An amateur 9-Ball tournament will be held this fall concurrently with the famed U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship.

The BCAPL regional event will feature men’s singles, women’s singles, coed beginner singles, men’s mixed team and women’s team divisions. The $2,400 guaranteed added amateur tournament will be open to BCAPL and USAPL League Members and current non-league Player Members. All participants in the BCAPL event will receive 20% off spectator tickets to the U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship scheduled October 17-23.

To view additional details about the BCAPL Chesapeake 9-Ball Challenge, including the event flyer and both the single and team entry forms visit: http://playbca.com/Events/2010BCAPLChesapeake9BallChallenge.aspx . For more information about the U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship visit: www.usopen9ballchampionships.com.

CueSports International is dedicated to creating more choices for all players. CSI is the parent company of the BCA Pool League, the National Championship Series (NCS), and the USA Pool League. CSI also produces independent events such as the U.S. Bar Table Championships, the Jay Swanson Memorial and the U.S. Open 10-Ball Championship. Visit www.playcsipool.com, www.playbca.com and www.playusapool.com for more information about CSI and its divisions.

Jerry Forsyth

WPA Press Officer

The great eight had their shot at the spotlight in Fujairah and three of them made the most of the early going. 45 minutes into the round Ruslan Chinakhov led Jeff de Luna 5-1, Karl Boyes enjoyed the same lead over Vicenancio Tanio and Darren Appleton had a 4-1 gap over Joven Alba. Neils Feijen and Andreas Roschkowsky were being a bit more dramatic as Feijen led their match 3-2 at that point.

None of our leaders would ever falter. Ruslan Chinakov and Karl Boyes both won their matches by score lines of 10-5, Darren Appleton squeaked past Joven Alba 10-8 and Niels Feijen gradually widened the gap between he and Roschkowsky until he sank the final ten ball at 10-6.

The semi-final rounds saw Ruslan Chinakhov facing Karl Boyes and Darren Appleton squared off aganst Niels Feijen. Early leads would again be the order of the day as Boyes jumped out to a 6-1 lead over Chinakhov and Feijen led 5-1 over Appleton. In a winner-breaks format such as this huge comebacks are possible but first you have to win and gain control of the table. Our leaders were not giving up that control.

The great eight had their shot at the spotlight in Fujairah and three of them made the most of the early going.

For Ruslan Chinakhov it was mostly an evening spent as a spectator. Karl Boyes broke and ran the balls time and again and wound up putting on a completely dominating display of 8-Ball and winning their match 10-2. Boyes would be the first player to make it to finals on Saturday.

View the UAE WPA World 8-Ball Championships Group Brackets

View the UAE WPA World 8-Ball Championships Single Elimination Brackets

Niels Feijen dominated his match as well. Darren Appleton did his best to make a match of it when, at 9-4, Feijen suffered a dry break. Appleton took that rack to draw within 4 games. He then broke and ran the next to pull within three. But the next break left him in difficult position and his first shot failed him, leaving a grand opportunity for Feijen. He took that to the bank and ran the tablet to win the match 10-6 and grab the second chair in the finals.

by Lea Andrews

On the penultimate day of the 34th Annual U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships, the final four on the winners’ side have come through, and on the one-loss side, Steve Moore came from behind two matches in a row to reach the final twelve. The remaining elite players are part of the original field of 216 who gathered October 18-24 at the Chesapeake Conference Center in Chesapeake, VA.

After falling to Ralf Souquet 11-4 on the winners’ side final eight, Moore faced Keith Bennett, who’d just edged out Kenichi Uchigaki 11-10. Bennett got to a 9-3 lead over Moore, who rallied to tie it up at 9, and the two traded off to make it hill-hill. In the final rack, Moore found himself sharked on the 5 ball by the red light on a spectator’s camera. “I got up and I got back down, and she did it again,” recalled Moore after the match. “I got up and I told her about it, but when I got back down, I was still thinking about it.” He missed. But he was back at the table after Bennett miscued on the 6, though he was looking at a kick. After Moore’s hit, Bennett was left with a shot, but his position was off on the 7 ball, and the cue ball found the side pocket. Moore was out, and his next match against Yukio Akagarivama was called nearly instantly.

