Shane Van Boening came out on top of a field of 53 players at the Pac-West Invitational, held June 23rd – 25th at Sam’s Hollywood Billiards in Portland, Oregon.
Even with the field mostly local talent, the pool gods had a little fun in the first round as Woodward and Hatch matched up against each other. That match went to Woodward 9-4, giving Hatch a very long path through the one loss side to manage. Woodward would stay undefeated until the fourth round of play, where he lost a tight 9-7 match to Van Boening.
Van Boening then went on to defeat Lining 9-6 to get to the match for the hot-seat. His opponent for the hot-seat was Ernesto Dominguez. Dominguez already had a 9-5 win over Immonen under his belt, and was looking to upset Van Boening for the hot-seat. That upset didn’t happen though, as Van Boening ran away with a 9-4 win over Dominguez.
On the one loss side, the man to beat was Ramil Gallego. Gallego took a 9-4 loss to Woodward mid day Saturday, but fought back with a six match winning streak on the left side of the board that included notable wins over Hatch, Lining and a dominating 9-3 win against Oscar Dominguez. Gallego then eliminated Ernesto 9-2 to earn his shot against Van Boening in the finals.
The final match looked to be on its way to a second set early on, as Gallego led for the first part of the match. A 6-4 Gallego lead was quickly eliminated though at 6-6. Van Boening then took his first lead since 1-0, at 7-6. Gallego had a chance to tie things again at 7-7 but missed a 10-ball, allowing Van Boening to the hill. Gallego did come back to tie things at 8-8, but a dry break in the case game was his last trip to the table as he watched Van Boening run out for the the 9-8 win, and first place.
Van Boening pocketed $6,000 for first, and padded his sizable lead on the Mosconi Cup points list. Gallego settled for $4,000 in second place prize money.
Day one of the 2017 Yaqi Group Cup Chinese Pool World Championship is complete, and half of the players advancing into the single elimination stages are now known.
Last year’s third place finisher, Darren Appleton, has qualified for the final stage, but it wasn’t easy. Appleton was taken to the hill by Iran’s Mohammad Pordeliri, and then taken to the hill again by AzBilliards 2016 Player of the Year Jayson Shaw. Shaw was running out the final rack and scratched in the side to gift an open table (and a trip to the single elimination stage) to Appleton. Shaw will face England’s Jack Whelan on day two to determine who goes to the final stage and who goes home.
American Corey Deuel turned in two match wins on day one to earn his place in the single elimination final stage. He and Appleton will be joined by such notables as Wu Jia Qing, Pin Yi Ko, Lee Van Corteza.
The ladies division sees a veritable who’s who of ladies pool on the one loss side, fighting for a spot in stage two. Karen Corr will face AzB Ladies Player of the Year Han Yu, Filipino sensation Chezka Centeno will take on Chihiro Kawahara, Kelly Fisher will face Rubelin Amit and Ga-Young Kim will play Claudia Djajalie on day two. Bai Ge, Sha Sha Liu, Siming Chen and Yuan-Chun Lin have already qualified to join eight Chinese women in stage two.
After the first matches of the day finish here in Yu Shan China, the remaining players will be redrawn into a single elimination bracket that will be used to determine the eventual World Champion.
Though the first two events of Tony Chohan's Taom Tips Tour didn't draw the number of entrants he'd been expecting, the inaugural and second stop on the tour certainly made up in quality what he thought it lacked in quantity. The first event, held on the weekend of Nov. 5-6, drew 51 entrants, while the second stop, held this past weekend (Nov. 12-13) drew 31. The first one was won by Antonio Lining, and the second was won by Josh Roberts, who double dipped Alex Olinger in the finals to claim the title. Both events, and all future stops on the tour, added $5,000 to the purse. This most recent event was hosted by High Pockets in Memphis, TN.
The final 12 in this most recent event featured a recognizable list of the Midwest's (and arguably, the country's) best players, including Roberts and Olinger. Chohan himself, played, as did Jeremy Jones, Ronnie Wiseman, Shane McMinn, Justin Hall, Danny Smith and a host of others.
The winners' side semifinals saw Roberts square off against last week's winner, Antonio Lining, and Olinger taking on Jones. Roberts kept Lining out of what would have been his second straight hot seat match on the tour with an 8-5 victory, while Olinger downed Jones double hill to join Roberts. Olinger claimed the hot seat 8-7 and waited on Roberts' return.
