"It's deja vu all over again."
APA 7 in 8-ball. League captain. USAPL Nationals competitor. Personally undefeated in 8-ball teams at Nationals. Listed officially as "Tautologist" in both APA and USAPL — because if you're going to have a ridiculous name, you should commit to it.
"I can't promise we'll win, but you'll have the most fun losing of any team you're on."
The Player
Playing pool one night, Elias made a comment about how cold it was. While lining up a shot, completely talking without thinking, I replied: "Tautology keeps no one warm." He stopped, stared at me for a solid three seconds, and said, "What the fuck does that even mean?!?!" I just busted out laughing. That's how I became internationally recognized as The Tautologist.
The name stuck because it's exactly who I am — someone who says profound-sounding nonsense with complete sincerity and then laughs when people try to parse it. Pool is a game of angles, precision, and relentless practice. But if you can't laugh at the table, you're doing it wrong.
My game is serious — APA 7, MVP in three disciplines, division plaques with every team I captain. I practice a minimum of 3 hours every day, I've read over 20 pool books, and I've watched more instructional videos than I can count. But I bring a relaxed energy that keeps my teammates loose and my opponents guessing.
The Tautologist has custom gloves, a custom bag, and matching t-shirts. I'm officially listed as "Tautologist" in both APA and USAPL member rosters. The merch is ridiculous. The results aren't.
If you're just getting started — welcome. I've read 20+ books, watched every Dr. Dave DVD, built data tools to track my progress, and I share all of it. Scroll down for book recommendations, drills, and everything I wish someone had handed me when I first picked up a cue. This game changed my life. I want it to change yours too.
Houston, Texas
Disciplines
15 balls, two groups, one 8-ball, and about a thousand ways to lose. The game is won in the planning — seeing three shots ahead, knowing when to play safe, and having the discipline not to shoot at everything. Most people think 8-ball is simple. Those people haven't played a 7.
Hit the lowest ball first. Pocket anything. Sounds easy until you scratch on the break and your opponent runs out in 45 seconds. 9-ball rewards aggression, punishes hesitation, and can end before you ever sit down.
9-ball's honest older brother. Same rotation rules, but you call your shot — no lucky slop counts. Every ball you pocket, you meant to pocket. The pros play 10-ball for a reason: it doesn't let you lie about how good you are.
Call every shot. Pocket 14, re-rack, keep going. The game Mosconi ran 526 balls in. Straight pool doesn't care about your break — it cares about your patience, your planning, and whether you can do the same thing right 100 times in a row.
Competition
Captain of 4 out of 5 teams. Every team has earned division plaques in the last 4 years. People don't stay on my teams because of the plaques — they stay because we laugh harder than any table in the room and genuinely love being there.
The world's largest amateur pool league, with 250,000+ members. APA uses the Equalizer handicap system — an SL7 racing to 5 against another SL7, or racing to 7 against an SL2.
Skill Level 7 is the highest rating in 8-ball, representing the top 2-5% of all APA players. SL7s regularly run out, play strong safeties, and control the table.
CueSports International's league system, using the Fargo Rating — the most statistically rigorous player rating system in pool. Teams compete across divisions with Fargo-based handicaps.
Highlights
Talk is cheap. Here's what actually happened.
Two trips to Vegas. 2025 at the Rio for 9-ball — won a match 31-17. 2026 at the Westgate for 8-ball — made the money round, top 64 nationally, had two break and runs on video, landed a jump shot that made the crowd react. You qualify all year for this. Then you walk into 300+ tables and play for real.
Zero losses. Every individual match I played in 8-ball team competition at USAPL Nationals, I won. Not the team record — my personal record. Every rack, every opponent, every time I sat down in the chair. Undefeated.
MVP in 8-ball, 9-ball, and 10-ball. Three different games, three different skill sets. 8-ball is chess. 9-ball is poker. 10-ball is both with a lie detector. Winning MVP in all three means you're not a one-trick player — you can adapt.
The highest rating in APA 8-ball. Out of 250,000+ members, roughly 2-5% ever get here. An SL7 sees the whole table — the run, the out, the safety if the run isn't there. Some people play league for a decade and never reach 7. It's not about talent. It's about the 3 hours a day.
I captain 4 of my 5 teams. Every single one has earned division plaques in the last 4 years. That's not luck — that's lineups, matchups, knowing your players, and building a team that wants to be there. The best captain isn't the best shooter. The best captain is the one whose team plays above their heads.
Traveled to the Puerto Rico Open, entered the amateur mini tournament, and came home with the win. When your cues go through customs, you know you're committed.
Team placed 3rd at the APA Midsouth Invitational alongside Lotus — pool is a family affair. Sledgehammer is a 2x APA MVP, The Soprano won MVP at her skill level in 9-ball, and Lotus was right there earning the 3rd place finish. Everyone at the table has a nickname.
Break the balls. Run every single one. Pocket the money ball. Opponent never leaves their chair. It's the cleanest thing you can do in pool — and it happened to be on camera. You always want witnesses for the ones that matter.
