The strategy worked to perfection. Technically speaking, winning the Bubble Boy tournament was not much to be proud of: For a tabletop purist, the bar game is clumsy and slow. "It's a simple game," Kenny says. But the perks were hard to ignore. Kenny and Bobby each won a Bubble Boy game -- about a $3,000 value. Later, they got to hang with Phil and Wayne, playing a post-tournament celebrity game against the two former NHL superstars.
"We kept it close," Kenny says. "We just wanted it to be enjoyable."
Mike Gorman
"That was smart," says Roger Owens. "Very smart."
Still, Kenny's main game remains tabletop as it was meant to be played, on a fast, small table. Now a swimming-pool installer, he keeps a Benej table in his living room, ready for action at a moment's notice. "I have the game set up where I have to walk by it each day," he says. "Sometimes I'll just fool around for five minutes. Sometimes I'll do it for two hours." On occasion, he'll stay awake long into the night, practicing his moves alone to the music of John Coltrane.
Today the talk is about the upcoming Hockey Hound Table Top Hockey Tournament, held in Grand Lake. Kenny is the defending champ. The tournament was started last year by Garey Southerby, 47, who moved his sports-memorabilia store from Denver into the mountains two and a half years ago. Although he specializes in the human-sized game -- his store has about 5,000 pucks on display -- he has also carved a solid niche selling the smaller versions, offering about a hundred different tabletop models for sale.
"It's what we grew up with," he says, explaining the game's popularity among non-kids. "We didn't have a computer in our rooms. I know it's not for everyone. But there are those who say it's the greatest table game ever made."
"Table hockey is the greatest game ever made," says Roger Owens.
The finals of the Hockey Hound tournament are held on Sunday morning. It pits Kenny against Claus Rinner, 31, a German immigrant and computer programmer now living in London, Ontario. About two years ago, as a joke, Rinner agreed to pitch in for a tabletop game for an office colleague who was getting married. Not particularly interested in the game, she left the table at work, so he and his office mates began to play. The game captivated him. Hockey Hound is his sixth tournament.
It is surprisingly close, but eventually, Kenny wins the top prize. "He was just better than me in terms of varying his plays, creativity, precision of shots, adapting his defense to my attacks," Claus explains.
"When you're playing table hockey at the top level against the best, it rivals any game ever," Kenny says. "It has the qualities of Ping-Pong or tennis. It's a massive thing to be able to win. Once you understand it, it becomes the greatest thing in the world. I mean, if it wasn't important, I wouldn't be playing it, right?"
