January 4th, 2010 Smashing Time’s Ron Hamilton won $50,000 and his second consecutive WSOBP championshipin Las Vegas. The media blitz is finally over and we were able to catch up with him last week. Here’s what he had to say…

BPN - Without winning back-to-back WSOBP’s what would Ron Hamilton be doing today?

Ron Hamilton - I would probably be doing the same thing I am doing every day since getting back from the world series this year… Looking for a full time job asap, because I am in contract of getting a loan to buy a house with my fiancé and I was fired from my job in the middle of getting the contract for the loan because I had surgery on my knee and could not work.

BPN - Other than Smashing Time, who is the best beer pong team in the nation, in your opinion?

Ron Hamilton - There are no considered “best” beer pong teams in the nation, I feel that on any given day anyone can beat anyone. Whoever is hot that game takes it down and there are a ton of teams out there and I will name a few and if I happen to leave anyone out sorry guys… Get your popcorn ready, hand jobs for the homeless, God Given, Not Even Close, Since Slice Bread, Doing Hella Much, We Own Your Face, Ask About Us, etc…

BPN - Who is the better beer pong player, you or Pop?

Ron Hamilton - Well you ask anyone this question on a team they are going to say themselves, but here’s the deal… We complement each other in the sense that when 1 of us is off in a game, the other 1 is 100% on and cannot miss. But when we are BOTH on.. Its game over. Pop is more consistent, but I get in people’s heads and get them to miss big shots, and I feel that over the last 3 WS I have been more clutch in a pressure situations when the time is needed, but all in all Pop play’s as much as I did back in the mid 2000’s and as of right now I play maybe 10 times a year. So right now he’s raking as I used to myself, but when things get heated and we fight and we play against each other 1 on 1 or whatever, he knows just as well as I know that it’s going to be a dog fight till the last cup in no OTs or 10 OTs.

BPN - What does your 2010 tournament schedule look like? Anything you are looking forward to?

Ron Hamilton - Well our sponsors WorldGaming.com have agreed to be on board with Smashing Time for the 2010 schedule and we will be competing in as many big tournaments as possible. As of right now we are slated to play the Atlantic City Championships for 50k prize pool put on by Worldpongtour.com

BPN - What does the future hold for the sport of beer pong?

Ron Hamilton - I think the future of beer pong will be very good in the sense that I think it will blow up just like the World Series Of Poker did. I think the prize pool will be going up. I think it will attract more mainstream big time sponsors to the sport. As I stated last question that our sponsors for the WSOBP V, Worldgaming.com are getting involved with us Smashing Time and I feel as if this is just the tip of the iceberg for future sponsors to come. Once sponsors like our WorldGaming.com taste and see what a beer pong tournament or individual beer pong team can do for their company by being the big time advertisement for their products or website, I think more companies will jump on board. As long as people keep taking the videos of us or any team and pictures and placing them on various websites, companies or websites will see it would be a good source of advertisement to maximize their products they are trying to sell. Our sponsors WorldGaming.com are not even in the beer pong atmosphere, they are a website that mainly is in the direct area of mainstream video gaming and that gives console gamers the chance to win real money playing video games. Combining a passion for technology with an obsession with fairness, WorldGaming.com is built on a promise to give users the best possible gaming experience on the web. So they took a chance on us to help promote their website and what they are about and I think we did them well, so I see the sport of beer pong growing in sponsorship from mainstream products hopefully very soon.

BPN - In 10yrs how big should the WSOBP grand prize be? And will you still be playing?

Ron Hamilton - In 10 years hopefully the WSOBP grand prize will be 500,000 to 1 million dollars… Hopefully, and yes I will continue playing AND winning till there is no more money to be made.

BPN - What is the coolest thing that winning back-to-back championships at the WSOBP has enabled you to do?

Ron Hamilton - Well winning back to back championships at the WSOBP will hopefully in the near future enable me to get more money from bigger sponsors in the future. Like I stated before it’s a good way for companies to advertise and by Smashing Time’s continued success it just adds to the resume for potential sponsors down the road. Yeah we get interviewed a lot, and yes the money is great, but I wanna blow up big time in the sense of sponsorship opportunities like monster energy drink or something on those lines. Like those guys who snowboard, or surf, and get tons of money for being on board with an energy drink company or such.

BPN - Any thing you would change about the WSOBP or their rules?

Ron Hamilton - After winning 2 years in a row at the WSOBP, I wouldn’t change a thing.. lol

BPN - Do you believe in the theory that you are better at beer pong when you are drunk?