Over on the loss side, Shane Winters was making a strong bid to get back to the finals. He'd been sent to the loss side by Lining and was in the midst of a six-match, loss-side streak that would take him as far as the semifinals. He eliminated Bill Thorpe and Justin Hall, both 8-5 to earn himself a re-match against Lining. Jones picked up McMinn, who'd defeated Derek Garner 8-2 and Chohan 8-6 to reach him.
Jones moved into the quarterfinals on the heels of a double hill win over McMinn. Winters joined him after a successful 8-6 rematch against Lining. Winters completed his loss-side winning streak 8-6 over Jones, and had that streak snapped by Roberts in the semifinals 8-3.
Roberts took the opening set of the true double elimination final 8-5. He backed that up with a second win, 8-3 to claim the event title.
The next stop on the Taom Tips Tour, scheduled for Dec.16-18, will be another $5,000-added event, hosted by The Carom Room in Beloit, WI.
Being a player himself, Tony Chohan had a unique perspective on the conduct of pool tournaments, up to and including the 15 in which he had participated this year (2016) alone. He's not the first player to attempt the organization of a pool tour (Shannon Daulton, Tony Robles, Mike Zuglan, Linda Shea, Adrianne Beach, and quite a few others come immediately to mind), but he may be the first to have guaranteed $5,000-added to each and every one of the six proposed stops on his proposed Taom Tips Tour.
That tour got underway on the weekend of November 4-6 at Michael's Billiards in Fairfield, OH, and though he didn't get some of the players he'd been expecting to attend (Joey Gray, Chip Compton, Sky Woodward and Justin Bergman, for example), the $5,000-added event did draw 51 entrants to Michael's Billiards, and did feature some of the 'name' players he'd hoped would support his tour ambitions; Billy Thorpe, Dennis Hatch, Robb Saez, Shane Winters, Shane McMinn, and the finalists, Antonio Lining and Ramil Gallego from the Philippines (among others). Lining went undefeated to win it, while Gallego won five on the loss side to challenge him a second time in the finals.
It was Lining and Thorpe who ended up facing each other in the hot seat of this one. Thorpe had shut out Martin Zavala in one winners' side semifinal, while Lining downed Louis Demarco 8-3 in the other one. Lining claimed the hot seat 8-6 over Thorpe and waited on the return of Gallego, whom he'd defeated in a winners' side quarterfinal.
Gallego opened his five-match trek back to a rematch against Lining with an 8-6 victory over Tommy Stephenson. He followed that with an 8-3 win over Shane McMinn (who'd just eliminated Robb Saez), which set him (Gallego) up to face Zavala, coming over from the winners' side semifinal. DeMarco picked up Shane Winters, who'd eliminated Brandon Hallett 8-6, and Hatch 8-2.
The two loss-side combatants, Gallego and Winters, advanced to the quarterfinals; Gallego 8-2 over Zavala, and Winters 8-4 over DeMarco. Gallego took the quarterfinal match 8-3 over Winters, and then denied Thorpe his shot at the event title with an 8-6 victory in the semifinals.
It was to be a true double elimination final. Lining finished it in a single set, defeating Gallego 8-4 to claim the event title.
The next $5,000-added stop on the six-event Taom Tips Tour was scheduled for this weekend (Nov. 11-13), and was to be hosted by High Pockets in Memphis, TN. The following stop, scheduled for Dec. 16-18, will be hosted by the Carom Room in Beloit, WI.
Johnny Archer has won the inaugural Tennessee State 8-Ball Open held at Phil Windham’s Chattanooga Billiard Club. This was a true double-elimination final TD’d by Steve McDonald and Archer had a tough and determined Jason Klatt to overcome in an effort that required both available sets in the finals.
All four tables were gong at once and two of the players from the one-loss side would be eliminated in this round. Both of these matches were close. Ramil Gallego defeated traveling partner Antonio Lining on the hill at 6-5. Then Eric Durbin ended the run of Nick Varner as he controlled the later stage of the match to win 6-4.
Our winner’s side matches found Johnny Archer besting Robb Saez 6-4 and Jeremy Jones missing nothing as he beat a newly more deliberate Jason Klatt 6-3. Klatt has noticeably slowed his pace but one cannot argue with the results he is getting. He is shooting extremely well as his finish here this week demonstrates.
