from phillyvoice.com FEBRUARY 17, 2015
Stephen Abbonizio was 13 when he first played pool.
He lingered in the back and watched, scene by scene — ball-tap by ball-tap — as his father shot stick with a bar-side pal at Bumpers Bar. Quickly, he realized something that would later be essential to his adult life: This was exciting.
“I found myself rooting for him, and I was suddenly like, ‘Yeah, I want to do this,'” Abbonizio told PhillyVoice.com.
So, he followed in his father’s footsteps and signed up for a league: He first joined Philly’s American Poolplayers Association league in 2008 and, for the past two years, has been joining seven teammates as representatives for Buffalo Billiards. But Abbonizio’s a bit of an anomaly as a pool player in an Internet-driven age: He’s young (28), plays seriously (he hopes to win a tournament-awarded trip to Vegas) and can spot a poorly kept pool table a mile away (don’t you dare sit your drink on that felt). He’s a rare find in an age when, if you ask the average teenager to play a round, they’ll likely whip out a smartphone and tap a billiards app.
Read more at phillyvoice.com