08/28/2026
A Little About Slate Tournaments
We’ve had a lot of great feedback on our recent 520 & Under tournament, and we thought it was a good time to share a little more about these events, what goes into putting them on, and why they’re an important part of what we’re building at Slate.
First and foremost, these are Slate tournaments.
They are a team effort involving our owners, management, staff and tournament team. Dave and Mike lead the day-to-day operations of Slate, while JD serves as our tournament director and brings his experience, relationships and passion for competitive pool to the events. Together, we work to create the best tournament experience we can for the players who walk through our doors.
Our goal is simple: create great competitive opportunities for players at different skill levels while delivering an event experience that feels professional from the moment you walk through the door to the final rack.
Putting on an event like this involves considerably more than putting names on a bracket.
There are tables to prepare, players to register and communicate with, eligibility to verify, matches to schedule, brackets to manage, streams to produce, commentary to coordinate, graphics to create, and a world class facility to operate.
And we’re proud to invest in making those things happen.
For our most recent 520 & Under, there was $7,400 in cash and prizes available to the field. We intentionally put meaningful money back into the players who compete in these events while continuing to invest in the resources required to put on a professional quality tournament.
But the impact goes beyond any one tournament.
Slate is a private billiard club focused on training, player development and competitive pool. We want to create an environment where players can come in, work on their game, compete against strong fields, learn from better players and see where their own game can take them.
That includes supporting junior players and the next generation of pool, supporting players developing their games, and supporting local players pursuing opportunities at the highest levels of the sport.
That’s what we’re trying to build.
Not just a place to play pool.
A place to get better. A place to compete. A place to connect. And a place to help grow the next generation of Minnesota pool.
We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who plays in these events, travels to Slate, watches the streams, provides commentary, volunteers, supports the players, or tunes in to watch some great pool.
And a special thank you to JD, Kindra, and everyone on the tournament team for the time, energy and passion they put into making these events happen. Running tournaments of this caliber is a tremendous amount of work, and we’re proud to have people who care this much about competitive pool working alongside the Slate team.
We also want to hear from you.
If you ever have a question about a Slate tournament, our membership, our facility or anything else we’re doing, please reach out directly to Dave, Mike or Chris. We’re always happy to have a conversation and make sure people have the information they need.
And if your business would like to support competitive pool and get involved with our growing livestream audience, we are now accepting tournament and livestream sponsorship opportunities. Reach out to Dave for more information.
We’re proud of what we’re building at Slate, and we’re just getting started.
Great tables.
Great competition.
Great people.
And a commitment to making pool in Minnesota better.
See you at the tables!