Our 2:30 round featured the two one-loss matches that would drop our field to only four players. Robb Saez maintained both his table skills and his composure as he cooly won the case game to send Gallego home 6-5. Jason Klatt gave Eric Durbin little air or wiggle room and sent Durbin to the stands with a 6-2.
On the winner’s side we still had both Jeremy Jones and Johnny Archer. In this match Archer found a sure-fire way to beat Jeremy Jones – don’t let him to the table. Archer dominated with run outs and total control so complete that he beat his good friend 6-1 to claim the Hot Seat.
Now only Jones and Klatt were left to threaten Archer. They did battle in our Semi-Finals and gave us yet another epic hill-hill match. Klatt came out on top 6-5 and Jones was resigned to third place.
As mentioned, the finals between Archer and Klatt were true double-elimination. Klatt would have to beat Archer twice in order to win. The first set saw Klatt go out to a two rack lead at 2-0 only to have Archer win the next two to tie us up. The real difference in this set was the break. Klatt was making balls and shooting while suffering only a single dry break in the entire match while Archer was dry on three of his first four attempts, turning the table over each time. Klatt played cautiously and made no fatal errors. He forced a second set with a double-hill 6-5 win over Archer.
The final set found better breaks from Archer with the exception of a single scratch in rack four. Klatt won the first rack but then Archer won four games in a row. Klatt was unfazed. He just replied by winning the next four racks to take the lead in the match 5-4 and stand on the hill. Archer never flinched. He just went to work, won the next two racks and claimed the Championship.
Play continued Wednesday at the U.S. Open and we are at that period of the event where some big names begin to fall away. Radislow Baica first took out Denis Grabe 11-2 and then eliminated Chip Compton 11-2. Next he will face Ramil Gallego. Maxim Dudanets of Russia sent Greek powerhouse Nikos Ekonomopoulos to the sidelines 11-7, ending his run for this year.
Eklent Kaci had a marvelous day. First he took down Karl Boyes 11-5 and then went on to ruin the evening for Jason Klatt 11-8. Now it gets really tough as he goes up against young Ko today. Ko took out both Amar Kang (11-3) and Ralf Bouquet (11-5) to rest on his current bracket perch.
Josh Roberts will play Jeremy Sossei today after Earl Strickland resigned the match against Josh with the score at 9-7. Roberts then went on to beat H.X. Han 11-8 and he is playing at the top of his game. Sossei had a rough road to get this far out on the charts. He had two double hill victories in a row against John Morra and Raj Hundal.
Players still unscathed by loss include Brandon Shuff who faces Jung Lin Chang and Alex Pagulayan who is to play a resurgent Jeremy Jones. One headliner match that has the buzz gong today is Jayson Shaw will be playing Pin Yi Ko. These two are both fan favorites to win the event so this match will be a thriller.
Our final two undefeated players are Abdulrahman Al Shammer and David Alcaide. They will face off in the winners rounds this afternoon or evening.
The matches just get tougher from here. Watch the best of them live at accu-stats.com.
The 42nd US Open 9-Ball Championship kicks off at 10:30 EST Sunday morning, with a field of 139 players competing for the most presigious title on US soil.
Skyler Woodward added 28 points to his Mosconi Cup ranking total on the weekend of October 7-10, with an undefeated run in the Men's Division of the 4th Annual Chinook Winds 10-Ball Championships. Woodward is 77 points behind the Mosconi Cup rankings leader, Shane Van Boening, and 32 points ahead of Rodney Morris, who finished in the tie for 5th. The $10,000-added event drew 100 entrants to the Chinook Winds Resort & Casino in Lincoln, OR. A $4,000-added Ladies Open event (still ongoing as of this writing) was run concurrently, and drew 29 entrants.
Woodward also won the Friday night "Warm Up" event, which drew 73 entrants, and featured three matches between Woodward and Morris; the hot seat match, won by Woodward, and the finals, which they split, with Woodward winning the decisive last match.
In the main event, two preliminary brackets yielded 16 competitors advancing to a final bracket of 32, 16 on each side. With memories of Friday night's "Warm Up" in place, Woodward and Morris were still in play to battle it out for the title (and Mosconi Cup points), though Morris, originally defeated, double hill, by Dan Louie in one of the preliminary brackets, was on the loss side.
