Collin Hall chalked up a win on the Q City 9-Ball Tour on the weekend of August 1-2, and double dipped world-class pool player Jundel Mazon from the Philippines. Mazon, winner of the Guiness World Series of Pool tournament in Indonesia five years ago and more recently (February) shared the tie for 17th place at the WPA World 10-Ball Championship with the likes of Darren Appleton, had to win 13 games in his matches versus Hall, who raced to 5. The tour stop drew 25 entrants to Breaker's Sky Lounge in Herndon, VA.
To no one's surprise, Mazon advanced to the hot seat in this one. He defeated Shanna Lewis (owner of Breaker's Sky Lounge) 13-2 in a winners' side semifinal (the first time in four matches that he'd given up a single rack), while Hall sent Brian Thacker to the loss side 5-4 in the other (Thacker, racing to 7). Mazon took the hot seat match 13-2 over Hall, and spectators might have been forgiven if they thought, for all intents and purposes, that it was over. Until it wasn't.
Lewis and Thacker moved to the loss side, picking up Joey Mastermaker and Daniel "Papa John" Adams, respectively. Mastermaker had gotten by Ethan Carson and Shane Goodrich, both 8-3, to reach Lewis. Adams had downed Rafael Reyes 7-5 and Asia Cycak 8-4 to draw Thacker. Lewis and Thacker picked up their second straight loss; Lewis falling Mastermaker 8-3, Thacker, to Adams 8-4.
Mastermaker took the quarterfinal match against Adams 8-4 and then had his run ended by Hall 5-3 in the semifinals. Mazon got close in the opening set of the true double elimination finals, winning 11 of the 13 games he needed to win. Hall, though, chalked up his five to force a second set. Hall claimed the event title with a 5-3 win in the second set.
The U.S. Amateur Championship returned to the tropical climate of the Tampa Bay area in early November. For five straight days, the nation’s top players battled it out at Stroker’s – Palm Harbor, Fla., for their place in U.S. Amateur Championship history. More than 2,400 players attempted to qualify for this year’s event, with 32 women and 128 men advancing to the championship round. The tournament field included a strong mix of U.S Amateur Championship veterans and a talented pool of newcomers vying for amateur pool’s most prestigious title.
In the finals of the Women’s Division, Tammie Jones of Muncie, Ind., defeated Asia Cycak of Raleigh, N.C., 9-4 in a rematch of the 2012 finals.
The encore finale opened in the 8-Ball set at Jones choosing after Cycak won the lag and took the break. Cycak took an early lead winning the first game, but Jones marched right back taking the next three to open a 3-1 advantage. Cycak narrowed the gap by taking the fifth game, but again, Jones bounced back with a win of her own and a 4-2 lead heading into the 9-Ball set.
Things unraveled quickly in the 9-Ball set for Cycak, as Jones quickly reeled off four straight wins and an insurmountable 8-2 lead. Cycak staved off elimination the next two games, thanks in part to Jones rattling the 9-ball in and out of the pocket while on-the-hill, but could only postpone the inevitable for so long.
Jones earned her second U.S. Amateur Championship title in three years, while Cycak matched her 2012 Runner-Up performance. The victory earns Jones the coveted U.S. Amateur Championship trophy, and travel, lodging and entry into a 2015 pro event.
In the finals of the Men’s Division, Kenneth Brisbon of Oxford, Mich., defeated Jeff Abernathy of Hickory, N.C., 11-10 in the final. With the victory, Brisbon avenged his only loss of the tournament, suffered earlier in the day at the hands of Abernathy.
Early on, the match looked anything like the hill-hill nail biter it turned out to be. Brisbon looked like he’d make quick work of Abernathy opening up a 5-0 lead. But Abernathy capitalized on a miscue on the 8-ball by Brisbon in the sixth game, and took the final three games of the 8-Ball set.
Before anyone could update their mental scorecards, Abernathy had pulled within a game with an opening win in the 9-Ball set. Brisbon took the next two games to push his lead to 7-4. Abernathy was tenacious though, winning four of the next five games and tying the match at 8-8. Brisbon took the ninth game of the 9-Ball set to regain the lead, but Abernathy battled back again, winning the next two games and taking his first lead of the match.
As a stunned crowd looked on, and needing only one more game for a victory, it appeared Abernathy would complete the comeback. But it was Brisbon who would mount a comeback of his own, tying the match at hill-hill.
In the 21st and final game overall, it was Brisbon coming up clutch with an impressive break-and-run to secure his place in U.S. Amateur Championship history.
