‘Competitive, not cutthroat’ pool league thrives in Pahrump area

At first glance, The Hideaway on Pahrump Valley Boulevard seems an unlikely venue for competition. There are no bleachers, and indeed most spectators are other competitors waiting their turn.

There are no banks of floodlights illuminating the playing surface, and nobody objects to the fact that surface is artificial turf. The players are armed, but seldom does anyone use their weapons on rivals. And smoking not only is permitted but, apparently, enforced.

Welcome to the Pahrump Valley Pool League, which features a dozen teams representing six local bars with competitions over 22 weeks from early October through late March. On any given Wednesday, six matches are contested around town.

Darrell Strain is an enthusiastic pool player as well as the owner of The Hideaway and Arnie’s, two of the bars that have teams in the league.

“I’ve had this bar, as of Dec. 16, 10 years, and I think we started right away promoting pool,” Strain said at The Hideaway as three pool league matches were underway. “But I’ve had Arnie’s for 16 years Jan. 22, and I got right into the leagues as soon as I got here. There was only one league back then, just Sunday. And no 8-ball league, either.

“You get to introduce your bar to a bunch of new people that come from the other bars, and what you do after that is up to you and your staff. But you introduce your bar to a lot of new people over the years. It comes back to you.”

While it might be difficult to master cue sports, the game is fairly easy to learn, said Rachelle Ryba, who started playing this past winter because of her boyfriend, Dok Hembree, who also is responsible for getting her into horseshoes. Ryba said she did not do much since she moved to Pahrump until she met Hembree.

“In May it will be three years,” Ryba said. “I moved here from Cleveland. For a year and a half I didn’t do anything. I just sat in my apartment and took care of older people in an old-age home. I just hung out there, and Dok was visiting his mother one day and I met him, and we hit it off right away.

“He said, ‘Come on hang out with me. I throw horseshoes.’ I’m like, really? People throw horseshoes? So I went down and started throwing horseshoes, and then we went to the bar and he taught me how to play pool. And I love pool.”

Hembree and Ryba play for the Who’s Dunes team, which on this night was facing Strain’s team, one of six representing The Hideaway, on his home turf, or rather felt. But the schedule is a fair one.

“They’re probably playing at Arnie’s tonight, they might be playing at The Hubb tonight, and we’re playing here at The Hideaway,” Hembree said. “Throughout the season, we’ll split. So half the season they go to our bar, and the other half we go to all the other bars around.”

Hembree said he has played in the Pahrump league for three or four years but had played in Las Vegas for almost 15 years before that. Two of his teammates have longer histories with the game.

“I learned how to play pool in remote Alaska,” Ron Oakes said. “You had two choices: You could count those 8 x 8 squares up in the ceiling — there’s 832 of them — or you could go down to the rec hall, because there was always somebody there.

“I was at Unalakleet for a year, and then I was at Kotzebue for a year. Two remote tours in 20 years in the Air Force.”

Curtis Weske also played while in the military, although the location was not quite as exotic.

“When I was in the military 30-some years ago in Kansas, I played in a pool league,” Weske said. “I was out of it for over 30 years. Went to the Who’s Dunes one afternoon on my way home and I saw a sign that said pool league, and I thought, well, let’s try it again.”

How did a veteran who played pool while serving in Alaska and another who played pool in Kansas 30 years ago wind up playing together at The Hideaway? Long-lost relatives and team roping, as it turns out.

“My wife is adopted, and she found that she had a sister who was married to another guy in the Navy,” Oakes explained. “They never lived close together, so we moved here so she could get to know her sister. I said, ‘We’ll stay here for a couple of years and then move some place I can do some hunting and fishing.’

“That was 13 years ago.”

“My main hobby is team roping,” said Weske, who has lived in Pahrump for 14 years. “This was a place I could find horse property. I bought 10 acres up here, I got some cattle, I got some horses, and I team rope.

“I lived in Henderson, and I used to come out to Stewart Valley to a friend’s house and team rope. As I came out here every weekend, I finally found a place out here and I still commute back and forth to work.”

That’s an example of what Hembree likes today: It’s an activity for anyone.

“Everybody plays pool, it’s not just pool hustlers or something like that,” he said. “It’s guys that are in construction. Darryl, who owns the bar, plays here. I’m a sign painter, I play. There’s mechanics that play. Everybody’s welcome to play and join a team.”

That includes the substitutes. In a friendly league, if a player plans to be away for a week it’s not an issue to put a substitute in the lineup to replace him. That’s what brought Becky Hawk to The Hideaway.

“I haven’t shot in months. I’m just subbing tonight,” said Hawk, who has been a Pahrump resident for 13 years after 17 years of living in Las Vegas after moving to Nevada from Utah. “I’m always here. I’m the cheerleader. They sent me a text and said we’re going to need you to sub. That was at 5 o’clock, and here I am.

“They’re still going to love me next week. They probably won’t ask me to sub again for a while, but they’ll still love me next week.”

And how did Hawk come to join the league? “Rachelle.” Of course.

They do keep score, and much like golf, there is a handicapping system in place to keep individual games competitive.

“It goes from 1 to 10 how they list the players on the caliber of how well they shoot,” Hembree explained. “Girls start automatically at three, guys start automatically at four. As you play your games, the more you win your rate goes up. I’m shooting right now at 7. I was an 8 at the beginning of the season. You lose a few too many games, and you move down. You win a lot of games, you move up. I’d much rather be an 8 than a 4 any day.”

“The handicap makes it fair for everybody,” Strain said. “The 9-ball isn’t handicapped and you can kind of load up a team, you might say. We try not to in 8-ball. Everybody’s gets assessed, and if you’re numbers are too high you’re going to give the other team points.”

That might be one reason the 8-ball league is more popular than the 9-ball league.

“I’m way more busy on Wednesdays,” Strain said.

His bars could get more busy, as Ryba wants to break off and form her own team. “All girls,” she said.

Recruiting players shouldn’t be hard, even if she can’t get current players to leave their teams and join her feminist collective.

“The concept is easy,” Ryba said of pool. “It’s a tricky thing. It’s harder than it looks. I find that the guys who are good at horseshoes are good at pool and good at darts. It’s the hand-eye coordination. Dennis (Andersen) came down from horseshoes yesterday and played pool with us at Who’s Dunes, and he beat me three games in a row. And Mark (Kaczmarek) from horseshoes will come and play pool with us during the summer, and he’s very good as well.”

Plus, as she noted, it’s “competitive but not cutthroat.” Friendly competition seems to be the league motto.

“I love shooting pool,” Oakes said. “I have a table at home. I enjoy it a lot. I’d like to be a lot better, but this is the place to improve your skills. It’s a fun sport. Nobody takes it too seriously.”

“It’s the camaraderie. meeting new people, interacting with people,” Hawk said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

“Everybody’s just friendly,” Weske added. “It’s a good time, laugh, have fun. It’s competitive, but it’s a fun atmosphere just to get out of the house. This place, The Hideaway, they have three teams here so all the tables are busy. Our little place, Who’s Dunes, is like a family bar. It’s kind of small, and you get to know everybody who goes in there.”

The Who’s Dunes team wasn’t quite good enough on this night at The Hideaway. Hembree won all four of his games, and Oakes and Weske each won three out of four, but even though Strain was the only player on the home side to sweep his matches The Hideaway team came out on top.

As Ryba said, “We lost, but we had a blast.”

Contact Sports Editor Tom Rysinski at trysinski@pvtimes.com On Twitter: @PVTimesSports