The Game In Question

I'm not going to explain the game of air hockey to you. If you don't know what I'm talking about then your childhood was horrendous and I fear what your social skills must be like.

If you really must have a demonstration, here is a video showing how it's done.



Moving on...

The air hockey game in question was held at the Total Sports Bar and Grill in Naperville as part of the Illinois State Lottery's "Be The Next Air Hockey Star" Chicago Blackhawks promotion.

The promotion consists of sixteen separate air hockey tournaments that award a $500 first place prize, along with a custom Blackhawks jersey.

The tournaments are free to enter, but have a entry cap of 32. So players wanting to play must sign up for the event by putting their name into a box and then hope that they one of the 32 drawn for the tournament--hey it's sponsored by the lottery, what do you expect?

If you do make it to the round of 32--sadly, your Windy City Rounder did not--you then face off in single elimination matches to two--until the finals which is played to five minutes or five points, whichever is shorter.

The night goes quick. And even though the air hockey ringers tend to complain about the format, I thought the event was really fun even though I didn't play.

Wait, Air Hockey Ringers?

Yeah you read that correctly, the event attracted four players I'd call air hockey ringers or, at very least, grinders.

Two of the players are featured in the video posted above--Micheal Yarbrough and Nick Harbacek--and are ranked nationally by the United States Air Table Hockey Association, or USAA.

The other two players are no slouches either, with one taking down a previous lotto tournament--Heather Brinkley--and the other--Brian Quezada--getting set to play in the finals of the Naperville tourney at the time of my interview with them.

Remember kids, next b-day at Chuck E. Cheese stay far away from these four

The four friends got started playing the game at around the same time, when, while a few of them were working in a bowling alley, they were exposed to the world of competitive air hockey by their boss.

They seemed really passionate about the game and were more than willing to discuss strategy and air hockey theory.

This bring me back, then, to the important question at hand: "is air hockey a hustling game?"

Like I said previously, air hockey has important hustling attributes like odds negotiation and mind manipulation. And, after speaking to the fearsome foursome who dominated the event I went to, I realized there are air hockey ringers--the fact they learned in a bowling alley also helps the game's cause in my mind.

The one problem I see with air hockey is failing the Bond Test--can you see James Bond playing the game?

"Air what?"

Other than baccarat and poker--games Bond actually plays in the movies--games like golf, pool, darts and backgammon all have a certain suave about them that makes them Bond games, i.e. hustling games.

You know what though, the Bond Test I think is outdated. I don't think one can argue that 007 would ever be seen hustling at bowling--a definite hustling game--and there are now a slew of skillful video games that people hustle--StarCraft, Halo, Madden, etc.--so I'm willing to say air hockey fits.

Because after all, air hockey does pass the most important test: "can hustlers make money off it?" 

Tournament Recap

The tournament wasn't very fair from the beginning.

On the one side you had the four air hockey rounders, sharing strategies and giving pep talks to each other before each match. On the other you had slightly intoxicated bar regulars, who, I'm going to guess, were mostly pressured into signing up for the event by their friends.

Needless to say, one of the foursome--Brian Quezada--won.

The $500 is great and all, but I bet he's most excited about getting the giant check

And so ended an interesting night of education for me. I guess I never really thought about it, but air hockey fits nicely alongside the other hustling games.

...now all I have to do is get decent at the game in order to make some money...and maybe some Chuck E. Cheese tokens.

Random Stuff

• The group of four I featured might have been the run away best players at the tournament, but the player with the most vocal support was the third place finisher who went simply by "Brain." That's right "Brain," as in the organ. His buddies were...let's say...a little bit under the influence of alcohol and die hardly rooted on their man until he went out in the semis. I can only hope "Brain" got his name from leading his group of friends, because I have no idea how they would have been able to get home without some sort of guidance...and a designated driver.  
  

• Interestingly enough, the air hockey ringers weren't the only hustlers at the tournament. An Afghanistan vet, recently discharged, was the last player to make it into the field and, after getting some guidance from the ringers, made it to the third round. The vet admitted to me that air hockey wasn't his game, pool was, stating that his best night's take for pool was around $8,000.

• After busting out of the event, Nick Harbacek, one of the ringers, went over to a faux boxing arcade game at the bar and hit the bag...he set the high score.

Okay, arcade boxing is definitely not a hustling game...at least I'm pretty sure

• Lastly, the Hawks actually won on the night of the tournament--Saturday. And in traditional Chicago sports fans fashion, many at the bar dismissed the win because the Blackhawks had to go into a shootout.