J. from The Bell House didn't seem to know the rules of ping pong or much about ping pong in general. Some of the officials were rude, and in general the events lacked the usual community spirit associated with ping pong culture here in New York. Most of the players I talked to said it wasn't much fun to participate. Money doesn't always mean quality. Hopefully the Hardbat Classic will have it more together next year, especially in the preliminary rounds across the country, and hire people who know more about the history and culture of ping pong.

For all of those of you who went to Las Vegas, hopefully it was fun, and congratulations to Jack Baker for winning. You can see the event on ESPN. Check your local listings to see when it next airs. You can also read more about the Hardbat Classic and Jack Baker in the September/October issue of USA Table Tennis Magazine. And get out there and practice for the 2nd annual hardcat classic.

Keith Fraser at the hardbat classic

Elie Zainabudinova vs. Trevor Runyan in the allstar hardbat classic     final. The winner from this round went on to the final four.