About Skippy

Hello, welcome to my site.

My name is Michael Kerstetter, but you can call me Skippy. That is the monicker that I aquired during my years in college (Penn State 87-92). I've been playing pool for over thirty years. I started when I was very young, around 5 or 6 years old. My Father owned a bar that had a coin-op table and I used to play there, until the liquor control board kicked me out. We also had a pool table in our house. I spent a lot of time there, but I was not really exposed to high-caliber play until I left home to go to college. I enrolled at Penn State's Altoona, PA campus.

In Altoona, they had an "old-time" pool hall called Brunswick Billiards. There probably aren't any places like that one around anymore. It was thick with cigar smoke. It had 4 old brunswick 9ft. tables with 2" slate. The place was, basically, an Italian hang-out. In the 2+ years I played there, I never saw a female inside it. As a matter of fact, I never saw too many kids my age in there either. It was mostly older Italian guys. They had several partitions setup that conceled a cardroom in the back. Most of the time, the big screen satelite tv was being scanned to watch all the sports gambling action. At the cash register was old pictures of local boxing legends. This room introduced me to games that I had little or no knowledge of, such as straight pool and one pocket. It was a classic place. I was really sad to see it close. It closed down sometime around the early 90's. That place got me absolutely hooked for life.

Below is a picture of me playing in a WPBA fund-raiser at Allen Hopkin's Valley Forge Super Billiard Expo circa 1996.

I played a lot through my college years, competing in regional tournaments and the national collegiate tournaments. It was a great time in my life. After college, I kept playing and kept honing my skills. Over the years I've developed my own ways to approach the game. This includes my own process for improvement. I will be sharing my thoughts and ideas with you.

My goal is to help as many people as possible. I want to help you develop your game and, hopefully, you'll get as much satisfaction from this great sport as I have over the last 30+ years. Please, give me feedback and if you find the information helpful, then tell your friends.

Thanks for visiting...keep shooting for the top. You can do it!

Skippy