After the match, Brisbon was presented with the first-ever Larry Hubbart Trophy by APA Founder Terry Bell and Hubbart’s widow Nancy Hubbart.
Brisbon moves on to compete in the 2015 U.S. Open, while Abernathy settled for Runner-up, his highest finish in U.S. Amateur Championship competition.
Taylor Anderson of Bonner Springs, Kan., took 3rd Place, while defending champion Brian Parks of Bakersfield, Calif., finished 4th. Tom Acciavatti of Latham, N.Y., and Clint Clark of Hickory, N.C., tied for 5th Place.
The 2014 U.S. Amateur Championship was conducted by the APA, and is the only tournament produced by the APA open to both members and non-members. Preliminary qualifying rounds were held throughout the country in mid-September.
As Champions, both Jones and Brisbon will return next year to defend their coveted titles.
The U.S. Amateur Championship is a double elimination tournament that offers the nation’s top amateur players the opportunity to showcase their skills through a combination of 8-Ball and 9-Ball matches, in the only APA event that does not use The Equalizer® handicap system.
The APA, based in Lake Saint Louis, Mo., sanctions the world’s largest amateur pool league, known as the APA Pool League throughout the United States, and as the Canadian Pool League in Canada. Nearly 250,000 members compete in weekly 8-Ball and 9‑Ball league play. The APA is generally recognized as the Governing Body of Amateur Pool, having established the official rules, championships, formats and handicap systems for the sport of amateur billiards.
The APA produces three major tournaments each year—the APA National Team Championships, the APA National Singles Championships and the U.S. Amateur Championship—that, together, pay out nearly $1.5 Million in cash and prizes annually! In 2010, the APA National Team Championships were recognized by Guinness World Records as the “world’s largest pool tournament.”
The APA and its championships are sponsored by Aramith, Action Cues and Pool Dawg.
Since the J. Pechauer Northeast Women's Tour began its 2014 season back in March, there have only been five players involved in the finals of the tour's seven stops. Five of those seven finals have been won by Karen Corr. Jia Li won the other two, including the most recent; a $1,000-added event that drew 21 entrants to the Top Hat Cue Club in Parkville, MD, on the weekend of October 10-11. Tour director Linda Shea has been in four of those seven finals, including the most recent. Asia Cycak was the runner-up to Corr in the opening stop in March. Dawn Fox was runner-up to Corr in July and Jia Li was defeated by Corr in the August finals. This most recent stop marked the first time since July that Corr was not involved in the event finals.
Jia Li played eight matches during the most recent stop. She was awarded a bye in the opening round and was then narrowly defeated by Judie Wilson (7-6) in the only match she played on the winners' side of the bracket. She went on to win six on the loss side, was awarded a forfeit victory, and then, defeated tour director, and at the time, hot seat occupant, Linda Shea, in the finals. In their June finals match-up, it was Shea who entered the finals from the loss side, having been defeated by Li in the hot seat match.
As Li was at work on the loss side, Shea advanced among the winners' side final four, for a match against Joey Stearns. Ji-Hyun Park met up with Dawn Fox in the other winners' side semifinal. Shea defeated Stearns 7-5, and in the hot seat match, met up with Park, who'd defeated Fox 7-2. Shea claimed the hot seat 7-4 over Park and for the fourth time this year, entered the finals.
It was Stearns, who moved over and met up with Li, who, by that time, had chalked up four, loss-side wins, including a 7-4 win over Pauline Mattes, and a 7-2 victory over Sharon O'Hanlon.
Fox picked up Nicole Nester, who'd gotten by Borana Andoni 7-5 and then shut out Judie Wilson. It was at this juncture that Li won a forfeit victory over Stearns, and advanced to the quarterfinals against Nester, who'd eliminated Fox 7-1.
Li defeated Nester 7-4, and entered her second JPNEWT final against Shea, with a 7-2 win over Ji-Hyun Park in the semifinals. Li chalked up her second JPNEWT victory of the year with a 9-5 victory over Shea.
Belinda Calhoun, Christy Norris, Lisa Cossette and Michelle Jefferson
Christy Norris took a double hill loss in the hot seat match against Belinda Calhoun in stride, and came back from the semifinals to defeat her, double hill in the finals of the North Carolina 9-Ball Classic, Stop # 4 on the Southern/Mid-Atlantic Regional Tour (SMART). The $500-added event, held on the weekend of September 12-13, drew 15 entrants to Gate City Billiards in Greensboro, NC.
