Left to right: Joe “Ball Breaker” Vidmar second place, Dick “Pocket Blocker” Dunbar third place, Mike “The Lip” Collins first place not pictured.
Joe Giammarino
The Pool Players of The Brooke Billiards Club (PPB) held their 2026 Ladder Competition with 13 PPB Members participating. Tony “The Snake” Cardillo implemented and administered the PPB Ladder competition. The main reason for this competition was to increase head–to–head competition within the PPB Billiard Club. Each challenge on the ladder was a race to four 8-ball match. The Ladder started on Sept. 15, 2025, and ran until April 3 with the playoffs held on April 7.
The participants were Joe “Ball Breaker” Vidmar, Dick “Pocket Blocker” Dunbar, Mike “The Lip” Collins, Jerry Savage, Dick “The Visor” Titus, Jim Langseth, Russ “Longshot” Doering, Jim Samlaska, Lowell “8-Ball” Hegg, Tom Walter, Randy “Nice Try” Smith, Mark Erwin, and, Steve “the leave” Wiley. When the ladder competition ended, Mike Collins, Joe Vidmar, and Dick Dunbar were the top three finishers in the regular season competition. These three competed in a playoff to determine the final positions and prizes for the 2026 ladder. The format of the ladder playoffs was a double elimination race to two 8-Ball.
Final Results: 1st: Mike “The Lip” Collins 9 wins 5 losses, 2nd: Joe “Ball Breaker” Vidmar 7 wins 8 losses, 3rd: Dick “Pocket Blocker” Dunbar 1 win 4 losses.
The PPB thanks Tony Cardillo for his efforts and all the participants for joining in the fun of head- to-head competition. Congrats to Mike “The Lip” Collins! Rack’em up!