Turning
The
Page PAN CLOSES OUT TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP AS WPBA MAKES MAJOR CHANGES
P L U S JANUARY 2011
$ 5.95
UNTOLD STORIES: THE TALE OF DE ORO’S THREE DAYS IN HAVANA Jan10.indd C1
12/13/10 10:26:58 AM
560104md082.indd C2
12/15/10 1:29:16 PM
570074md063.indd 1
12/14/10 3:58:33 PM
CONTENTS
Vol. 33, No. 2 J A N U A R Y
2 0 1 1
Features 28 WITHOUT A CARE Ditching the high expectations of tournaments past, China’s Xiaoting Pan played confident and carefree on her way to the WPBA Tour Championship.
WPBA:MARK WEBSTER; STRICKLAND: MIKE FIELDHAMMER
28
by Nicholas Leider
34 UNTOLD STORIES Returning to his native Cuba for a championship match, Alfredo De Oro left his home-
34
39
land with a heavy heart after a controversial three days. by R. A . Dyer
39 THE PEARL’S RETURN Taking his biggest singles title since 2002, Earl Strickland served notice at the Steve Mizerak Championship that he’s got plenty left in his tank. by Nicholas Leider
Columns 10 FROM THE PUBLISHER Slow Road To Recovery Mike Panozzo
56 TIPS & SHAFTS When You Gotta Have It...
On the Cover With an often-turbulent 2010 in the books — thanks to Xiaoting Pan’s victory at the Tour Championship — the WPBA eyes big changes for the new year. Photo by Mark Webster
George Fels
2
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 TitlePage.indd 2
January 2011
12/15/10 3:48:30 PM
560114md002.indd 3
12/14/10 4:08:57 PM
CONTENTS
Vol. 33, No. 2
J A N U A R Y
2 0 1 1
Departments
BD
The Premier Billiards Magazine since 1978
FOUNDER
PUBLISHER
MORT LUBY JR.
MIKE PANOZ ZO
MANAGING EDITOR
NICHOL AS LEIDER
6 YESTERYEAR
ART DIRECTOR
Shannon Daulton proves to be the master of Derby City.
JENNY BR ADLE Y PRODUCTION MANAGER
L AUR A VINCI
8 BD NEWS The WPBA announces major changes for the 2011 Classic Tour.
CONSULTING EDITOR
GEORGE F ELS CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
10 AD INDEX Your guide to BD’s advertisers.
ROBERT BYRNE MIK E SHAMOS SENIOR WRITER
MIK E GEF F NER
12 WINGSHOTS
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Here’s why John Schmidt is packing up and moving to West Virginia. Also, check out this month’s Numbers Game and You Make the Call.
15 STROKE OF GENIUS Danny Medina keeps his run alive with a tricky kick-combo.
42 CHRONICLES by Mike Shamos
DAVID ALCIATORE R. A . DYER JAY HELF ERT BOB JE WE T T SK IP MALONE Y L ARRY SCHWART Z ANDY SEG AL NICK VARNER MARK WILSON N AT ION A L A DV E R T ISING RE P.
CARL A BONNER
You might be surprised how long position play went largely ignored. PRESIDENT
46 TOURNAMENTS
KEITH HAMILTON
Thorsten Hohmann’s new outlook pays big dividends in Japan. Also, Linares and Chen conquer the U.S. Amateur Championships.
BUSINESS MANAGER
ACCOUNTING ASSOCIATE
NANCY DUDZINSK I
QUIAN A MAYS
50 TOUR SPOTTING Take a look at Shane McMinn’s journey from prodigy to fledgling pro. Plus, Naomi Williams hangs to take the Canadian Women’s finale.
54 MARKETPLACE Check out some great offers. LUBY PUBLISHING INC.
Practice Table Instruction 18 Quick Hits: Robles discusses fearing the straight-in shot. 20 21 22 24 26
4
Plus, Drill Bits, Straight Talk and Kim White is On the Spot. Nick Varner • Strategies Andy Segal • Trick Shots Larry Schwartz • Solids & Stripes David Alciatore • Illustrated Principles Bob Jewett • Tech Talk BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 TitlePage.indd 4
122 South Michigan Avenue, Suite 1506 Chicago, IL 60603 (312) 341-1110 FA X : (312) 341-1469 w w w.billiardsdigest.com email @ billiardsdigest.com BILLIARDS DIGEST (ISSN 0164-761X) is published monthly by Luby Publishing, Inc., 122 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 1506, Chicago, IL 60603 USA. Telephone 312-341-1110, Fax 312-341-1469. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL and additional offices. SUBSCRIPTION RATES in the U.S. and possessions, one year (12 issues) for $48; two years, $80; three years, $115. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Send new as well as old address. If possible, furnish label from recent issue. POSTMASTER: Send change of address to Billiards Digest, 122 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 1506, Chicago, IL 60603.
January 2011
12/15/10 3:48:52 PM
560114md001.indd 5
12/14/10 4:02:11 PM
YESTERYEAR
Daulton’s Derby Dazzler + 10 YEARS AGO +
+ 20 YEARS AGO +
It was no surprise that the Derby City Classic’s first Master of the Table award — given to the top all-around performer in the main divisions of 9-ball banks, onepocket and 9-ball — went to Efren Reyes. But it didn’t take long to find a home in the Louisville event’s home state of Kentucky. Shannon Daulton, then residing in Burnside, Ky., began his stroll to the $5K award with back-to-back fifth-place finishes in the banks and one-hole events. He then clinched the all-around crown by trouncing Troy Frank in the semifinal of the 9-ball division. But “The Cannon” wasn’t finished yet. He polished off the 9-ball event with a 7-5 win over Mika Immonen.
In late January 1991, the Belgian National Championship in three-cushion produced a bit of a civil war — at least within the Ceulemans family. In the final of the national event, father Raymond faced a developing talent in his son Kurt. And to most everyone’s surprise, the 28-year-old topped his legendary father, taking two out of three sets, the third by a 15-13 margin, to take the title. Two months removed from his second consecutive U.S. Open title in late 1990, Nick Varner kicked off the new year with a win at the Rakm Up Classic in Columbia, S.C. The Kentuckian topped Allen Hopkins in two consecutive sets to take the $7,000 top prize.
“THE CANNON” CAPPED HIS ALLAROUND TITLE BY WINNING THE 9-BALL DIVISION.
+ 30 YEARS AGO + Want evidence that pool had an image problem three decades ago? Exhibit A: In 1981, Parker Bros. began marketing a new hand-held video game (or an electronic game, at the time) called “Bank Shot.” Sounds nice enough, right? But then the pioneering gamers added the tagline, “All the challenge and excitement of the poolhall — without any of the unsavory characters to contend with.” Exhibit B: A legendary syndicated columnist out of Chicago (Billiards Digest’s sweet home), Mike Royko claimed pool as the winter’s best sport because “you can gamble and swear and get in fights and buy and sell stolen merchandise.” Excuse us, Mr. Royko, but we won that Rambow fair and square...
Billiards Is Your Business
Here’s Your
Owner’s Manual WWW.BILLIARDRETAILER.COM
6
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 YY.indd 6
January 2011
12/14/10 2:23:14 PM
1935 Aurora Rd. Melbourne, FL 32935
Dealers Welcome!
1-800-940-2837 Local: 321-254-0732 Fax: 321-255-9298
AURORA ROAD BILLIARD SUPPLIES IF YOU HAVEN’T RECEIVED YOUR ELEVENTH EDITION CATALOG CALL NOW!
NEW DEALERS WELCOME! Our catalog features many new products, such as Poison Cues, OB-1 Shafts, Wynn Cues, Bow Ties, Tour Edition and Championship Mercury Ultra Billiard Cloth, new Helmstetter Cue line and many more exciting new products.
CUSTOM CUES BY:
CASES BY:
ACCESSORIES:
MEUCCI MALI CUETEC JOSS BALABUSHKA VIPER LUCASI SCHON MCDERMOTT ADAM HELMSTETTER VIKING
PREDATOR PORPER SCHMELKE COMPETITION GIUSEPPE INSTROKE BENTLEY O’NEIL
WILLARD TOOLS BRADS TUFF SCUFF RUSSO BRIDGE HEADS CUE-CUBES DVDS ULTRA GLIDE Q-CLEAN SURE SHOT GLOVES CUE SILK SIL-KLEEN TIP PIK Q-GLIDE
PREDATOR DUFFERIN
PLAYERS WYNN POISON BLAK CORVETTE OB CUES OB-1 SHAFTS PREDATOR CUES PREDATOR SHAFTS
“Call the Billiard Professionals”
CLOTH BY:
SIMONIS MALI FORSTMANN CENTENNIAL CLOTH CHAMPIONSHIP MERCURY ULTRA CHAMPIONSHIP TOUR EDITION
KARSEAL Q-SLICK Q-WIZ Q-CLAW Q-SMOOTH BOWTIES NCAA BALLS NFL BALLS MLB BALLS SARDO RACK CUE DOCTOR MICRO TOWELS MASTER CHALK AND MORE!!!
1-800-940-2837
Custom Repairs/Alterations for all new cues. Exclusive distributor of Gandy parts.
Order Online Now! • Same day shipping on in-stock items for orders placed before 4pm • Free shipping on purchases of $50 or more • Free case with the purchase of most cues worth $50 or more (This excludes Predator and Poison cues)
• • • •
A larger selection and more in stock items than most online stores Largest selection of custom cues Largest selection of custom cases Customer satisfaction is a must
There is no reason to shop anywhere else!
E-mail us at sales@onestopbilliards.com visit our website www.onestopbilliards.com 1-866-945-2837
560104md074.indd 7
12/14/10 3:55:29 PM
B bre a k i n g
News
WPBA: MAJOR CHANGES FOR ’11
Classic Tour will have smaller fields, new format; player exemptions still not settled.
Seattle, Wash.
IT’S TIME to play, “Follow the Bouncing Rules Changes!” In a span of 10 days in November, the Women’s Professional Billiard Association went from an original announcement that cut the normal 64-player field to 48 in 2011, gave exempt spots for regional tour points champions and the dissolved the Regional Tour Championship, to an amended slate of changes that kept the proposed 48-player fields, re-instituted the Regional Tour Championship and the deferred regional tour event qualifiers until 2012. Got all that? Don’t bother, because much of it could possibly change again in the very near future! Boiled down to the basics, the WPBA board of directors (following a somewhat tumultuous year in which the board fluctuated in size and makeup like the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the Classic Tour was fortunate to scrape together four events) was seeking to make its tour more manageable and efficient for 2011. The reduction in the size of the field was the most obvious concession. The WPBA’s expansion to 64 players was logical in 2002, when there was no shortage of players churning through a host of regional tours. But a declining economy, which has had a severe impact on the billiard business and, in turn, a negative impact on the WPBA’s sponsorship opportunities, has hampered the tour’s ability to provide enough prize money to sustain 64-player fields. “Prize fund growth has not kept pace with the growth in the expenses that players incur in attending a Classic Tour event,” said WPBA Vice President Tamre Rogers, who is acting president until January, when the WPBA’s new board takes power and officers are elected. “As a result, on a per event basis, earnings prospects have dimmed for the players.” Not surprisingly, the reaction by the tour’s core players was overwhelmingly positive. “Returning to a smaller field in the WPBA events will be fair to the top pros,” said top-ranked Jasmin Ouschan, who earned $17,025 in four Classic Tour events. “It should be an accomplishment to get a spot for a professional tour event on the WPBA.” The Classic Tour will also return to a straight double-
8
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 BDNews.indd 8
elimination, winner-breaks format for this month’s 2011 opener at Soaring Eagle Casino in Mount Pleasant, Mich., a first-time host for the women’s professional tour. According to Rogers, the board will weigh the response from this event and determine if that format will continue throughout 2011. The board will have ample time to make that determination, with the Classic Tour’s second event not scheduled until July. To date, the WPBA has contracts only with Soaring Eagle and Viejas Casino in Alpine, Calif., site of the July tournament. According to Rogers, the WPBA is close to reaching contract agreements with three other sites. The real conundrum for the association is determining which players get those now-coveted 48 spots. At the very least, the top 32-ranked players in 2010 will maintain their exempt status for the 2011 Classic Tour. But selecting who will fill the remaining 16 slots is proving much more difficult. Originally, it was determined that 2010 points winners of the nine WPBA-sanctioned regional tours would earn exemptions, and regional tour qualifiers would fill the remaining spots at each event. That changed when the 2010 Classic Tour exempt pros slated to lose their exemptions in the new year argued that the elimination of the Regional Tour Championship was unfair and would hurt their chances of retaining their tour card. Cancelling the Regional Tour Championship also left top regional players who did not finish the year as their tour’s No. 1 without a chance to earn tour exemption, which had previously been available through a strong performance at the annual championship. In response to a backlash from those players affected by the change, the WPBA board then reinstituted the Regional Tour Championship, which could be used to determine the remaining six exempt spots available. (Each Classic Tour event featuring one host exemption, for a total of 48.) However, Rogers recently hinted that the membership may extend the number of 2011 exemptions to the top 39 or 40 2010 touring pros. In such a case, the remaining slots available to qualifiers (to regional tour champions and top finishers at the Regional Tour Championship) will have to be trimmed to accommodate the 48-player fields. “We have options in the hands of the membership,” she said. “They will make that determination.”
January 2011
12/15/10 1:54:00 PM
560114md004.indd 9
12/14/10 4:16:45 PM
From the Publisher
Mike Panozzo
ADVERTISER
INDEX COMPANY
PAGE
ACCU-STATS VIDEO PRODUCTIONS WWW.ACCU-STATS.COM
3
AURORA ROAD BILLIARD SUPPLY WWW.AURORAROADBILLIARDS.COM
7 23, 38
BILLIARD RETAILER WWW.BILLIARDRETAILER.COM
6
CUE AND CASE, INC. WWW.CUEANDCASE.COM
51
CUE MAN BILLIARD PRODUCTS WWW.CUESMITH.COM
54
CUE STIX INTL. WWW.CUESTIX.COM
INSIDE BACK COVER
D&R CHAMPIONSHIP, INC. WWW.CHAMPBILLIARDS.COM
29
HUMAN KINETICS WWW.HUMANKINETICS.COM
6
IMPERIAL INTERNATIONAL WWW.IMPERIALUSA.COM
BACK COVER
JEANETTE LEE EXPERIENCE WWW.JEANETTELEE.COM
9
JERRY BRIESATH’S POOL SCHOOL WWW.POOLLESSONS.COM
23
LARRY SCHWARTZ LARRY8900@AOL.COM
41
LEGACY BILLIARDS WWW.LEGACYBILLIARDS.COM
11
NICK VARNER WWW.NICKVARNER.COM
31
OSCAR’S BILLIARDS WWW.OSCARSBILLIARDCLUB.COM
54
POOL & BILLIARDS FOR DUMMIES WWW.DUMMIES.COM
54
POOLDAWG WWW.POOLDAWG.COM
15
PREDATOR PRODUCTS WWW.PREDATORCUES.COM
10
27
AMERICAN POOLPLAYERS ASSN. WWW.POOLPLAYERS.COM
BILLIARDS DIGEST WWW.BILLIARDSDIGEST.COM
INSIDE FRONT COVER, 11
SALUC WWW.SALUC.COM
27
SEYBERT’S BILLIARD SUPPLY WWW.SEYBERTS.COM
54
THE ILLUSTRATED PRINCIPLES OF POOL AND BILLIARDS WWW.DR-DAVE-BILLIARDS.COM
41
TIGER PRODUCTS WWW.TIGERPRODUCTS.COM
5
TWEETEN FIBRE WWW.TWEETEN.US
1
BILLIARDS DIGEST
BDcol_pan_Jan11.indd 10
HOLD THE PRESSES! LWAYS BEEN a big fan of the Women’s Professional Billiard Association. Admire their resourcefulness, love their unity (and they are, for the most part, unified), am impressed by their longevity. I’m also continuously amused by their … how shall I say it? … frequent changes of heart! Rarely, it seems, does a WPBA press release cross my desk that isn’t followed rather quickly by another release correcting or contradicting the previous. And just to clarify things, this is not an indictment of the WPBA’s public relations department or their writing skills. This is, I feel, the result of a players association run by players. The normal course of action regarding decisions within the WPBA appears to go something like this: The WPBA board of directors — a selfless, hard-working group who have great ideas and want nothing more than to improve the state of women’s professional pool — discusses and votes on issues pertinent to the operation of the association and the Classic Tour. They come to a consensus and release their edicts. In a matter of days (and sometimes minutes), the members (read: players) devour, dissect and discuss the ramifications of said edicts. The phone lines and Internet then light up like Christmas trees and the board scrambles to revisit the decisions they were so certain about only days earlier. (Again, this is how I imagine this works!) I have no evidence to support this, but I’m guessing that the more powerful and influential the member, the more backstroking the board does. Several days later, Presto! A revised press release crosses my desk and the issues are resolved. Until, that is, the next round of phone calls and the
A
next press release. Case in point? On Nov. 18, the WPBA issued a release announcing that the 2011 Classic Tour would field 48 players. Tour events had been at 64 players since 2002. The release went on to say that the top 32 players from 2010 would receive exemptions for 2011, and that the other 15 spots (each event holds a host exemption) would be determined by points winners on the nine sanctioned regional tours and regional tour qualifiers preceding each tournament. The qualifiers would replace the annual Regional Tour Championship, the board determined. Naturally, regional tour players who had participated in hopes of earning a spot at the Regional Tour Championship, as well as the 2010 touring pros slated to lose their exempt status, argued that the new ruling was unfair. So, on Nov. 27, the WPBA board sent out another release essentially saying, “Oops!” The new decision, the board insisted, is that the Regional Tour Championship is back on (scheduled for March), and the regional tour qualifiers would be eliminated. Glad that’s all cleared up? Not so fast! The latest from WPBA headquarters (apparently a Waffle House!) is that the player members are now considering automatic exemptions for the top 39 or 40 touring pros from 2010. Just a guess, mind you, but I wouldn’t be surprised if players 3340 haven’t been bending the WPBA board’s ears in the past few weeks! And that, my friends, is a primer in why I have always felt players associations run by players slows progress to a crawl. The pursuit of perfect fairness paralyzes the board, when in reality most arguments are based in self-preservation. In other words, another release should be on its way any day now!
January 2011
12/15/10 3:20:59 PM
560104md081.indd 11
12/15/10 1:30:11 PM
+ QUOTABLE+
“Those young guys better watch out. There’s no getting rid of me now.” EARL STRICKLAND, AFTER WINNING NOVEMBER’S $20K STEVE MIZERAK CHAMPIONSHIP (PG. 39).
Dear
JeDaenaetrte
CHANGING GEARS
Top pro Schmidt ditches Florida, buys pool room in West Virginia. HEELING’S A a small city on the banks of the Ohio River in what’s known as the northern panhandle of West Virginia. On the map, this panhandle looks like a pop-up thermometer on the profile of a West Virginian turkey. Columbus, Ohio, is about two hours to the west, and Pittsburgh is a northeastern hour away. As of September 17, 2010, it’s also the new home of 2006 U.S. Open Champion John Schmidt and his poolhall, known formerly as the S’ Bridge Cafe, and now dubbed Schmidt Billiards. At its population peak in the ’30s and ’40s, Wheeling was home to 61,000. But estimates surrounding the yet-completed 2010 census work put its present total at less than half that total. Not, in other words, what you might describe as a highgrowth community. So why would Schmidt, most recently of Pensacola, Fla., pick Wheeling for the site of his first venture into room ownership? The answer is as complex as the state of the professional game in 2011 — and as simple as an offer that just couldn’t be refused. “I didn’t really factor in the ‘where’ of it,” said Schmidt. “It was all about the price and the hall itself.” As Schmidt, 37, held the figurative balance sheet of his life up for scrutiny, he realized that life as a traveling pool pro wasn’t cutting it as a viable source of income. The travels and travails of the touring pro aren’t unknown, often to the point of being tiresome. But with the exception of a select few, the sport doesn’t offer its top professionals the sort of income that makes touring all that attractive. “When I go to a high school and talk to
12
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 Wingshots.indd 12
LAWRENCE LUSTIC-MATCHROOM SPORT
W
THE BLACK WIDOW ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS ABOUT POOL LIFE, LOVE AND ETIQUETTE.
