SPM Billiards Magazine Issue 32

Mary Avina Goes on Tour Her Story

By Kat Day

Mary Avina at the US Women's Snooker Open

Photo by Sandro Menzel

Mary Avina is a 29-year-old Trick Shot artist, Snooker Player, Pool player and instructor, and more. It has been a pleasure to get to know her and interview her on SPM TV and for this article in SPM Magazine! Mary has thrived in her entrepreneurial billiards career. Mary has been on the road for the last few weeks traveling to Canada for the Predator Pro Billiard Series Canada Open (WPBA) and then to Seattle for the first US Women’s Snooker Tournament and then instructing and on to the Texas Open.

Only eight players remained at the inaugural US Women’s Snooker Open, and Mary Avina was one of them!

“I was incredibly proud to represent the USA at the US Women’s Snooker Open 2022... 5-8th or quarterfinalists, as the English would say. However, the practical pro in me cares far more about the game than the money, no matter what you call it. I’m incredibly happy about the outcome of my first snooker tournament ever.” States Mary Avina in a recent post on Facebook.

While in Canada, Avina had the opportunity to give some instruction to Blake Holmes!

Mary states, “Yes, teaching coaching is satisfying because I’m sharing my love and expertise of the game with the world. A winwin for everybody. It feels great to guide someone to a higher level of performance.

Then when someone I have guided does well as Blake did, it shows me that my efforts were well spent. It’s a fantastic feeling of satisfaction of a job well done.”

Mary also played at the Predator Pro Billiard Series Canada Open. She is now at the Texas Open on her home turf and is currently playing in the Women’s 9-ball tournament. So far, Mary is winning with a 7-2 victory against Christy Grigsby and will soon be playing Crystal Jones. Mary went to the

loser’s side, winning 7-1 against Juli Bloom. “I was not in a great frame of mind to come to the Texas Open. The Texas Open is a super difficult event. Outstanding and notable players all show up to play. That said, I had a couple of fantastic matches that I played awesomely. Unfortunately, I also had some not-so-great matches. In the end, I was one match out of the money. I needed more time to recover. There is always next year,” states Mary Avina.

Mary took the time to answer some questions for me, and here they are:

Tell me about your experience at the Canada Predator Pro Series event. What is the next WPBA event you see yourself playing in?

It was an extension of the joy I have been feeling since my first WPBA event, The Billiard Expo. I’m incredibly fortunate that the female pros I grew up watching are now my opponents.

The next WPBA events I’m supposed to play are Predators Battle Creek Michigan this month. Then the next month, the Helena Memorial “The Sledgehammer Open” at Borderline Billiards.

You placed 5th in the First US Women’s Snooker tournament in the United States. Are you looking forward to playing more events, and if so, will you be traveling to the UK?

Yes, and yes. It is just a matter of when, while I’m already invited to play Snooker all over the world, I don’t feel comfortable doing that till I can put in a lot more proper training. I want to represent the USA in the best light.

Describe your experience so far going on a 2-week tour, and what did you get out of all of it?

About the playing, the Snooker was far more satisfying. The NPR interview promoting Snooker was fantastic. That and finishing well also was deeply satisfying.

Does your pool training interfere with your training for Snooker?

No, not at all. I learned many years ago as a kid, when I used to play Snooker for money, how to balance Snooker and pool. The big training problem I have now is not having a snooker table nearby to train for the many daily hours necessary to compete at the highest level.

How do you see yourself proceeding in the future and WPBA events?

I approach all Pro and Open events the same way. The way I learned it as a kid from the Filipinos. You train a lot, then train more, then more. Show up and do your best if you do that enough times. Good things happen.

Career:

How many hours are you spending per day to perfect your game now and at the beginning?

In Year one, I did about 7 hours a day, rarely taking a day off. Nowadays, I do at least a couple of hours daily, assuming I’m not on the road teaching or competing. I still do sevenhour sessions while working on a specific part of my game.

Mary Avina

Photo by The Sparrow

At what age did you turn professional, and when did you begin entering tournaments and earning money from the game?

People began to call me professional from year one since I was winning almost every time and making money playing for money. So, I guess I was a part-time pro. Every year more and more people decided I was professional. By my measure, I became professional in 2013 because that’s the year I started to make all my living entirely from billiards. I was 20 years old.

You are obviously far more well-rounded than most professional pool players, with being the best female at trick shots, top at teaching billiards, Snooker, and now playing professional 9-ball. Can you tell how and in what order this came about?

So, I first Mastered Bar Box 8-Ball in Southern California. Then I moved to a small town

called Cambria on the central California coast, where on 10x5 Snooker, I played over a thousand money games in just over a year.

When I moved back to Southern California for a minute, I made a living playing small 8-Ball tournaments. I paused when I got my first billiard table, a 100-year-old Brunswick 10x5 snooker table. I put the table together myself and was so happy; it was a dream come true. In Riverside, CA, in a second-story apartment, alone practicing all day, I mastered the masse. I did not leave my house for over three months. I mastered trick shots by breaking regular cues and making trick shot cues.

