Take an NFL touchdown celebration, add some world-wresting braggadocio and a dash of hip-hop bravado, and there you have the atmosphere at the Professional Domino Assn. kickoff tournament Saturday in Los Angeles.
Facing off in pairs were 70 of what had to be the most confident people in America. Good-natured trash was talked, reputations made, egos deflated and champions unseated as the tiles were slammed to the tables with in-your-face triumph and spectacular bluffing.
Saturday's was the first tournament in a 12-city tour set up by the association, each with a $30,000 purse. The association, the brainchild of former music executive Jay King, aims to turn one of the world's most popular games from a picnic-and-party pastime into a high-stakes spectator sport. King, the association commissioner, is calculating that his events will do for dominoes what televised tournaments have done for poker.
ESPN Deportes, the Spanish-speaking arm of the network, is counting on it. The network is confident that it can create international interest in the game.
"We want to give it a national platform and beyond," said Lino Garcia, general manager of ESPN Deportes. "We think it could be a real groundswell -- start on the Spanish-language side and then catch fire. We did it for poker, and we think we can do it for dominoes too."
Dressed in a dark suit, King prowled between the tables at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton on Saturday, arranging the division match-ups, settling disputes and celebrating with the winners. The only drawback to the endeavor, he said, is that he cannot play in his own tournaments.
"I'm the greatest dominoes player to play the game," he said. "It would be like giving myself money."
King plays dominoes every day. Sometimes he does not leave his Northridge home at all -- or get out of his pajamas before competitors show up for a match.
He is not alone. Ask any sampling of players at the tournament what they did yesterday and the day before: It was dominoes and dominoes.
When he's not playing, Corey Triggs of Sacramento said he works as a carpenter. "But I do have a life," he said as his domino buddies nodded in agreement. "Sometimes we'll all stop playing, leave the house and go get something to eat. Then we can pull out the dominoes, like at Denny's, and play while we're eating."