(Q)
I’ve want to introduce my 7-year-old daughter to pool, but I want to wait until she can really enjoy it. Should I let her come to the game out of natural curiosity? M. Burns; Tallahassee, Fla.
(A)
Schmidt didn’t mull over the deal for long.
kids about pool, I have to tell them that the profession doesn’t offer [many] college scholarships,” said Schmidt. “And if you’re a freak of nature, you might make $30,000 [in a year].” In September, Schmidt got a phone call from a friend, informing him that a poolhall Schmidt had visited once while in the area was up for sale. Ten days later, which included a week in Wheeling, he loaded everything he owned into a truck and headed north. “It was a major uprooting,” he said. “I left a house and friends I’d known for seven years.” Using savings he’d accumulated from nearly 20 years as a pool player, he signed a check on Sept. 17, and within two days, he was ordering beer, 14
I believe children should be introduced to the game as early as possible. I introduced my daughter Cheyenne to it as an infant. We rolled pool balls around on the carpet, rolling them back and forth and eventually into each other. She has a step stool that she has used to play on the pool table since she was about 3. Now she’s 6 and she loves it. The important thing is to make it fun for your daughter; show her that you are really interested, which makes her more interested. You can set up balls in front of the pockets and see how many tries it takes her to make all the balls. Dead-ball combinations are also great for kids, so all your daughter has to do is hit it and it goes in. It’s fun to pocket the balls. After doing this with Cheyenne, she now relates pool to having tons of fun. With kids, it’s all about the experience, and your daughter will have a great memory of sharing something special with her father.
SEE THE BLACK WIDOW AT JEANETTELEE.COM
January 2011
12/15/10 2:03:27 PM
numbers
BD IN BRIEF GOING THE DISTANCE A pair of shooters from the Northeast have taken a long practice session to a whole new level. On Dec. 1, 2010, at TJ’s Classic Billiards in Waterville, Maine, Gareth Steele and Steve Reynolds began a quest to set the Guinness World Record for the “longest singles pool marathon.” Over the course of the next 74 hours, the two continued to shoot — and shoot and shoot. They eventually called it quits at noon on December 4, more than three days later. Both players finished the long journey in good health, though undoubtedly in need of a nap. All of the evidence has been presented to Guinness for verification of their feat. The standing world record for longest singles pool marathon is currently 53 hours and 25 minutes set by Brian Lilley and Daniel Maloney in October 2008. With the record, Steele and Reynolds
# G A M E #
150-149 also raised more than $1,000 for the Billiards Education Fund.
PULLING FOR AN OLD FRIEND... Tom Ross, a former Billiards Digest columnist and noted member of the pool community in the Denver Area, suffered a stroke in mid-November. He is currently recouperating at a Denver-area hospital, where he has regained basic motor skills and is able to communicate with doctors and visitors. All interested parties can follow Tom’s progress and express support via the AZBilliards.com forum page: forums.azbill iards.com/showthread.php?t=209911. All messages will be relayed to Tom, whose friends and family are aware of the postings. All of us here at BD wish Tom a swift and complete recovery. He’s got plenty ahead of him — on and off the table.
YMTC: MARK MY WORDS QUESTION: You’re the referee in a 9-ball match under World Standardized Rules. Player A faces the difficult position shown. He sees that there is a path for a two-rail kick to the 3 ball, but aiming it is difficult. Player A places a chalk cube on the cushion at point X, which is the point he wants to hit to make the shot. He stares at the aim point for a while, then removes the chalk, puts it in his pocket and shoots, sinking the 3. His opponent, player B, says, “Foul. Marking the table is illegal. I get ball in hand.” Player A answers, “I picked up the chalk before I shot. There’s no foul.” Whose shot is it? ANSWER: It’s just not clear. The only applicable rule is 6.16, Unsportsmanlike Conduct, which lists “marking the table” as one of eight specific acts that give rise to an unsportsmanlike conduct foul. But there is no definition whatsoever of what
Final score of Alfredo De Oro’s controversial victory covered in this month’s Untold Stories (pg. 34).
6
Number of second-place finishes in international events for Karen Corr since her last major title in 2007 (pg. 28).
8
Years since Earl Strickland’s last major singles title before taking November’s Steve Mizerak Championship (pg. 39).
With Mike Shamos
constitutes “marking the table.” The old BCA Rules, on which the World Standardized Rules were based, mentioned that marking the table included “placement of chalk.” The implication was that the foul occurred when the marking happened, and it didn’t matter if the marking was removed before the shot. 9-Ball Rule 2.8 gives the referee discretion as to the penalty, which I think should be ball in hand. The reason I prefer the current BCA Pool League Rules in that they are very explicit about such situations. BCAPL Rule 1.39 states, “It is a foul if you intentionally mark the table in any way to assist you in executing any shot or future
shot. Marking includes the deliberate placement of chalk or any other object at a specific point on a rail or cushion to aid the alignment of a shot, or placing any mark on any part of the table. The foul occurs at the moment you mark the table, regardless of whether you remove the mark or whether a shot is taken.” What could be clearer?
January 2011
Jan11 Wingshots.indd 13
BILLIARDS DIGEST
13
12/15/10 2:03:41 PM
CUE CRITIQUE: BURTON SPAIN
This collectible comes from an often-overlooked master craftsman.
Burton Spain was one of the most important cuemakers and a pioneer in the history of art. Spain is best known for making forearm blanks for George Balabushka. However, his contributions to the industry reach far beyond that claim to fame. Spain mentored one of today’s most celebrated cuemakers, Joel Hercek, who has graciously offered to share his insight this month as a guest panelist. This week’s cue is a classic fourpoint Burton Spain cue. it falls a little short of Monster status.
GUEST PANELIST JOEL HERCEK: This four-prong with diamonds and dots was built in the early to mid eighties and is a very good example of Burton’s work. The trim rings were made from vinyl, which Burt acquired from a local manufacturer. Although Burton is best known for his full splice blanks, most of his cues were built on short splices. It wasn’t until 1991 that Burt perfected his full-splice blank in his cues. I’m biased, so I’d love to rate all of Burt’s cues as monsters. But compared to some of his much fancier works, this cue falls short of monster status.
DENO ANDREWS: One of the most underappreciated cuemakers, Spain was a pioneer with his point work, which really stands out here. His inlay pattern is out of scale and uninspired. This cue exhibits a great choice of materials, colors and textures. Any collector who knows cues would be proud to own this classic Spain cue, but
POOL ON TV
All times EST; check local listings
14
DICK ABBOTT: Spain may be as well known for producing blanks as he is for his excellent cues. This example is typical of his work from the 1970s and ‘80s. I’m sure it’s an excellent playing cue made to exacting standards of the time, but it’s not quite a monster. JIM STADUM: I personally enjoy traditionally styled cues. To me, they are like looking at cars from the ’50s. Although not a monster, this is a high quality cue from a great cuemaker that later became famous. CONCLUSION: It’s a unanimous mortal. CueZilla.com offers expert critique of custom cues from the perspectives of the cuemaker, historian, collector and dealer. The goal is to determine whether or not a cue is a “monster.” Visit CueZilla.com to read review and join the discussion.
JAN. & F E B. FOR COMPLETE LISTINGS, SEE THE TV SCHEDULE AT WWW.BILLIARDSDIGEST.COM
2010 WPBA TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP
2001 WPBA MIDWEST CLASSIC
Jan. 16: 2:30-5:30 p.m. ................................... ESPN
Feb. 2: 9 a.m. .......................................ESPN Classic
2001 WPBA SPRING CLASSIC
2002 WPBA PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP
Jan. 19: 9 a.m. .....................................ESPN Classic
Feb. 16: 9 a.m......................................ESPN Classic
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 Wingshots.indd 14
MR. 400’S NEW HOME - continued from pg. 12 -
running a kitchen and hauling garbage bags out to dumpsters. Or, as he put it, “I handed over the money, and started making sandwiches.” Schmidt Billiards is a 3,000square-foot space, with about 800 of those dedicated to a lucrative poker room. There’s a fully equipped kitchen and restaurant. The eight Diamond tables (six 7-footers and a pair of 9-footers) put the finishing touch on what Schmidt described, without specifics, as “the best deal in the country.” He and a local handyman, Bill Carenbauer, a frequent patron of the S’ Bridge Cafe, pitched in to help with immediate renovations, while also giving Schmidt a place to crash. “I was taken in by the Carenbauer family,” he said, “and you know, if I’d known ahead of time that they were going to be involved, I’d have paid double for the place.” Taking advantage of his notoriety in the pool world, Schmidt was also afforded free publicity in the form of numerous interviews and stories broadcast on local college media stations and that area’s CBS and NBC network affiliates. With five colleges, a variety of nearby communities and no poolhalls in sight, Schmidt is optimistic about his chances at making the room succeed. “I’m excited,” he said, adding that this venture is by no means a way station for any planned return to the grind of touring. “This is no part-time gig. I’m going to [make this work, or] go down in flames with this room.” As a first-time business owner, Schmidt is developing an appreciation for the work that goes into owning a room, including responsibilities that vary from line cook to busboy. “At times, it sucks,” he said, while continuing preparations for last month’s official grand opening, “but being broke sucks, too.” — Skip Maloney
January 2011
12/15/10 2:03:52 PM
STROKE OF GENIUS Recounting the greatest shots in pool history V ide o pr ov ide d by Ac cu - St at s
PLAYER: Danny Medina EVENT: Sands Regency Open XIV DATE: December 12, 1991
W
ELCOME BACK to part two of Danny Medina’s Stroke(s) of Genius at the 1991 Sands Regency Open. We hope you survived the last month, presumably not entirely spent on the edge of your seat. By the time Medina found himself in the position shown in Diagram 1, he’d already plowed through six consecutive racks, pushing what was a 2-1 lead against Billy Incardona to a 8-1 advantage in the race to 11. But, as Medina reduced the game of 9-ball to connect the dots, he ran into a tricky situation while racing through Rack 7. To get in the spot shown here, Medina pocketed the 2 ball in the lower left corner, sending the cue ball along the bottom rail and into a 6-3 combination. Unfortunately, as you can see, the 8 ball presented a bit of a problem for the 4 ball. But when you’ve nailed your
last 50-some shots, it’s a bit easier to throw caution to the wind. With the 4 ball just a hair off the long rail, Medina sent the cue ball off the head rail with a fair, but not extreme, bit of gusto. It bumped into the 4 just before hitting the long rail, sending the purple sphere directly toward the 9-6 cluster a diamond from the foot rail. The 9-6 cluster, though, lined up perfectly with the bottom right corner, so all the 4 had to do was contact the 9 ball and the 6 would obey and head for darkness. Which is exactly what happened. Not only that, the cue ball, after hitting the 4, rolled down-table and settled near the foot spot. The 9 ball tiptoed to the bottom rail, and the 4 sat directly in front of the pocket that had just swallowed the 6. Medina easily cleared this rack and the next before scratching on the break. In total, he put down eight racks in a row, before clearing the next table after a miss from Incardona for an 11-1 win.
See this kickin’ three-ball combo at BILLIARDSDIGEST.COM
Diagram 1
January 2011
Jan11 Wingshots.indd 15
Diagram 2
BILLIARDS DIGEST
15
12/15/10 2:04:06 PM
CUE & EH?
JERRY TARANTOLA TARANTOLA, 30, IS THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF NYCGRIND.COM, A NEW YORK-BASED MULTIMEDIA WEBSITE THAT FOCUSES ON COVERING A VARIETY OF EVENTS IN THE POOL INDUSTRY. What gives New York such a strong identity as a pool town? The sport of pool fits in nicely into the New York City landscape for many reasons, but ultimately it’s an awesome form of self-expression. New York is known for being one of the trendiest cities in the world — and people embrace the art and science of the game for many reasons. New York is also a melting pot and a “mash up” of different cultures and perspectives. The mix of ages and personalities around the game are as varied as the people getting off the 6 train in Union Square. What is NYCGrind about? And where do you see it going? Our goal is to produce a quality product that keeps the billiard industry tapped into what’s buzzworthy, from a NYC perspective. ... We plan on rolling out a lot more video, so stay tuned for a few changes in the works. What’s the most memorable event you’ve covered? The 2009 U.S. Open, when Mika [Immonen] lost in the second round and came back to win his second title in a row. That event helped prove that there’s a “winning edge” factor in being a complete athlete. Players realized that, if you want to compete at the highest level, you must put in the work and preparation.
16
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 Calendar.indd 16
CALENDAR ACS
INDEPENDENT EVENTS
LONE STAR TOUR
ACS Nationals
Derby City Classic
Bogies Billiards
May 7-14 Tropicana Las Vegas Las Vegas, Nev. www.americancuesports.org
Jan. 21-29 Horseshoe Casino & Hotel Elizabeth, Ind. www.dcctickets.com
Jan. 22 Houston, Texas www.lonestarbilliardstour.com
Pro Players Championship
Feb. 12 Port Arthur, Texas www.lonestarbilliardstour.com
ACS ALL AMERICAN TOUR 8-Ball Sports Bar Jan. 14-16 Columbus, Ohio (614) 436-2948
March 10-13 Valley Forge Convention Center King of Prussia, Pa. www.superbilliardsexpo.com
Inland Reef
INDUSTRY EVENTS
Jan. 15 Virginia Beach, Va. (757) 647-3421
Super Billiards Expo
Greenfields Pool Hall Jan. 26 Lakewood, Colo. (303) 989-9820
Leisure Time Billiards Feb. 5 East Moline, Ill. (309) 752-9559
March 10-13 Valley Forge Convention Center King of Prussia, Pa. www.superbilliardsexpo.com
BCA Billiard & Home Recreation Expo July 13-15 Sands Expo Convention Center Las Vegas, Nev. www.bcaexpo.com
Crazy 8’s Pool Hall
Houston’s Billiards March 12 Houston, Texas www.lonestarbilliardstour.com
NEW ENGLAND 9-BALL Snookers Billiards Jan. 23 Providence. R.I. (401) 351-7665 Feb. 13 Lewiston, Maine (207) 777-1155
The Fanclub
Dakota Cue Club
INTERNATIONAL EVENTS
Feb. 5-6 Sioux Falls, S.D. (563) 599-9138
WPA World 8-Ball Championship
Feb. 27 E. Wareham, Mass. (508) 295-6773
Feb. 16-19 Fujairah, U.A.E. www.wpa-pool.com
TRI-STATE TOUR
Q’s Sports Bar Feb. 12 East Moline, Ill. (941) 585-9600
Cue Master Billiards Feb. 12 Dubuque, Iowa (563) 557-0875
BCA OF WISCONSIN Legends Billiards Jan 15-16 Waukegan, Ill. (847) 599-7710
Outbreak Billiards Jan. 29-30 Racine, Wis. (262) 638-0821
BCA POOL LEAGUE BCAPL National 8-Ball Championships May 13-21 Riviera Hotel & Casino Las Vegas, Nev. www.playbca.com
CUESPORTS INT’L
Amway Cup March 6-13 Taipei, Taiwan www.wpa-pool.com
Philippine Open April 4-10 Manila, Philippines www.wpa-pool.com
Ultimate 10-Ball Championship April 21-24 Embassy Suites Hotel Dallas, Texas www.ultimate10ball.com
U.S. Open 10-Ball Championship May 16-21 Riviera Hotel & Casino Las Vegas, Nev. www.playcsipool.com
J. PECHAUER SE OPEN Pockets Billiards Feb. 19-20 Dohan, Ala. (334) 793-9644
Jay Swanson Memorial Feb. 12-13 Hard Times Billiards Bellflower, Calif. www.playcsipool.com
U.S. Bar Table Championships Feb. 21-27 Sands Regency Reno, Nev. www.playcsipool.com
JOSS NORTHEAST TOUR Diamond Eight Billiards Jan. 29-30 Latham, N.Y. (518) 786-8048
Main Street Billiards Feb. 19-20 Amsterdam, N.Y. (518) 705-1173
Gotham City Billiards Jan. 15-16 Brooklyn, N.Y. (718) 714-1002
Sandcastle Billiards Jan. 22 Edison, N.J. (732) 632-9277
Caste Billiards Feb. 5 East Rutherford, N.J. (201) 933-6007
BQE Billiards Feb. 13 Jackson Heights, N.Y. (718) 779-4348
Gotham City Billiards Feb. 19 Brooklyn, N.Y. (718) 714-1002
VALLEY NAT’L EIGHT BALL VNEA International Championships June 1-4 Bally’s Las Vegas, Nev. www.vnea.com
WPBA CLASSIC TOUR The WPBA Masters Jan. 6-9 Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort Mount Pleasant, Mich. www.wpba.com
January 2011
12/15/10 1:48:24 PM
IN I NSST TRRUUCCT TI O I ONNAAL LSS
INSIDE 18 QUICK HITS + Tweaks & tips to upgrade your game. By BD STAFF
20 STRATEGIES + Snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. By NICK VARNER
21 TRICK SHOTS + A sampling of shots from Trick Shot Magic. By ANDY SEGAL
22 SOLIDS & STRIPES + Get airborne to avoid obstacles in your path. By LARRY SCHWARTZ
24 ILLUSTRATED PRINCIPLES + English and speed with the Corner-5 System. By DAVID ALCIATORE
26 TECH TALK + More multi-player games to liven up the hall. By BOB JEWETT
BE LIKE DOROTHY WISE & SMILE IN TENSE TIMES (PG. 19).
January 2011
Jan11 Practice.indd 17
BILLIARDS DIGEST
17
12/13/10 5:36:44 PM
INSTRUCTIONALS
Bite-sized bits of top-notch instruction
BD HOUSE PRO: TONY ROBLES
OpeningShot Q)
Do you have any advice for dealing with a player who’s trying to shark me? How should I deal with it? Joey F.; Boone, N.C.
A)
First of all, you should be honored that your opponent sees you as such a threat. Distractions are not easy to overcome and require experience, maturity and patience. Psychological warfare is employed on many levels — subtle and overt, verbal and physical — too numerous to list. The crucial elements for defeating those bent on distracting you are planning and discipline. Unscrupulous players, when falling behind, might try to engage you in some controversy or create a dispute in an effort to change the momentum. Constantly applying powder, waving a towel and throwing the rack on the floor rather than in the holder are little things designed to get you out of your game. Have a game plan to defeat your opponent; detach yourself from anything that they do, and focus your energy into making the next stroke the best one of your life. This kind of focus requires stamina to maintain over an extended period, but this is what you train and plan for. Displaying this type of mental strength is also very demoralizing for your opponent, because he recognizes that he can’t match your complete game.
