(l to r): Wayne Fenton, Will Wilson, Stephen Ho Lem, Brady Gollan & Brian Kvasnicka
Brady Gollan has won the annual Spokane Open five of the eight times the tournament has been held. With the exception of 2015, when John Schmidt defeated him, he’s won three of the last four. On Labor Day weekend, he came within a single game of claiming his sixth Spokane Open title. Derailing that sixth title was Stephen Ho Lem, who was defeated in a winners’ side quarterfinal, won five on the loss side for a shot at Gollan in the hot seat, and double dipped him (double hill in the deciding match) to claim it. The $3,100-added 8th Annual Spokane Open drew 97 entrants to The Black Diamond in Spokane Valley, WA.
Ho Lem was moved to the loss side in one of the winners’ side quarterfinals by Paul Potier, who advanced to meet Steve Smith in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Gollan, in the meantime, squared off against John Dougherty in the other one. Gollan defeated Dougherty 9-6 and in the hot seat match, faced Potier, who’d sent Smith to the loss side 9-7. Gollan claimed the hot seat 9-7 over Potier and waited for Ho Lem to get back to the finals.
On the loss side, Ho Lem opened his campaign against Josh Smith, defeating him 9-3 and then eliminated Cole Gibbons 9-5 to draw Dougherty. Smith picked up Eric Vargas, who’d eliminated Jack Haggie 9-2 and Wade Thompson 9-7.
Ho Lem and Vargas advanced to the quarterfinals; Ho Lem, 9-4 over Dougherty and Vargas, 9-7 over Thompson. Ho Lem, picking up speed, shut Vargas out in those quarterfinals, and then spoiled Potier’s bid for a re-match against Gollan with a 9-6 victory in the semifinals.
With the intangible advantage of momentum, Ho Lem took the opening set of the true double elimination final 9-3 over Gollan. Gollan fought back to force a 17th deciding game in the second set, but the title went to Ho Lem 9-8.
In addition to the list of 16 competitors who cashed in the event, Phyllis Fernandez and Adrianne Beach took home $100 each as the top female finishers.
Tour directors Will Wilson and Brian Kvasnicka thanked The Black Diamond’s owner, Wayne Fenton and his staff for their hospitality, as well as sponsors Admen Banner & Sign and Pepsi.
Gerda Hofstatter (File photo courtesy of Lori Jones)
The Women's Professional Billiards Association is proud to announce that Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson, affectionately known as the “G-Force”, was inducted into the WPBA Hall of Fame on January 5, 2018 at the 2018 WPBA Grand Slam, held at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort in Mount Pleasant, Michigan.
Gerda has demonstrated throughout her career, her athleticism, dedication, and passion for billiards.
Gerda Hofstatter, known as the “G-Force” to her colleagues and fans, was one of the perennial stars of the WPBA, the globally recognized association of the world’s best female professional pool players.
In her youth, Gerda was a competitive tennis player, skier, and fencer, and won the Austrian and International Junior Fencing Championships before deciding to focus exclusively on pool.
Born in 1971 to a family of four sisters and merchant parents, Gerda’s love for pocket billiards took hold at age 15 when she joined a hometown team in Althofen, Austria. Inspired by the beauty of the sport, Gerda made the leap to individual tournaments a year later, then quickly became the Austrian National Champion. At age 18, she brought home Austria’s first European Championships Gold Medal.
Those early accomplishments were recognized when her hometown awarded her an Honorary Gold Medal and “Key to the City.” One of Gerda’s fondest memories is of the time-off children were granted from school so they could participate in the mayoral-sponsored festivities.
