On the weekend of March 19-20, the Omega Billiards Tour was hosted by Clicks Billiards in Arlington, Texas. The staff and owners treated the players well with great service and an amazing atmosphere, and we very much appreciate each and every one of them!
We were able to extend the field to 87 players for this third stop of the 2016 season. And it was tough to predict who would come out on top with all the great talent in the field!
Always a top contender and previous Omega Billiards Tour Champion, Tony Sulsar, had a great tournament coming in 3rd with many tight races. Phillip Palmer had another great finish as well through a lot of tough competitors and placed an impressive 4th. Nick Evans, all the way from St. Louis and not even 20 years old yet, had wins over Ricky Ferguson 7-1, Emily Sumrall 7-2, Phillip Autieri 7-4, Greg Sandifer 7-3, Douglas Pitts hill-hill, and Forest Boyd 7-4 before finding himself in the hotseat. CJ Wiley had a bye and then wins over Joey Salazar 9-3, Walter Huenerfuerst 9-1, Donnie Gregory 9-4, Anthony Shea 9-0 and Phillip Palmer 9-4 before meeting up with Nick in the hotseat. CJ would win the hotseat match decisively 9-2.
Nick was sent to the one-loss side and took care of Tony Sulsar 7-5 to get another chance against CJ Wiley in the finals. The first match of the finals was close the whole time and Nick edged out a win 7-7, which forced a second set in this true double elimination finals. And the second set was close again and this time it went hill-hill! CJ broke and ran beautifully the last game to win the whole tournament! BIG congratulations to CJ for snapping off this tough Omega event and to Nick Evans for placing an impressive 2nd!
5th/6th places were filled by newcomer Forest Boyd and Douglas Pitts, and 7th/8th finishers were Denny Sneed and newcomer Robbie Cleland who had a fantastic first event!
Congrats to ALL the players and fans for a great event!
A HUGE thank you goes out to our sponsors Omega Billiards Supply, Predator Cues, BCAPL/CSI, and OB Cues. We would also like to give a big thanks to our additional sponsors, Irving Ink and Thread, AZBilliards.com, Pool School, and BilliardsPress.com.
This year OB Cues is our Ranking sponsor and will be donating three OB Cues to the top ranked 3 players at the end of the year! BCAPL/CSI has joined again and will be giving away 5 BCAPL free entry fees the 2017 BCAPL Nationals.
Tournament Director Melinda Bailey would like to thank the Clicks Billiards owners and staff for their awesome hospitality all weekend! She would also like to thank her fabulous team: Heather Farr and Jeffrey Georges.
A big thank you also goes out to Michael Hoang, main sponsor of the Tour and owner of Omega Billiards Supply in Hurst, TX. Michael and Omega Billiards Supply are well known for the huge booths at many large tournaments across the country.
The next stop will be held April 30-May 1 at JR Pockets in Denton, Texas. $1,500 added and limited to the first 80 PAID players (already full). We will have ten stops total again in 2016. Pool is alive and thriving in Texas!
The stars came out to play on the weekend of July 11-12, as High Pockets in Memphis, TN played host to the $4,500-added Memphis Open, featuring a $4,000-added Pro 10-Ball event with races to 15 (11 on the loss side) and a $500-added Pro-Am 9-Ball tournament (races to 7 on both sides). Ray Hansen, with guest commentary from many of the Open-Pro players, was on site, throughout the weekend, streaming the event on PoolActionTV.
Both winners went undefeated through their fields. Justin Bergman spoiled a six-match, loss-side bid by Shane McMinn in the Pro 10-Ball event that drew 16 entrants, including last year's winner, Jason Klatt, as well as McMinn, Johnny Archer, Dennis Hatch, Larry Nevel and Skyler Woodward (among others). Like Bergman, Kenny Loftis survived a loss-side bid (by Scott Rabon; seven on the loss side) to go undefeated in the Pro-Am 9-Ball tournament that drew 64 entrants.