18
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 QuickHits.indd 18
THE STRAIGHT ANSWER LAWRENCE LUSTIG
with Mark Wilson
F YOU walk into a poolroom and ask 20 players what one shot gives them the most problems, I can confidently say that the straight-in shot will be mentioned more than once. But, really, what’s to fear with this shot? It’s a bit counterintuitive that players tremble when the angle of the shot goes from slight to nil. As we all know, though, pool is a game that has a lot to do with what’s going on between your ears. Players fear a straight-in shot because it requires solid fundamentals — and it can highlight any imperfections in your stroke, stance, etc. In additional to these physical demands, straight shots also often loaded with difficulty with respects to getting position for your next shot. Because you don’t have an angle, you often have to create on by cheating the pocket (shooting the object ball into the right or left side). You may also feel the need to incorporate left or right English if you want to draw the cue ball back off a rail and modify its angle. But for the sake of simplicity, let’s make a quick list of priorities you should consider when eying a straight-in shot: 1. Make the
I
Object Ball. Sounds simple, right? Well, no matter what demands you’re facing for position on your next shot, you need to complete this shot successfully to stay at the table. 2. Stick to Center. I really try to avoid using English on these shots because the reward is usually not worth the risk. Drawing the cue ball back off a rail with English puts a lot of pressure on your stroke. Try to venture away from the vertical axis of the cue ball only when absolutely necessary. 3. Cheat the Pocket? Elite-class players know how to cheat the pocket to create an angle (see the blue arrow in Diagram 1). But be realistic with your planning for a particular shot. Can you trust your shot-making enough to put the object ball not only in the pocket, but in a specific part of the pocket? Also be aware that the closer the object ball is to its intended pocket, the easier it is to create an angle. If you’re facing a shot with the cue ball traveling three or four diamonds, cheating the pocket is not what you want to be doing.
Diagram 1
January 2011
12/14/10 2:12:50 PM
Drill Bits-
SPIN RIGHT ROUND 8
7
6
5
4
+ WHY DO IT + Understanding a spinning cue ball (and how it reacts with rails) is pretty important if you want to incorporate left or right English.
3 2
+ HOW TO DO IT + Place the 1 and 2 balls on the foot rail, with two ball spaces between them. With the cue ball on the head spot, shoot between the 1 and 2 balls aiming for a specific group of balls (numbered 1-8). Start off with a center-ball hit (No. 1) and work up to extreme right English (No. 8). Then use left English with the object balls on the other side of the table. [Bob Jewett]
1
BACK IN ‘80s, BD asked Efren Reyes what makes him so magical when it comes to kick shots. Here’s what he had to say: “Kicking comes from my background in billiards. I don’t use a system. I concentrate on where I hit the cue ball, not on hitting a certain point on the rail. When I kick, my main thought is safety play. Where can I put the cue ball? Exactly where is it going? Making a ball on a kick shot is luck, so you have to anticipate where the balls will go if you miss. Players in the U.S. used to kick very hard and hope to make a ball. I try to guage the speed of my shot. Speed is very important. “When I came to the U.S., everyone just chance-kicked. I knew how to kick properly and everyone was shocked.”
Don’t Shut Your
MOUTH!
David Leadbetter, one of the most accomplished golf instructors on the planet, has a piece of advice that easily transfers from one hit-the-littlewhite-ball sport to another. Unlike sports involving a moving ball, golf (and pool) requires striking a stationary object so you can overthink. Overanalysis can lead to tense muscles and irregular breathing. To combat this, open your mouth slightly when you’re down on a shot. Gently rest your tongue against the roof of your mouth from pre-shot routine through the fi nal stroke. This tiny tip will help you relax your shoulder and neck muscles, allowing a smooth stroke.
ANNE CRAIG
Quotes, Pt. I
“
It’s mind over matter, controlling those round objects.
”
— Richie Florence
STRAIGHT
TALK
GURU GEORGE FELS HELPS YOU RUN 100 EVERYBODY AGREES pool is more than 50 percent mental, but without the physical aspects, there wouldn’t be any game at all. To be sure you’ll be at the table for years to come, take care of your legs, lower back and upper body. But don’t forget about your eyes. Get a thorough, professional eye examination every two years or so. If you’re over 35, you should be tested for glaucoma annually without fail. Pool’s just one thing of the countless things you ask your eyes to do. It’s only fair you do something for your eyes.
On the Spot LONE STAR TOUR FOUNDER AND WPBA STAR KIM WHITE ON WARMING UP AND 2011 + If you haven’t hit a ball in a few days, what’s the first thing you do? I start with simple drills using long, straight-in stop shots to find the “center” of my cue ball. During this process, I take more strokes than normal in order to loosen up my arm. ... If I am out of stroke it’s very difficult for me to draw my ball with precision. This area of my game suffers the most when my practice time is cut short. + Have you been working on any one area of your game recently? My break has definitely improved. I’ve been working on my form and my delivery. I’m also very confident in the break cue that I am using, and that helps a lot. + What’s one goal you’ve set to accomplish in 2011? I would really like to top my best finish which is third place [at the 2006 WPBA Great Lakes Classic].
January 2011
Jan11 QuickHits.indd 19
BILLIARDS DIGEST
19
12/14/10 2:13:02 PM
+ S TR ATEG IE S + BY Nick Varner
DEFEAT INTO VICTORY
Pull out an unexpected win by focusing on the task at hand. N NOVEMBER, Johnny Archer and I did an exhibition at the 8-Ball Sports Bar and Billiards in Columbus, Ohio. Owner Richard Whaley has a few of the best local tournaments every Friday and Saturday. He calls them chip tournaments, and they draw anywhere from 50 to 100 players each night. Any room operator who’s looking for a successful promotion should contact Richard. It sure works. And the players love the tournaments. Anyway, a shot came up in one of my matches where I was a little lucky to grasp victory out of defeat. I had run into the 5 ball (my last ball before the 8) during my shot to get position on the 5. You never like to turn the cue ball loose or run into one of your balls, but sometimes it happens. And when I pocketed the second to last solid and ran into the 5 ball, the cue C-2 ball and 5 ball ended up as shown in Diagram 1. The 11 ball blocked any chance of contacting the 5 ball without jumping or kicking at it. My opponent (Frank Guerrero) probably was thinking he was saved by the 11, and I wasn’t too far behind him. One of the worst feelings in pool happens in 8-ball. It’s when you’re at the end of the game and end up snookered on one of your last balls or the 8 ball. Most of the time, you fail to win because your opponent’s got an easy route to win the game. It’s a miserable experience. But if you continue to play 8-ball, it won’t be your last one; it’s the nature of the game. I surveyed the table looking for my best option. The jump shot didn’t look good because I wasn’t sure it would be pos-
I
20
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 Varner.indd 20
sible to make the 5 ball. Also, the 11 ball was almost too close to the cue ball. Clearing it wasn’t easy. I finally decided on the one-rail kick shot shown in Diagram 1. It looked really tough — but if the kick shot went in, it looked like I might get a shot on the 8. The contact point on the cue ball was slightly below center, and the speed
was in play, but I thought the cue ball wouldn’t get that far over. I did, though, did catch the 8 ball with the cue ball as shown in the diagram. Watching the 5 ball go into the corner was a pleasant surprise. Next, my eyes moved to watch the cue ball to see where it was going to end up. As you can see in Diagram 2, the cue ball and the 8 ball ended up very close to each other. They were lined up along line Diagram 1 A. I decided it was a little C-1 easier shot for the bottom side pocket, but not by a whole lot. Sometimes, after you make a great shot and then have to make another shot that is somewhat difficult, you may start thinking about what an idiot you’ll look like if you miss the winning shot. You hate to waste such a good shot. It’s Diagram 2 probably better to think, “Wow! I get an opportunity to win this game if I pocket the 8.” See it as a great opportunity to see if L in you can really pocket the eA game-winner. This train of thought may keep you focused on pocketing the 8 ball instead of losing your concentration and forgetting to aim properly. The main mistake was firm because I wanted the cue ball you want to avoid is to try and shoot to come back on a straighter angle off too quickly. You don’t want your mind the end rail. For me, it makes judging still remembering the last shot and how this angle a little easier. Sometimes I great it was. Put all of your energy into like a softer speed and higher contact the next shot. point on the cue ball, but I didn’t want Once in awhile, you grab victory to go forward and end up behind the 9 when defeat is staring you down. Wins or 15 balls. In this situation, the harder like this pump you up and can bring speed might’ve brought me over close to you back. They’re exciting and get your the 8 ball, giving me a better chance to adrenalin pumping. See you soon in the get a shot on it next. That corner pocket winner’s circle.
January 2011
12/13/10 3:47:07 PM
+ TRICK SHOTS+ BY Andy Segal
MAGIC ON DISPLAY
Trick Shot Magic provided a stage for some great innovations. HILE AT the 2010 Trick Shot Magic Got Talent” in 2009. This shot first recompetition in Henderson, Nev., quires the player to execute a massé, I had the privilege of playing making the 5 ball into the top corner against some of the top trick shot artpocket, as shown. The cue ball then ists in the world. I would like to hightravels down-table and, after passing light some of the shots that I saw in this the head string, the player must execute event. another massé while the cue ball is rollMy first match was against Dave Nangle, the Diagram 1 2008 World Massé Champion. The first shot he selected in that match can be seen in Diagram 1. He took a prop that looked Fig. 1 like a figure 8, and stood it up on the table. The idea behind this shot is to shoot the cue ball into the 1 ball with a slight elevation so the 1 ball jumps through the lower hole and the cue ball jumps through the upper hole. Both will then head into the lower right corner pocket. With the rack at the end of the table, you don’t really need to worry about making the balls, provided you aim straight into the 1 ball. The two most important aspects of this shot are knowing exactly how hard Fig. 2 Diagram 2 to hit the cue ball and how much to elevate your cue stick. Once you get that down, the shot becomes very high-percentage, Diagram 3 which is why Dave picked it at the beginning of the match. After our match, he said, “I wanted to start with an easy shot just to Fig. 3 get on the board.” The shot in Diagram 2 was invented by my semifinal opponent, Florian Kohler from France. Florian was a quarterfinalist on the TV show “France’s
W
ing. The cue ball will travel up table a bit, then massé back to make the three mini pool balls in pocket A. Florian Kohler did this shot in his first round match against Stefano Pelinga, who is one of the best at the massé shot. After getting the point in that match, he then proceeded to shoot it and score against me in the semifinals. (One final note to Florian: I will have this shot down for next year’s competition!) Finally, I chose to use the shot in Diagram 3 in the final against Jamey Gray, who was a teammate of mine in the World Cup of Trick Shots at the Mohegan Sun and also the 2008 World Artistic Pool Champion. The match started off with both of us making the first four shots in the match. I knew that I needed to select a harder shot in order to have any chance of gaining a point. This is a variation of the Rocket Massé, where the player performs a massé to make the 1 ball in lower left corner, and then the cue ball comes down the rail to make the 2 ball in side and the 3 ball in top right. You need to put a lot more spin on the ball in order to complete the last part of this shot. The extreme massé will cause the cue ball to continue spinning even after it hits the 2 ball and bounces off the rail. The massé will then kick in again and cause the cue ball to travel down to make the 9 ball. This was one of the few shots where I was able to gain a point and secure the victory.
January 2011
Jan11 Segal.indd 21
BILLIARDS DIGEST
21
12/14/10 2:15:25 PM
+ SOLIDS
&
STRIPES
+ BY Larry Schwartz
AIRBORNE ESCAPE
Jump into the new year by learning how to elevate the cue ball.
A
Sh
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 Schwartz.indd 22
ot
22
the cue ball, making it go higher. The second aspect is the stroke and speed with which you strike the cue ball. Once your cue stick is elevated and you are in line, fire away with a more powerful stroke to force the cue ball to deflect off the table. Even your practice strokes should be quicker than normal, so you will generate more speed for the actual shot. Together, your elevation and speed will be the determining factors for how high and how far the cue ball jumps. In Diagram 1, I have shown one of the easiest and best ways to learn the hammer-down jump shot. For Shot A, put the cue ball between the 5 and 7, remove the cue ball, and then move the object balls about a quarter-inch closer together (just enough so that you cannot fit a ball between them). Then place the cue ball about a foot and half away. You want to jump over the 5 and 7 and complete the otherwise straight-in shot to the 8 ball in the corner pocket. To complete shot A, first get comfortable in the new stance and bridge, and then hold the cue stick at a high angle — between 30 and 90 degrees. Aim to hit the cue ball directly in the center. Be sure to take a few practice strokes. In this particular situation, you are only jumping over a small part of the object balls, so the cue ball does not need to be hit with much force. Once you have perfected the shot, move the object balls closer together to master accuracy. Also, experiment by moving the cue ball closer to and farther away from the blocking balls, adjusting your cue and stroke accordingly. Remember the speed of your stroke and the elevation of your cue determine the height the cue ball will reach.
A
NYONE WHO has ever watched a scene face, creating the desired “air show.” in a movie or TV show that revolves The hammer-down shot requires a around a pool game has probably stance different than your normal one. witnessed the famed “jump shot.” The You will be standing with most of your cue ball sails over obstacles to its desweight on your left foot and your left tined meeting with an object ball, drivhand. (Naturally, you would shift your ing it artfully into a pocket. At the same weight to your right foot and hand if time, anyone who has ever played a you’re left-handed.) Also, you need to significant number of games has both shift your upper body over the table so witnessed and even made the accidental your head is directly over the cue ball. jump shot, when the cue ball becomes This way, you will cause the forearm of unintentionally airborne, likely due to a your stroke arm to be almost horizontal, miscue or an aim that is too low. helping you produce a more powerful Well, if you are one of the many playdownward stroke, a key factor allowing ers who would like to learn the correct way to jump while avoiding Diagram 1 those accidental skips, your time has come. For the old pros out there, sit back, relax and reflect on the time you first earned your pilot’s license; this tB t Sho Sp o lesson is for those of you Aim still firmly grounded on the slate. There are only two legal ways of making the cue ball airborne. I will cover an illegal method first, as it’s responsible for most of the acciyou to jump the cue ball. Finally, this dental jumps. This improper method of method of jumping the cue ball requires jumping involves hitting the bottom of a slightly different bridge — again it will the cue ball and pushing it up from unbe similar to one you use when shooting derneath. Aiming too low when you are over a ball. Make sure that your bridge trying to draw the cue ball or miscuing is solid and comfortable, because it is a because your tip is not chalked properly key factor in jumping the cue ball. generally causes such jumps. Once you’ve adjusted your stance and The two legal methods of jumping the bridge for the shot, you’re ready to adcue ball are the “hammer-down” techdress the cue ball. To properly execute nique and making use of the cushion to the hammer-down jump shot, you put the cue ball into flight. should never hit to the right or left of The way the pros jump the cue, the center on the cue ball. hammer-down technique, is the most When you actually go to take the jump common. For this type of shot, you’ll shot, there are two aspects of your exelevate the butt of your cue, effectively ecution that will determine its success. aiming down on the cue ball, much as The first is the elevation of your cue. you would when you are shooting over The higher you raise the butt of your a blocking ball. This downward strike cue (making a steeper angle into the will deflect the cue ball off the table surtable), the more “dig” you will get on January 2011
12/14/10 2:17:01 PM
For Shot B in Diagram 1, you’ll need to make an adjustment in the way you aim the shot because of how far the 8 ball is from the cue ball. Once you have adjusted your stance with your head directly above the cue ball, you will not be able to see the 8 ball. Therefore, instead of aiming directly at the 8 ball, aim for a spot between the cue ball and the 8 ball along the line of aim (see the red “aim spot” in the diagram). Before moving on to the next diagram, I would like to note that there are two extraneous factors that can affect these jump shots. The first is the cloth upon which you are playing. It’s always tougher to jump the cue ball on a worn cloth or a cloth with no nap. The other factor is the type of cue you use. If you have a jump cue, which is shorter and lighter than a normal cue, the jump shot will be a lot easier. However, I recommend perfecting the jump shot with your normal playing cue because some tournaments don’t allow jump cues. For this second method of jumping, we are going to use the cushion to get the cue ball airborne. I have seen a lot of top players overlook this shot, but it’s
really not as difficult as Diagram 2 it appears. As you can see in Diagram 2, it appears that I’m in a trap. There seems to be no way of making the 8 ball without hitting any of the striped balls first. But there is an escape: the cushion jump shot. To make this impressive shot, aim the cue ball into the cushion as if you were going to kick it into the 8 ball. However, to execute the jump, elevate your cue stick about 20 degrees and hit the cue ball above center at about 12 o’clock. This second type of jump shot will require much of the same technique as the hammer-down shot. Once again, the shot will require a different stance so you can elevate your cue, but not as drastic as the hammer-down shot. You will once again use the over-the-ball bridge, so get comfortable with this be-
fore you aim and strike. In addition, you will again need quite a bit of speed to get the cue ball airborne, but I strongly suggest hitting the cue ball with medium speed first and building up to the proper velocity. If you start out slamming the cue ball with maximum force before you get a good feel for the shot, it could likely come back and hit you in the head. Perfecting both of the jump shots in this article does require some movement away from the techniques you generally use. However, I’m sure that, with practice, you will find both methods attainable and useful. Most of my beginner students are able to successfully execute these jump shots. They are great shots to practice and perfect as they will get you out of a fair number of traps as well as amaze a few people along the way. Good luck.
I just love curling up with a good book.
Whether I’m picking up playing tips, checking out tournament action, or reading the latest on yours truly, Billiards Digest has me covered. SUBSCRIBE TODAY AT:
www.billiardsdigest.com
Jan11 Schwartz.indd 23
12/14/10 2:17:07 PM
+ I L L U S T R AT E D P R I N C I P L E S + BY David Alciatore Ph.D.
EYING SPIN & SPEED
What happens to the Corner-5 when you introduce variables?
[Note: Supporting narrated video (NV) demonstrations, high-speed video (HSV) clips, and technical proofs (TP) can be accessed and viewed online at billiards.colostate.edu. The reference numbers used in the article help you locate the resources on the Web site. You might want to view the resources on a CD-ROM or DVD. Details can be found at dr-dave-billiards.com.] HIS IS my 13th article based on the “The Video Encyclopedia of Pool Shots (VEPS),” an instructional DVD series I recently created with past BD columnist and good friend Tom Ross. In the last few months, we’ve looked at examples of the Corner-5 System, which is used to aim two-, three- and four-rail kicks off a long rail. If you don’t remember the details of the system, please review my recent articles and NV B.85. To summarize, for a rolling cue ball (CB) with running English, the Corner-5 System predicts a third-rail target (T) from the CB’s origination-direction number (D) and the first-rail number (F) using the following simple formula: T = D – F. If you have been practicing the Corner-5 System, you may have noticed that the system doesn’t work equally well over a full range of CB positions and shot angles. This month, we’ll look at several important effects, and learn when and how to make adjustments. As with any kick or bank system, it’s important to understand the effects of speed and English. Diagram 1 illustrates how speed alone affects Corner-5 System tracks. (Just a reminder, as covered in last month’s article, the third-rail target of the benchmark shot might be different on your table.) First, note that speed doesn’t really have much effect on the CB’s target diamond on the third rail. With all three speeds shown in the diagram, the CB heads very close to diamond 3 on the third rail, just as the Corner-5 System predicts (3 = 5 – 2). This is because the speed-related effects on the rebound angle off the second rail tend to
Diagram 1
T
24
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 Alciatore.indd 24
counteract the same effects off the first rail. This is not true, however, for the track off the third rail, which is affected significantly by speed. As shown in the diagram, slower speed tends to make the CB come up short of the fourth-rail target (the blue path), while faster speed tends to make it go long (the red path).
