A New Life-Phorm - pgs 32

Hello Sneaky Pete Mafia readers!

Well we finally made it....with lots of hard work, dedication, a budget of blood sweat and tears, and a team of unique individuals all with a unified overlapping goal in life: change the foundations of pool so we can all make a good living at it!

If you don’t know me my name is Jason Christopher Hunt; also known as “Buffalo” and “The Huntsman” and if you knew me prior to 2001, “Quick”—my first nick name given to me by one of the biggest “Ballers” in Buffalo NY after Eddie Murphy’s character in Harlem Nights. I was brought into this amazing team of unique individuals because of my uniqueness in this game.

I have been playing for a living since right after 9/11 when I moved to NYC on the second flight into JFK that they allowed after the flying ban to be with my girlfriend at the time, Candace Mooney, a professional make-up artist to the “STARS”.

It was here in NYC where I got a hard lesson about the prices you pay for playing great pool and the prices to be paid for not playing “good enough” pool. Since I had lots of natural talent, I was able to beat almost everyone but the top players and top short stops.

Of course you probably know:

nobody likes a guy from out of town coming in and dominating the local scene. They try and get all the big dogs to come eat you. As well as trying to make it impossible for you to win a nickel in their city. (People will make it a personal mission to “kill” your “Action” and slander your name so people will not play you and sabotage every opportunity for you to make a living.)

It’s a very sad state of affairs to be at the top of the food chain in your local area...right underneath the “sanctioned Pros” if there are any.

In NYC there are lots of clicks and coat tailers. It was probably the best “Pool World Education” I could get at an early age, before it became the Keetchy pool scene it is now. After I broke up with Candace, I traveled around the whole country playing the same role: “THE BEST OF THE NON PROFESSIONALS AND TOP ROAD PLAYERS.” I learned it is a tough role to play: people hate you for winning....and it’s your job to win. Or you don’t eat. You’re a paradox. You get persecuted....for doing your job.

So without going into much more about me....let’s get to “What Role I Will Be Playing with this Mafia Family.” I am going to be the voice that changes peoples mentality about “How to think about pool, the players and the subculture.” Because you know what? We are all one big family and self-contained self-supporting self-sustaining subculture. And when people start realizing this....and start working together, supporting, congratulating and applauding each other...and condemning the bad seeds and the people who steal from our pockets while smiling in our faces and try to make us feel like they are doing us a favor this is when pool will take off in Media and on TV.

Things will get better in the pool world for everyone, from the professionals to the people who Samm (Diep) Vidal (an amazing woman in pool by the way, now currently married to my old friend Mark “SPAIN” Vidal..) wrote about in her book “YOU KNOW YOUR A D PLAYER IF...” a very cute book.

Now here is one thing about pool that is different than other professional sports: There are no big outside sponsors. WHY? The people in pool screwed it up.