Company sponsored team competes in major Vegas tournament
Heading to Las Vegas is becoming somewhat of an annual routine for Hali Tackett, the inventory supervisor for our Stream-Flo Kilgore branch.
That’s because Tackett, along with Stream-Flo USA Administrative Assistant Silver Powell, are quite the pool players. Extremely talented pool players, to be exact.
The pair of Kilgore employees are part of a ladies 8-ball team called the Red Beard Fans (owing to their penchant for picking men with said facial hair) and recently returned from the APA World Pool Championships in Las Vegas after earning a spot there representing their East Texas region.
“I think we got in the top 129,” said Tackett. “I’ve been playing women’s pool league for right around four years and out of those four years I’ve qualified for the Vegas tournament three.”
The Red Beard Fans with Silver Powell, second from left, and Hali Tackett, centre, at the APA World Pool Championships.
Global competition
With 400-500 teams competing in the ladies 8-ball category at the tournament, finishing in the top 150 is certainly a great achievement, to say nothing of the skill it took to qualify.
“At the end of the session, basically like a season, there’s a big tournament and our team went undefeated to win a spot to play in Vegas,” explained Tackett.
Wearing their Stream-Flo branded jerseys, the Red Beard Fans were up against stiff global competition with teams from Canada, Japan, and China all attending what is one of the world’s largest pool tournaments.
Someone very close to Tackett was also there competing, her husband and Stream-Flo Service Technician Chris Voight.
“We actually met playing pool,” says Tackett. “My team played his team, and there was some trash talking that happened, and we had been friends for a while and then we finally decided that hey, let’s give it a shot.”
You might say it was Tackett’s — or Voight’s — best shot they ever took at the pool hall.
Asked if she’s a competitive person, Tackett is quick to respond “very” before she details what it takes to be as skilled as she is at the game.
“Lots of practice, lots and lots of practice,” she says, adding those like Leonhard Euler and Carl Gauss have a leg up when approaching the table for the first time.
“The angles, if you’re a mathematical person, you catch on so much faster than somebody who’s not.”
Hali Tackett lines up the angles as a tight grouping of balls poses a challenge at the APA World Pool Championships.
It will likely come as little surprise then that Tackett also admits to spending a lot of time working with spreadsheets, in sharp contrast to yours truly who can’t even remember the last time he opened up Excel (I had to look up those famous mathematicians referenced earlier).
Passion for pool runs deep at our Kilgore branch, with Tackett explaining two other ladies and a male also compete in the same league as her and Voight, both on teams together and against one another. Which can make for some interesting work dynamics.
Add in the Longview Wellboars (the two branches are but 18 minutes apart) and Tackett says all these activities outside the office or shop, have a major positive influence within them.
“I think it definitely helps everything flow better,” she said. “You’re not only coming into work every day and seeing these people on a professional basis, you’re developing personal relationships with them and I think that creates a better work environment.”
Tackett and Powell and the rest of the Red Beard Fans may find themselves back in Vegas sooner than usual as the tournament has moved its dates and corresponding qualifications up a month or so.
And you can bet the very competitive Tackett, will have her sights set on making it four out of five representing East Texas.
