Chicago, Illinois- It is with regret that the general professional body of the Association of Billiard Professionals will not be attending the 2011 US Open 9-Ball Championship promoted by Mr.Barry Behrman. Nor will these ABP pros attend the Masters 10-Ball or any event promoted by Mr.Behrman because of monies owed to players and lack of secure funds of prize money before each of his events.

One of the goals of the Association of Billiards Professionals is to provide a platform where touring professionals can pursue the sport they love as a full time career and achieve reasonable financial success. To that end discussions have been ongoing since last year with representatives of the US Open and representatives of the ABP.

It is with regret that the general professional body of the Association of Billiard Professionals will not be attending the 2011 US Open 9-Ball Championship promoted by Mr.Barry Behrman.

Repeated attempts by the ABP organization to obtain guarantees that the prize money will be in place have been refused and therefore it is with regret that the Association and its members have decided to neither support nor attend the 2011 US Open 9-Ball Championship. Notwithstanding the Association’s deep respect for Barry Behrman for his contribution to pool these many years, the players simply cannot commit their time and their expenses for an uncertain payday.

“As a former US Open 9-Ball champion, it’s painful to not be able to attend this year, as it is always great to play in it. However, the ABP and its goals are more important than my personal goals, and we need to start taking the necessary steps to pave the way for the future of the game and its up and coming stars.”- Rodney Morris, ABP Board of Directors

“It is with sadness that I must withdraw from one of my favourite tournaments ever. In doing so, I hope the sacrifices we are making raises the standard of the elements that our beautiful sport lacks. The ABP’s goals are to the benefit of the sport and to restore the confidence of cooperation between players, associations and promoters alike. I stand behind this vision fully. ” – Mika Immonen, ABP Board of Directors and Two time US Open 9-Ball Champion.

“The US Open is the greatest and most prestigious event on American soil. I am truly sorry we cannot attend this event. But we have an obligation to protect all players now and in the future. I am hopeful in the future all things will be worked out so all players can participate in all great and safe tournaments.” – Johnny Archer, President of the ABP.

Regardless if this is a BCA or WPA Sanctioned event, the following ABP Professional Players will not attend:

Johnny Archer USA
Mika Immonen FIN
Efren Reyes PHI
Francisco Bustamante PHI
Darren Appleton ENG
Shane Van Boening USA
Rodney Morris USA
Alex Pagulayan PHI
Dennis Orcullo PHI
Thorsten Hohmann GER
Lee Van Corteza PHI
John Schmidt USA
Corey Deuel USA
Huidji See NED
Mike Sigel USA
Nick Varner USA
Buddy Hall USA
CJ Wiley USA
Tony Drago MLT
Read more ...]]> http://www.cuesandpool.com/billiard-news/abp-pro-players-not-attending-the-2011-us-open-9-ball-championship.html/feed 0 http://www.cuesandpool.com/billiard-news/new-planet-pool-tour-announced.html http://www.cuesandpool.com/billiard-news/new-planet-pool-tour-announced.html#comments Tue, 11 Jan 2011 21:20:07 +0000 Pool and Billiards News http://www.insidepoolmag.com/?p=14755 New Planet Pool Tour Announced

Mike Ricciardella and JAB Productions are proud to announce the return of the Planet Pool Tour. The Planet Pool Tour is a two-day open tournament with staggered entry fees. Events will take place in the Northeast region.

Mike Ricciardella and JAB Productions are proud to announce the return of the Planet Pool Tour.

“I am happy to work with Jose Burgos, who runs the best one-day tournaments in this region. We hope to offer a highly competitive tournament and great prizes for pros and amateurs alike. We will also give each player a free raffle ticket for a Mezz cue and Mezz case at the grand finale tournament, along with prizes for the top five point leaders of the year,” explained Ricciardella.

Jose said, “I am honored to join forces with Mike Ricciardella. We believe there are a lot of great players in the Maryland, Virginia, and Washington areas to again make the Planet Pool Tour one of the premier tours in the region.”

Along with the Planet Pool Open Tour, there will also be a women’s tour.

“With so many great female players in the Northeast region, this is a great opportunity to provide a competitive tour for them to participate in. We will feature great prizes at each stop, as well as hold a grand finale tournament with added monies. Prizes will also be awarded for the top three female players. I am very excited be able to provide an opportunity for our local female players to sharpen their competitive edge,” said Burgos.