After I finally left my house in the quest to find the star for a movie I wrote, instead drama found me. This unforeseen online troll and hater drama drove people to my trick-shot videos and website. Overnight I was told I was a billiard celebrity. New opportunities came. Like paid exhibitions all over the country, a new money backer, selling

Mary Avina

Photo by The Sparrow

billiard products, and so on. All this led to me relocating to Texas, where I live comfortably.

In 2013, I gave my first official lessons here in Texas, and I have not stopped. I have also sold 10s of thousands of instructional DVDs. I did this for years until right before the pandemic. I began to play pro and open 9-Ball tournaments. The Women’s Professional Billiard Association WPBA noticed me this year and asked me to play, and there you go...

So, in order of Mastery, Bar-box 8-Ball, 10 x 5 Snooker, Trick Shots, Products, Teaching, and now I’m working on pro-9-Ball.

Who shaped you and mentored you along the way in your billiard career?

My stepfather was not a pool player but a businessman. He was by far my most significant influence early on. His practical, no-nonsense life and business values shaped me, including my early approach to billiards.

Now for billiards, I rejected most want-to-be teachers and mentors. As I take mentorship seriously, most players don’t meet my strict standards. That was until I became part of the Filipino pack at Hard Times Bellflower, the most hardcore Billiard Room in the Southern California billiard scene. I met and became friends with many like-minded players, Jun Almoite, Efren Reyes, Francisco Bustamante, and so on. As a group, they had a far more practical approach to how to carry yourself as a billiard pro and how to make money from it. From them, I learned the most.

Over time, you’ve managed to generate a business from your love of playing billiards. How did you go about achieving this?

I followed simple steps. For instance, every business decision had to have a logic or need outside of myself. It had to serve a customer, an audience, or a service. In other words, one

must provide more value than what is given. I always aim for high-quality exchanges where both sides benefit. Careful straightforward steps strung together create great results.

You’ve been involved in teaching and mentoring students who, like yourself, share a love of the game. What do you enjoy most about teaching students and sharing your skills and talent? Have any of your students gone onto the professional circuit and earned a living from the game like yourself?

I enjoy teaching most in video form because I can reach far more people. I have reached millions that way. I love the idea of positively benefiting the most people possible.

Teaching one person at a time is great too. Most of my live students are leaders in their group, usually a billiard league or organization. What I teach them, they use to guide others. That is deeply satisfying on many levels.

Yes, pros come to me occasionally. That said, working with a high-level player is minimal teaching, instead is coaching. Coaching is a different endeavor from teaching since it mainly deals with the mental side. Sports psychology is very satisfying because you’re taking someone who is already an amazing performer and helping them with their mental hurdles to achieve a superhuman level of performance.

You are magnificent in dealing with haters in person and online trolls. Did this come to you naturally, or is this something anyone can learn?

That skill took years to learn. It was a process. Yes, most people can get good at it. The first time I was unjustifiably attacked online, I was devastated. It broke my heart. But with much effort and life playing out like the movie Groundhog Day, I got better and better. In-person and online alike. Initially, I

Mary Avina

Photo by Scenic Photography

53had to learn to let go and understand that it is not personal. Most haters have not met the person they are attacking, so how can it be personal? Frustrated and unhappy people like to spread their misery. One does not have to share in it. Also, they tend to dry up if you ignore most invalid attentionseeking negative comments. In other words, I consciously feed positive action and starve the negative.

What’s your most outstanding billiard achievement to date?

For me is that I make a living playing billiards. In the beginning, I was mocked by many about my billiard goals. Many people were extraordinarily negative; they did and said horrible things. That negativity got weaker

and weaker as I inched forward little by little. It feels good overcoming such a prevalent opposing force.

Future

Do you have any big unfulfilled billiard aspirations or goals? What are they?

There are two big billiard goals I have not accomplished. To have my own billiards room. I was close twice. One as a kid and one recently. That said, I’m not in a hurry to do this. I have a lot of billiard life ahead of me. The second is to direct the billiard movie I wrote when I was a kid. When I was deeply in love with billiards. Sadly, that’s when I received my first dose of online hate. I was heartbroken, so the movie project was put

Mary Avina with Sakura Muramatsu Womens Champion of the Texas Open 2022

Photo by The Sparrow

on the shelf. It’s the closest I came to quitting billiards. I would love to overcome and film it one day.

Are there any major tournaments you would like to win?

The Texas Open and not just the women.

What players do you see as the future of billiards? Who are the players to keep an eye on?

For whom to watch on the already pro-level side, I say April Larson “The Grinder” and Kristina Tkach. They will give us pro greatness joy for many years to come. Now, there are so many great young players coming up. The two that stand out most in my mind are Savannah “The Road Runner” Easton and Sofia Mast “Pink Dagger.” They are part of the bright future of our sport.

Like Jeanette Lee “The Black Widow,” you are an inspirational story to little

girls and women coming up in the game. How seriously do you take this new and future responsibility as a role model?

I take being a role model to young women extremely seriously. Like in showing that once the match is over, it is time to drop the competition aggression. It is time to be supportive of each other. Cooperate. Follow and support each other’s endeavors. Don’t be the naysayer. Be the supporter or doer. I strive to inspire with my actions, as actions speak louder than words.

Mary would also like to give a special Thank You to all her sponsors:

Mary Avina at the Texas Open

Photo by The Sparrow

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