In 1990, after finishing her secondary education, Gerda moved to Sweden to study and compete. After garnering Europe’s top player ranking for two consecutive years,
Gerda moved to the United States in 1993 to compete in the newly formed WPBA Classic Tour. To the surprise of many, including herself, Gerda won her first event and remains the only person to have done so in WPBA history. That year, Gerda was voted Austria’s Athlete of the Year for her state of Carinthia—besting both male and female athletes, including Olympic alpine skiers. Gerda’s WPBA tour wins span nearly two decades:
• 1993 Creative Inventions San Francisco Classic Championship
• 1993 Brunswick Billiards Atlantic Classic
• 1994 Leisure Bay Billiards Orlando Classic
• 1995 Huebler Cues Seattle Classic
• 1995 WPA World 9-Ball Championship
• 1996 McDermott Cues Austin Classic
• 1997 Brunswick Billiards WPBA National
• 1999 Discovery Huther-Doyle Rochester Classic
• 1999 Brunswick Billiards New York Classic
• 2000 BCA Open 9-Ball Championship
• 2010 San Diego Classic
In addition to her titles, Gerda has over 20 second-place finishes at WPBA sponsored events. In Europe, she took home 11 European Championships and 17 Austrian National Championships before retiring from the sport.
Gerda will always feel grateful to Predator Cues, Cal Spas, and CueTrackTM who sponsored her over the years. Beyond all else, she’s most appreciative to the thousands of fans and pool lovers around the world that came to see her play and who kept in touch through thick and thin. They will never be forgotten.
A love for teaching led Gerda to join Allison Fisher, Mike Massey, and Paul Potier as co- owners of Pool School in Paradise, a vacation and training venue attracting international clients. Gerda was also a co-instructor with Allison Fisher at Allison Fisher World Champion Academy, a weekend intensive for pool enthusiasts.
Gerda was ranked in the World Top 10 for 16 consecutive years from 1994 to 2010, and has been featured in dozens of ESPN televised matches. Most recently, she appeared in the 2010 WPBA San Diego Classic, where she triumphed over Asia’s #1 player to win the tournament. Her last televised match was a loss in the finals of the 2012 U.S. Open while she was six-months pregnant.
At the height of her career, Gerda took time to complete a Bachelor of Science degree in Business from New York University, where she graduated magna cum laude. She has been a perennial supporter of charitable causes, particularly Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, a leader in funding breast cancer research, and Make-A-Wish Foundation®, grantors of wishes for children diagnosed with life- threatening medical conditions.
Gerda resides in Charlotte, North Carolina with her husband and two daughters—all avid pool lovers!
To the best of our knowledge here at AZ Billiards, the Inaugural Nature's Recreational Center (NRC) 9-Ball Challenge, held on the weekend of October 1-2, in Tacoma, WA, was the first pool tournament ever sponsored by a medical marijuana facility. Stephen Holem won five on the loss side to meet, challenge and eventually double dip Marc Vidal to claim the event title. The $6,500-added ($5,000 by NRC) drew 75 entrants to Malarkey's Pool and Brew in Tacoma and was live-streamed throughout the weekend by Rail2Rail Productions.
With Holem, already at work on the loss side, the man who defeated him – Alain "Frenchy" Boutin – advanced to a winners' side semifinal versus Joe Spence. Vidal, in the meantime, squared off against B.J. Copeland in the other winners' side semifinal. Vidal downed Copeland 7-2, and in the hot seat match, faced Spence, who'd sent Boutin to the loss side 7-3. Vidal claimed the hot seat, and won what proved to be his last match, 7-2.
Over on the loss side, it was Copeland who drew the eventual event winner, Stephen Holem, who'd opened his loss-side campaign with victories over Stan Tourangeau 7-5 and Paul Potier 7-3. Boutin picked up Erik Vargas, who'd survived two straight double hill matches against Dexter Ambang and Dan Louie to reach him.
Boutin and Copeland picked up their second straight loss; Boutin falling to Vargas 7-3 and Copeland giving way to Holem 7-2. Holem chalked up the quarterfinal match against Vargas 7-4 and then downed Spence in the semifinals by the same score.
Holem took both sets of the double elimination final over Vidal 7-5 to claim the Inaugural NRC 9-Ball Challenge.
With a tournament as full of top players as the 39th Simonis/Aramith US Open 9-Ball Championship, players are going to have to navigate a veritable minefield of talent to advance. Some of those draws are, of course, tougher than others. With the first round pairing of US Open rookie Skyler Woodward and Filipino veteran "The Lion" Alex Pagulayan, most fans in attendance chalked it up as just a tough draw for the youngster. They were right about it being a tough draw, they just had the wrong victim in mind.