The main reason for this is the amount of sidespin that remains on the CB into the third rail. With slower speed, the first and second rails do not reinforce the sidespin as much, and more of it wears off by the time it reaches the third rail. Remember that this effect will obviously vary with conditions. Clean balls on Diagram 2
January 2011
12/14/10 2:17:24 PM
slick cloth tend to retain sidespin longer than dirty balls on sticky cloth. Diagram 2 illustrates the effects of English. As with speed variations, different amounts of English have little effect on the third-rail target. Again, the effect on the rebound angle off the second rail tends to counteract the same effect off the first rail. With less English, the CB rebounds shorter off the first rail, resulting in a shallower approach in to the second rail. The CB picks up some running sidespin off the first rail, but the amount is still less than what it would have if there were more English into the first rail. With less sidespin, the CB then rebounds shorter off the second rail, redirecting it toward the benchmark third-rail target. The resulting angle off the second rail, however, tends to send the CB a little long off the third rail (the red path in Diagram 2). With more English, even though the CB tends to head into the third rail at a slightly steeper angle, the amount of sidespin will be greater, sending the CB even longer (the blue path) than in the case with less English. Again, as with speed, the degree of these effects depends on table conditions. Both Diagrams 1 and 2 illustrate the robustness of the Corner-5 System. With a wide range of speeds and English, the formula predicts the third-rail target fairly reliably. However, to target a pocket or ball off the third rail, the effects of speed and English must be considered. When using the Corner-5 System to aim at fourth-rail targets, you need to be aware of how tracks change as the origination-direction number moves away from the benchmark value of 5. As shown in Diagram 3, for CB positions farther down the long rail (that is, as the origination number decreases from 5), the CB tends to go a little short of the fourth-rail target. Therefore, you need to compensate to go a little longer by shifting your first-rail aim point a little down-table. The smaller the origination number, the more the adjustment. This is illustrated in the diagram by the dotted tracks in black, red and blue, corresponding to origination numbers of 5, 4 and 3.5. The benchmark track (in black) leads to the corner, but the track from 4 (in red) comes up a little short of the pocket, and the blue track from 3.5 comes up even shorter. For the shot shown in blue, the aim is adjusted about a third of a diamond. You can develop
Diagram 3
Diagram 4
a feel for how much to shift on different tables through practice. Speed and the amount of English can also be adjusted, as shown in Diagrams 1 and 2. Some systems have also been suggested that calculate a correction (for example, the “Seattle Kid allowance” presented in Robert Byrne’s “New Standard Book of Pool and Billiards”). Diagram 4 shows what happens in the other direction. For CB positions farther down the short rail (i.e., as the origination number increases from 5), the CB tends to go a little long of the fourth-rail target. Therefore, you need to adjust by aiming to go a little shorter by shifting the first-rail aim point a little up-table. The farther from the benchmark, the more the adjustment. This is illustrated
in the diagram with the dotted tracks in black, red and blue, corresponding to origination numbers of 5, 6 and 7. The benchmark track (again, in black) heads to the corner, but the track from 6 (red) goes a little long of the pocket, and the track from 7 (blue) goes even longer. For the shot shown in blue, the aim is adjusted about a third of a diamond farther up the first rail. Next month, we’ll take a look at a nonmath-based “spot-on-the-wall” kicking system. David Alciatore is author of the book, DVD and CD-ROM, “The Illustrated Principles of Pool and Billiards;” the DVD Series, “The Video Encyclopedia of Pool Shots;” and the DVD, “High-speed Video Magic.”
January 2011
Jan11 Alciatore.indd 25
BILLIARDS DIGEST
25
12/14/10 2:17:29 PM
+ TECH TALK + BY Bob Jewett
MORE THE MERRIER II A few more multi-player games that may be new to you. AST TIME, I covered the rules for ring 9-ball, a multi-player game that was a favorite in the room where I first learned to play. When the better players got together, they tended to play ring 10-ball, which uses the same rules but with one more ball to slow down the runouts. This time I’ll cover some other games that more than two can play. In a ring game, it’s usually necessary to remove safety play because a good safe doesn’t benefit the player who played it; the safety helps the player two spots down the shooting order. A game that puts safety back into the ring-game format is called “Liability.” This is played mostly with normal snooker rules on a snooker table, but you could probably adapt the basic idea to 9-ball. Only six reds are used, and the game starts with the normal safety break, with players after that shooting in order in the standard ring-game style. The scoring is like snooker, with one point per red ball and two to seven points for the other balls (“colors”), which return to the table until the rotation phase when the reds are gone. The tricky part is the scoring: Any points you make are charged only against the player who preceded you; he is liable for your scoring. If you foul, those points are credited to that same player since it was presumably his good play that forced the error. Fouls count from four to seven points as at snooker. Safeties are handled slightly differently from snooker, in that on any shot some cushion must be contacted either before or after contact with the object ball. This rule is to prevent the “cheap” safe play normally available which is to roll up softly to a color without any cushion contact to leave your opponent snookered on all the reds. If you foul, the following player can ask you to shoot again, but the liability for any points you score is then on him. One way to adapt any two-player game
L
26
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 Jewett.indd 26
Summary of Rules
for 9-Ball and 10-Ball Ring Games • NO SAFETIES: A good safety will force the next player to sell out to the player after that, so aim to make a ball. • NO BALL IN HAND: Fouls are played where the cue ball lies. Scratches result in the incoming player geting ball in hand in the kitchen. • ALL BALLS SPOT: If a ball is pocketed on a foul or driven off the table, it’s placed on the foot spot. • SHOOT AGAIN AFTER FOULS, MAYBE: A foul gives the incoming player the choice between shooting or passing the shot back to the one who committed the foul. to four players is to use a “scotch doubles” format. The players on each team alternate shots until the team misses, then the other team begins alternating shots. There are several ways to set the order; here’s one: the first breaker is decided by the breaking team. When they miss, the other team decides who
will play their first shot. After that, the order for that game is set. If someone plays out of order, it’s a foul and the incoming team restores the correct order. In subsequent short-rack games, the winner’s partner breaks and the opposing team again has the choice of first to shoot. With partners games, you have to decide whether coaching is allowed or not. I think in games that are not too serious, and with mixed abilities, it’s good for partners to share shot choices, but any comments should be brief, such as “try to leave me on this side of the 6 ball.” Serious instruction, though, should be saved for the practice table. If your partner totally botches your wellintended suggestion, it is unlikely that your opponents or your partner will want to listen to your post mortem. A dynamic partners game is “Chicago,” which is a kind of 15-ball rotation game. It is called by various names, and around the rec center where we played it while avoiding homework, it was known as “Money Ball.” It also has several variations of rules; I’ll only cover the way we played it. Chicago is played by four players. A full rack of balls is used, and you have to hit the lowest ball first on each shot. Slop counts, so turn up the energy when there’s no obvious play. The 1 ball is racked in front with the 2 and 3 on the corners, and the 5, 8, 10, 13 and 15 balls are safely buried in the middle of the rack as they are the worth one “way” each. The numeric values of the balls also count as in standard 15-ball rotation, so the team scoring 61 points or more gets two additional ways for a total of seven available each game. The easiest way to keep track of who has made which balls during a rack is to have a cache spot assigned to each player, such as the ball tray or the left ball bin in the front of the table. The rules for fouls are mostly the same as for ring 9-ball, including
January 2011
12/15/10 1:37:00 PM
“shoot to hit” and “shoot again” for a foul. All balls made illegally are spotted, but you never lose a ball you’ve made legally. While the 1 ball is not worth anything directly, it is the “partners ball” and whoever makes the 5 is partners with the owner of the 1. If those are the same player, the maker of the 8 will be paired with the 1-5, and so on. Once the pairing has been established, the partners alternate innings, not shots, and the order may change slightly if two partners were following each other before partners were decided. It may be that one player manages to make the 8 before the 5 ball is pocketed, but that does not decide partners. If one player has the 1, 5 and 8 while another has made the 13 and 15 but the 10 (the last remaining money ball and partners decider) has not been pocketed, the two pointless players both want desperately for either of them to make the 10 to avoid a sweep by a partnership of the two rich players.
An example of the ‘Chicago’ rack.
If there is a complete sweep by one team — five money balls and two ways for 61 or more points — the score is doubled. It may be that a rack ends without partners being formed if one player gets the 1 ball and the five money balls. If that player also has the highest points count, he is paid double by the three other players. Since the six important balls total 52 out of 120 total points, the money ball monopolist
probably will get the ways for points as well, although a 5-2-0-0 split is possible. The rack ends as soon as all ways have been decided, so there may be one or two balls left up if the 15 has fallen prematurely. Whoever makes the last ball breaks in the following rack and the order decided in the previous rack continues into the new rack although the partnerships are dissolved with the new break. One of the best features of Money Ball is the constantly shifting partnerships. The weakest player always has one of the better players on his side, and the strongest player is not guaranteed to win. I think the game works best for social rather than serious play, and it stops being interesting if any of the players is likely to run out a rack. If the scene at your poolhall is getting a little stale, try some Money Ball or one of the other ring games for a little variety. I’ll share a few more multi-player games next time.
January 2011
Jan11 Jewett.indd 27
BILLIARDS DIGEST
27
12/15/10 1:37:12 PM
PHOTOS BY MARK WEBSTER
2 010 W P B A T O U R C H A M P I O N S H I P FTER A stellar breakout year in 2007 that included her first WPBA Classic Tour title and the World 9-Ball crown, Xiaoting Pan had raised expectations to perhaps unfair levels. She’d ascended to the top of the women’s game as fast as anyone since Allison Fisher — and it was nearly an accepted fact that she was the next to be No. 1. But instead of maintaining such an astonishing career trajectory, Pan took a bit of a step back in the seasons following her fantastic first. Still fully capable of winning any event she entered, Pan consistently finished high in both WPBA and international events, but she was unable to close out crucial matches. She was unable to turn performances from respectable into championship-caliber. So when she prepared for November’s Asian Games, the Chinese superstar had gone nearly two and a half years without a title. But there, at the Olympics-style continental contest that featured a wide array of cue sports, Pan recaptured her late-round magic of three years prior. In a single-elimination format, she won a pair of hill-hill matches en route to a championship clinching 7-5 win over Taiwan’s former world champ Chou Chieh-Yu. And so, fresh off that win, Pan hopped on a plane bound for the WPBA Tour Championship — held Dec. 1-5 at the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Sure, she was winless in her last 14 appearances on the women’s pro tour, but the confidence borne from recent success paid immediate dividends in the season finale. She was no longer focused on the near-misses, allowing herself to let go of the suffocating expectations and self-imposed pressure that led to finishes of third, fifth and ninth, instead of first. “I had a number of close calls because I [put] too much pressure on myself,” she said. “I always set a very high goal and … this made [it] very difficult to calm down at some crucial moments.” Including back-to-back losses in championship matches to Jasmin Ouschan in 2009, Pan advanced to the quarterfinals in half of her WPBA appearances. There was no doubt she belonged among the Classic Tour’s absolute top tier, considering she finished both the 2008 and 2009 seasons as the
A
GREAT
EXPECTATIONS? Fresh off winning gold at the Asian Games, Xiaoting Pan played carefree and confident en route to the WPBA Tour Championship. Story by Nicholas Leider
28
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 WPBATour.indd 28
January 2011
12/15/10 4:14:35 PM
560104md077.indd 29
12/14/10 3:56:19 PM
2 010 W P B A T O U R C H A M P I O N S H I P third-ranked player in overall points. Pan just needed to break through, like she did in 2007. “[When] I came to the WPBA tournament, I didn’t think too much and just wanted to enjoy the matches,” she said. “This made me more relaxed and I won the title.” Taking place in the wake of the WPBA Board of Directors announcing fairly significant changes for the women’s tour (see News, pg. 8), the Tour Championships quickly deviated from the usual script, where the top 10 in the points rankings cruise into the 16-player, single-elimination bracket without too much drama. Newly minted No. 1 Jasmin Ouschan was the first to fall. In just the second round, the reigning champ was bumped to the one-loss bracket by 16th seeded Helena Thornfeldt. While Ouschan recovered with a pair of wins in the losers bracket, Jeanette Lee then eliminated the World 10-Ball winner, just one match short of the redraw process (where each of the eight unbeatens draw a player who advanced through the left side). While the early exit was the first time Ouschan missed single-elimination play since the 2009 season debut, she’d have company on the sidelines. Former No. 1 Kelly Fisher dropped a hill-hill third-round set to Melissa Little. Just a match from redrawing into the final 16, Fisher then crashed out in 17th by dropping a 9-6 set to a resurgent Jennifer Chen. While the somewhat jumbled bracket turned contenders into spectators, a pair of junior world champions made the most of the chaos. Mary Rakin (junior titlist in both 2006 and 2007) lost her first match to Melissa Herndon, 9-8, only to win the next four on the one-loss side for her first appearance in the oneand-done stage of a Classic Tour event. Similarly, Canada’s Brittany Bryant, just days removed from her victory at the 2010 WPA World Juniors (see story, pg. 32), took advantage of a second chance on the one-loss side. After losing a second-round set to Sarah Rousey, 9-8, Bryant rattled off three wins to work her way into the final 16.
30
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 WPBATour.indd 30
perhaps the most surprising semifinalist since both Iris Ranola and Yu Ram Cha blasted into the final four of the 2008 U.S. Open, she proved no match for Karen Corr. In the shortened race to 7, Corr quickly raced out to a 6-0 lead. Bryant responded by taking the seventh rack, but a hung 1 ball in the next game was the Canadian’s final effort. Corr cleared the rack for a 7-1 win. The other semifinal matched Pan, who breezed into the semifinal after a 9-8 scare from Belinda Calhoun in the second round, against Ga Young Kim. The two inched through the match until both sat on the hill, 6-6. After the traded failed attempts at a 1-9 combo, Pan drained a 2-9 billiard that gave her a berth in the final opposite Corr. From the start of the final, Pan admitted that, unlike previous events, she actually felt most comfortable playing for the championship. “It was different,” she said. “I didn’t make any goals this time and never thought about winning the title.” Settled into the moment, Pan took advantage of Corr’s miss on the 3 ball in the opening game and then cleared the next rack from the break for an early 2-0 lead. Corr fought back to Corr (top) throttled surprise semifinalist Bryant knot the match at 3-3, but (middle), but had no solution for Pan in the final. that was the last time she’d A resident of Guelph, Ontario, less than be even with Pan. When an hour’s drive from the WPBA Tour Corr scratched on an errant safety, Pan Championship, Bryant (who also won cleaned up to get on the hill, 6-4, and the 2008 junior title) showed no probthen won a safety battle on the 2 ball in lems adjusting to the pressure of singlethe next rack and cleared for the title. elimination play. She trounced Monica While Pan appears to have recaptured Webb, 9-3, and Chen, 9-5, to advance to her championship magic, Corr has the semifinal rounds, which were taped strung together six runner-up finishes for airing on ESPN this month. Rakin, in major events since her last victory (at meanwhile, topped Melissa Little, 9-3, the 2007 WPBA Midwest Classic). But in the round of 16, before falling to Karas her Chinese contemporary recently en Corr in the quarterfinal, 9-4 — just discovered, sometimes it’s just a matter a match short of meeting Bryant in the of getting that first one out of the way semis. before the championships start rolling While Bryant captivated the arena as in like old times.
January 2011
12/15/10 3:20:39 PM
560104md084.indd 31
12/14/10 3:57:44 PM
MARK WEBSTER
2 010 W PA W O R L D J U N I O R C H A M P I O N S H I P S
C
Bryant speared her second world title in three years.
AS GOOD
AS GOLD
Spain’s Sanchez-Ruiz and Canada’s Bryant topple U.S. duo at World Juniors. Story by Skip Maloney
32
ANADA’S BRITTANY Bryant and Spain’s Francisco SanchezRuiz surprised a few people when they took home gold medals in the 19th annual WPA World Junior Championships, held on Thanksgiving Day weekend at the Peppermill Hotel and Casino in Reno, NV. Not that the two didn’t prove to be worthy champions among the 31 boys from 19 countries and 16 girls from 12 who were on-hand, it was just that both of their final opponents, both from the U.S., entered the tournament on the heels of high expectations. Bryant’s opponent was Briana Miller, a three-time Junior Nationals champion in the 14-and-under category, while Sanchez-Ruiz faced Jesse Engel, a crowd favorite at the 2010 U.S. Open where he defeated Earl Strickland and Mike Sigel in back-to-back matches. To win their respective titles, Bryant and Sanchez-Ruiz had to meet Miller and Engel twice (once in their respective hot-seat matches and again in the finals). Sanchez-Ruiz faced four opponents before meeting up with Engel in their hot-seat match, including a double-hill scare he’d faced against Japan’s Satoshi Aoki in the event’s second round. He defeated American Landon Shuffett, 9-6, to face Russia’s Roman Pruchai among the winners-side final four. A dominating 9-2 victory over Pruchai set up his first of two against Engel, who’d just sent Russia’s Ruslan Chinakhov west, 9-6. Bryant’s path in the 16-player girls’ field was shorter, advancing through two matches to reach the winners-side final four, where she faced American Jauslinn Arnold. A 7-3 win over Arnold set her up to face Miller, who had just survived a double-hill match against Nicaragua’s Karen Garcia. Miller dispatched Bryant, 7-3, to get into the hot-seat match at about the same time that Engel was defeating Pruchai among the winners-side final four on the boys’ side. Engel then went on to defeat Sanchez-Ruiz, 9-7, to gain his spot in the final. On the boys’ one-loss side, Germany’s Manuel Ederer, who’d fallen to Engel in the opening round of play, put together six straight wins, but was eliminated in fourth place when Chinakhov earned a spot in the left-side final, 9-6. Chinakhov and Sanchez-Ruiz
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 WorldJrs.indd 32
January 2011
12/14/10 2:18:10 PM
MIKE FIELDHAMMER
were both looking for a second crack at Engel, but Sanchez-Ruiz dominated, 9-1, to get the chance. In the girls’ one-loss bracket, Russia’s Anastasia Nechaeva dominated Arnold, 7-1, while Natalia Seroshtan topped Garcia, 7-2. Nechaeva then won the subsequent Russian showdown, 7-3, for a spot in the third-place match. There, she faced Bryant, who rebounded from her hot-seat loss for a 7-1 win. In the boys’ final race to 11, things looked good for Engel early. He opened with a clearance from his break and followed it by emptying the table after a dry break from Sanchez-Ruiz. The young Spaniard, though, came right back, taking advantage of two ball-inhand opportunities to tie it up. Engel then sunk the 9 on the next break to go up by one, but Sanchez-Ruiz came right back to tie it, using a 4-9 combo that ended the rack early. Sanchez-Ruiz took the lead for the first time by taking advantage of one of Engel’s five dry breaks (Ruiz had only two), and then running what was left when Engel rattled a 5 ball in the hole. Sanchez-Ruiz chalked up his first break-and-run to edge ahead by two, and made it 6-3 by clearing another of Engel’s dry breaks. Sanchez-Ruiz won three of the next four for a 9-4 advantage. Engel inched to within three racks, but Sanchez-Ruiz took advantage of a missed Engel kick on the 3 ball and ran the table to reach the hill. Not including his single break-andrun, which had opened the match, and the two times he’d pocketed the 9 ball on the break, Engel sunk his only ball off the break in the final game. The 1 ball dropped for him, but the 2 ball was nestled tightly against the 9 on the break-side short rail. A couple of safety shots later, Sanchez-Ruiz erred on the 2 ball, and Engel ran the table to a 9 ball on the short rail. The Minnesota native sent it off the points of the pocket and it rolled up along the long rail. From there, Sanchez-Ruiz was able to pocket it and finish the match. “I think the key factor in the match was my dry breaks,” Engel said. “In the [hot-seat] match before, he’d been the one dry breaking. “Once [Sanchez-Ruiz] got the lead the way he did, it was going to be hard to catch him. I don’t think I ever really
Engel rolled into the hot-seat, but couldn’t avoid a rash of dry breaks in the final.
