by Lea Andrews

In his first appearance at a regular Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour stop, Canadian Francis Crevier pushed aside several of the tour’s biggest names, including in the finals five-time winner Karen Corr, the tour’s only female winner to date. The $1,500-added main event drew 41 players to Trick Shot Billiards in Clifton Park, NY, the weekend of March 19-20.

In his first appearance at a regular Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour stop, Canadian Francis Crevier pushed aside several of the tour’s biggest names.

Crevier cruised past Jeff Smolen 9-3 to reach the hot seat match against the always-dangerous Bucky Souvanthong, who’d sent Corr west 9-4. But managing just four games himself against Crevier, Souvanthong soon followed her, leaving Crevier awaiting his opponent for the finals.

On the left side of the bracket, one of Crevier’s big-name victims, Dennis “The Hatchet Man” Hatch, ousted Bruce Carroll 9-3 to meet up with Tim Parisian, who’d just put Corr’s road partner, Julie Kelly, into ninth place 9-3. Parisian was only able to mark up two games against Hatch, though, landing in fifth and sending Hatch on to face Corr. Meanwhile, Ron Casanzio, who’d fallen earlier to Souvanthong 9-4, was making a run through the field, taking care of Gary Poulton 9-2 and Martin Daigle 9-6 to face Smolen. Managing to hold Smolen to seven games, Casanzio advanced to the quarterfinal match against Corr, who’d dealt Hatch a rare, lopsided 9-3 blow. Both Corr and Casanzio were looking to avenge their 9-4 losses to Souvanthong, who was waiting for one of them in the semifinals, but it was Corr who earned the chance 9-6. And in the semifinals, she avenged her loss and then some, allowing Souvanthong just three games and moving on to the final match against Crevier.

In the first set of the true double-elimination final match, Corr maintained a lead, ultimately pushing the second set 9-5. In the second set, it was Crevier who got out to a strong lead, managing to pull ahead 7-2. Not one to stop fighting, Corr marked up five games in a row to tie the score at seven games apiece, but Crevier pushed back, taking the final two racks to secure his first tour win 9-7.

In Sunday’s $500-added second chance, non-pro event, Tom Acciavatti, who lost just one game in the entire tournament, shut out Bruce Carroll 3-0 in the finals to claim first.

The next $1,500/$500-added event will be held March 26-27 at Salt City Billiards in Syracuse, NY. Those interested in competing in the tour’s season finale, Turning Stone Classic XVIII, should contact tour director Mike Zuglan at 518-356-7163 as soon as possible. Please note that the Turning Stone date has been changed from August 11-14 to September 8-11.

Main Event Results:
1st Francis Crevier $1,100
2nd Karen Corr $800
3rd Bucky Souvanthong $600
4th Ron Casanzio $450
5th Jeff Smolen $300
Dennis Hatch
7th Martin Daigle $150
Tim Parisian

Second Chance Results
1st Tom Acciavatti $340
2nd Bruce Carroll $230
3rd Julie Kelly $150
4th Pete Mitchell $80
5th Paul Picard $40
Keith Owen

by InsidePOOL Staff

The 10-ball division of the U.S. Bar Table Championship is in the homestretch at the Sands Regency Hotel and Casino in Reno, NV. From the original field of 115 players, only four remain standing, with Shane Van Boening sitting pretty in the hot seat.

The format mostly remains the same as last year’s event, with a couple of changes. It is still a race to 7, alternating break, rack your own, true double elimination. However, unlike last year, neither the 9 ball nor the 10 ball will count on the break, no matter what pocket it drops into.

Also, there is a separate division for the ladies this year. In the 9-ball division, which begins today at 1 p.m., there are 24 women, and in the 8-ball event, 36 women signed up. There is no separate division for the ladies in the 10-ball event. Some early favorites include Tina Pawloski, Amanda Lampert, Melissa Little, and Andrea Wilson of Canada.

