We’ve flipped the calendar to December and shaken the cobwebs off our wool coats—clear signs that pool season in Las Vegas is a distant memory … or is it? This week, pool season returns exclusively to Mandalay Bay, site of the 24th annual Mosconi Cup. Now, before you grab your shades and slather on the sunscreen, we should clarify that the pool to which we’re referring involves a piece of rectangular green felt, not a manmade body of water.
Named in honor of late billiards legend Willie Mosconi, the Mosconi Cup is a four-day pool tournament pitting America’s top nine-ball players against their counterparts from Europe. Employing a format similar to golf’s Ryder Cup, the two five-man teams square off in a series of singles and doubles matches, with the winner earning bragging rights for roughly an entire hemisphere.
If you want to see billiards played at an exceptionally high and intense level—or, you know, the complete opposite of every game you’ve ever played at the corner bar on a Saturday night—grab a ticket and root, root, root for your home team.
Mandalay Bay, 11 a.m. Dec. 4-7, starting at $48 plus tax and fee. 800.745.3000 Ticketmaster