hit a good rhythm, which is one of the problems with alternate breaks.” Just days after his second-place performance, Engel was already making plans to for last month’s Turning Stone Classic XVI. Recently graduated from high school, he’s taking what he described as a year off to see just how far his pool talent is going to take him. The girls played a very tight race to
“I’M TAKING TIME OFF TO CONCENTRATE ON POOL. IF I’M GOING TO PURSUE IT, I MIGHT AS WELL DO IT NOW.” - BRI T TA N Y BRYA N T 9 in their final. Miller took an early 2-0 lead, but Bryant came back to win two and tie it. It went back and forth through 12 racks, with both players demonstrating a tendency to rattle object balls in their target pockets. Trying to bank the 7 on the 13th rack, Bryant inadvertently sunk the 9. On the subsequent rack, she bounced the 9 of the pocket corners so strongly that it traveled the length of the table and dropped into the diagonally opposite pocket, giving Bryant the first two-game lead of the match for either
player, and put her on the hill, 8-6. Bryant broke for the match, but came up dry. The two traded misses throughout the rack, with Miller’s final attempt a bit off target on the 6 ball. From there, Bryant ran out to finish the match for her second World Junior title after taking the 2008 crown. “It was hard for me to celebrate because I got lucky in those last two racks,” Bryant said afterward. “I didn’t feel as though I’d earned it. “I wasn’t disappointed in my play in the hot-seat match against [Miller]. I just didn’t feel as good, not as comfortable. I have a hard time playing her, because she’s fearless, a go-getter, real aggressive, and over the years, I’ve learned how to play safe, more disciplined.” Back home in Guelph, Ontario, for a bit of a breather, the 19-year-old Bryant, who’s in rare company as a pro player with a pair of sponsors (Oldhausen Billiards and Hainsworth Cloth), is taking a year off from school to explore her options in the world of professional pool. Freely admitting she doesn’t have much of a life in Guelph (“I’m not there very often,” she said), Bryant has yet to decide whether she’ll pursue a college education. “I’m taking some time off and concentrating on pool,” she said, “If I’m going to do it, I might as well do it now.” January 2011
Jan11 WorldJrs.indd 33
BILLIARDS DIGEST
33
12/14/10 2:18:25 PM
U N T O L D S T O R I E S: A L F R E D O D E O R O
THREE DAYS IN
HAVANA STORY BY R.A. DYER
Jan11 UntoldStories.indd 34
12/14/10 3:38:20 PM
IMAGES COURTESY THE BILLIARD ARCHIVE
The story of Alfredo De Oro’s glorious return to his homeland — and the controversy that followed. HE YEAR: 1918. The date: Jan. 5th. A Saturday. Alfredo De Oro, the great cue artist, has just arrived at the Port of Havana. A small group of fans await him anxiously at the foot of the gangplank. It has been 25 years for the old Cuban, 25 years of not seeing his beautiful native land. And he does so now, finally, with a single-minded purpose: to defend his crown. The reigning three-cushion champ has returned to play a match against an old friend, the American Chesbrough S. Otis, to be conducted over three days on the stage of Havana’s finest theater. De Oro waves and smiles. There’s excitement in his eyes — excitement to be home, finally — but something else lurks there as well. The graying star feels his years, walks with a stoop, and nurses a bad hand. His whole body sags — sags as if the burden of his nation’s expectations are weighing down upon him. There’s excitement behind the old Cuban’s eyes, certainly, but something else as well. Call it trepidation. Welcome Back to Untold Stories. This month’s edition I devote to De Oro’s dramatic three-day defense of his championship in Havana, Cuba. The match, conducted between January 10th and 12th in 1918, is still remembered today as one of the most dramatic in the history of three-cushion billiards. It also ended in controversy. I first came across a reference to this extraordinary event while perusing old articles from the New York Times. From there I found more references in various extinct newspapers, including articles from old copies of the Amsterdam Evening Recorder and the New York Morning Express. But it was within the stacks of the Latin American Collection at the University of Texas where I stumbled
T
upon the real gold mine. There, buried in yellowing, nearly 100-year-old copies of El Mundo, I found extensive references to the hero’s welcome afforded to De Oro in Havana, a reference to a letter that he carried from his wife, and rare direct quotes. I also found references to the match in the English-language newspaper, The Havana Post, albeit less extensive ones.
Thi photo This h t was ttaken k moments t after ft Otis (left) and De Oro landed in Havana.
To put this event in context, keep in mind that De Oro stands now among the very best players, ever, to play pool or billiards. The Cuban grand master amassed more world championships than any other cueist, ever. He is the only player to have simultaneously held the three-cushion and pocket billiards titles on two separate occasions. As my friend Mike Shamos notes in a 1985 edition of Billiards Digest, De Oro “beat world champions at all the American pocket billiard games, English billiards, pyramid pool and three-cushion caroms on tables varying in length from
10 to 12 feet.” But when he stepped off that steamship in 1918, it was clear that his best years were already behind him. Born in 1863 (in Manzanillo, Cuba), the old war horse now was pushing 55. Retirement loomed just ahead. De Oro also was recuperating from an injury to his right hand that made it impossible for him to put much pressure on it. He had agreed to play in Havana only as a favor to the Cuban government, which recently had assigned him a $150 per month old-age pension. But counter-intuitive as it might seem, even playing before an enthusiastic crowd of countrymen might count against him. It was De Oro’s first time back since Oct. 4, 1893, and the city and nation had changed dramatically. A tour by motorcar left the usually gregarious De Oro nearly speechless. His wife, writing before the match to a relative in Cuba, warned that the excitement and nostalgia might be too much for him to bear. “I fear that the great emotion that he will have there, and the small time he has had to rest, will damage his game,” she said. “I ask God that he give him victory, although it might be his last victory ever and that he would then have to retire. If he wins this game there, it will be the most glorious of his life. Will he win it? God willing!” O PRACTICE, De Oro headed to a famous Havana room, the “Centro Gallego,” which was managed by a man by the name of Jose Fernandez. De Oro performed a few trick shots with a
T
January 2011
Jan11 UntoldStories.indd 35
BILLIARDS DIGEST
35
12/14/10 3:38:29 PM
U N T O L D S T O R I E S: A L F R E D O D E O R O
De Oro’s friend-turned-competitor Otis vehemently defended his shot selection at the end of the 1918 title contest in Havana.
borrowed cue. Otis, who accompanied him, also performed a few. Ever the company man, Fernandez charged both for the table time. But Fernandez also had set aside a private space in the business office where the two could practice. De Oro would occupy it for a few hours in the morning, while Otis would practice in the afternoon. “Those who see my practicing would be surprised that I have the title of champion,” De Oro sheepishly told a reporter for El Mundo, who had witnessed some of his training. “I never make shots, but rather look for caroms where there should be none, to see how it comes out. Many times this limits me from making the shot. That’s the simple truth.” As for Otis, he was said to have made some “truly amazing caroms” during practice. Frank Keogh, a top-rated billiard player then living in Cuba, was quoted in El Mundo as declaring that “today the only person who can challenge De Oro is Charles Otis.” Keogh also said that Otis, a native of Brooklyn (and manager of the Amateur Billiard Club of New York), was in grand conditioning for the match, adding that beat-
36
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 UntoldStories.indd 36
Weeks before the match, De Oro filed paperwork for a passport (left) to return to the land of his birth.
ing Otis would be very difficult. The venue for the competition would be the Payret Theater, a regal stone structure from 1877 facing the Capitol. Raised seats were set in the orchestra pit, and more were placed on the stage. Audience members also took seats in the front sections of the theater, as well as in the balconies. There was a canopy structure erected over a 5-by-10-foot Brunswick table, which had been sent by the company for the championship match. The table was raised three feet
above the stage, up on a custom-built 15-by-20-foot wooden platform. The Associated Press, representing nearly 600 U.S. newspapers, sent a correspondent. Also among those in attendance was the president himself, Mario Garcia Menocal. DAY 1
Play began shortly after 9 p.m., a bit later than originally anticipated. The first block, as it was explained to the approximately 2,000 ladies and gentlemen in attendance, would continue until one of the competitors accumulated 50 caroms. At that point the first evening’s block would end, with the contestants careful not to disturb the final position of the balls. In this way the game could be taken up the following night precisely where it had left off. The first player to make 150 caroms over the entire three-night affair would win the championship medallion, plus $1,000. The players also posted a $250 side bet. De Oro posting his own money. Otis had a backer. De Oro shot first, shot slow and, to the
January 2011
12/14/10 3:38:37 PM
horror of his countrymen … fell behind quickly. For the first 12 innings De Oro went completely scoreless. And when he did finally manage to score, he dribbled out the caroms in series of only ones and twos. Otis, after having maintained his lead throughout, arrived on the hill after scoring two caroms in the 90th inning. De Oro was stuck at 46. “The public desperately wanted victory for their compatriot, but feared the worst seeing how good Otis played,” one commentator wrote. And it was precisely then, at the end of a night in which De Oro had not scored more than three caroms consecutively, that the old champion stepped up to the table and scored one, two, three and four. The block was over — final score 50-49, De Oro’s favor. In the ensuing chaos, with crowd members rushing the stage, one man screamed “pico criollo!” translated roughly as the “got stung by the local boy.” Otis and the referee found themselves shielding the table from the celebratory Cubans to ensure the balls would remain undisturbed for the following night. “Never have I felt greater happiness — I wanted to repay the warmth of my paisanos,” De Oro said afterwards. “What for me was the most difficult shot? That would be the (last) one, the carom that gave me victory.” DAY 2
Otis began the second night on fire, scoring three caroms in the first inning, two in the second, and another two in the fifth. But soon the Cuban champion again was pouring on the gas, connecting with a series of four in the eighth, two consecutive fours in the 13th and 14th, a two in the 15th and a three in the 18th. De Oro closed out the block with a fine massé shot, struck so hard that it looked as if the balls might fly off the table. In the end, it wasn’t even close. Final score: 100-90, De Oro’s favor. The second night’s play was faster, with De Oro finishing in 74 innings. “Now I have a comfortable lead,” he said. DAY 3
The final night did not begin well for the Brooklyn challenger. De Oro had two runs of three, a four, a five and a six — all within the first 20 innings. Otis had a couple of twos, a three and very many zeroes. By about the midway
Under a diagram of his last shot, Otis defended his decision in Billiards Magazine.
point Otis was trailing 131 to 108, a 23point spread — the biggest yet seen in the match. And time was running out. To win now, Otis would have to score more than two caroms for each single carom by De Oro. And it was precisely then, when Otis’ needed it most, that De Oro’s game abandoned him. The Cuban champion scored two caroms in the 41st, and then went scoreless for the next six innings.
Otis, meanwhile, scored five points during the interval. De Oro then followed a single carom in the 48th inning with a devastating stretch of 20 innings in which he failed to score at all. The wall of zeros began in the 49th and did not end until the 68th. It was a terrifying, disheartening collapse for the champion. And so Otis slowly mounted his comeback, scoring repeatedly, including two difficult series of threes. In the 77th
January 2011
Jan11 UntoldStories.indd 37
BILLIARDS DIGEST
37
12/14/10 3:38:44 PM
U N T O L D S T O R I E S: A L F R E D O D E O R O Otis tied De Oro at 143. This was too much for the crowd to bear. De Oro’s 23-point lead had completely evaporated. Otis said he had never witnessed such hysteria during what is ordinarily a dignified sport. He said it was bedlam after every shot. For a few innings more the lead seesawed. De Oro managed a one, a two and a one in quick succession. Otis managed a series of ones. During the 81st inning, after completing a series of two, De Oro arrived on the hill. But he could not finish Otis, who trailed by just three. The champion spent the next several innings firing and missing, firing and missing. De Oro apparently had lost his nerve. And then came the 88th inning, the most fateful of the match. After a series of horrific misses, Otis approached the table. He surveyed the positions. He thought for a moment. He shot. He scored. And then he scored again. And again. The crowd held its breath. Otis remained at the table cue in hand, just one carom away from the world title. The Brooklyn native pondered a bit more, mapped out a trajectory that would re-
De Oro’s return to Cuba left him forlorn.
quire a large dose of English, bent over … and he missed. De Oro jumped to his feet and won the championship. UT WHILE the Havana championship was over, the story for De Oro, sadly, was not. That he finally managed to eke out a victory after such a dramatic collapse had set tongues wagging in Havana. Then came the AP
B
Bulk Up Your Profits with
Bulk subscriptions to Billiards Digest can be tailored to your needs. The standard bulk subscription — 10 copies of each issue — is only $225 per year.
SUBSCRIBE TODAY! (312) 341-1110 • WWW.BILLIARDSDIGEST.COM
Jan11 UntoldStories.indd 38
dispatch. The reporter (who apparently had not been in attendance on the final night) speculated that Otis had intentionally selected the incorrect final shot so as not to embarrass De Oro before his countrymen. The dispatch was presumably read by millions of sports fans worldwide. Otis, a longtime friend of De Oro’s, insisted afterwards that nothing was further from the truth. He said the supposedly “correct” five-rail shot cited by the AP was so difficult that he had offered fans in Havana 20-1 odds that it could not be made. “I consider it an injustice to a man who succeeded in overcoming a lead of 23 points on the final night of play to be charged with giving up the winning points,” he declared to one reporter. But the story gained currency — especially in Havana, where fans had noted that the two competitors were obviously on quite friendly terms. Some thought too friendly, with fans in Havana whispering that the Cuban champion might actually have joined forces with his opponent. And it was this judgment, finally, that broke the old Cuban’s heart. “There was a great sadness in his look,” wrote one newspaper man, who had interviewed De Oro during his final day in Cuba. He said the old champion felt as if his countrymen had judged him unfairly. “I have been playing professionally for 25 years and my conduct in billiards has always been honorable,” De Oro told El Mundo. “In New York, I have wealthy friends who play at my side without any sort of reserve or fear (that I might cheat them). I understand that it was incorrect of me to come with Otis, to stay in the same hotel with him as a friend, even though we were going to battle for the championship. But I believed that my reputation of integrity would have been enough to put me above suspicion.” A dejected De Oro even turned the question directly on his interviewer, asking somewhat desperately whether he too shared the public’s low opinion of him. It’s unclear how the reporter responded. But among De Oro’s last recorded words in Havana were these: “If I go very sad from my country, it’s because I love it so.” R.A. Dyer is the author of “The Hustler & The Champ” and “Hustler Days.” Find his pool history blog at untoldstoriesbilliardshistory.blogspot.com
12/14/10 3:38:52 PM
2 010 S T E V E M I Z E R A K C H A M P I O N S H I P
NOT SOON ENOUGH
Surviving a premature celebration two racks from victory, Earl Strickland polished off the Steve Mizerak Championship — his biggest singles title in eight years. Story by Nicholas Leider
Photos by Mike Fieldhammer
N HIS way through what he’d hoped was the final rack of the Steve Mizerak Championship, Earl Strickland tried to stay focused. He tried to ignore the thoughts that came creeping up from the back of his mind. But he couldn’t help it. He thought of how much he’d been through since the 2002 World Pool Championship. He thought of his health struggles, and that he’d finally gotten back to a point where he could claim to feel good again. He thought of his alwaysexplosive game and how it had become more erratic in past years than he’d ever seen during his decades of dominance in the back end of the 20th century. So when he dropped that 10 ball for what appeared to be a 9-6 win over Shawn Putnam in the 2010 Seminole Pro Tour’s season finale, he let go. “Finally! I did it!” he screamed, cue over his head and eyes aflame. But when he turned to offer Putnam a consolatory handshake, he learned he wasn’t done yet; the championship final was an extended race to 11. The wait that had stretched to eight years wasn’t over yet — but it wasn’t going to last much longer, and Strickland closed out the set (for good),11-6. “When I won the tournament, all the preparation, all the things I had to go, all of that ran through ran through my mind,” he said. “It was amazing. It really was. Earl the Pearl, the game’s most electrifying — and controversial — personality of the last 25 years, was back on top. And he has no intention of going anywhere just yet. “It was never a case of somebody
O
Among a younger generation of talented stars, Strickland rose to the occasion.
telling me that they’re going to get me back,” he said. “It was up to me. I wanted it, and I still want it. I’m aiming to be No. 1 again and I think I can do it.” Quick to forewarn the game’s current elite (many of whom were pres-
ent at the Mizerak Championship, held Nov. 4-7 in Hollywood, Fla.), the 49-year-old Hall of Famer was equally aware that the road that lead to his most recent triumph was rather circuitous and sometimes rocky — something unsurprising with an individual January 2011
Jan11 MizerakChamp.indd 39
BILLIARDS DIGEST
39
12/15/10 1:45:39 PM
2 010 S T E V E M I Z E R A K C H A M P I O N S H I P
Putnam (above) pleaded for a break in the final, but Strickland closed the door.
as polarizing as Strickland. As surprising as his run to the 2002 world title at 41 years old, within two years Strickland was netting a modest total of just $17,000 in tournament winnings, thanks to a handful of regional wins and a few respectable but uninspiring finishes in major events. All the while, Strickland’s health deteriorated alongside his game. An avid runner, he was forced to closet the jogging shoes when doctors found that he had kidney stones. Complications only increased when a bladder stone went undiscovered for two years, leaving Strickland at a loss for an explanation for his ill health. With the stone removed in late 2009, he was on his way back to full health. “When they took that thing out, life changed a lot,” he said. “I could run. I could exercise. I felt like I was at where I was 20 years ago.” Physically able to resume training, Strickland still had a long way to go on the table. While his earnings tapered off in the middle of last decade, Strickland
40
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 MizerakChamp.indd 40
“WHEN I WON, ALL THE PREPARATION, ALL THE THINGS I HAD TO GO THROUGH, ALL OF THAT RAN THROUGH MY MIND. IT WAS AMAZING. IT REALLY WAS.” - E A RL ST RICK L A ND always had the Mosconi Cup to count on. He always had that international stage to show he still had it. But with successive defeats to the Europeans in 2007 and 2008, the latter an all out 11-5 European drubbing, the 13-time member of Team USA was dumped for the 2009 contest, which America won in its first Cup as an underdog.
Vocal about plans to play himself back onto the Mosconi Cup squad, Strickland started 2010 with a bang by winning the U.S. Bar Table 8-Ball title. The win was a step in the right direction, but not the major he long coveted. For that, he’d have to wait for November’s Steve Mizerak 10-Ball Championship. The Seminole Pro Tour’s season finale, the Mizerak boasted an impressive $50,000 in added money, which attracted plenty of top American talent, as well as the usual Europeans, such as Appleton, Mika Immonen, Ralf Souquet and Thorsten Hohmann. In the Miami area prior to the event, Strickland was tinkering with his game and clearing racks at a local poolhall when he hit on something. Adding a six-inch, six-ounce extension to his playing cue for a shot that stretched him over the table, he left the addition on as a bit of a lark, just to see what results he’d get. As it turned out, the cue ball became especially obedient, spinning and rolling and stopping as Strickland ordered. “So the cue’s up to 23 ounces and 64 inches long,” he said. “It’s ridiculous, off the charts. It felt like a heavy piece of lumber. But I was shooting some shots that had left me, some shots I couldn’t be as accurate with because I’m getting older.” The results were immediate. When Strickland rolled into the Seminole Hard Rock Casino, he rolled over Mike Barbagallo, 9-2, and then bombed Rodney Morris, 9-2. With another 9-2 win over Pierre Palmari, Strickland then faced Mika Immonen, the reigning two-time Player of the Year who has had Strickland’s number of late. “I think he’s beat me about 10 in a row,” Strickland said of Immonen. “Good God, he’s beaten me every way you can — slapped me upside the head, kicked me, just beat me good.” But this time around, Strickland returned the favor, advancing with a 9-6 win that matched him against Appleton, just a week removed from his U.S. Open victory. As the Brit made a late move to climb on the hill, 8-6, Strickland thought he recognized this story line from previous events. “When I snookered myself on an easy out [for a 7-6 lead],” he said, “I figured that was it. I’d lose that one and then Mika or somebody was going to take
January 2011
12/15/10 1:45:48 PM
me out on the losers side.” But he the won a few safety battles and took the next three racks to edge Appleton, perhaps the best player in the world at that moment, in thrilling fashion. He followed that up with a 9-5 victory over Shawn Putnam to take the hot-seat, where Strickland sat just a single set away from making his comeback official with a major title. While Strickland awaited the finalist, Immonen rebounded from his earlier loss by ousting Corey Deuel, 9-6, while Appleton outlasted Thorsten Hohmann by the same count to move into the fourth-place game. In a rematch of the U.S. Open hot-seat match, Appleton again prevailed, 9-4. But Putnam quickly eliminated Appleton, 9-5, for the final’s second seat. In what was scheduled as a race to 11, the final opened with both players struggling to find a rhythm. Putnam inched ahead, taking small leads at 4-3, 5-4 and 6-5. But Strickland then made his move. After knotting the match after clearing a dry break from Putnam, he then took the next two for the 8-6 lead that put him, at least he believed,
Jan11 MizerakChamp.indd 41
Appleton dropped sets to both finalists.
within a 10 ball of victory. Then he took his ninth rack of the set, and Strickland went into his premature celebration.
