Interview with Frank Maialetti –PA Pro-Am

By Linda Carter

Hi Frank, tell me a little about your pool background…where do you live, when did you get started, how much do you play, skill level, etc.

I live in Philadelphia, PA. I started playing pool competitively at the age of 17, and I began playing in the APA at 21 years old. I have been playing in the APA for 22 years, and I am currently the League Manager of the Philadelphia APA - Home of the 2022 APA World Champion 9-Ball Team: #LepLife I am a skill level 7/9 in 8-Ball & 9-Ball. I play probably 3-4 days a week.

• You say your whole family plays?

Yes, My father, Anthony SL3, My mother Dee SL2, My sister Andee SL2, My Wife Mindy SL6, My cousin Jason SL5, and my Uncle Fritz SL4 all have played or currently play on the same team with me.

• Biggest pool influences?

My local pool influence was a man named Kenny Carfagno, a fantastic shooter; he taught me the etiquette of the game and how to move the cue and positional play. My favorite pro influence is Thorsten Hohmann. I could watch videos of him for hours. The way he approaches the table, mental aspect; it’s just all perfect to me. I have also become a very big fan of Lukas Fracasso-Verner. He has been coming to some of my tournaments, and I have been just watching and learning from afar from him. Just watching him, I believe, has helped me gain a ball in speed.

• How did your idea of forming PA Pro-Am get started?

PA Pro-Am was formed out of spite, I guess you could say. I had gone to a tournament in PA. It was a cheaper tournament, a $60 buy-in with a $10 greens fee included. So $50 in the pot per person, or so we were led to believe. In actuality it was a $10 greens fee and a $15 tournament director fee. I won the tournament and made less money than the tournament director, which really annoyed me at the time. So I spoke with a few people and created my own tournament in December of 2022, a 9-Ball Open. It was a huge success. I ran a 10-ball Open in January of 2023 and I had several pro-players from the NYC area attend: Bean Hung, Caroline Pao, Jimmy Rivera all attended. I knew then I was on to something and thus began the roots for PA Pro-Am. The PA is actually a double entendre. We are based out of Pennsylvania, so PA for the abbreviation of the state, but the actual letters stand for Perfect Alignment, so Perfect Alignment Pro-Am Pool was born in Feb 2023.

• Tell me how it works - Handicapping? Fargo? Where do players come from?

All of our tournaments are even races. We do however occasionally run skill level capped Fargo tournaments: 599 & Under, 499 & under. We have also run very successful women’s tournaments and open doubles. We do report the matches to Fargo. Our players have been coming from all over. Our 599 & under tournament had players from 13 different states and 1 player from Canada. We are very open to running tournaments that our players want. Ultimately, the players are who makes your tournaments so we are glad to run tournaments they are happy with.

• What are your tournament dates and who can participate? Entry and green fees? Dress code?

We are kicking off our 1st annual set of Pennsylvania State Championships starting Sept 16th with the ladies 9-Ball in collaboration with the JPNEWT (A WPBA qualifier event). These State Championships will run over the course of 4 months until the end of the year. Our future State Championship dates are

Championship Belt

Oct 7th - Open 9-ball

Oct 21st - Open 8-ball

Oct 28th - Women’s 8-ball in collaboration with the JPNEWT (Also a WPBA Qualifier event)

Nov 11th - Open 10-ball

Dec 9th - Juniors - 14u & 18U

Dec 16th - One Pocket

The winners of each of these events will receive the new highly coveted Pennsylvania State Championship belt provided by our esteemed sponsor TrophySmack.com

Our open events are $120 buy-ins

Our women’s events are tiered entry

Our Junior events are $70

Yes, we do have a posted dress code for the PA State Championships. I believe a professional atmosphere at our events is what makes us rise above everyone else.

• Who do you sponsor?

We currently sponsor 2 fantastic and wonderful ladies. Our first sponsored player is the amazing Briana “Beast Mode” Miller. Briana is a wonderful 28-yearold woman from the Allentown, PA area. She is the current director of her own tour, also the JPNEWT (Joe Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour).

Her accolades are:

7X BEF Junior National Champion

4X ACUI Collegiate National Champion

3X Super Billiards Expo Women’s Amateur 9-ball Champion (2010, 2015, 2016)

Our 2nd sponsored player is the super talented young Skylar “Ice Princess” Hess. She is a 14 year old incredibly awesome junior player. She is a 2x National Junior Champion.

We are super proud to support these young ladies and to have them represent our brand.

• Future tournament plans

Our future plans are to make these Pennsylvania State Championships an event that pool players from all over, circle on their calendar each year. I would really like to partner with Predator or Matchroom in the future and run a full multiple day pro event in the Philadelphia area. I think that would be an amazing event.

• What challenges have you had to overcome to get where you are?

Some of the challenges I had to overcome is being the “new kid on the block” Having run very large APA tournaments over the years (I currently help produce and run the 3rd largest amateur pool tournament outside of Vegas in the world) sort of prepared me for running my own events, but there were still little hiccups along the way. The other issue is jealous TD’s from the area. One of my best friends and my current tour sponsor Kevin Stier from Integrity Cues, his best advice he ever gave me was “Stay the course”. He said if other TD’s are mimicking what you are doing or trying to poach players, then you are doing something right. And that is what we did, we stayed the course and I think we have become super successful because of it.

• Sponsors of your tour?

We are incredibly proud to be sponsored and associated with such a great group of people and companies who share our vision they are:

Integrity Cues (Integritycues.com)

Kamui Tips (kamuitips.com)

TrophySmack (trophysmack.com/paproam)

In The Box Sportswear (Inthebx.net)

Salotto (salotto.app)

JPNEWT (JPNEWT.com)

And our amazing venue Bluegrass Billiards has over 50 tables with incredible food and drinks and are open 365 days a year.

• What is your most memorable pool moment?

I have two

My 1st memorable pool moment involved my beautiful wife Mindy. Sept 4th, 2022 was our wedding day. Two months prior, Mindy and I both played in tournaments in the same weekend at a local bar. The tournaments and player auctions at this bar get crazy high dollar amounts. I won the open tournament on Friday night and Mindy won the ladies tournament the following night. We paid off 90% of our wedding in 1 weekend of playing pool.

My 2nd memorable pool moment was being the 1st player inducted into the APA Philadelphia Hall of Fame. While it might not be as prestigious as winning a US Open or a Mosconi Cup, the Hall of Fame was a voting process by the players in the League. And being voted as one of the best they have ever played against was truly an honor and something I will never forget.

• What goals do you have for your future, in or out of pool?

My future goal is to grow Pa Pro-Am Pool into a major US touring series that attracts top end players from all over the country.

• Anything else you want to add?

We are players who want to grow the pool community and give back as much as we can to a sport that has given so much to us. Players interested in playing or companies wishing to sponsor our tour can reach me at frankm@paproampool.com.