Bergman's undefeated run was almost sidetracked by Johnny Archer in one of the winners' side semifinals. Archer battled to double hill before giving way to Bergman. John Morra, in the meantime, sent Larry Nevel to the loss side 15-7. Bergman claimed the hot seat 15-11 over Morra and waited for Shane McMinn to finish his loss-side run.
On the loss side, McMinn, who'd been defeated earlier by Skyler Woodward, had eliminated Drake Neipotter 11-4, and last year's winner, Klatt, 11-7, to draw Archer. Nevel faced Dennis Hatch, who'd defeated Danny Olson 11-4 and Jeremy Jones 11-7 (Jones had previously eliminated Woodward 11-8). McMinn handed Archer his second straight, double hill loss, while Nevel advanced to the quarterfinals 11-6 over Hatch.
McMinn then won two straight 11-7 matches; over Nevel in the quarterfinals, and Morra in the semifinals, setting up what proved to be an epic race to 15 against Bergman that went to 28 games. The larger, more deliberate McMinn took an early, slim lead, 4-2, before the rail-thin, highly-energized Bergman settled in to win four in a row. The two battled back and forth with Bergman never extending that two-game lead, though not for lack of trying. They were tied at 13-13, when Bergman won two straight to claim the event title.
In the Amateur 9-Ball tourney, Loftis and Nick Evans advanced to the hot seat match; Loftis, having sent Mark Cavalier to the loss side 7-4, while Evans sent Greg Mitchell over 7-5. Loftis moved into the hot seat with a 7-4 win over Evans, and waited for the return of Scott Rabon.
Rabon had been sent to the loss side by Greg Mitchell, and was Mitchell's first loss-side opponent. Rabon, with two loss-side wins to his credit, had eliminated Brian Woodward 7-4 and Kevin Hutson 7-3 to reach Mitchell. Cavalier picked up Dale Neipotter, who'd defeated Paul Dodge, double hill, and Johnny Box 7-4. By identical 7-5 scores, Cavalier and Rabon defeated Neipotter and Mitchell and turned to face each other in the quarterfinals.
Rabon downed Cavalier 7-4 and earned his shot at Loftis in the hot seat with a 7-5 win over Evans in the semifinals. Loftis ended Rabon's seven-match, loss-side winning streak with a 7-5 victory in the finals.
On the weekend of March 28-29, the Omega Billiards Tour was honored to play at a new host site, Pucketts in Fort Worth. The pool room, players, and fans were in for a treat as we had several out-of-state and out-of-town players that came to compete. In the end Kevin Chen from Houston would win the $,1,500 added event with 80 players!
Junior National players Devin Poteet (18 years old) from Kentucky and Nick Evans (17 years old) from Ohio came to compete, along with young-phenom Skyler Woodward (only 22 years old) from Kentucky. Kevin Cheng from Houston also came to play and he is a Taiwan sensation and now a crowd favorite here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Also coming from afar was Chris Fields who was celebrating her birthday week in Texas, all the way from Florida.
But don’t let the out-of-towners fool you – there was plenty of tough action right here from the area players!
After a great opening day on Saturday, there was still a lot of great competing going on. By Sunday afternoon, Amos Bush had defeated Chris Fields 8-1, Tim Rice 8-3 and Jay Murillo 8-5 to earn his spot to play in the hotseat. Kevin Cheng defeated Cory Anderson 9-3, Tony Sulsar 9-4, and Alberto Nieto 9-2 to meet up with Amos.
Amos put up a GREAT fight and was the ONLY player to get on the hill with Kevin (and did so in the hotseat match), but Kevin prevailed 9-7 in that match to wait to see who he played in the finals.