Ron Hamilton - Personally I have to be drunk to play beer pong, not everyone has to be, but personally I have to be. If I am sober then I’m just a mess, thinking about my shot, thinking about the game and stuff like that. I get very nervous before each game and well for me being sober I shake a little and I think too much about my finger placements on the ball and it just doesn’t roll of my hand well. I have played enough over the course of the last 10 years or so where it is all muscle memory with my shot. I feel as if I have perfected my shot, and when I am drunk, I tend not to think about anything and just let my muscle memory take over and get it done. So me personally playing drunk I am lights out, but everyone is not the same.

BPN - Is beer pong a sport?

Ron Hamilton - To me anything where you compete against other opponents is a sport. People may say it’s just a competition, well that’s a sport to me. Anything where you have to beat another team that has the same opportunity to win the game as much as you do is a sport.

BPN - What is your take on the “elbow rule?” Do you play in tournaments that use it?

Ron Hamilton - Every tourney has its own set of rules. The elbow rule will always be in effect at some places because it makes it harder for a person to hit shots because it is at a longer distance. Let’s get serious now anything from a farther distance shooting wise is going to be harder. I have played in plenty of “elbow rule” tourneys, and I still win. The thing with bars and tournaments and such is this, an elbow rule tourney will take longer to run then a non elbow rule tourney. It is at a farther distance and it will make it harder to hit cups, so it’s just not a good thing for a bar to run or what not. Frat kids or college kids like to play elbow rules because they learned playing the game like that and they want to be macho and make fun of WSOBP rules and ect. Here’s the thing, Pop and I of Smashing Time will play any rules and still win regardless. When you play elbow rules as I stated it is a little bit further then playing non elbow rules so most kids do not aim at a specific cup, they just chuck it up and hope the ball goes in the vicinity of the cups to hit them. Pop and I shoot at specific cups every shot, when we hit cups that we are not aiming for, we both know it and make fun of each other.

BPN - So what exactly went down with you and Pops in the months leading up to the 2010 WSOBP? You guys were partners, then not, and then partners again…. What was up with that?

Ron Hamilton - Pop plays 5 nights a week, he plays with random partners and still win’s. We all got ego problems, but Pop felt as if he can win with anyone. I told him he was wrong, a lot of people told him he was wrong, I know his intentions were to play with Vince from Since Slice Bread, who is an amazing player, but Vince did not want to break up his team. So Pop really had no choice but to play with me, in which I know he didn’t want to, but whatever we did and we won again. Personally I don’t know you would want to break up a team that wins WSOBP IV, then Worldpongtour.com’s 25k AC championships, but that was on him. I don’t know what his deal is sometimes, but whatever I show up to play and win and that’s exactly what I did. So whatever Pop wants to do or say to me down the road in which I will guarantee 100% it will happen again with none of it being my fault, I will continue to do what I do..Play and Win.

BPN - If you had to guess, how much money have you made off the game of beer pong?

Ron Hamilton - You mean monopoly money right? Because we all know beer pong in bars is considered gambling and I do not condone that what so ever. Over the last 10 years since I have been playing in Tournaments around Long Island and NY even before Smashing Time was formed.. I would say somewhere in the range of before WSOBP monopoly money, on average about 30k of monopoly money a year from 2000-2008, I guess about over 250k then last year’s probably around 350k monopoly money from beer pong.

BPN – How much have you lost?

Ron Hamilton - I have lost 0 when it evens out. Yeah we have lost in tournaments and yes I have lost some cash games on the side but it all goes back to 0 because of the winnings

BPN - Any announcements you’d like to make? Any big things in the works for 2010?

Ron Hamilton - I’m now engaged to my lovely fiancée Lori, and we are having a kid that is due this April 2010. And if anyone knows of any jobs I need one asap, lol. And thanks again to Worldgaming.com for sponsorship for the WSOBP V

Quick Fire Questions:

BPN - $50k per year Job or $50k per year playing beer pong?

Ron Hamilton - $50k for 3 days of work… BOOOM who wouldn’t want that

BPN - Tournaments or Cash Games?

Ron Hamilton - Tournaments = More Money

BPN - Beer Pong or Beirut?

Ron Hamilton - Beer Pong

BPN - Best Beer of Beer Pong?

Ron Hamilton - Whatever, I don’t care which, I usually just pound the cup of beer and don’t even taste it to begin with

BPN - Dream Job?

Ron Hamilton - I was looking to go pro in baseball and was a 2 time all American in college but I got hurt my junior year and now throw the ball because of the injury like a girl so my dream job if I can ever get my arm fixed and get extremely lucky at my age is to be a pro baseball player.

BPN - Have you ever taken performance enhancing drugs?

Ron Hamilton -Jack Daniels is my performing enhancement drug for the sport of beer pong.

BPN - Worst Fear?

Ron Hamilton - Spiders.. I know gayyy

BPN - Offense or Defense?

Ron Hamilton - Got to have both to win.. I think it’s safe to say I have both.

Keep an eye out for our interview with Mike “Pop” Popielarski the other half of Smashing Time, coming soon!