“I’m running the ninth rack and I keep telling myself, Don’t over amp. Don’t amp up. I’m kind of talking to myself,” he said. “I run out perfectly and start to celebrate and nobody else makes a peep. So I just thought, These guys are a little dry not to celebrate.” After a few laughs with his fellow pros sitting table-side, Strickland regrouped and quickly put any thought of a letdown to rest. He cleaned up the next two tables for the 11-6 victory. The long wait was over. It wasn’t another world championship, but it was confirmation that he’s still capable of matching (and beating) the game’s best. “It felt good to get out there and shoot without dogging it,” Strickland said. “As you get a little older, there’s no way to get rid of your nerves. You’re just not that strong.” While the years will eventually catch up, Strickland isn’t ready to admit defeat just yet. “I’m going to be on these guys like a cheap suit,” he said. “If I stay healthy, I’ll be a difficult guy to deal with for a long time, a long time.”
12/15/10 1:45:59 PM
CHRONICLES
IT’S ALL IN THE LOCATION POSITION PLAY DEVELOPED MUCH MORE SLOWLY THAN YOU MIGHT EXPECT.
M
42
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 Chronicles.indd 42
Fig. 1: Smith’s 2010 book is the most recent treatment of 3-C position play.
that the concept has even been used in popular ads. Fig. 2 shows one by Young & Rubicam, itself an advertising agency. The text starts with this truism: “A good billiard player cues his ball with two objectives in mind — of making the immediate shot, and of being in good position for the next.” In billiards, there has always been a big difference between what was known and what was written. For most players, the poolroom was the schoolroom, and the game was learned by practice and observation of better players. Printed instruction has always lagged behind, in some cases by many decades. The very earliest writings on billiards surprisingly dealt with safety, but not with other forms of position play. This is true even though the first forms of billiard were played on six-pocket tables and pure carom games didn’t evolve until the 1800s. Possibly the reason not to discuss position is that until the cue tip was invented (in the early 1800s), it
would have been difficult to execute all but the simplest of position shots. The dominant game in the mid-1800s was English billiards and its American cousin, American four-ball. English billiards was played with three balls, the American game four. Both were on a six-pocket table. The first hints about position play did not appear until 1849 in a book by Edward Mardon. He wrote, “A great beauty of the game of billiards, full of interest, demonstrating its sterling and valuable qualities, consists in being enabled to work a promising break of the balls to the greatest advantage; and this can only be accomplished by the aid of judicious strengths, leaving the balls, after scoring, in such position that another and another score will be made. … The finished billiard player is he that never makes a score without placing his own ball in such a position that will lead him to expect another, and seeing, in his ‘mind’s eye,’ the produce of many strokes in advance. This is called playing with good strengths.” The last 250 pages of the book are devoted to an account of a game to 500 points played by Mardon against a Mr. Porker. Mardon won, 500-496. If he hadn’t, the book probably wouldn’t have been written. Mardon describes one of the earliest repetitive positions, called the “spot-stroke” (Fig. 3). The red ball is on a spot, which in English billiards is much closer to the rail than the foot spot is on an American table. When the red is pocketed in English billiards, it is respotted at the end of the shot. The idea of the spot-stroke is to position the cue ball so the same or a similar shot results. This is not completely trivial. It is sometimes necessary to follow through the red ball (say from 1) to obtain the mirror-image position (at 2) after the ball is respotted. At other times (going from 6 to 7 to 8) the cushion must be used. Try this setup on a pool table and
IMAGES COURTESY OF THE BILLIARD ARCHIVE.
ANY GOOD things come in the mail. One that arrived last month was a terrific new book by Bill Smith, a longtime fixture on the U.S. three-cushion scene. It’s called “The Concise Book of Position Play” (Fig. 1), and its 261 pages are packed with systems and ideas on how to make shots while relocating the first object ball to a place where another shot can be made with high probability. The book is the culmination of a lifetime of experience. We know this because Bill has revealed for the first time some of his most closely held secrets. How secret? When the late Walt Harris came out with his four-volume series “The Billiard Atlas of Systems and Techniques,” he was particularly careful not to give away Bill’s methods. On page 140 of the first volume, Walt wrote: “Billy Smith has a complete system for across-thetable shots and it works. I swore an oath not to reveal it, since he gives lessons. … If you wish more information, see Billy.” It’s no longer necessary to “see Billy,” because his book now reveals the entire system. All this got me to thinking about the history of position play in various games, not just three-cushion. It seems obvious that the objective in each game — pool, billiards and snooker — is to make a shot and leave the balls in a place from which another shot can be made, and so forth. That’s certainly a good idea, but it’s far from clear how to accomplish it, and the techniques necessary are different in different games, and their histories are distinct. You would think that the earliest books on billiards would deal with position extensively, but they don’t. The situation was worst in straight pool — the ultimate positional pocket game — for which there was really no source of information on position until 1973. Position in billiards is so important
By Mike Shamos
January 2011
12/14/10 3:28:09 PM
see how easy it is to lose control of the balls. The spot-stroke was so successful that it led to runs in the hundreds, and it had to be stopped. A rule was instituted in the mid-v1880s preventing a player from scoring on consecutive shots with the red ball on the spot. This was called the “spot-barred game” and explains the following pun in a line from W. S. Gilbert’s The Mikado, written in 1885: “The billiard sharp who any one catches/ His doom’s extremely hard/ He’s made to dwell/ In a dungeon cell/ On a spot that’s always barred.” The spot-stroke is really a form of difficult nurse in which the objective is to achieve a repeating configuration. It doesn’t exhibit the qualities of true position play, in which either multiple-ball planning is required (as in pool) or the object ball is repositioned accurately (as in caroms). The situation in the U.S. was quite different from that in England. Our most popular games were American fourball, which faded out during the 1870s, straight-rail, which came into its own in that decade, and pool, which really took off during the 1880s. Because fourball declined, techniques like the spotstroke never developed here. Carom billiards, also called “French caroms,” was played with three balls on a pocketless table. Points could only be made by caroms; that is, having the player’s cue ball strike the other two. In that game, it is of utmost importance to control not only the cue ball, but also the first object ball. In pool, by contrast, the first object ball enters a pocket and stays down, so the player does not have to worry about where it might end up. Caroms became the primary game in France during the 1840s, and by the 1850s there were already textbooks showing positions shots (called “gather shots,” since the object was to gather
Fig. 2: Everyone knows the importance of position, including this advertising agency.
all three balls together). An early work, “Principles of the Game of Billiards,” by Frenchman Claudius Berger, devoted 27 pages to gather shots in 1855. Fig. 4 shows a typical Berger diagram. The objective is to get all three balls to clump together in the circle after making a carom. The red ball has to be hit hard enough to knock it down the table and back up again, while just creeping over to the white ball so it doesn’t move very far. In the pocket games (except Cowboy!) there are no repetitive positions. Once a ball is legally pocketed, it stays down,
so no repeat is possible. Thus positions like the “spot-stroke” don’t arise at all. The sparse history of position play in pool is surprising, given its importance. The first books in the U.S. barely mention it. Michael Phelan’s 1850 “Billiards Without a Master” has no discussion of position at all. His 1859 “Game of Billiards” scarcely has more. That one does advise that “The really scientific player will never permit himself to be led astray by the mere certainty and ease of making one successful stroke, into a position from which no further benefit can be expected; he will either
Fig. 3 (left): The “spot-stroke” was one of the first repetitive positions in English billiards; Fig. 4: Berger covered gather shots in 1855.
January 2011
Jan11 Chronicles.indd 43
BILLIARDS DIGEST
43
12/14/10 3:28:16 PM
CHRONICLES forego all present gain to himself, in order to diminish the chances of a greater gain to his adversary or even attempt a more difficult play, from which it is likely some more favorable break may ensue. The thorough master of the game is he who never makes a count without leaving the balls in a position from which another count may be reasonably expected.” It was nice for Phelan to say that, but he doesn’t really explain how to accomplish it, other than on a shot-by-shot basis. There is no notion of strategy or multi-shot planning, except in his discussion of caroms. After 1880, the four-ball game, which combined pocket and carom styles, was finished and two separate forms, pocket games and carom games, split apart. They both advanced simultaneously but independently, and the positional techniques of one were of little use in the other. Position play in caroms became highly developed, probably because only three balls had to be considered. The finest carom position book of the era was Maurice Daly’s 1913 “Daly’s Billiard Book,” which was almost entirely devoted to gather shots and nursing. On the pocket side, straight pool was invented in 1911, and high runs increased rapidly, reaching 200 (by Frank Taberski) by 1921. With runs like that, there was obviously a great deal of positional knowledge floating around, but it couldn’t be found in any book or article. There was great drought in pool publishing in the U.S. during the 20th century. Virtually no books on pool technique were published for 50 years, despite the game’s massive popularity. In 1948, Willie Mosconi came out with “Willie Mosconi on Pocket Billiards.” The official high run record in straight pool at that time was 309, set in 1939 by Irving Crane and tied by Mosconi in 1945. During the 1940s, straight pool was completely dominated by exactly five professionals. Mosconi, Crane, Jimmy Caras, Andrew Ponzi and Erwin Rudolph were the only players to win the world title during that decade, and all are in the Hall of Fame. The title was up for grabs 16 times during the 1940s. Rudolph and Caras won once each, Crane twice, Ponzi three times and Mosconi nine. (Ralph Greenleaf was not much of a factor after the 1930s.) You don’t win that many titles and run 309 balls without knowing a lot about position, so expectations must have been high that when Mosconi’s book appeared long-held secrets would be revealed. The reality was disappointing. On page 77 the book finally gets around to mentioning position: “When the player gets the cue ball down within the foot-half of the table (near the rack) and has one or several open shots, he is ready to play position. If some of the balls are still clustered, he must maneuver around until he can use one of his open shots for a break ball.” The next few pages are devoted to explaining how to select and preserve a break ball in various situations. The topic ends as follows: “If the player practices shots such as these until he has mastered them, he will have solved the most important secret of high runs.” It’s true that you have to be able to create and make break shots to put together a high run, but Mosconi didn’t provide any clue how to play position on the 14 balls needed to get to the break shot. Things did not improve in Mosconi’s 1965 “Winning Pocket Billiards.” No additional information was given on position play, but 18 pages of trick shots were added. Players who wanted to learn without enduring endless time in the poolhall
44
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 Chronicles.indd 44
Fig. 5: Capelle shows how to run the initial balls in straight pool.
Fig. 6: Capelle’s map of pockets used by straight-pool pros.
January 2011
12/14/10 3:28:22 PM
Fig. 7: A recommended position shot from Eddie Robin in 1979.
Fig. 8: Bill Smith’s advice on the same position in 2010.
Fig. 9: Smith’s previously secret cross-table system.
were stymied. There was simply nothing they could read that would help. By position play we’re not just talking about how hard to hit the cue ball and what English to use to make it stop in a particular place. That’s not hard to do after a few months of practice. The issue is which shot to take and how to plan a sequence of shots that will eliminate problems in a rack, such as clusters. In 1973, Johnny Holiday began issuing a series of books on position play that would eventually run to three volumes. They were privately printed and difficult to obtain. The titles are “Position Play for Hi-Runs,” “Encyclopedia of Pocket Billiards,” and “Continuous Hi-Runs.” Not above self-promotion, Holiday referred to himself as “America’s most controversial writer” and “America’s most knowledgeable instructor.” The cover of his last book announced that “Holiday scores again.” Despite these exaggerations, his books were just about the first to deal with patterns in straight pool.
In 1977 our own George Fels came out with “Mastering Pool” through Chicago-based Contemporary Books, a major publisher. It deals with position in straight pool, 8-ball and 9-ball. By page 24, Fels reveals more about position than Mosconi wrote in his whole lifetime. George is still at it. His “Tips & Shafts” column in August 2010 tells more about straight-pool position in one page than you will find in any single page ever published. In 1978, Robert Byrne wrote “Byrne’s Standard Book of Pool and Billiards,” and the position floodgates opened. Virtually every instructional book after that has dedicated a significant section (as it must) to position play. Phil Capelle’s “Play Your Best Straight Pool” (2001) concentrates largely on “pattern play,” which is the art of planning how to run an entire rack. This can result in some involved diagramming, as shown in Fig. 5. You might also be interested in Capelle’s study of the percentage of time each pocket was used during his review of 2,000 shots by leading straight-pool professionals (Fig. 6). Now it’s time to finish up the three-cushion story. That game is so difficult that even making one point is an accomplishment, and the extra effort involved in trying to achieve a good leave at the same time can jeopardize a score. The game grew steadily in importance from 1878 until 1907, when a formal championship was established. After that, it began to crowd out balkline and stood as an equal to straight pool until Willie Hoppe retired in 1952. Even so, almost nothing was written about position play, aside from some elementary comments about the usefulness of dropping the first object ball into a corner, until Eddie Robin’s monumental “Position Play in Three Cushion Billiards” in 1979. Eddie was U.S. Champion in 1972 and 1979. It’s not that these ideas weren’t known, but no one before Robin had been willing to organize them into broad principles and commit them to writing. You’ll find it interesting that Robin and Smith have different ideas on how to play the very same shot. Robin’s methods favor positions in which one or more balls are near the center of the table. He observes correctly that this gives the player more choices of how to play a shot. For example, in Fig. 7, Robin recommends relocating the first object ball to the center of the table. Doing this is not easy, since you have to hit thin and compensate by elevating the cue and using a fair amount of draw. Smith takes a different view. He likes positioning an object ball near a long rail. So on the same shot he suggests the stroke in Fig. 8. The object ball is struck more fully, with follow and slight right English to drop the first object ball near the center of the long rail. I’ll close by showing you the system that Walt Harris promised not to reveal. Take a look at the cross-table shot in Fig. 9. Smith’s system tells you what English to use on the cue ball to make the shot and leave a good position. What do the numbers next to the diamonds mean, especially that strange “12” lurking at the top right corner? And how do you use them in the calculation? For that information, you’ll have to order Smith’s book (and accompanying DVD) by contacting him at mr3cushion@live.com. Do that and watch your average climb. Mike Shamos is Curator of The Billiard Archive, a non-profit foundation set up to preserve billiard history. January 2011
Jan11 Chronicles.indd 45
BILLIARDS DIGEST
45
12/14/10 3:28:27 PM
TOURNAMENTS
DECIDING IT’S TIME
Hohmann reigns over All Japan; Wagner wins WPBA Amateur title from left.
fresh perspective paid off. The event kicked off with a doubleelimination phase to determine the final 32 players, at which time play switched to single elimination. Hohmann avoided an early defeat against a Japanese qualifier by turning a 5-0 deficit into a 9-7 victory. He then edged Tomoo Takano, 9-7, to earn a spot in the final 32. In the one-and-done rounds, Hohmann only grew stronger as the field dwindled. He coasted into
mer World Junior Champion Ko Pin-Yi, raised plenty of eyebrows with his impressive march into the final set. Just two months after playing his MIND OVER matter, deciding to sucfirst tournament outside of Taiwan, Ko ceed, the open door of opportunity. worked his way into the Whatever you want to call it, professionround of 32 without inal pool players walk a mental tightrope cident. He then outthat requires the perfect balance of posilasted Filipino Rontive thoughts tempered with realistic exnie Alcano in the pectations. In fields that balloon up to a round of 16 by an few hundred, one pro player cannot and 11-10 count, bewill not win every tournament fore edging coun(despite Mika Immonen’s valtryman Fu Cheiant effort in 2008 and 2009.) Wei, 11-9, in the As in baseball, where premier quarterfinal round. hitters fail 70 percent of the A match from the time, coming up short is a fact final, the youngster of life in pool. then had to deal with So what happens when a Immonen, who won the All player just decides he is not goJapan title in 2008. Again, Ko ing to lose, that this time he is found himself in a tight spot absolutely certain he’s going to against a highly regarded opwin? In the case of Thorsten ponent — and again he esHohmann at the 2010 All Japan caped, this time with another Championships, it worked out hill-hill victory. pretty well. Ko’s Cinderella story came Entering the 128-player event to an end in the final, though. held in Amagasaki, Japan, Hohmann dominated from the 31-year-old German had a the onset, taking command of change in perspective. Despite the match and extending his the field being full of Asia’s lead to 10-2. But Ko showed best with Hohmann, Mika Imwhat brought him into his monen and Ralf Souquet repfirst major final by taking the resenting Europe, Hohmann next six racks. But down just ditched the as-long-as-I-playtwo racks, Ko scratched on well mantra for something a his break, giving Hohmann little more aggressive. the opportunity to close out On his blog, the 31-year-old Hohmann and Lin (top right) prevailed among Asia’s finest. the match. wrote, “Before coming to the “I have to admit that winAll Japan Championship this year, I had the semifinals with three rather lopsided ning the All Japan Championships has only one thing on my mind, ‘I don’t [care] results, the last being an 11-2 thumping been a big dream and goal for myself about luck and how well others are playof the powerful Filipino Jeffrey De Luna. since I started coming here almost ten ing against me. I am going to win this In the final four, he ousted Japanese risyears ago,” Hohmann said. “I learned a tournament. Nobody can stop me.’” ing star Yukio Akagariyama, 11-6, for a lot about myself in the past few weeks Entering the All Japan event, Hohmspot in the final. and have never felt better with my equipann had a string of top finishes, includWhile Hohmann was anything but a ment.” ing at the World Tournament of 14.1 long shot to make the final, his oppoIn the women’s 64-player division, (third), the U.S. Open (ninth) and Steve nent was another story. Ko Pin-Chung, meanwhile, Lin Hsiao-Chi made some Mizerak Championships (fifth). But the the 14-year-old younger brother of foramends for the Taiwanese contingent. All Japan Championships Alcaic Hall Nov. 22-28; Amagasaki, Japan
TAKAYAMA TAKAO-WWW.ONTHEHILL.JP
46
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 Tourneys.indd 46
January 2011
12/14/10 3:22:25 PM
WPBA
TOTAL POINTS
RANKINGS
WPBA TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP
WPBA ATLANTA CLASSIC
WPBA U.S. OPEN
SAN DIEGO CLASSIC
NIAGARA, N.Y. Dec. 2010 $98,000
DULUTH, GA. Oct. 2010 $75,720
NORMAN, OKLA. Aug. 2010 $89,100
ALPINE, CALIF. March 2010 $89,100
HOLLYWOOD, FLA. Nov. 2009 $98,000
LINCOLN CITY, ORE. Oct. 2009 $89,100
TOTAL MONEY 2010
1 (20000)
5 (10000)
9 (8000)
1 (20000)
1 (20000)
$17,025
WPBA TOUR PACIFIC COAST CHAMPIONSHIP CLASSIC
1
Jasmin Ouschan
83000
17 (5000)
2
Xiaoting Pan
78000
1 (20000)
9 (8000)
9 (8000)
3 (12000)
2 (15000)
2 (15000)
$19,375
3
Karen Corr
74000
2 (15000)
5 (10000)
2 (15000)
3 (12000)
5 (10000)
3 (12000)
$21,830
3 (12000)
5 (10000)
1 (20000)
5 (9000)
9 (7000)
5 (9000)
$22,430
4
Ga Young Kim
67000
5
Gerda Hofstatter
59000
9 (7000)
9 (7000)
5 (10000)
1 (20000)
17 (5000)
5 (10000)
$19,125
6
Allison Fisher
58000
5 (10000)
5 (10000)
9 (8000)
9 (8000)
5 (10000)
3 (12000)
$9,130
7
Kelly Fisher
54000
17 (5000)
3 (11000)
9 (8000)
5 (10000)
3 (12000)
9 (8000)
$10,580
8
Vivian Villarreal
46000
9 (7000)
17 (5000)
3 (12000)
17 (5000)
5 (10000)
9 (7000)
$9,560
9
Monica Webb
45000
9 (8000)
2 (15000)
9 (7000)
9 (7000)
17 (5000)
25 (3000)
$12,400
10
Line Kjorsvik
42000
17 (5000)
5 (9000)
25 (3000)
9 (8000)
9 (7000)
5 (10000)
$6,855
11
Kyoko Sone
40000
17 (5000)
9 (8000)
5 (9000)
9 (7000)
9 (8000)
25 (3000)
$8,000
12
Melissa Little
39000
9 (8000)
17 (5000)
9 (7000)
9 (7000)
9 (7000)
17 (5000)
$7,060
13
Kim Shaw
36000
-
3 (12000)
5 (9000)
25 (3000)
17 (5000)
9 (7000)
$8,355
14
Julie Kelly
36000
5 (10000)
17 (5000)
3 (11000)
33 (2000)
25 (3000)
17 (5000)
$9,460
15
Liz Ford
29000
33 (2000)
9 (7000)
25 (3000)
9 (7000)
17 (5000)
17 (5000)
$5,325
16
Helena Thornfeldt
28000
9 (7000)
9 (7000)
33 (2000)
17 (5000)
33 (2000)
17 (5000)
$5,525
17
Jeanette Lee
27000
9 (7000)
-
-
5 (9000)
3 (11000)
-
$4,700
18
Sarah Rousey
25500
9 (7000)
-
33 (2000)
5 (9000)
49 (500)
9 (7000)
$5,300
19
Tracie Majors
25000
-
25 (3000)
17 (5000)
17 (5000)
5 (10000)
33 (2000)
$3,880
20
Tamara Rademakers
25000
33 (2000)
9 (7000)
17 (5000)
33 (2000)
9 (7000)
33 (2000)
$4,325
WPBA RANKINGS REFLECT A CONTINUOUS SIX-TOURNAMENT CYCLE.