On the one-loss side, Daniel Herring was fighting tough. He lost his very first match Saturday morning and clawed through Jeff Georges, David Franklin, Eric Hsu, Norman Small, Bruce Foster, Tony Sulsar, and Jay Murillo to play for 4th place. Daniel then ran into a determined Albert Nieto. On Sunday, Alberto had already defeated Robert Sifuentes 7-4 and Bruce Foster 7-1 before losing to Kevin Cheng. From there Alberto defeated Daniel 7-3 then Amos Bush hill-hill in the semi-finals to win a spot in the finals against Kevin Cheng. Alberto played some really good pool and earned that spot in the finals.
However, Kevin Cheng would continue his stellar play and defeated Alberto in the finals 9-3 and claim the top first place prize!
A HUGE thank you goes out to our sponsors Omega Billiards Supply, Predator Cues, Poison Break Cues, BCAPL/CSI, and Lucasi and Players Cues. We would also like to give a big thanks to our additional sponsors, Hulsey Custom Cues, OB Cues, Irving Ink and Thread, Pro Billiard Service, AZBilliards.com, Billiards Digest, and BilliardsPress.com.
After three stops so far this year, Daniel Herring is in first place on the Predator Player Points Tracker with 460 points. Cory Anderson is in second with 295 points and Nick Conner is in third place with 220 points.
Tournament Director Melinda Bailey would like to thank the Pucketts owners and staff for their awesome hospitality all weekend! They worked hard to get the place ready for all the players.
A big thank you also goes out to Michael Hoang, main sponsor of the Tour and owner of Omega Billiards Supply in Hurst, TX. Michael and Omega Billiards Supply are well known for the huge booths at many of the large tournaments across the country.
The next stop of the Omega Billiards Tour will be April 25-26 at JR Pockets in Denton, Texas. $1,500 added and limited to 80 players. Still 5 more stops left before the $4,500 Season Finale! Pool is alive and thriving in Texas! Check out the website for more details: http://www.omegabilliardstour.com/
The European Youth squad with the Youth Sports Director Sandra Hanf (GER) as their leader and Piotr Kedzior (POL) as support is currently trying to repeat their outstanding results from last year.
The divisions are Under 17’s, Under 19’s and Girls. There are 24 players participating in each division, representing a total of 28 nations
Under 19’s
Joshua Filler (GER) had a walk over in his first round. He then got the better of Samuel Hui Sim/Zhong (SIN) with 9:4. The balls were rolling in his favor in that match. His teammate and fellow countryman Raphael Wahl (GER) had a perfect start with a 9:1 victory over Nasie Kotze (RSA). In the second round, Wahl met Liu Hao Wei (TPE). The match was really close and a tough fight for both players. After 14 racks, the score was tied at 7:7. Then Liu managed to get the upper hand and win the match with 9:7. That brought Wahl to the loser’s side of the bracket. Patrick Statkiewicz (POL) lost his opening match to strong American Nick Evans (USA) with 8:9. The Polish lad was already on the hill with 8:6 when he overcoat an 8-ball. That gave second life to Evans. He came back, and at 8:8 he recovered from a tough safety position, winning the match with the closest result possible. Pius Labutis (LIT) drew Kim Su Ung (KOR) in his first round match. The match was completely leveled and Labutis had the luckier end with 9:8 on his side. The player from Lithuania also won his second match over local player Wen Wu (CHN) with 9:6 and will try – just like Filler – to make it into the quarter-finals.
Under 17’s
Maxim Dudanets (RUS), Daniel Maciol (POL) and Cyriel Ledoux (NED) had a walk-over in their first round match. Then, Maciol won over Nick Evans (USA) 7:5. Dudanets took down YIP King Ning Leo (HKG) 7:4 while Ledoux wrestled down Kong Dejing (CHN) with 7:5 after having trailed already 2:4 in that match. Sanjin Pehlivanovic (BIH) forfeited his first round match. He will now face YIP King Ning Leo in the loser’s round. Dudanets, Maciol and Ledoux are right on track and play for the quarter-finals today.