View the U.S. Open 9-Ball Double Elimination Tournament Brackets 1 (updated continuously)

View the U.S. Open 9-Ball Double Elimination Tournament Brackets 2 (updated continuously)

View the 2009 U.S. Open image gallery

View the LIVE STREAM from ACCU-STATS

Once again Moore was down several games, then tied at 9 and at 10. After some safety play in the final rack, it was Akagarivama who had control, and he moved carefully through the rack. His shot on the 7 down the rail grazed the cushion, though, leaving the 7 hanging in the pocket and the crowd all gasping at once. Moore tapped it in for position on the 8 in the side, which he considered carefully before getting down on the shot. “There were so many options on the eight,” he explained afterwards. “And then I was like, ‘You know what? Just spin the ball in, three-rail it.’ It’s a pretty routine shot—I was just looking at all my options, and I hit it real well. I knew as soon as I hit it.” After getting perfect position on the 9, Moore dropped it in for the win and the right to face Imran Majid, who fell 11-7 to Lee Van Corteza on the winners’ side. About the rest of the tournament, Moore doesn’t care how the matches go—not exactly. “I don’t care if I’m behind and win or ahead and win—I just want to win. Whatever it takes.”

Morris admitted that he had a rather fortuitus set against Davenport.

On the other side of the bracket, 1996 U.S. Open champion “Rocket” Rodney Morris blew by Kim Davenport 11-2 on the TV table to reach the undefeated final four. Morris, who won his first match on the TV table 11-9 against Corey Deuel despite feeling nervous about the way it played, was prepared this time around. “My touch was better than his on the table, and it’s so lightning fast that it’s all touch,” he explained. “It’s easy to lose the cue ball on safeties, but mine were coming out perfect.” Morris faces Donnie Mills, who eased past Karl Boyes 11-3, while Souquet and Corteza round out the final four.

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

All Viking Tour members will receive a 10% discount off their stay at all Motel 6 and Studio 6 locations.

All Viking Tour members will receive a 10% discount off their stay at all Motel 6 and Studio 6 locations. To receive the discount, Viking Tour member are required to call or e-mail the Viking Tour for their unique discount code, or they can simply pick it up next time they play in a Viking Tour event. Additionally, any player, spectator, or friend of our sport can also use the 10% discount once they register on the free Viking Tour e-mail or USPS mailing list.

Mike Janis stated, “We are very pleased bring an outside corporation into the billiard community. This is our fourth outside industry sponsorship for the Viking Tour, and it is our continued goal to help bridge the gap between the corporate world and our community.”

To receive your discount code, simply email vikingtour2@yahoo.com, or call 1-800-200-POOL and request the Motel 6 / Studio 6 billiards discount code.

by Skip Maloney

Josh Roberts won the Legends of Bank Pool event held at Grady' in Lexington, SC.

Josh Roberts avenged a shut-out defeat at the hands of Scott Rabon and returned to defeat him in the finals of the first Legends of Bank Pool tournament, held the weekend of September 27-28. The $1,000-added event, hosted by Grady’s in Lexington, SC, drew about six times as many spectators as it did participants, with eight players on hand to compete in the bank pool tournament. According to co-owner Randi Mathews, while the limited participation had been expected, the spectator turnout came as something of a surprise.

Roberts, Rabon, club co-owner Grady Mathews, and Kevin Brown won the opening round of play, with Rabon shutting out Shannon Lundy. Rabon repeated his shut-out play with a 5-0 defeat of Roberts and followed it with a 5-1 victory over Kevin Brown to earn the hot seat.

In the meantime, on the short list, one-loss side of the bracket, Brian White and Red Calhoun were eliminating Lundy and Matthew Dugger. White then fell to Grady Mathews 5-2, as Roberts recorded his only shut-out of the tournament in the subsequent match against Calhoun. Roberts dropped Mathews into fourth place with a 5-3 score and Brown into third place 5-2. Roberts then closed the proceedings on Sunday night with a 5-3 victory over Rabon in the finals.

