THE SUNDAY AFTERNOON I WILL NEVER FORGET!

If you are a pool player or have followed the billiard world at all, you may be asking yourself, who is Steve Rau? This article is lengthy but explains a whole lot.

There was a day in July of 2022 that I will never forget! In fact, it was July 24th. It was the start of something special that I did not see coming at all. Let me explain a few things that happened to me leading up to that day. In early June, I was driving on the expressway, and I saw a billboard that caught my attention. It was an advertisement for the WPBA (Women’s Professional Billiards Association) going to be at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort in Mount Pleasant, MI. As I passed by the billboard, fond memories came to mind from when my brother-in-law, Eric Anderson, and I attended our first WPBA event at The Shark Club in Canton, MI, in 1997. Sadly, it was also the last. (Not because we didn’t enjoy ourselves; in fact, we had an absolute blast!) We were able to meet some of the female pro pool players and got some of their autographs, which we still have to this day, 26 years later—even had an opportunity to play against them! I remember my opponent. I played Loree Jon Jones. I heard about her being a contestant and winning on the Price is Right game show from people in the crowd, so I thought that was cool to have played against her. Eric ended up playing Allison Fisher, I believe. As the event went on, we watched Jeanette Lee and Allison Fisher play in the final. It was intense. You could cut the tension with a knife.

So, back to early June 2022, when I saw the billboard. I knew that I was going to attend the Soaring Eagle Masters event—no doubt about it. I couldn’t wait to call Eric to see if he wanted to go. We decided to go on Sunday, July 24th, because we wanted the opportunity to watch the final again. We made plans to go, but unfortunately, Eric had to back out. I found myself thinking that I still wanted to go but didn’t really want to go by myself. That Sunday morning, I woke up and got ready for church. The thought of going to the event was waning a little. After church, a group of us went out to lunch. We went to Hardee’s. As we were eating, I kept checking the time. I was quickly approaching the time that I needed to leave to make it to Soaring Eagle. It was about 75 miles away. At lunch with me was my mom. We were talking about them from the 1997 tournament was that Kelly was from the U.K. and dominating in snooker during those years, and Jasmin was from Austria and hadn’t started professionally competing until 2002. I read as much as I could about them both before the start of the final. what each of us was going to do that day. I told her of Eric and I’s plans to go to the tournament, and since Eric couldn’t go, I was thinking about not going. She said, “Well, I will go with you.” I replied, “Sounds good,” and away we went.

I am so glad we did! I walked into the auditorium where the tournament was being played. I found a tournament bracket and began to read the list of players trying to catch up on all the action from the week. I was looking for familiar names from the 1997 tournament but sadly only recognized 2 or 3 of them. Allison or Jeanette was not there. I heard an announcement made that Margaret Fefilova had just taken third place. I was relieved that I arrived in time to watch the final. I saw that in the final was going to be Jasmin Ouschan against Kelly Fisher. (And no, I did not think Kelly and Allison were sisters. Lol.)

To be honest, I had never heard of Jasmin or Kelly, so I googled their names. I quickly learned the reason that I had not heard of

As I was sitting there in anticipation, I began to observe the auditorium. I was watching the fans and their interactions. I noticed details about the video production, the lighting, sound, the personnel working, and so on. Idea after idea was coming to me. I couldn’t help it. I remember the thought, why is all of this jumping out to me? As the announcer introduced Jasmin and Kelly prior to their match, I watched Kelly walk in and immediately found myself drawn to her. Not in some awkward or inappropriate, strange way, just something about her that I couldn’t explain. The best way to describe it now was I felt like I had known her my whole life. There was something about her that resonated with me and had no explanation for—literally seeing her for the first time ever.

The match began, and a battle ensued. It was a race to 10 in 9 ball. Match after match, back and forth was the wins and losses stacking up. Just when I thought one would run away with victory, the other would rally back and take the lead. Ultimately, Jasmin prevailed. After the match, I had the opportunity to meet Margaret, Kelly, Jasmin, and a few others.

To speed up this long story, two months later, I ended up attending the Predator Pro Billiard Series tournament in September 2022 in Battle Creek, MI. My brother-in-law was able to go with me this time. We had such a good time. Interestingly, though, all those ideas came back to me from the WPBA event, along with more ideas. I leaned over to Eric when we were waiting for the final to begin and said to him, “I felt very strongly about sharing my ideas with someone.” Whether they would do anything with the ideas didn’t matter so much to me. Just felt I needed to tell someone.

Now, to be transparent, I do have event and marketing experience from my time working in Pro Wrestling as a promoter and marketer and the projects that I have been involved in over the last 6 years with the TV stars from the hit iconic show, The Dukes of Hazzard. However, these ideas and observations from attending these two billiard events hit me differently.

Prior to the final match beginning, I ended up meeting and sharing some ideas with someone from the WPBA and CSI. (Cue Sports International). I shared briefly about my background and a few of my ideas. I had sparked some interest and left the tournament that day having a great time. I ended up getting my picture taken with Kelly and her opponent in the final, Wei Tzu Chien. That was quite the battle as well. It ended up in a shoot-out, and Kelly prevailed.

Five months later, in early February 2023, an opportunity to speak with Kelly Fisher had been reached. Leading up to that call, I thought that if there were to be a person to speak more about my ideas, it should be with the #1 ranked woman in the world. As our conversation began and I told her about my life, business background, and a few of my ideas, I was eagerly and nervously awaiting her response.

As she began to ask me questions and tell me a little about herself, I was so happy and relieved she seemed to show genuine interest. As our talk progressed, I sensed that we had a like-mindedness. Some of my ideas were sitting right with her. She said she wasn’t sure if some of the ideas would work, but ultimately, the conversation continued, which was the start of something special. We entered into a conversation about me becoming her manager. To say I was thrilled about the prospect was an understatement.

Months later, and after numerous conversations, we reached an agreement for me to become her manager. I was high as a kite. I couldn’t wait to get started! One of the pleasant surprises for me in all of this was the conversation we had about me becoming the manager for Wei Tzu Chien, too. In part, the words of legendary baseball player Lou Gehring come to mind: “Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth,” resonated with me. These two are wonderful human beings, and I am going to work hard to make a lot of opportunities happen for them. I am hoping that my contributions can help promote the sport at large to new audiences. I am excited for our future. We have implemented some ideas but still have much more work to be done.

I want to take this opportunity to announce something special that is coming out very soon. One of my ideas was to create theme songs for them. We could use the songs for social media posts, TV advertisements, special events, etc. Wei Wei’s new theme song was shared on social media not too long ago, and Kelly’s will be debuting for the first time very soon. It is a great song that I feel fits her perfectly. Every lyric of the song hits home to the fact that she truly is a champion on and off the table. I cannot wait for you to see it! We will be announcing soon on our social media page on Facebook at facebook.com/ steverauprobilliards when it will come out. Keep an eye out for it! In a short amount of time, our new Facebook page has reached just under 8,000 followers. We greatly appreciate it.

Lastly, I want to report about the recent success Kelly Fisher has experienced by taking first place at both the 2023 Predator Pro Billiard Series tournament in Battle Creek, Michigan, and the WPBA Iron City Billiards II tournament in Birmingham, Alabama. Both of those matches were intense, to say the least. In Michigan, Chou battled hard and forced an extra set, and in Alabama, Fefilova was on point the entire match. Kelly had to dig deep. She had to make some incredible shots despite the immense pressure that was there.

Wei Tzu Chien finished in fourth place in Michigan and Alabama. She played very well and competed at a high level. In both events, she narrowly missed opportunities that would have put her in the final undoubtedly.