Woodward and Pagulayan kept the match close early as they traded leads at 3-2 and 4-3, then Woodward caught a gear. From 4-3 down, Woodward won seven games to stun the veteran and take the hill at 10-4. Pagulayan, never one to stress over a match situation, came back and won four straight to make it a match at 10-8 before the Filipino legend missed a 4-ball and Woodward smoothly ran out the rack for the 11-8 upset of the day.
"I never really felt nervous" said Woodward after the match. "I just tried to play the best pool I could play". For those critics who count out Woodward in big events like this because of his perceived bar table specialization, Woodward had some bad news for you. "I grew up on a barbox and that is really all we had, but we just got a 9 foot Diamond and I have been playing on it all that I can".
Tuesday morning play saw the beginnings of player eliminations, and a number of top favorites were in danger of suffering a much shorter event than they had planned. Niels Feijen began the day with a powerful match against Chris Pyle where he made an 11-0 statement to forget his loss yesterday to Maz Eberle.
Raj Hundal sent Chuck Ralston home 11-7 and Adam Smith did the same to Israel Rota with an identical score. Mike Delawder took out Paul Potier 11-8 and Imaran Majid ended the run of the only female in the field, Dana Aft, 11-5. Tony Drago gave a speed shooting exhibition as he defeated Chris Cantrall 11-0 in only 25 minutes!
Mosconi Cup hopeful Brandon Shuff, another victim of a very tough draw, suffered his second loss of the event to Rodney Morris 11-5 and will be a spectator for the rest of the week here.
The first stage of the 2014 CBSA Canadian Open Pool Championships has come to an end at Shooters Snooker & Sports Club in Toronto. Although the attendance in each event was less than anticipated, the level of play was exceptional. The top players from each division will move on to Stage II of the Championship to be held at the Delta Meadowvale in Mississauga, Ontario. This year marks the first year where both the CBSA and CCS Championships are being held side-by-side. Here is a breakdown of the matches scheduled for this week in Mississauga:
There is no charge for spectators, so drop by and witness a piece of Canadian history being made. Be sure to bring your pool cue as mini-tournaments will be taking place throughout the event. There is no other tourney like it where you have great players from all over Canada in one place at one time.
The opening stages of the 2014 Canadian Open Pool Championships kicked off earlier this week at Shooters Snooker & Sports Club. This year the format of the event has been changed to two venues. The final stages will be hosted at the Delta Meadowvale Hotel in Mississauga, ON, starting on Tuesday, April 15th.
The Canadian Billiards and Snooker Association (CBSA) is also very pleased to announce that Simonis Cloth and OB cues are returning as sponsors of the 2014 Canadian Cue Sport Championships. Simonis will be the official cloth supplier for the pool disciplines and OB is the official cue sponsor of this year's events. "Having a giant in the billiard industry like Simonis and a reputable and respected cue manufacturer like OB involved with our national championships will definitely enhance our events.. We wish to thank them very much and are deeply grateful for their support," noted Steve Cooper CBSA president.
The Canadian Amateur Pool Championships will be hosted by Fairville Shooters in Saint John NB, June 24 to 29.
In two fantastic final matches, Corey Deuel overcame some early match jitters and a 4-1 deficit to defeat Jose Parica 7-5 and Jeanette Lee took advantage of a couple mistakes by Karen Corr and won 7-4 to win the BCA Open 9-Ball Championships.
Corey came back from a first round loss to Paul Potier to win 11 matches in a row and even though he had some small problems with his break and his position play, he treated the capacity crowd to an electrifying match and finished off Jose Parica with an 8-9 combo to complete his first major title.
In a match that could have crowned a new #1 player on the WPBA points list, Jeanette Lee took advantage of a key shot miss by Karen Corr and scored her first WPBA tournament win in over a year.
The tournament was a break-out event for two players as Megan Smith and Melissa Little had their highest finishes in a WPBA event. Megan finished in 13th and Melissa finished in 5th.