In a winners' side quarterfinal, Woodward downed Todd Marsh 7-3 and advanced to face Chris McDaniel. Filipino Antonio Lining, in the meantime, survived a double hill battle versus Max Eberle to face Amar Kang in the other winners' side semifinal. Kang got by Lining 7-4 and in the hot seat match, faced Woodward, who'd sent McDaniel to the loss side 7-3.Woodward defeated Kang 7-4 and waited in the hot seat for what turned out to be Lining.
On the loss side (final bracket, after winning three in the preliminary bracket), Morris had gotten by Ruben Silva 7-5, Chris Byers 7-1 and Ramil Gallego 7-5 to draw Lining. McDaniel drew Chris Eberle, who'd defeated Christ "Spike" Airdo 7-3, and Jason Williams, double hill, to reach him.
The potential for a Woodward/Morris matchup in the finals was thwarted by a double hill win for Lining, who advanced to the quarterfinals. He was met by McDaniel, who defeated Eberle 7-2.
Lining gave up only a single rack to McDaniel in those quarterfinals, and turned for a re-match against Kang in the semifinals. He eliminated Kang ??-?? to earn a shot against Woodward. To no avail, as it turned out. Woodward made it a single set final with a double hill win to claim the event title.
If someone asked you to come up with 20 male competitors that you'd like to see at a pool tournament, you'd be hard-pressed to come up with a list better than the one that comprised the field of players at the Men's Open 10-Ball event of the 2nd Annual Tornado Open (a similar list of female players is, literally, a separate story). Fifteen of the top 25 players on the BCA's Player Ranking list were on hand, as were a host of other notables, like Tommy Kennedy, Skyler Woodward, Justin Bergman, Dennis Hatch, Robb Saez, Brandon Shuff, Mike Davis and Vilmos Foldes, to name just a few.
In the end, the 78-entrant Men's Open 10-Ball event came down to three matches between Shane Van Boening and (something of a surprise, although not a big one) Josh Roberts, whose last (reported) major win came against Pagulayan in the finals of The Cheesehead Classic in Wisconsin last October. Roberts took the first of those three in the hot seat match, but Van Boening came back from the semifinals against Warren Kiamco and defeated Roberts twice in the double elimination final to claim the title.
As the field narrowed to 12, only five of the BCA's 25 top players remained – (in ranking order) Shane Van Boening (1), Dennis Orcollo (4), Warren Kiamco (6), Mike Dechaine (10) and Alex Pagulayan (17). Three of them (Van Boening, Orcollo and Pagulayan) were still on the winners' side of the 78-entrant bracket.
After defeating Tommy Kennedy, Richard Pugliese, Justin Bergman, and Warren Kiamco, Van Boening squared off in a winners' side semifinal versus The Lion. Josh Roberts, who'd defeated Stony Stone, Drake Niepoetter, Manny Chau and Shaun Wilkie, faced Orcollo in the other one.
Shane dominated 8-1 in his match against Pagulayan, as Roberts downed Orcollo 8-6. Roberts got into the hot seat with an 8-4 win over Van Boening, and waited on his return.
Over on the loss side, where Dechaine, Bergman, Kiamco, Davis and Manny Chau continued to lurk, Pagulayan drew Bergman, who'd eliminated Kevin Cheng 8-4 and Antonio Lining 8-3 to reach him. Orcollo picked up Kiamco, who'd been sent to the loss side by Van Boening in a winners' side quarterfinal and was in the midst of a four-match, loss-side streak that would take him as far as a re-match versus Van Boening in the semifinals. Kiamco had eliminated Dechaine 8-5 and Manny Chau 8-3 to get Orcollo.
Old adversaries, Pagulayan and Kiamco, advanced to the quarterfinals; Pagulayan eliminating Bergman 8-3 and Kiamco defeating Orcollo, double hill (Kiamco's first of three straight double hill matches). Kiamco went on to defeat Pagulayan, double hill, and then locked up with Van Boening for a third double hill battle that eventually gave Van Boening a second, and necessary third shot against Roberts.
Van Boening and Roberts played 18 games over the two-set final. Van Boening won 16 of them. He gave up nothing in the opening set and though Roberts would chalk up two racks in the second set, Van Boening would close it out to claim the Men's Open 10-Ball title.
