George "Ginky" SanSouci (August 8, 1971 – March 8, 2011) was a professional pool player from
New York City. He grew up in
Yorkville, New York, and started his career as a player in Chelsea Billiards. SanSouci lived in
Astoria, New York
Astoria is a neighborhood in the western portion of the New York City borough of Queens. Astoria is bounded by the East River and is adjacent to three other Queens neighborhoods: Long Island City to the southwest, Sunnyside to the southeast, a ...
.
Early days
George Edward SanSouci Jr. was the son of George Edward SanSouci Sr. and Jeanne Marie Cawley. He was raised in the Yorkville Section of New York (currently Upper East Side) He was given nickname "Ginky" by his mother Jeanne when he was born; it was the first word that he said. If anyone would call him "George," he never responded, but when they said the word "Ginky", he would giggle, it just stuck. He attended Bayard Rustin High School for the Humanities. He dropped out in his junior year. SanSouci lost his father at age four and was raised by his mother (who died in 1995) and an older sister, Irene.
Professional career
In 1995, ''Billiards Digest'' named San Souci as Rookie Player of the Year.
SanSouci retired in 2002 after he injured his neck, but he could not stay away from pool, slowly making a comeback. He competed regularly in a regional tour of the New York region, the Predator Nine-ball Tour, with
Tony Robles
Tony may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer
* Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leag ...
, the 2004 BCA Open Champion, as the tournament director. His high run in
straight pool
Straight pool, which is also called 14.1 continuous and 14.1 rack, is a cue sport in which two competing players attempt to as many billiard balls as possible without playing a . The game was the primary version of pool played in professional ...
was 343 consecutive shots which occurred on July 19, 2009 at Slate Billiards in
New York City. SanSouci was also a member of the
International Pool Tour
The International Pool Tour was a professional sports tour created in 2005 by Kevin Trudeau and hosted by Rebecca Grant. It aimed to elevate pool to the level of other modern sports. Closely modeled on the PGA Tour, the IPT offered the largest pri ...
, when it was active.
Titles
* 1991 Massachusetts State
* 1993 Stamford Open
* 1994 Rhode Island State
* 1994 Fifth Annual Ocean State
* 1995 Rhode Island State
* 1995 Sixth Annual Ocean State
* 1996 Maine State
* 1996 Seventh Annual Ocean State
* 1997 Delaware State
* 1998 Camel Pro Ten-Ball Championship
* 1999 National Straight Pool Championship
* 1999 BCA Nine-Ball Championship
* 2000
Derby City Classic
The Derby City Classic is an annual pool convention and tournament held every January at the Caesars Southern Indiana casino in Elizabeth, Indiana, near Louisville, Kentucky. It is eight days long and offers various disciplines of competition for p ...
9-Ball
* 2005 Rhode Island State
Personal life
SanSouci suffered a number of injuries during his career that took a toll on his competitive play. He had retired in 2002 because of neck surgery and then in 2003 began playing again. He then broke his left wrist in a car accident in 2004 and re-fractured it in another more serious car accident, resulting in new fractures to his wrist as well as his girlfriend being severely burnt, in 2009. Since his first neck injury, SanSouci was battling addiction to pain killers and alcohol . He spoke openly about his prescription drug addiction as well as his alcohol addiction in an interview with go4pool.net. In the interview he claimed to be seven days sober.
Death
SanSouci died on March 8, 2011, at age 39.
References
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External links
George "Ginky" SanSouciat "Ask the Pros" at AZBilliards.com.
Billiards Digest - George SanSouci dies at 39
Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:SanSouci, George
American pool players
Sportspeople from New York City
1971 births
2011 deaths
People from Yorkville, Manhattan