AMERICAN POOLPLAYERS ASSOCIATION
The Asian 9-ball champion, Lin braved another tough field of her continent’s best. She moved into the semifinal round with a pair of 9-6 wins over Japan’s Sayuri Kaneko and Taiwan’s Tsai PeiChen, this year’s Amway Cup champ. Lin then trounced Chihiro Kawahara, 9-3, to move into the final opposite Japan’s Keiko Yukawa. Again, Lin jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. She closed out her first major international title, 9-4.
AMATEUR HOUR: CHEN, LINARES TOPS IN TAMPA APA U.S. Amateur Championships Strokers Billiards Nov. 5-7; Tampa, Fla.
WITH THREE former champions in the women’s division at the U.S. Amateur Championship, organized and promoted by the American Poolplayers Association, it wasn’t much of a stretch to think that two of them would eventual-
Chen claimed national title No. 2.
ly run into each other. After all, the trio had the experience — and they couldn’t hide from one another for too long in a 30-player double-elimination bracket. But the showdown happened a little quicker than anyone could have
guessed. In the first round of the women’s championship — held Nov. 5-7 at Strokers Billiards in Tampa, Fla. — reigning champion Betty Lea squared off with 2008 winner Amy Chen. From the start, Lea looked sure of advancing, as she won two of the first three games of 8-ball. (Each match featured a mix of both 8-ball and 9-ball.) She then took the first two racks of 9-ball to get on the hill, 4-1. But Chen roared back, winning the next four games to take an improbable 5-4 victory, sending Lea to the left just one match into her title defense. While Chen kept rolling through the winners side, Lea was bounced out of the event by Stephanie Mitchell in the next round, 5-2. After a 5-2 win over Diane Bainbridge, Chen then ran into the only other former champ, Tina Larsen, who won the event in both 2003 and 2007. Chen rolled past Larsen, 5-2, and then Dana Aft, 5-1, to take a spot in the hot-seat match opposite Kelly Cavanaugh of Or-
January 2011
Jan11 Tourneys.indd 47
BILLIARDS DIGEST
47
12/14/10 3:22:32 PM
POWER INDEX BD
WORLD 10-BALL CHAMPS.
TOTAL POINTS
U.S. OPEN 9-BALL OCTOBER 2008 TOURNAMENT FACTOR: 1.14 PLACE (POINTS)
OCTOBER 2008 TOURNAMENT FACTOR: 1.20 PLACE (POINTS)
PREDATOR INT’L 10-BALL
GALVESTON WORLD 10-BALL
MAY 2009 TOURNAMENT FACTOR: 1.10 PLACE (POINTS)
SEPTEMBER 2009 TOURNAMENT FACTOR: 1.01 PLACE (POINTS)
Mika Immonen
991
5 (78)
1 (160)
17 (36)
1 (141)
2
Darren Appleton
607
1 (168)
25 (34)
17 (36)
-
25 (34)
3
Ralf Souquet
606
9 (54)
17 (40)
2 (132)
-
2 (134)
4
Lee Vann Corteza
592
-
7 (68)
33 (28)
25 (30)
4 (90)
5
Johnny Archer
560
65 (15)
4 (91)
5 (72)
5 (71)
9 (56)
6
Warren Kiamco
547
-
3 (103)
3 (99)
2 (121)
-
7
Charlie Williams
491
5 (78)
25 (34)
5 (72)
33 (25)
13 (45)
8
Franc. Bustamante
487
-
9 (51)
-
4 (80)
-
9
Shane Van Boening
486
9 (54)
17 (40)
33 (28)
5 (71)
9 (56)
10
Corey Deuel
480
33 (27)
5 (74)
9 (50)
9 (51)
17 (39)
11
Dennis Orcollo
475
-
-
1 (154)
25 (30)
-
12
Rodney Morris
442
-
5 (74)
9 (50)
25 (30)
5 (78)
1 (157)
13
Ronnie Alcano
387
-
2 (137)
-
13 (40)
65 (17)
14
Thorsten Hohmann
339
65 (15)
7 (68)
17 (36)
-
49 (22)
15
David Alcaide
330
17 (42)
-
9 (50)
-
-
16
Daryl Peach
297
17 (42)
9 (51)
17 (36)
-
65 (17)
17
Imran Majid
293
33 (27)
25 (34)
5 (72)
-
9 (56)
18
Niels Feijen
273
3 (120)
65 (17)
49 (22)
-
25 (34)
19
Stevie Moore
273
33 (27)
33 (29)
17 (36)
17 (35)
7 (67)
20
Kuo Po-Cheng
265
65 (15)
-
-
-
-
21
Karl Boyes
260
-
-
5 (72)
-
7 (67)
22
Mike Dechaine
259
-
25 (34)
-
3 (101)
13 (45)
23
Antonion Lining
245
-
-
-
-
-
24
Oliver Ortmann
244
33 (27)
-
9 (50)
-
129 (0)
AMERICAN POOLPLAYERS ASSOCIATION
JOE RATKE
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 Tourneys.indd 48
OCTOBER 2009 TOURNAMENT FACTOR: 1.12 PLACE (POINTS)
1
lando, Fla. Chen took a seat in the final by a 5-3 score. Cavanaugh then ousted Aft, 5-3, for a second shot at Chen in the single-set race-to-9 final. While Chen controlled the 8-ball portion of the event, winning four of five, Cavanaugh responded by taking the first five games of 9-ball. The two then traded racks until both sat on the hill, 8-8. With the championship on the line, Chen worked her way into position for a 3-9 combo, Linares finished a strong 2010 year in style. which she drained to join Larsen as the into the final with a 7-2 victory. Parks only two-time winner in the women’s then crashed out in third place, as Dadivision. vid Rowell ended the champ’s repeat With the victory, Chen earned a paid bid, 7-4. spot in the 2011 WPBA U.S. Open. Linares opened the final by taking In the men’s division, Raymond Linfour of the first five racks of 9-ball. ares shook off any pre-tournament He still held a three-game advantage, nerves with a string of easy victories to 8-5, when the two switched to 8-ball. start his march through the 128-player Rowell took the first two racks to close bracket. He conceded only six games in within a game, but Linares extended his first four matches, which were races his lead and climbed on the hill, 10-7. to 7, then won a pair of 7-5 decisions Drilling a tricky long angle on the 8 ball against Daniel Gambill and Scott Rutin the next rack, Linares clinched the tinger to move into the hot-seat match. U.S. Amateur Championship with a fist Facing the reigning champion Brian pump after a long road to the title. Parks, the 23-year-old Linares eased “I knew if I brought my game and
48
U.S. OPEN 9-BALL
played up to the level I know how to play, it wouldn’t matter who I played,” he said. “It would just be a matter of staying composed and staying in the moment. I felt like I did a good job at that.” Linares, who won the 2010 ACUI Collegiate Championship earlier in the year, has earned a paid spot in the 2011 U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship in Chesapeake, Va.
WAGNER REBOUNDS, TOPS WPBA AMATEURS FROM LEFT WPBA Amateur Nationals Wynkoop Brewery Nov. 19-21; Denver, Colo.
BY THE time Rebecca Wagner made it to the final of the WPBA Amateur Nationals — held Nov. 19-21 at the Wynkoop Brewery in Denver — she had overcome plenty of obstacles in one pool tournament. So when she faced an opponent on the hill with an 8-4 lead, it couldn’t have seemed totally impossible that she could take the next six racks for the title.
January 2011
12/14/10 3:23:04 PM
WORLD 10-BALL CHAMPS.
WORLD POOL MASTERS
OCTOBER 2009 TOURNAMENT FACTOR: 1.2 PLACE (POINTS)
MAY 2010 TOURNAMENT FACTOR: 1.05 PLACE (POINTS)
U.S. OPEN 10-BALL MAY 2010 TOURNAMENT FACTOR: 1.1 PLACE (POINTS)
WORLD 9-BALL CHMPS. JULY 2010 TOURNAMENT FACTOR: 1.25 PLACE (POINTS)
U.S. OPEN 9-BALL OCTOBER 2010 TOURNAMENT FACTOR: 1.2 PLACE (POINTS)
TOP
Finishers
1 (168)
33 (26)
5 (77)
33 (28)
3 (120)
5 (78)
17 (34)
9 (55)
97 (0)
1 (168)
17 (39)
5 (68)
17 (39)
33 (28)
7 (72)
2 (144)
33 (26)
1 (140)
33 (28)
49 (24)
33 (27)
17 (34)
25 (33)
3 (113)
13 (48)
5 (78)
-
17 (39)
-
4 (96)
33 (27)
5 (68)
7 (66)
33 (28)
13 (48)
STEVE MIZERAK CHAMP.
-
33 (26)
4 (88)
1 (175)
9 (60)
97 (0)
33 (26)
3 (110)
17 (41)
9 (60)
33 (27)
49 (21)
49 (22)
65 (19)
2 (144)
9 (54)
1 (147)
13 (44)
33 (28)
65 (18)
-
9 (47)
7 (66)
65 (19)
7 (72)
33 (27)
49 (21)
33 (28)
5 (81)
25 (36)
17 (39)
9 (47)
25 (33)
65 (19)
9 (60)
3 (108)
49 (21)
97 (0)
33 (28)
5 (84)
9 (54)
9 (47)
65 (17)
97 (0)
33 (30)
Hollywood, Fla. + Nov. 4-7 1. Earl Strickland $20,000 2. Shawn Putnam $11,000 3. Darren Appleton $8,000 4. Mika Immonen $5,000 5. (tie) Corey Deuel, Thorsten Hohmann $4,000 7. (tie) Tony Crosby, Dennis Hatch $3,000 9. (tie) Charlie Williams, Mike Dechaine, Pierre Palmieri, Donny Mills $1,900
17 (39)
33 (26)
33 (28)
97 (0)
97 (0)
33 (27)
17 (34)
-
65 (19)
-
65 (15)
17 (34)
-
-
33 (30)
33 (27)
17 (34)
17 (39)
2 (150)
-
33 (27)
17 (34)
65 (17)
65 (19)
49 (24)
-
-
9 (55)
-
49 (24)
3 (108)
-
-
3 (113)
49 (24)
33 (27)
3 (95)
65 (17)
33 (28)
-
Wagner took the trophy from the left.
Before she faced that dire situation, Wagner overcame some early turbulence. Losing her opening match to Sunny Griffin, the Las Vegas resident took the longest possible route to the championship via the one-loss side.
Wagner rolled through her first five opponents without incident. But the next two matches went hill-hill, with Wagner on the right side of the 7-6 decisions against Jaqui Herrera Schroeder and Samm Diep. Two more victories — these two a little easier, topping Angela Jackson, 7-1, and Tammie Jones, 7-3 — and Wagner was in the left-side final against Griffin, who ran to the hot-seat match after the first-round win over Wagner, where she was shutout by Betty Lea. Wagner quickly took her revenge on Griffin and advanced to the final with a 7-2 victory. But against Lea in the extended race-to-9 championship, Wagner’s run of 10 straight wins looked to be all but over when she was facing the four-rack deficit. But Wagner received a bit of fortune by kicking the 9 in to knot the match at 8-8. In the case game, she then got out of line on the clincher, but with a growing sense of invincibility, banked the winner into the corner pocket for the title. With the win, Wagner took the $1,000 top prize and will receive paid entry into the 2011 WPBA U.S. Open.
WPBA TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP Niagara, N.Y. + Dec. 2-5 1. Xiaoting Pan $10,500 2. Karen Corr $6,400 3. (tie) Brittany Bryant, Ga Young Kim $4,200 5. (tie) Jennifer Chen, Mary Rakin, Julie Kelly, Ga Young Kim $2,500
WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPS. Reno, Nev. + Nov. 29-Dec. 1 Boys’ Division: 1. Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz 2. Jesse Engel 3. Ruslan Chinakhov 4. Manuel Ederer Girls’ Division: 1. Brittany Bryant 2. Briana Miller 3. Anastasia Nechaeva 4. Natalia Seroshtan
ALL JAPAN CHAMPIONSHIPS Amagasaki, Japan + Nov. 22-28 Men’s: 1. Thorsten Hohmann $23,784 2. Ko Ping-Chung $11,892 3. Yukio Akagariyama, Mika Immonen $5,946 Women’s: 1. Lin Hsiao-Chi $7,135 2. Yukawa Keiko $3,567 3. Chihiro Kawahara, Maki Kimura $1,783
APA U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPS. Tampa, Fla. + Nov. 5-7 Men’s: 1. Raymond Linares 2. David Rowell 3. Brian Parks Women’s: 1. Rebecca Wagner 2. Betty Lea 3. Sunny Griffin
WPBA AMATEUR NATIONALS Denver, Colo. + Nov. 19-21 1. Rebecca Wagner $1,000 2. Betty Sessions $700 3. Sunny Griffin $500
January 2011
Jan11 Tourneys.indd 49
BILLIARDS DIGEST
49
12/14/10 3:23:10 PM
BD’S MONTHLY WRAP OF REGIONAL TOUR ACTION
Emmons Nabs W WITH NO chance of catching Nick Deleon, the top-ranked player on the Desert Classic Tour, Dennis Orender, No. 2 in points, still notched a small victory at the season finale, held Dec. 3-5 at Bullshooters in Phoenix. Orender, who’s also the DCT tour director, sent Deleon west in the winners-side semifinal, before edging Peter Lhotka, 8-7, for the hot-seat. On the left side, Bobby Emmons caught a gear, eliminating Deleon in fourth place and trouncing Lhotka, 8-1, for a spot in the final. In the true double-elimination match, he continued his hot shooting with a 8-4 first-set victory. Orender put up more of a fight in the second race, but again came up short, as Emmons closed out the 2010 season with an 8-6 victory that propelled him into fifth on the final points list.
Desert Classic Tour Bullshooters Dec. 3-5 + Phoenix, Ariz. 1st: Bobby Emmons $1,570 2nd: Dennis Orender $1,000 3rd: Peter Lhotka $700 4th: Nick Deleon $450
Williams Prevails in CWPT Finale Canadian Women’s Tour Shooter’s Nov. 13-14 + North York, Ont. 1st: Naomi Williams $610 2nd: Brittany Bryant $460 3rd: Sharlene Watkison $305 4th: Denise Belanger $150
Williams first sent Bryant to the one-loss side in the hot-seat match. But Bryant, the 2010 WPA World Junior Champion (see Williams went two for two on the CWPT in ’10. story, pg. 30), quickly ousted FOR A number of years, Naomi WilSharlene Watkinson in the third-place liams has been one of the most feared match for a second shot at Williams. players on the Canadian Women’s Pool In the true double-elimination final, Tour. Not that that has changed recentBryant erased a three-game deficit in ly, it’s just that her visits to the CWPT the first set for an 8-6 win that forced are less frequent. a decisive second race to 8. But once In 2010, Williams appeared only once again, Bryant fell behind Williams ear— an unbeaten run to a title in the ly on. Williams got on the hill, 7-4, by tour’s March season debut — before pocketing four balls on the break and this year’s grand finale. In November’s clearing the remaining five. After Bryevent, Williams then closed out the ant erred on the 8 ball in the next rack, year as is opened, with her taking top Williams sank the 8 and then took the honors, this time with a tight two-set title with a thrilling cross-corner bank victory over rising star Brittany Bryant. on the 9.
Fresh Faces Berber, Knight Win First Poison Crowns wins over Crosby, 7-3; Kennedy, 7-5; John DiToro, 7-6; and finally Fujiwara, 7-4. While Berber moved onto the final, Fujiwara faced Anthony Meglino, who rattled off four straight victories on the left side after an earlier loss to Richard Broumpton. Meglino, though, had no answers in the left-side final. Fujiwara whitewashed him, 6-0, for a spot in the final. But Berber proved too much, as he took his first Poison Pool Tour Berber (right) edged Fujiwara for his first Poison title. title with a 7-4 win. WITH HEAVY hitters such as Mike DaIn the amateur division, Richard Knight vis, Tommy Kennedy and Neil Fujiwara in and Mike Fieldhammer squared off in the the field of the Poison Pool Tour’s open dihot-seat match. Fieldhammer was the first vision, the odds of a new champion taking to the hill, inching within a rack of victory the title seemed rather low. But Han Berat 6-3. But Knight took the next three to ber proved that he was more than capable knot the match at six apiece. Knight apof hanging with more notable names. He peared set to run out, but erred on the 9 cruised to the hot-seat with a string of in the side pocket. Fieldhammer cleaned
50
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 T-Spotting.indd 50
Poison Pool Tour Ultimate Billiards Nov. 13 + Tampa, Fla. Pro Division 1st: Han Berber $570 2nd: Neil Fujiwara $400 3rd: Anthony Meglino $300 Open Division 1st: Richard Knight $550 2nd: Mike Fieldhammer $400 3rd: Wesley White $300
up and advanced to the final. Knight rebounded with a 5-0 drubbing of Wesley White to earn a rematch with Fieldhammer. The final was a modified single set, with a one-rack shootout deciding the winner if Knight (coming from the one-loss side) prevailed in the race to 7. He did just that, forcing sudden death by a count of 7-4. He then polished off the extra rack for his first tour title.