Girls
Nataliya Seroshtan (RUS) was seeded Nr.1 in the girls division, being the defending World Champion. After a walk-over in the first round, she clearly dominated Kim Bo Geon (KOR) with 7:3. Kamila Khodjaeva (BEL) had a close encounter with Liu Yuchen (CHN) and the match was pretty even until a score of 4:4 was on the boards. Then, Liu started committing mistakes and Khodjaeva punished her for it, winning the match with 7:4. Kristina Tkach (RUS) crushed Taylor Reynolds (USA) in the first round with 7:1. Then she met last year’s runner-up Yuki Hiraguchi (JPN). After a long fight, Tkach had to give in to the strong Japanese, losing 4:7 in the end. Marharyta Fefilava (BLR) met Chezka Luy Centeno (PHI) in the first round. The match was dominated by safety play and Marharyta did not achieve to come up with safeties which were good enough to put her opponent into danger. The filipina won the match with 7:5. Fefilava lost the match without any missed shot. Her safety play was simply not good enough and she left chances for her opponent. Today, Feilava will have another chance on the loser’s side against Kayla Roll-on (USA).
CueSports International, Henderson, Nevada (September 30, 2014) – The USA Pool League (USAPL) is proud to announce that it is sponsoring Karen Corr as the coach of the USA team at the upcoming WPA Junior World Championships. This esteemed event will be held in Shanghai, China November 14-19, 2014.
Nine of the USA’s most talented junior players qualified for the prestigious world event with high finishes in the 2014 Billiard Education Foundation (BEF) Junior National 9-Ball Championships held June 24-27 in Louisville, KY. The following players will proudly represent USA:
Nick Evans, 17 (St. Peters, MI) Manny Perez, 16 (Kansas City, KS) Devin Poteet, 17 (Cape Girardeau, MO) Taylor Reynolds, 16 (Winslow, Maine) Rachel Lang, 16 (Catskill, NY) Ricky Evans, 13 (St. Peters, MO) Samuel Hoffman, 14 (Hillsborough, NJ) April Larson, 13 (Bloomington, MN) Michelle Jiang, 13 (Harvard, MA)
Corr, a 2012 BCA Hall of Fame inductee, has won nearly every major women’s title available and routinely competes in various open events with a high degree of success. She has won 15 Classic Tour titles, four BCA Open titles, three WPBA National Championships, and three Tournament of Champions titles. She has won numerous international and regional events and was runner-up twice at the WPA World 9-Ball Championships.
The USAPL is honored to assist the USA junior players by sponsoring a first-class coach to tutor and guide them along their journey. We are confident that this will provide them with learning experiences of a lifetime.
The USAPL is a division of CueSports International (CSI). For players, it is free to join, a minimum of 50% of league fees are returned to the players, and approximately 10-12% of its members earn the right to participate in the USAPL National Championships. For League Managers, protected regions are free and they are supported 100% by the national office staff. Anyone interested in joining the USAPL or starting a league, should contact the national office at (866) USA-POOL or (702) 719-7665.
This year’s Billiard Education Foundation (BEF) Junior National 9-Ball Championships qualified nine billiard student-athletes to represent North America as part of Team USA at the upcoming WPA (World Pool-Billiard Association) Junior 9-Ball Championships. The esteemed world event will be held in Shanghai, China November 14-19, 2014.
Through the support of the Billiard Congress of America, the BEF continues to coordinate international travel and participation for this tournament for the past two decades.
The following players will proudly represent our country this year:
“I'm so excited! It's such an honor to represent the US in the junior world championships. I'm going to practice, practice, practice (the list goes on…), focus on my game and do my best when November rolls around.”
Michelle Jiang
“I am beyond excited to be going to China to represent the United States. I have been keeping busy with fundraising and practicing as much as possible. I have a series of drills that I do for at least two hours a day.”
Rachel Lang
“I’m currently working with David Matlock on furthering my game to the next level! I also practicing at home at least 2-3 hours a day. I feel really good about the upcoming World Championships!”