Defending 10-ball champion Darren Appleton delivered a donut to Melissa Little in the first round and won 7-2 over Linn Petty in the second, but he was stopped in the third round by Manny Chau in a hill-hill affair. From there Appleton ousted Vince Tedesco 7-2 and Tommy Tokoph 7-6 but was on the wrong end of another hill-hill match, this time against Bernardo “King Kong” Chavez.

Earl Strickland made his first appearance at the event and did quite well. He lost his second-round match to Kings Santy 7-4 and fought his way back through the one-loss side. His meeting with Steve Moore in the eighth round was the match of the event. Moore jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but slowly and surely Strickland chipped away at Moore’s lead. Strickland managed to tie the score at double-hill and then prevail for the win. He was eliminated in the next round by Sal Butera 7-5, ending up in ninth place.

From the original field of 115 players, only four remain standing, with Van Boening sitting pretty in the hot seat.

Parica, who recently won the Jay Swanson Memorial Tournament at Hollywood Billiards in Hollywood, CA, escaped a hill-hill first-round match against Arturo Rivera and then went on to best Matt Clatterbuck 7-4, Shane Winters 7-4, Butler 7-3, Dominguez 7-5, and Larry Wilson 7-1 before his meeting with Van Boening.

Defending all-around champion Glenn Atwell has had a rather tough road, being sent to the left side 7-4 by Billy Lee Bailey in the third round. From there he had to win seven matches in a row to make it to the quarterfinals against Butera. Butera made it to the fifth round before he was sent to the west side by Van Boening and then ousted Strickland, Brian Butler 7-4, and Larry Wilson 7-2 before meeting Atwell.

The 9-ball division begins at 1 p.m. Wednesday with 136 men and 24 women. Visit InsidePOOL for the latest news in the sport of billiards and pool.

On the second day of the World Team Championships in Hanover/Germany, most of the seeded teams had their first appearance. The Philippines, with two-time world champ Ronnie Alcano; Germany 1 with the reigning 8-ball world champion, Ralf Souquet; and the Britain team, with Darren Appleton, finally entered the arena.

But the first highlight of the day was definitely the match between Czech Republic and Korea. After being down 0:3 the players from Prague had a great comeback and tied the score, so the Shoot-Out had to decide. Korea was up 5:2 and just need one more point, but the Czech team came back again and won 8:6 in a very exciting match.

Denmark also needed the Shoot-Out to win the match against the young guns from Hungary.

In less than two and a half hours, the Philippines had won 4:0 against the second team from Great Britain. Every single match was quite close, but in the end it was Alcano & Co. to win 4:0. With the same results the German squad with Thorsten Hohmann and Souquet reached the next round. Team Serbia had no chance to make a point against the well-supported Germans.

Although the final result of 4:1 for the Chinese quartet sounds lopsided, quite clearly the match against Germany 2 was thrilling for the spectators. Germany was down 0:3 as Oliver Ortmann kept his team alive by besting Li He-Wen 8:6 in 9-Ball. In the final two 10-ball games Ortmann was up the whole match until he scratched in the deciding game. At the same time Dominic Jentsch was on the winning road after being down 0:4. Too bad for the local heroes from Hanover.

Appleton is looking to lead the Britain Team to glory.

Results and live scoring: www.wpapoolonline.com
Online coverage (one recording per day): www.cueball-vision.de
Official website: www.wtc-2010.com
Official pictures: www.touch-magazine.net
German press releases: http://portal.billardarea.de/cms_blog

Visit InsidePOOL for the latest news in the sport of billiards and pool.

by Lea Andrews

Shawn “Big Bubba” Putnam, who made his first appearance—and first win— on the Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour at last season’s finale, made his second appearance and second win the weekend of December 12-13. Putnam was among the small but talented field that gathered at Sharks-N-Shooters in Rocky Mount, NC, for the $1,000-added event.