Results:
1st Josh Roberts
2nd Scott Rabon
3rd Kevin Brown
4th Grady Mathews
5/6th Brian White
5/6th Red Calhoun
7/8th Shannon Lundy
7/8th Matthew Dugger

In pool, the issue of control begins with being able to control the destination of the object ball. A player has to first learn how to make the shots. Once that skill is fundamentally established, however, the issue of control evolves to one of controlling the cue ball. When that ability is essentially mastered, the issue of control moves to controlling the table. Once that concept is understood, a player’s perception of control moves to an even wider and broader framework. He is able to “see” the contest in terms of who is controlling the playing field.

This is a tricky thing to see because the playing field, or arena, as it can also be called, includes more than just the players, the table, and the equipment. It also includes the spectators, the tournament director, the bleachers, the television cameras, and everything else that is part of an event. It includes the expectations of the spectators, the fears and hopes of the players, the clash of destinies, and everything else imaginable.
I know this sounds airy-fairy, but there is truth to it. The arena is not simply a collection of people and things. It is a context. It is the context in which the people and the things show up. It is the context in which the contest takes place. If one can affect the fabric of the context, one can control, to some extent, the outcome of the contest. Instead of being just a participant, the controlling player becomes an author of a happening coming into being. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

At the Glass City Open, Earl Strickland was in a match with Troy Frank, and most of the spectators were watching that match or one of the other three or four taking place. Frank was at the table, in control, when a spectator got up from the front row and hobbled across the room to the concession stand, got a bag of chips, and hurried back. A few minutes later, Frank took the chair and Strickland came to the table. Instead of shooting, he started ranting about potato chips and greasy hands. “Why don’t you go and get yourself some chips?” he directed to Frank. “Why don’t we just pass out chips to everyone?”

He continued for a few minutes until every eye in the place was on him. Even though most people couldn’t make out what he was saying, they were straining to do so. He was pulling the strings like a master puppeteer, like he has successfully done so many times before. The entire arena was responding and reacting to him. He didn’t move to take a shot until Frank was laughing, uneasily, in his chair.

It’s absurd to believe that Strickland, who has dominated the most mentally tough pool players in the world for almost two decades, is so weak that he could be distracted by a bag of potato chips. Even so, almost everyone has an opinion about his outbursts, and most consider them a character fault. But have you ever noticed that he only acts like that when the other player has control of the match? Have you ever noticed how often he ends up with control of the match after such an incident?

There are other ways to affect the context of the arena, and not all of them are considered negative. In the same event, for instance, every game won by Steve McAninch, the local favorite, was received with wild and enthusiastic applause by a large group of spectators. Their activity turned heads and impacted the unfolding of the event. It continued throughout the tournament as McAninch continued to win match after match. Eventually, he defeated Johnny Archer after a confrontation between the two of them forced tournament director Scott Smith to proclaim a non-talking rule. That, by the way, is another example of controlling the playing field.

There is one other kind of control in pool, and I’ll be addressing it in the next column. It’s the one where the most value is realized and maybe the only one that really counts in the final evaluation. It’s called self control.
Good luck good shootin’!

Danny Basavich

Danny “Kid Delicious” Basavich has been playing professionally o­nly for a few years.  In that short time he has made a name for himself by winning tournaments and heads-up matches.  His nickname came from o­ne of these heads-up matches when he played a player nicknamed “Kid Viscious”, where after defeating his opponent o­ne spectator commented, “If his name is Kid Viscious, your name should be Kid Delicious.”  Well the name stuck and Danny became the player with the cool nickname that had the game to back it up.  He won the Reno Open in December of 2004 and has his eyes o­n more tournaments.  He has released a DVD lesson set and a traing cue ball to help others play the game.  Danny has recently acquired Pittsburgh Steel as o­ne of his major sponsors.  Danny also has a soft side.  He donates a portion of his winnings to charity.