Manny Perez
"I am super pumped about worlds. My life is going to consist of practice until then."
April Larson
“I am very excited for the world junior championships. I’ve been preparing for the World Championships by allocating more time to pool. I’m practicing more drills to improve my cue ball control and fundamentals and playing in more tournaments to gain experience,”
Samuel Hoffman
Also part of the North American Team are Canadian players: Nicholas Ridley, 16 (St. Thomas, ONT), Stuart MacTaggart, 17 (London, ONT), and Kayla Roloson, 17 (Springfield, ONT).
For more information on the BEF Junior Nationals or hosting qualifiers or a State Championship, visit the BEF website at billiardeducation.org.
Ricky Evans, Taylor Reynolds, Nick Evans and April Larson (Photo courtesy of Ricky Bryant)
The Billiard Education Foundation (BEF) wrapped up its 26th Annual Junior National 9-Ball Championships June 24-27, 2014. 79 billiard student-athletes represented 21 states at the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville, Kentucky for this year’s event which took place in conjunction with the Billiard Congress of America 2014 Summit.
The winners from each of the four age divisions received academic scholarships, engraved trophies, Poison player equipment packages, Falcon cue and case packages, Dr. Dave Billiard University packages, and more. Along with their victories, they also earned entries into the 2014 WPA World Junior 9-Ball Championships in Shanghai, China November 15-19.
History was made this year!
For the first time of the BEF Junior Nationals, two brothers both won their respective age divisions with matching final scores of 9-6! St. Peters, Missouri’s 17-year-old Nick Evans and his 13-year-old brother Ricky Evans both went undefeated through their brackets to take home the gold. Older brother Nick finished in the top 12 of last year’s World Junior Championships in Johannesburg, South Africa and both will represent the U.S. this year.
On the girls’ side, 17-year-old Taylor Reynolds of Winslow, Maine also went undefeated beating Rachel Lang from New York in the finals. Reynolds is no stranger to the finals arena with several runner-up trophies and a couple trips to the Junior Worlds. She was also the 2011 14 & Under Girls division champion.
14-year-old April Larson from Bloomington, Minnesota took home her third consecutive title as 14 & Under Girls division champion. Though she struggled in the end, she was still able to pull out a 9-6 victory against Michelle Jiang of Harvard, Mass who had her best showing yet at nationals. Larson will enter her first year in the 18 & Under Girls division next year.
25 billiard student-athletes with GPAs of 3.5 or higher were recognized at the event’s banquet as this year’s BEF Academic All-Americans. Banquet guests were also treated with special guest speaker Jeanette Lee, “The Black Widow.”
This year’s event polo shirts were also sponsored by Falcon Cues and Presidential Billiards. Goody bags were also presented to each participant which included items sponsored by Lava Chalk, Pool & Billiard magazine, PoolDawg.com, Meullers Recreational Products, Fury Cues, Aramith, Simonis, Tweeten Fibre, and the BEF.
Great appreciation go to the event staff and volunteers who have made this a first class event year after year: longtime tournament director Earl Munson, tournament & event assistant Tammy Jo Leonard and her husband Mel, longtime National Head Referee Rick Doner, referees Justin Ballou and Seneca McIntosh, Linda McIntosh, and “Dr. Popper” Mark Dimick for conducting the Jr. Artistic Pool event, banquet emcees (& BEF board members) Shari Stauch & Tom Riccobene
As always, the BEF recognizes its loyal media sponsors: AzBilliards.com, Billiards Digest, InsidePool, Pool&Billiard, Professor Q-Ball, NYCGrind.com, Cue Times Billiard News, and On The Break News. Special thanks also go to Rob Johnson, Shane Tyree, Brian Glasglow, and all the staff involved with organizing this year’s Summit.
Any young players interested in participating in next year’s BEF Junior National 9-Ball Championships or State Championships should visit the BEF website at BilliardEducation.org or call the office at (303) 926-1039.