Putnam chose to take a detour on his way to the finals, falling 7-4 to Glenn Russell on the winners’-side final four. Russell moved on to the hot seat match, where he met Delton Howard, who’d edged out Michael “Bulldawg” Fuller 7-6. Howard clinched the hot seat 7-3, sending Russell west to try to make his way back.
On the one-loss side, Bill Duggan breezed past Willie Simpson 7-2 and moved on to another lopsided match, though he was on the wrong end of this one. Fuller allowed him just one game to face Putnam, who’d allowed Chip Klein just two games. Against Fuller in the quarterfinals, Putnam found himself down 5-3, but he notched four straight games to advance to the semifinals 7-5. There, he once again faced Russell, who’d made it to the hill in their last match before Putnam had marked up his first game. This time, it was Putnam who got up 6-0, and he put Russell in third 7-1.

In the single race-to-11 final match, Putnam and Howard started off fairly evenly, trading racks and near-perfect play to tie up at 2 games apiece, but from there, Putnam began to pull away, taking advantage of a couple of misses to go up 7-2. Howard made it 7-3 after Putnam scratched on the break, but Putnam took the next two to make it 9-3. On his way to a break and run in the rack following, Putnam scratched on the 5 ball, allowing Howard a fourth game, but Howard’s miss on the 5 in the next rack put Putnam on the hill. After Putnam left a thin cut on the 8 hanging, Howard managed another game, but “Big Bubba” had a big lead and he wasn’t giving it up. Howard played safe on the 7 ball after a 7-8 combination, leaving Putnam a long, difficult shot, but Putnam nailed it and got position on the 9 to earn his second win 11-5.

Shawn “Big Bubba” Putnam, who made his first appearance—and first win— on the Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina Tour at last season’s finale, made his second appearance and second win the weekend of December 12-13.

It wasn’t Putnam’s only win this weekend—he also earned $100 for his 7-1 victory over Ken Hendricks in the finals of the early bird tournament Friday night, and though he had enough luck on his side to get his name drawn twice for a crack at the break and run pot (a name is drawn again if the first player doesn’t cash), that’s where his luck ran out. He managed to pocket balls on both breaks, but was left without an opening shot twice, upping the jackpot to $61 per ball at the next event. Another player with two wins this weekend was Dylan Letchworth, who took first in both the second-chance tournament and the juniors’ division, while Jacki Duggan topped the ladies’ division.

Results:
1st Shawn Putnam $1,000
2nd Delton Howard $450
3rd Glenn Russell $100

The April 2009 issue of Inside POOL Magazine, which features young Austin Murphy on the cover, has been made available for free download at InsidePOOLmag.com. This month the download features new technology in online magazine viewing such as flipping pages, zooming, emailing, sharing, and printing.

Austin Murphy one the cover of the April 2009 Inside POOL Magazine.

This month features some interesting articles and news including a feature article about young Superstar Austin Murphy as he makes his first appearance on the front cover.  Get the scoop on how Ralf Souquet trounced the Turning Stone Classic Field and about  Brandon Shuff as he snared his first NSC 8-Ball title. Dont’t miss how Ming Ng scored a free ride to the WPBA tour for the year at the Regional Tour Championship.  Learn to get a plan before you bend over to shott and how to make some precision breakouts.  Get pool lessons and billiard instruction from the Inside POOL Magazine instructors.  Also get the latest news from the regional tour from around the world.

Download the April 2009 issue of Inside POOL Magazine for Free

Inside POOL Magazine publishes both print and online versions of each issue. The online version is usually made available for FREE (without a membershio) viewing and downloading around the middle of each month. If you would like to receive the print version of this wonderful magazine, please visit InsidePOOLmag.com to subscribe.

Defending champion Oliver Ortmann will head an all-star cast ofinternational billiard players at the upcoming Predator World 14.1 Championship in East Brunswick, New Jersey.