Three of Norris' final four matches went double hill. The first of those three was a winners' side semifinal against Lisa Cossette, which set her up to face Calhoun in the hot seat match. Calhoun had sent Kathleen Lawless to the losers' bracket 7-4. Calhoun then defeated Norris, double hill, and waited on her return.
On the loss side, Cossette picked up Stephanie Oudinot, who'd defeated Julie Benitz 7-4 and Asia Cycak 7-5. Lawless drew Michelle Jefferson, who'd been sent to the loss side by Cossette, and defeated Meredith McLean 7-1 and Christine Snody 7-5. Cossette's 7-1 victory over Oudinot and Jefferson's 7-2 win over Lawless set up a quarterfinal re-match between Cossette and Jefferson.
Cossette defeated Jefferson a second time, 7-5, and then, was herself eliminated by Norris 7-3 in the semifinals; the easiest of Norris' final four. Norris took the extended race-to-9 finals against Calhoun 9-8 to claim the North Carolina 9-Ball Classic title.
In the final four matches of the March 8-9 stop on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women's Tour (JPNEWT) – both winners' side semifinals, the winners' side final and the event final – the winner gave up only a single rack. Karen Corr won three of those four matches to complete an undefeated run on the $1,000-added JPNEWT event ($500 added for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place by Coin of the Realm) that drew 33 entrants to Triple Nines Bar & Billiards in Elkridge, MD.
Corr's victim in the winners' side semifinal was Linda Shea. Nicole Fleming, in the meantime, got into the hot seat battle after allowing Junko Tsuchiya the single rack. Corr then defeated Fleming 7-1 to sit in the hot seat, awaiting what turned out to be the return of Asia Cycak, who won five straight on the loss side to get to the finals.
Cycak, sent to the losers' bracket by Fleming, opened her loss-side streak with a double hill win over Dawn Fox, and followed that with a 7-4 win over Judie Wilson, which set Cycak up to meet Shea. Tsuchiya drew Sue Yen Rhee, who'd defeated Meredith Lambert 7-1 and Tina Hartman 7-3. Cycak and Rhee advanced to the quarterfinals, both 7-3, over Shea and Tsuchiya.
Cycak took the quarterfinal match against Rhee and the semifinal match against Fleming by the same 7-3 score. Corr, though, took command of the final match early and often, allowing Cycak only a single rack in completing her undefeated weekend to claim the event title.
As he's done numerous times in the past, John Trobiano entered a Tri-State tournament on March 1, that, as owner of Castle Billiards in East Rutherford, NJ, he was hosting. As he has also done a number of times, he won the $1,000-added AB-CD event that had drawn 35 entrants to his location. Occupying the hot seat at the end of the night, Trobiano and Brian Hunter, who'd won five on the loss side, opted out of a final match, splitting the top prizes, while conceding the event victory to the undefeated Trobiano.
Trobiano would open his five-match run on the AB side, with a victory over Borana Andoni. He followed with victories over Antonio G.errero, and Asia Cycak, before meeting up with house pro Scott Simonetti in one of the winners' side semifinals. Pat Mareno, working on the CD side initially, got by Steve Persaud, Allison Honeymar and Eddie Perez, before coming up against Ryzard Szpila in the other semifinal. Trobiana survived a double hill fight against Simonetti, and in the hot seat match, met Mareno, who'd defeated Szpila, also double hill. Trobiano won what would prove to be his last match of the night, defeating Mareno 9-7.
On the loss side, Simonetti ran right into the streaking Hunter, who'd defeated Mike Zimny 7-4 and Asia Cycak 7-3, to reach him. Szpila met up with Jennifer "Sweet P" Pedutem, who, having been sent to the loss side by Szpila in the third round of play, was on a streak of her own. She got by Jan Mierzwa 8-5 and Frank Siezcka 7-2 to meet Szpila a second time. Hunter and Pedutem advanced to the quarterfinals; Hunter downing Simonetti 7-2 and Pedutem wreaking her vengeance on Szpila, ending his day 8-4.
It was Hunter who won the quarterfinal battle, ending Pedutem's run 10-5. He then defeated Mareno in the semifinals 8-6 for a chance against Trobiano, which never happened. The two finalists opted out of the final match, leaving Trobiano as the undefeated winner.
Tour representatives congratulated Trobiano and thanked him and his staff for their hospitality. Thanks were tendered to tour sponsors Sterling-Gaming, Ozone Billiards, Qpod, Cues, Kamui Tips, Phil Capelle, BlueBook Publishing, and Human Kinetics, as well. The next stop on the Tri-State Tour, scheduled for March 22, will be hosted by Steinway Billiards in Astoria, NY.