The official launch of the Planet Pool Tour will be February 12-13 at Champion Billiards Sports Café in Frederick, MD. For more information, please call tournament director Jose Burgos at 267-257-8006. Visit the official Planet Pool Tour website, Planetpooltour.com, for more information.

Ozone Billiards Signs on as the new Title Sponsor of the former Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour.

Shawn Gargano, founder of Ozone Billiards stated “We are excited to be the new title sponsor of these events. As a former co-sponsor of the tour we have experienced the benefits of being associated with the tour and werevery happy with the advertising results we received. The Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour, now the Ozone Billiards Tour has demonstrated that it is the one ofthe premier tours in the industry. We were pleased to be asked to be the new title sponsor. This title sponsorship helps reaffirm Ozone Billiards continued commitment to the sport of billiards and its many players. We are looking forward to a very exciting season.”

About Ozone Billiards:
Ozone Billiards has been providing pool players with top quality billiard products for more than nine years. Its commitment to customer service hashelped Ozone Billiards grow to be one of the largest retailers of billiard supplies in the United States. For more information about Ozone Billiards please visit: http://www.ozonebilliards.com

About the Ozone Billiards Tours:
The Ozone Billiards Tour was founded in 1994 as the Ohio 9-Ball Tour. Over the years it has grown significantly to include many regions of the US. Itis currently the largest and longest running Open regional billiards tour in the USA. The Ozone Billiards Tours now consist of five separate tours: The Ozone Billiards Open, Amateur,Amateur-Advanced, Junior 9-Ball Tour and the Ozone-Olhausen Billiards Classic Tour which are all a minimum of $5,000 added. Combined, the tours offer approximately 141 tournament events each tour season for players from beginning to professionals to compete in. Player and business associate members are offered many outstanding benefits that separate the OzoneBilliards Tours from any other tour in the USA. These benefits include:Advertising Support, Health insurance, Hotel and Travel discounts, Free entry fees for Ladies and Junior players, Discounts to Military Personnel, Senior Citizens and Pool League Players.

Room owners interested in hosting one of the New “Ozone Billiards Tour” Events or Sponsors interested in supporting the tour should contact Mike Janis at 1-800-200-POOL or email ozonetour@yahoo.com.

Visit the Ozone Billiards Tours web page at: http://www.ozonebilliardstour.com

WPBA Pro and Mezz USA President, Caroline Pao, along with Tournament Director, Jose Burgos, will be overseeing the Women’s tour.

“With so many great female players in the Northeast region, this is a great opportunity to provide a competitive tour for them to participate in. We will feature great prizes at each stop as well as hold a Grand Finale tournament with added monies. Prizes will also be awarded for the Top 3 players of the year with the Top Player receiving paid entry to the prestigious Turning Stone Classic Tournament in Verona, NY. I am very excited be able to provide an opportunity for our local female players to sharpen their competitive edge. Once we complete the 8 event schedule, it will be on our official Mezz Tour website, www.mezztour.com,” says Caroline.

Mezz USA is proud to announce the first stop of the Mezz Women’s Pool Tour, a $1,000 added event, will be held on Saturday, May 8, 2010, at Drexeline Billiards.

Stop #1 – May 8th – $1,000 Added*
Mezz Womens Pool Tour
Drexeline Billiards
5100 State Street
Drexel Hill, PA 19026

*$1,000 added is based on a full field of 50 players.

Visit the official Mezz Pro-Am Tour website, www.mezztour.com, for more information.

For sponsorship opportunities, please contact info@mezztour.com.

Mika Immonen and Mezz Cues are proud to announce the Mezz Pro-Am Tour. The Mezz Tour is a 1-day Open Tournament with staggered entry fees and additional cash prizes for the top 2 finishers in the A/B and C/D division. Events will take place in the North East region.

“We are happy to work with Jose Burgos, who runs the best 1-day tournaments in this region. We hope to offer a highly competitive tournament and great prizes for pros and amateurs alike. We will also give each player a free raffle ticket for a Mezz Cue and Mezz Case at the Grand Finale Tournament along with prizes for the Top 10 point leaders of the year,” says Mika.
Jose describes, “I am honored to join forces with Mika Immonen and Mezz Cues. I believe having the best player in the world along with one of the leading cue companies in the industry as sponsors will make the Mezz Pro-Am Tour one of the premier tours in the region.”

