Derby City Classic

The Derby City Classic is an annual pocket billiard convention held every January at the Horseshoe Southern Indiana casino in Elizabeth, Indiana near Louisville, Kentucky. It is eight days long and offers various disciplines of pocket billiard competitions for pool players of all caliber. It is often referred to as the DCC.

The annual convention has been in existence since 1997. Diamond Billiard Products, manufacturer of Diamond-brand pool tables, the official table of the US Open Nine-ball Championship, is the title sponsor of the event, and the lead tournament promoter is Greg Sullivan. Over $100,000 is added to the tournament payouts. Sullivan was inspired to create the DCC by the Johnston City Classic, a former one-pocket tournament held in Johnston City, Illinois and first organized in 1961 with the purpose of bringing America's top pool gamblers together.

During the eight-day-long convention, competition is held consecutively in three major disciplines, bank pool, nine-ball, and one-pocket. According to Sullivan, "I made it where you're a sucker if you didn't enter." All tournaments are "buyback" competitions in which players can buy their way back in after being first eliminated; matches are races to three sets, much shorter than standard matches; and the entry fee for a tournament is less than that for a spectator's ticket. An All-Around Champion title is awarded each year to an individual player who participates in all three disciplines, and is determined by an ascending point scale and high quality of play, with a prize of $25,000.

The late "St. Louis" Louie Roberts, a legendary American player known for entertaining style of play and high-stakes gambling action, is memorialized by the annual Louie Roberts A&E Award, which stands for "action and entertainment". This is a contest attendees of the event vote, and the pool player who displays the most action and entertainment a la Roberts each year wins this award and is thereafter granted lifetime free entry to the Derby City Classic, including a free room at the Horseshoe's hotel during the event.

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