Bio
Ed Smith aka “Califon Ed” started playing pool at 12 and has been playing for over 60 years. He won his first competition at the age of 17 when he captured the New York City team championship while playing on the Boys Club of America championship team; in a tournament sponsored by the Billiard Congress of America in 1965. Ed enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1966 and served until he was Honorably discharged in 1971. He played pool occasionally during his military enlistment and didn’t return to active play until 1981. Since then Ed won many local tavern and billiard room tournaments in New Jersey/NY area. There was a period when he won a tournament every night of the week in billiard parlors and taverns, an achievement only to have been equaled by another N.J. pool friend Billy Donofrio. Ed was an active player on the Tri-State tour having placed 1st in a number of events and cashed in many others. In 1997 he placed 2nd in a VNEA Open event in Seville, Spain. Later he won the Spanish National Sr. 8 Ball Team event in Lugo, Spain with a team from Dos Hermanas, Seville, Spain. There weren’t many opportunities to learn how to play when Ed started to playing, so he attributes his success at the pool table from having been schooled by his father and players such as Joe “The Meatman” Balsis, Michael Eufemia, and watching other world class players such as Onofrio Lauri, Luther “Wimpy” Lassiter, Irving “The Deacon” Crane, Cicero Murphy, “Machine Gun” Lou Butera, Larry “Boston Shorty” Johnson, Johnny Ervolino and a local N.Y. player and friend Gene Nagy. Later in life Ed received instruction from another NY pool friend Ron Vitello. Ron, is the author of the 90/90 Aiming System. Retiring after 28 years of service from AT&T, Ed and his wife Manoli started a billiard parlor in Califon N.J. in 1992 and operated it until 2002, when they decided to sell the business. This is where Ed acquired the nickname “Califon Ed”. In March of 2022 Ed won the prestigous Doc Hill Memorial Tournament capturing the title as “Doc Hill Memorial Champion 2022”.
Ed is a Certified Instructor and maintains his membership in the Professional Billiard Instructor Association (PBIA). He has given professional instruction to hundreds of students, individually and to groups, over a 25-year period. Ed firmly believes in systematic practice and “Practicing Perfect” as ways to strengthening your weaknesses and achieving success with your game and taking it to the next level. Let Ed share with you a shooting system he developed which he uses as a basis for his pocket billiard instruction called the “PEP System”.
