A New Pinball Tournament Format in Las Vegas

 Las Vegas, NV

This is not a selfie

Good Timez Billiards Pinball Tournament

Tonight I drove over to Good Timez Billiards for my first Nevada pinball tournament   I have never played in a tournament in a billiards parlor and it was exactly what you would expect.  There were a lot of people there playing pool, there were cheap beers being sold, there were unhealthy snacks being sold, and it was smoky.  

Proof it was a billiards hall.  Also the web site and everything else says Good Timez but this sign says Goodtimez.  Even the giant sign on the building outside says Good Timez.  I just looked at the Nevada Business Licensing site and it says Good Timez Pool so apparently I went to 3 places last night.  This is probably too much talking about the name of the place but we have come all this way and now have reached the end of this subject.

See!  A pool hall or billiards parlor in Vegas!

The billiards tables are in a whole separate room

The pinball is in the room with the bar.  The play area is very tight but people are tolerant of getting bumped while playing.

Snacks!

I had a $4 beer before the tournament started.

They also have some sort of billiards variation tournament going on tonight so the parking lot was packed.

 

This wasn't reserved for me but I thought it was interesting.

The tournament started at 7pm.  The entry fee, $15, included free play on the machines so I was able to practice on some of the machines from 6-7pm.  Both of the Vegas tournaments that I am aware of allow players to throw more money into a prize pool which is given out to winning players who have participated in the ante. This is different than other places I have been where part of the fee  goes into a pool and is given out to the top players.  22 people turned up to play in the tournament.  It turns out this is the biggest tournament in the valley.  We were lucky enough to have some of the players that played in the state championships in Reno join us during the 3rd round.  One of those players was Caitlin Collier, the Nevada State Womens Champion.

The first 3 hours of the tournament was a series of 4 player games where points are awarded based on your place in each game.  1st = 7pts, 2nd = 5pts, 3rd = 3pts, and 4th = 1pt.  We would play as many rounds as would fit in the 3 hour window.  During this round I was able to talk to the tournament director (they always seem to chat new players up to make sure they are having fun and hoping they will come back).  He told me all about the Vegas pinball scene and gave me some insights on running tournaments and pinball machines in Nevada.  I learned that places are supposed to get a game license for each machine they have on premises.  The license costs $35 a year for each machine.  That was new and interesting info for me. He also talked about wanting to get machines in a casino to get tourists walking by involved.  He says Reno does this very well.

This is Star Shooter, a table top pinball machine.  It's the first time I have seen a table top included in a tournament.  

During the 4th round the power went out so we all had to wait for it to come back on and start our round over.  Everyone was really chill about it.

I'm not sure why The LA Kings are blacked out in Las Vegas.  Too bad, it would have been fun to watch hockey while we played.

After the 3 hours half of the field advanced to The Finals.  They had held a few tie breakers to determine the top 11 players but I didn't have to go through any of that because I was sitting alone in 5th place.  For the points only tie breakers, the players that were determining their final position below the top 11 cut off, they were given an option to play rock paper scissors, or a 1 ball game, or just concede and let the other player take the higher position.  That was fun to watch.  

Between rounds we could play machines that weren't being used.  I rolled the score on this Space Odyssey two separate times. You can see the "1000,000" light lit next to my score.  I don't believe there is another light so you have to keep track if you roll it a 2nd time.  During tournaments, when you roll a machine and there isn't a light to indicate it, you have to get a tournament director's attention after the ball you rolled it so they can verify it.

So with a 5th place finish, I made The Finals. In this round we would be playing what is called an "Amazing Race" format.  It was decided that the bottom seed would start and we would be starting on Space Odyssey.  The low seed started on Space Odyssey and set a score to beat.  The player with the lowest score on Space Odyssey would be eliminated.  This meant that each machine you advance through, moves you up 1 spot in the results.  As each player got a score higher than the low score they stopped playing and waited to advance to the next machine.  The first player who qualified in 11th place put up a very low score on Space Odyssey so I had confidence I would make it past the first machine and advance to at least 10th place.  As other players tried to beat the low score on Space Odyssey, the players that had already played Space Odyssey go on to play the next machine in line and so on until there are only 2 players left on the last machine in the lineup.   

I quickly beat the minimum score on Space Odyssey and stopped playing so the next player could take their shot.  We were trying to play as quickly as possible to keep this round as short as possible, so we weren't playing all 3 balls if we didn't have to.  Because of this, I didn't keep track of my scores because most of my advances were walk offs meaning I didn't have to play all of my balls.

The next machine was Foo Fighters and there was also a pretty low score to beat so I put together a safe strategy to reach 20mil and did it on my 2nd ball.  I continued on and easily advanced through Venom, World Cup Soccer, and Swords of Fury.

The big board showed the scores that needed to be beat to advance.

As I entered my 6th round, there were fewer players ahead of me to put up scores.  I was the 2nd player to play Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast and the first player put up a great score (for me).  I wasn't able to match that score and put up around 31million.  This was the first time my score showed up on the big board as the score to beat.  I thought this would be the end of my night but I was happy I had advanced to a guaranteed 7th place out of 22 players total.  I nervously watched the next player and they weren't able to match my score so I was going to advance!  Woot!  The player that now had the low score on Iron Maiden was discouraged and almost left but a different player wasn't able to match his score so he advanced.  Good thing he stuck around.  My next rounds were Stranger Things, which I easily advanced through, and then RollerCoaster Tycoon.  I was nervous about this game because I hadn't played it very much but the strategy I put together crushed the score on my 2nd ball.  I was advancing again even further.

The next machine was mine to play first and it was Star Shooter, the table top game.  I put up a fairly low score so I was afraid it was going to be my last game.  The next player started playing and the flipper malfunctioned so the machine was pulled from the tournament and I had to set a new score on a new machine.  I stepped up to Big Guns and choked!  I put up 206,270 which is far from my best game.  As I watched the other players try to beat my score I realized I was guaranteed 3rd place!  A podium finish for me!  This would be my 2nd podium finish.  You can read about my first here.  The final 2 players were able to easily beat my score and I was out.  They both went on to play 1 more machine to determine the winner.  It was already midnight so I decided to head out before seeing who won.  I thanked everyone for a good time and thanked the tournament director for a great tournament.  It was a really fun night.

That's it for today.  If you missed, Exploring a New Casino, check it out.