Along with the Mezz Open Tour, we are also proud to announce a Mezz Women’s Tour overseen by WPBA Pro and Mezz USA President, Caroline Pao.

“With so many great female players in the Northeast region, this is a great opportunity to provide a competitive tour for them to participate in. We will feature great prizes at each stop as well as hold a Grand Finale tournament with added monies. Prizes will also be awarded for the Top 3 female players of the year with the Top Female receiving paid entry to the prestigious Turning Stone Tournament in Syracuse, NY. I am very excited be able to provide an opportunity for our local female players to sharpen their competitive edge. Once we complete the 8 event schedule, it will be on our official Mezz Tour website, www.mezztour.com,” explains Caroline.

Immonen and Mezz Cues are proud to announce the Mezz Pro-Am Tour.

As a prelude to our official launch of the Mezz Pro-Am Tour, we had a great event at Drexeline Billiards in Drexel Hill, PA on January 31st with an attendance of 53 players. Joey Testa and Ignacio Chavez were co-champions of this event with Victor Nau in 3rd and Josh Brothers in 4th place.

The next stop will be at on February 21st at :
Atlantic City Billiards
6701 Blackhorse Pike
Egg Habor, NJ 08234
(609) 645-7576

Visit the official Mezz Pro-Am Tour website, www.mezztour.com, for more information.
For sponsorship opportunities, please contact info@mezztour.com.

JR Players Qualifying Tour and Nationals

Viking Cues 9-Ball Tour will be increasing the number of junior's events. The billiards tour is looking for billiard rooms to host this events.

The Viking Cue Junior 9-Ball Tour is currently seeking kid friendly billiard rooms all over the US along with tournament directors or room owners that are willing to donate their time directing the 128 billiard events we plan on hosting for the JR players. The 128 events reflects an increase from the originally scheduled 50 events.

The JR player tour will feature very low entry fees to the JR players and no membership fee. All of which will be accumulated for the Viking Cue Junior 9-Ball Tour Nationals in 2009. All monies collected from the JR players will be paid back 100% to the JR players at the end of year nationals. All payouts will be in the form of a US savings Bond to the JR Players. (Note: If a JR players wins $2,500 in cash they will receive a $5,000 US Savings Bond in lieu of the cash payment.)

Tournament directors and room owners, please call Mike Janis if you would like to be a part of this program. I can easily be reached on my cell phone anytime at 1-800-200-POOL (7665) .

Room owners, these JR events will only take a few hours in your pool room on either Saturday (DAY) or Sunday (Day) and will greatly benefit the future of our sport and your business.

From the Viking Cue JR 9-Ball Tours Promotional Information Distributed at the BCA Trade Show

The Viking Cue “Junior” 9-Ball Tour was founded in April of 2007. Since it’s inception the Junior tour has had over 600 Junior billiard athletes in our events.

Right now the junior player division gets our highest attention. The junior players are the crown jewel of the Viking Tour. These players will recognize the sponsors that helped to get them started and will more than likely become future consumers of our sponsors products. The Viking Tour and Viking Cues Mfg. strongly believes that investing in the juniors program is the future of our sport.

In the coming year, the Viking Tour will host fifty junior tournaments. Your sponsorship of the Viking Tour supports this program.

The sponsors that have jumped on board this program have donated many products that the Viking Cue Junior 9-Ball Tour will use as gifts to the host locations in return for any fees charged. These fees will help guarantee a scheduled National Championship and Promotional costs to help bring new JR players into our sport and your locations.
Room Owners, friends, and players alike. Due to a current trend in smoking laws / alcohol laws and such it has become increasingly difficult for the JR players to find a healthy environment that they are allowed to play in. As a result of this trend we are on the verge of losing the next generation of players and aspiring pros in our sport. I urge you to participate in this program or we also recommend BEF’s ( http://billiardeducation.org ) programs to help combat this trend. I hope you feel the same sense of urgency as we at the Viking Tour feel and you do your best to help encourage the next generation of players.