Philosophy
By day, I build data pipelines and analytics platforms for hospitals. By night, I apparently do the same thing for pool leagues. I can't help it.
I wrote automated scrapers that pull match schedules, team rosters, scoresheets, and player stats from APA and USAPL league APIs — three times a day. Every opponent's Fargo rating, win/loss history, and tendencies feed into Google Sheets that I can query before a match. I know your record against lefties. I know your innings-per-game trending up since October. I know you scratched on your last three breaks.
People think this is overkill. Those people haven't seen what happens when a data engineer decides to take pool seriously. If you can't measure it, you can't improve it — and I measure everything.
I also practice 3 hours a day minimum, I've read 20+ books, and I've watched every Dr. Dave DVD. The data tells me where to look. The practice makes me dangerous when I get there.
"Pool is 90 percent mental, 50 percent everything else. You're welcome."
— The Tautologist, Jun 2015
In His Words
"At Slick's today and a random guy asks to play. Three racks in he tells me how he learned to play pool during his 17 years in the penitentiary in Washington state. When I used the bridge on a shot, he looked like I had castrated myself with a dull spoon in front of him. Truly this game brings together people from all walks of life."
Mar 2025
"It's so funny how much of a mental game pool is. Someone suggested I go next door to get some coffee. 1 cup of coffee later I'm shooting lights out. Beat a guy almost 100 Fargo points higher than me. This is the power of coffee."
Mar 2024
"Feeling philosophical about today's loss. I didn't play my best, but objectively I shot very well. There were 3 different critical missed shots that were not automatic. I now have 3 shots that will occupy the next month of drills. Eyes forward. Incremental improvements. Positive energy. Never forget to have fun."
Feb 2024
"I can't promise we'll win, but you'll have the most fun losing of any team you're on."
Dec 2025 — Team recruiting
"Favorite pool compliment I've gotten in a while: 'You banked the fuck out of that 8 ball!' I widened the crossover bank angle and did a full inside curving draw shot that arced the cue ball out of the path. Shots like this just kill the soul of your opponent."
Mar 2024
"Improving your game is a daily grind that you don't see the progress on until suddenly you do."
Apr 2025
Family
Everyone at the table has a nickname. Everyone plays league. This is the squad — the people I'm proudest to share a scoresheet with.
APA SL7 • Captain • The Old Man
9-Ball MVP • My partner at the table and in life
Professional Singer & Pianist
2x APA MVP • Hits It Hard
Midsouth Invitational 3rd • The Quiet Assassin
Global
I don't pack light, but I always pack the cues. If there's a table, there's a game.
The cloth might be faster, the pockets might be tighter, and the guy at the next table might be speaking Korean — but the angles don't change. Walk into any pool hall on earth and you're home.
Study
20+ books read, countless DVDs watched. These resources changed my game the most.
The bible of pool fundamentals. Every shot you need to master, diagrammed and explained. If you read one pool book, read this one.
This book breaks down one pool shot per page into something easily understandable and repeatable. It shows a steady progression through learning how to make shots — from basic cuts and angles to complex position play and pattern sequences.
Each diagram is clean, each explanation is concise, and each shot builds on the last. It's the kind of book you work through with a table and a cue ball, not just read on the couch. By the time you finish, you've internalized 99 shots that cover virtually every situation you'll face in a game.
Get it on Amazon →By Freddy "The Beard" Bentivegna. The definitive guide to bank shots — book and DVD. Transformed my banking game from guesswork to geometry.
Freddy Bentivegna has an incredible depth of knowledge on how to execute every type of bank shot every way it can be done. The book includes charts showing how speed, spin, cut angle, cloth type, and rail composition all affect each shot differently.
The DVD companion brings it to life — watching Freddy demonstrate the principles at the table makes the charts click. Before this book, banking was feel and guesswork. After it, banking is geometry and physics with predictable outcomes.
If you want to be the player nobody wants to play a bank pool match against, this is the resource that gets you there.
Get it on Amazon →Dr. David Alciatore — Mechanical Engineering professor at Colorado State University. He's cheesy. He's also the best pool educator alive. I bought and watched every DVD he's made.
Dr. Dave has broken down every part of the game — the table, the cue, the stance, the stroke, the cloth, the rails — to bare physics and geometry. He shows how every individual piece affects every other part of the game using math, super slow-motion cameras, and repeatable science.
His Video Encyclopedia of Pool Shots (VEPS) is the most comprehensive catalog of pool shots and principles ever assembled. His "Illustrated Principles" videos each isolate one concept — tangent lines, collision-induced throw, squirt, spin transfer — and explain it with high-speed footage and diagrams until it clicks.
Most pool instruction is "feel this, do that." Dr. Dave explains why. If you're an engineer, a data person, or anyone who needs to understand the why before the how — this is your guy. Pool is physics. He proves it.
His book The Illustrated Principles of Pool and Billiards and his free resources at Colorado State University's billiards physics site are must-reads for any serious student of the game.
YouTube Channel →Gallery
Tournament wins, break and runs, division plaques, team photos, and pool tables on three continents. The laughs, the trophies, and the people who make it all worth it. Because talk is cheap.
View Gallery →