East Brunswick, New Jersey -  Germany, Korea, Netherlands, Russia, Canada, Japan, Finland, Poland, India, Austria, Scotland, France, Spain and the USA are some of the countries that will be represented at the 2008 Predator World Straight Pool Championship held at the Hilton East Brunswick, NJ from Aug 25-30,2008.
 
Reigning WPA World Straight Pool Champion Oliver Ortmann of Germany will be leading a mass of foreign players onto American soil once more to retain the prestigious mantle of World 14.1 Champion. The last American to win the World 14.1 title was Bobby Hunter in 1990, nearly 2 decades ago.
 
Early favorites will be the Europeans, especially the German contingent of Thorsten Hohmann, Ralf Souquet, Thomas Engert, Oliver Ortmann and recently World Junior 10-Ball crowned Dominic Jentsch. Hohmann a week earlier had won the Lucasi Hybrid Classic 14.1 title in dominant fashion including a 167 ball run against Mika Immonen in the finals. Jentsch had a perfect 150 and out against Filipino Santos Sambajon during that event. 2006 World 14.1 Silver Medalist Thomas Engert will be back to try to finish the job while World 8-Ball champion Ralf Souquet will look to improve on his 9th place finish last year.

Raj Hundal of India will head the Asian group of players from Korea, Japan, and India. Hundal is making his first appearance in a 14.1 competition.
 
“I’m excited to represent India at this World Championship event, and even though straight pool is not my game, I’ve been practicing hard and I’ve already run over a hundred in practice, so I’m up for the challenge.” warns Hundal.
 
Other notable international stars to keep an eye on are last year’s Silver Medalist Huidji See NED, 2006 Bronze Medalist Mika Immonen FIN, 2007 European #1 Konstantin Stepanov RUS, and 2007 Derby City 9-Ball Champion and 2 time European 14.1 Champion Niels Feijen NED.
 
“It might be a very long time before an American will get this title back.” predicted Oliver Ortmann last year.
 
Fans and players can still reserve rooms at Hilton East Brunswick at 1-732-828-2000
The room code for the event is “POL”    There are still limited amount of rooms available.
Tickets can be purchased in advanced at Dragonpromotions.com or in person at Amsterdam Billiards in NYC or Comet Billiards in NJ.
 
The 2008 Predator World Straight Pool Championship is proudly sponsored by Dr.Michael Fedak of NYC, Joel Schapiro of NYC, The Predator Group, Diamond Billiard Products, Aramith Balls, and Simonis Cloth. For more information on player registration, sponsorship, or if you would like to submit a comment, please email worldstraightpoolchampionships@gmail.com or contact Dragon Promotions at 1-407-782-4978.

For more details on the World 14.1 Championship go to Dragonpromotions.com or email worldstraightpoolchampionships@gmail.com

by Tom Fryer
Bank pool Hall of Famer Truman Hogue’s Second Annual Invitational 9-Ball Tournament, sponsored by Jeff Griffith’s Diamond Pub in Louisville, KY, was held February 23-24, much to the delight of event winner David Rice. The 2007 version of this tourney was one of the best events in Kentuckiana all year, and it inspired boosting the field from 64 players to this year’s booming 96-player roster.
The format was races to 6 on both sides with alternating breaks on ten Diamond 7-footers. The “invitational” part of the format was that none of the area’s elite players was invited. Several local pool industry businesses added a total of $1,500 to the prize fund, and so popular was this event that all 96 entries were paid more than a week in advance.
The action really heated up in the winners’-side semifinals. Rice got past Elizabethtown’s Duke Laha by a 6-4 count. Bryan Roberts of Louisville made the hill first at 5-3 in the other semi, but two tricky safeties that came just short for Bryan, coupled with a successful Minton break, gave Richard Minton three chances to run out, and he cashed all three to win 6-5.
The one-loss side got dangerous at this point. Pre-tournament favorite Russ Edwards of Somerset was lurking and proceeded to end Bryan Roberts’ strong bid 6-2, while Laha’s first appearance on the left side ambushed Indianapolis’ Gary Gentry at 6-4.
Rice rampaged through to the hot seat over Minton 6-2. Edwards returned to action on the one-loss side with Laha and held The Duke to a strong fourth-place finish in a hill-hill thriller. This left just Edwards and Minton on the left side, and in another tense match, Edwards prevailed 6-4, leaving Minton with an excellent third-place performance.
The finals were formatted as true double elimination with each race being lengthened to 9. The play was excellent, as no more than two games separated the opponents at any point. Edwards, who was a stone’s throw from elimination into ninth place in an earlier match, was poised on the hill at 8-6. But he got no further than second place as Rice won the last three to claim the championship as the only undefeated player.
Results:
1st David Rice
2nd Russ Edwards
3rd Rich Minton
4th Duke Laha
5th Bryan Roberts
Gary Gentry
7th Robert Frost
Nathan Wagner
9th Donny Sinkhorn
Dave Grau
Troy Brown
Jackie Bell

Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour / Richardson, TX
by Rick Davis
The Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour made its first appearance in Texas April 28-29 when it brought three divisions of play to The Billiard Den in Richardson, TX. Fighting their way through the fields, Gordy Van Ver Veer, Lance Sullivan, and Blaine Barcus claimed the open, amateur, and junior divisions, respectively, through an onslaught of very close matches.
In the open division a 40-player field came forward, although it was Van Ver Veer and Robert Clark who bested the winners’ side to reach the hot seat match. Van Ver Veer outplayed Clark, besting him 9-7 to send him back into the mix on the one-loss side. Action on the west side was starting to wind down as Jason Pierce eliminated T.J. Davis and Sammy Downs, 7-4 and 7-6, to reach the quarterfinals. Nearby, Jack Lynch plowed through Clay Renfroe and William Howard, each 7-2, then slipped past Pearce 7-5 to reach the semifinals. With only two matches left Clark knocked out Lynch double-hill and attempted to redeem himself against Van Ver Veer. Clark took the first set 9-8, but after getting the attention of his opponent, Van Ver Veer drilled him 7-0 to claim the event.
The second division offered play for the amateurs, where another group of 40 players threw their hat into the ring. Lance Sullivan and Jim Colling were clearly in control, and after they met in the hot seat match, Sullivan stepped forward by virtue of a 7-5 win to be king of the hill. On the one-loss side Bill Etcheverry ousted Claude Gragg 7-3, while Henry Rocha did the same to Chris Ferguson 7-4. In the quarterfinals it was Colling over Etcheverry double-hill, then Rocha over Etcheverry 7-2. The finals offered some excitement as Rocha took the first set from Sullivan double-hill and then managed to tied the final set at 6-all with a 9 on the break. Sullivan took his last chance and shocked everyone by answering back with a 9 on the snap to claim the set, match, and event.
Finally, 14 players entered the juniors division, which was owned by Blaine Barcus and Mikey Gipe, who clashed in the hot seat match before Barcus shifted into gear, besting Gipe 9-6. On the one-loss side Stephan Brown emerged from the quarterfinals 7-2 over Jason Creel but was then eliminated 7-5 by the incoming Gipe. Back in the finals Gipe tasted revenge as he took the first set 9-4, but again the king of the hill answered back to take the final set 7-4 and claim the event. While the junior division did not receive a cash payout, the top two finishers, Barcus and Gipe, each received an entry in the BEF Nationals, along with a very nice Viking cue.
Open Results:
1st Gordy Van Ver Veen
2nd Robert Clark
3rd Jack Lynch
4th Jason Pearce
5th William Howard
Sammy Downs
7th Clay Renfroe
T.J. Davis
Amateur Results:
1st Lance Sullivan
2nd Henry Rocha
3rd Jim Colling
4th Bill Etcheverry
5th Claude Gragg
Chris Ferguson
Junior Results:
1st Blaine Barcus
2nd Mikey Gipe
3rd Stephan Brown
4th Jason Creel
5th Camron Radford
William Howard