January 2011
12/14/10 3:48:50 PM
PRESENTED BY
HIS WASN’T what you’d call an idyllic childhood. At the age of 10, Shane McMinn of Tulsa, Okla., was removed from school by his father, who told school officials that he would be homeschooling the boy. Recently separated, his father was struggling financially. Poker was a source of income for him, and he’d bring Shane along to the poolhalls where the games were being played. Shane picked up a cue, and it wasn’t long before his skill was trumping Dad’s variable luck at the poker table, not to mention the critical earnings that each represented. “I started playing when I was 9,” McMinn recalled, “but I didn’t start playing seriously until I was about 11, when my dad lost his job.” He demonstrated a natural gift for the game as a youngster, and they’d come from miles around to take him on, stakehorses backing him all the way. He thrived on the unimaginable, combined pressures of playing with someone else’s money and having the outcome potentially determine where his family’s next meal was coming from. To this day, according to Evelyn Dysart, tournament director of the Midwest 9-Ball Tour on which McMinn plays, he continues to win more tournaments from the one-loss side than from the winners’ side. He considers his ability to play under that kind of pressure to be his primary strength. “That’s exactly right,” he said, “because back in the day, when I was in the poolhalls with my dad, I had to win.” At the age of 12, he traveled to Toledo, Ohio, for the Billiard Congress of America’s Junior Nationals, placing fifth in the 14-and-under division. Three years later, in 1998, his third year at the BCA Junior Nationals, McMinn won his first of four straight titles. The next three (’99, ’00
Jan11 T-Spotting.indd 51
MIKE FIELDHAMMER
McMinn Blazes Own Path on Tournament Trail In July 2007, he announced his return with a $22,000 win at a 10-ball ring game at Shooters, in Olathe, Kan. By the end of the following year, he had placed among the top 10 in 11 of the 13 events he’d entered, including two wins on the Midwest 9-Ball Tour. He then won the 2009 Galveston World Classic’s amateur 8-ball event, and, this year, three events on the Midwest 9-Ball Tour. “He’s been excelling faster than the rating system has allowed,” said Kathy McMinn, his sister-in-law and tournament director at Magoo’s in Tulsa. “He went from a ‘4’ to a ‘10’ in about nine months. Just this past week, I changed the system [to accommodate a ‘12’ rating] to make it [more challenging] for him to win.” Shane now lives with his brother, Shad, and Kathy, both of whom are committed to helping him take his pool game as far as possible. “He’s got a natural gift,” Kathy said, “and we’ve taken him in to give him the full freedom to take his game to the next level. He hasn’t really had the opportunity to compete at the higher levels and we’re hoping that this opens up those opportunities for him.” Is it, though, a career path? “As far as I know, it is,” he said. From his unenviable beginnings to his currently receiving strong support from his immediate family, it’s been a rocky road, one that he’s not encouraging anyone to follow. “I would avoid it at all costs,” he said. — Skip Maloney
Tulsa’s McMinn hopes to hit more major events.
and ’01) were won in the 18-and-under division in his hometown of Tulsa. After his first championship at the Junior Nationals, in a quest for what he called a “normal life,” he went back to school, entering the eighth grade. Having not received any of the home schooling that his father had intended to initiate, there was some question as to whether he could catch up. By the following year, though, those questions were put to rest when he made the rolls of the National Honor Society. It proved to be a shortlived return, however, because by the time he got to be 16, school was getting in the way of his attendance at pool tournaments. He quit a second time, successfully opting for a GED diploma, and went back to the tables. The unexpected death of his father in 2004 led to some conflicting emotions — and a long-term hiatus from pool. He didn’t drop out altogether, but for the next two years, he ditched the tournament circuit for mundane poolhall work.
12/14/10 3:48:28 PM
TOUR RANKINGS (AS OF 12/8/10) Bay Area Amateur Tour AREA: Tampa Bay, Fla. TOUR DIRECTOR:
Stephanie Mitchell CONTACT: baat@live.com WEB: www.baattour.com
1. Niki Rasmussen 980 2. Jessica Barnes 880 3. Kelly Cavanaugh 845 4. Stephanie Mitchell 655 5. Chris Fields 605 6. Rachel Delaney 595 7. Sabra MacArthur Beahn 540 8. Jamie Toennies 505 9. Deanna Foster 485 10. Valerie Dukick 480
Desert Classic Tour AREA: Ariz. DIRECTOR: Dennis Orender CONTACT: info@desertclassic
tour.com WEB: www.desertclassic
tour.com 1. Nick Deleon 895 2. Dennis Orender 790 3. Tony Confalone 740 4. Pete Lhotka 655 5. Tres Kane 545 6. Bobby Emmons 525 7. Chris Paradowski 495 8. Gus Briseno 455 9. Mitch Ellerman 385 10. Susan Williams 340
EuroTour AREA: Europe TOUR DIRECTOR: Gre Leenders CONTACT: info@eurotour.nu WEB: www.eurotour.nu
1. Karl Boyes 2,620 2. Chris Melling 2,390 3. Nick van den Berg 2,360 4. Daryl Peach 2,210 5. Mark Gray 2,200 6. Niels Feijen 2,150 7. Stephan Cohen 2,025 8. Craig Osbourne 1,965 9. Bruno Muratore 1,945 10. Huidji See 1,945
Flamingo Billiards Tour AREA: Fla. DIRECTOR: Mimi McAndrews WEB: www.flamingobilliards
tour.com 1. Helene Caukin 920 2. Jessica Barnes 740 3. Stephanie Mitchell 735 4. Niki Rasmussen 670 5. Kelly Cavanaugh 580 6. Melissa Durkin 570 7. Mimi McAndrews 545 8. Christie Cloke 515 9. Barbara Ellis 500 10. JoAnn Mason Parker 490
JPNEWT AREA: N.Y., N.J., Pa. DIRECTOR: Mimi McAndrews WEB: www.jpnewt.com
52
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 TSRanks.indd 52
My-Hanh Lac is within reach of the JPNEWT’s top spot.
1. Megan Smith 994 2. Briana Miller 700 3. Neslihan Gurel 565 4. Linda Shea 555 5. Kim Jones 485 6. My-Hanh Lac 435 7. Shanna Lewis 400 8. Borana Andoni 330 9. Ji-hyun Park 310 10. Denise Reeve 305
KwikFire Tour AREA: N.C. TOUR DIRECTOR: Kim Shaw WEB: www.kwikfiretour.com
1. Kelly Fisher 4,440 2. Allison Fisher 3,245 3. Kim Shaw 1,755 4. Gerda Hofstatter 1,570 5. Holly Sholes 1,505 6. Katie Cowan 1,465 7. Monica Webb 1,350 8. Lisa Davids 1,215 9. Line Kjorsvik 1,080 10. Belinda Calhoun 1,050
2. Gina Kim 540 3. Briana Miller 450 4. Supadra Geronimo 360 5. Yomaylin Feliz 350 6. Linda Cheung 300 7. Megan Smith 300 8. My-Hanh Lac 300 9. Dawn Hopkins 370 10. Denis Reeve 270
Lone Star Tour
NW Women’s Pool Assn.
AREA: Texas DIRECTOR: Kim White WEB: www.lonestar
AREA: Ore., Wash. TOUR DIRECTOR: Tamré Geené-
billiardstour.com MEN’S DIVISION
1. Charlie Bryant 2,100 2. Sylver Ochoa 1,425 3. Ernesto Bayaua 1,100 4. David Gutierrez 1,025 5. James Davis Jr. 850 6. Andy Jethwa 675 7. Derek Fontenot 600 8. Doug Young 600 9. John Newsome 575 10. Jeremy Jones 500
Rogers WEB: www.nwpatour.com 1. Jana Montour 1,020 2. Liz Cole 805 3. June Maiers 720 4. Kimberly Kirk 510 5. Jackie Karol 505 6. Shelby Locati 505 7. Cindy Sliva 455 8. Mary Hopkin 380 9. Mikki Small 375 10. Suzanne Smith 375
WOMEN’S DIVISION
OB Cues Ladies 9-Ball
1. Ming Ng 2,175 2. Terry Petrosino 1,625 3. Kyu Yi 1,500 4. Courtney Peters 1,200 5. Loretta Lundgren 1,185 6. Ricky Casper 1,085 7. Belinda Lee 1,025 8. Teresa Garland 850 9. Robyn Petrosino 825 10. Kim Pierce 825
AREA: Texas, Okla. TOUR DIRECTOR: Julie Stephenson WEB: www.obcuestour.com
Mezz Pro-Am Tour AREA: Pa., N.Y., N.J. TOUR DIRECTOR: Jose Burgos WEB: www.mezztour.com OPEN DIVISION
1. Josh Brothers 7,140 2. Matt Krah 5,380 3. Eddie Abraham 3,205 4. Adam Kielar 3,070 5. Joey Testa 2,685 6. Mike Miller 2,490 7. Shaun Dobson 2,190 8. Victor Nau 2,010 9. Dominic Noe 1,965 10. Bruce Nagle 1,890 WOMEN’S DIVISION
1. Caroline Pao 750
1. Lisa Marr 1,230 2. Jennifer Kraber 1,115 3. Amanda Lampert 855 4. Ashley Nandrasy 705 5. Tara Williams 695 6. Orietta Strickland 595 7. Michelle Cortez 520 8. Melinda Bailey 430 9. Julie Stephenson 410 10. Lisa Henderson-Major 400
Poison Pool Tour AREA: Fla. TOUR DIRECTOR: Natalie Crosby WEB: www.uspoisontour.com AMATEUR DIVISION
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Mike Delawder 575 George Saunders 505 Bill Stoll 480 Eddie Wheat 460 Wesley White 430 Jimmy Sandaler 400 Chip Dickerson 385 Dan Dennis 385 Louis Altes 385
10. Lincoln Seiffert 355 OPEN DIVISION
1. Tony Crosby 870 2. Mike Davis 720 3. Tommy Kennedy 700 4. Justin Hall 570 5. Louis Altes 470 6. Mike Delawder 440 7. Julio Aquino 355 8. Wesley White 340 9. Han Berber 330 10. Dave Ross 320
Seminole Pro Tour AREA: Fla., N.C., Ga., N.Y. TOUR DIRECTOR: Gerry Mayen WEB: www.seminolesports
management.com 1. Corey Deuel 730 2. Stevie Moore 550 3. Rodney Morris 505 4. Mike Davis 440 5. Hunter Lombardo 360 6. Donny Mills 360 7. Johnny Archer 355 8. Tommy Kennedy 350 9. Mike Dechaine 315 10. Charlie Williams 310
Tri-State Tour AREA: N.Y., N.J., Conn. TOUR DIRECTOR: John Leyman WEB: www.thetristatetour.com A DIVISION
1. Daniel Dagotbot 315 2. Scott Simonetti 240 3. Geoffrey Bauer 185 4. Daniel Cintron 150 5. Mike Gasper 145 6. Mike Panzarella 125 7. Peter Ziemak 70 8. Wilson Cruz 95 9. Adam Kosmin 85 10. Stewart Warnock 75 WOMEN’S DIVISION
1. Yomaylin Feliz 355 2. Sandie Patarino 195 3. Rhio Anne Flores 90 4. Gail Glazebrook 85 5. Tran Tran 75 6. Debra Prichett 60 7. Neslihan Gurel 25 8. Gina Kim-Lipsky 25 9. Karen Freire 20 10. Borana Andoni 15
January 2011
12/13/10 4:40:37 PM
560114md005.indd 53
12/20/10 3:23:42 PM
MARKETPLACE
OSCAR’S BILLIARD CLUB Almost under the Golden Dome in South Bend, In— Owner retiring. Selected as the 4th Best New Billiard Club in America this presents a Unique opportunity to operate your own first class bar and billiard club. 10 Connelly tables, furniture, fixtures, EVERYTHING. Turn key opportunity. Full 4 way liquor license for 7 day operation. In house leagues. Walking distance to Notre Dame, could be great nightclub. See www.oscarsbilliardclub.com. • 574-344-1867
$150,000
Brunswick Pool Table Sale Open to the public and dealers New in the box, discountinued models with prices too low to print. 8’ Prestige in Mahogany or Oak 9’ Prestige in Mahogany 8/9’ Esquire in Honey or Maple 8’ Marquette 8/9’ Orleans in Mahogany 8/9’ Windsor in Dark Walnut
Call 1-800-940-2837
marketplaceJAN11.indd 54
12/14/10 2:52:01 PM
WHEREVER YOU GO, YOU'LL FIND BILLIARDS DIGEST... Next to the finest in billiards play & products.
ALASKA
DELAWARE
MICHIGAN
SHOOTERS BILLIARD PARLOR 749 W. PARKS HWY. WASILLA, AK
FIRST STATE BILLIARDS 10 MAGGIE’S WAY DOVER, DE
ALL STATE DARTS & BILLIARDS 14349 TELEGRAPH RD. REDFORD, MI
MINNESOTA BILLIARDS 3020 MINNESOTA DRIVE #3 ANCHORAGE, AK
FLORIDA
SHARPS BILLIARDS 11888-2 KENAI SPUR HWY. KENAI, AK
ARIZONA VALENTINE SPAS 4490 N. STOCKTON HILL RD. KINGMAN, AZ
ARKANSAS JONES BROS. POOL TABLES 309 W. BROADWAY ST. NORTH LITTLE ROCK, AR
CALIFORNIA
DORAL BILLIARDS 7800 NW 25TH ST. MIAMI, FL STARCADE BILLIARDS, INC. 34 EGLIN PARKWAY FORT WALTON BEACH, FL
DOC’S BOHEMIAN CUE, INC. 8465 PLAZA BLVD. SPRING LAKE PARK, MN
NEVADA
KUE & KAROM BILLIARD SALES 1860 NORTHGATE BLVD. SARASOTA, FL
BILLIARD FACTORY OF NEVADA 7250 W. WASHINGTON #180 LAS VEGAS, NV
ILLINOIS
NEW JERSEY
CHRIS’S BILLIARDS 4637 N. MILWAUKEE AVE. CHICAGO, IL CITY POOL HALL 640 W. HUBBARD ST. CHICAGO, IL
OLHAUSEN GAME ROOMS INC. 5620-B KEARNY MESA. SAN DIEGO, CA
DIXIE BILLIARD EQUIPMENT 15407 S. CICERO AVE. OAK FOREST, IL
THE BROKEN RACK 6005 SHELLMOUND ST. EMERYVILLE, CA
INDIANA CUE & BILLIARD SHOWCASE 3439 N. SHADELAND AVE. INDIANAPOLIS, IN
KENTUCKY
PHILA-AMERICAN SHUFFLEBOARD CO. 200 W. CLINTON AVE. OAKLYN, NJ ONE SHOT BILLIARDS 1713 ROUTE 27 SOUTH SOMERSET, NJ COMET BILLIARDS 233 LITTLETON RD. PARSIPPANY, NJ
RACK ’EM BILLIARDS 40 N. RIVERSIDE AVE. MEDFORD, OR
PENNSYLVANIA TACONY PRO SHOP 6201 KEYSTONE ST. PHILADELPHIA, PA ROYAL BILLIARDS 2622 BETHLEHEM PIKE HATFIELD, PA
CHARLESTON BILLIARDS AND CUE CO. 7685 NORTHWOODS BLVD. CHARLESTON, SC
TEXAS A-TEX FAMILY FUN CENTER 8700 BURNET ROAD AUSTIN, TX
VIRGINIA
NEW YORK
DIAMOND’S BILLIARD 13184 MIDLOTHIAN TRPK. MIDLOTHIAN, VA
GOTHAM CITY BILLIARD CLUB 93 AVENUE U BROOKLYN, NY
THE PLAYING FIELD 7801 W. BROAD ST. RICHMOND, VA
AMSTERDAM BILLIARD CLUB 110 E. 11TH ST. NEW YORK, NY
OBELISK BILLIARD CLUB, INC. 14346 WARWICK BLVD. NEWPORT NEWS, VA
BAY RIDGE BILLIARDS 505 COVINGTON AVE. BROOKLYN, NY
NATIONAL BILLIARD ACADEMY 271 OLD MABRY PL. HILLSVILLE, VA
WASHINGTON
FAMILY BILLIARD 2807 GEARY BLVD. SAN FRANCISCO, CA
PLAZA ARCADE 5511 E SHELBIANA RD. PIKEVILLE, KY
HARD TIMES BILLIARDS 17450 BELLFLOWER BLVD. BELLFLOWER, CA
CUE TIME 532 THREE SPRINGS RD. BOWLING GREEN, KY
COLORADO
LOUISIANA
BACKYARD OUTFITTERS 3098 I-70 BUSINESS LOOP GRAND JUNCTION, CO
STICKS BILLIARDS 3220 JOHNSTON ST. LAFAYETTE, LA
HIPPOS 5160 COMMERCIAL DRIVE EAST YORKVILLE, NY
CONNECTICUT
MAINE
BLUE CUBE BILLIARDS & LOUNGE 150 BOSTON POST RD. ORANGE, CT
SCHEMENGEE’S BILLIARDS 15 LINCOLN ST. LOEWISTON, ME
NORTH CAROLINA
BOSTON BILLIARD CLUB 20 BACKUS AVE. DANBURY, CT
OREGON
SOUTH CAROLINA
SHORELINE BILLIARDS 1400 N. SHORELINE BLVD. STE# C-1 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA
DANNY K’S BILLIARDS 1096 MAIN ST. ORANGE, CA
MINNESOTA
Q-SPOT BILLIARDS 6149 E. 31ST ST. TULSA, OK
DOT’S CUE CLUB 2460 N. RALEIGH ST. ROCKY MOUNT, NC
MARYLAND
OKLAHOMA
CHARLIE’S PRO SHOP 2401-G NORTH POINT BLVD. BALTIMORE, MD
ONE BILLIARDS 1022 E. LANSING AVE. BROKEN ARROW, OK
SURE SHOT BILLIARDS & DARTS 5510 W. CLEARWATER AVE. KENNEWICK, WA
CANADA DOUBLE D COMPANY 4 MCGIVERN ST. WEST WALKERTON, ON
January 2011
Jan11 Resellers.indd 55
BILLIARDS DIGEST
55
12/13/10 3:31:50 PM
From Publisher Mike Panozzo Tips &the Shafts George Fels
JONESING W
E ALL know, by now, just how insidious
a pool jones can really be. Simply put, when ya gotta have it, ya just gotta have it. But what happens when you’re cut off from it? When I was in the Army, I actually went AWOL once just to shoot pool. I had lasted five weeks without touching a cue, I was gone for only 90 minutes, the post I deserted was an extremely lowly one (Barracks Orderly. Latrine duty is messier and smells far worse, but at least it gives you something to do; I’m one of those guys who has to have something to do), and I had to go no farther than the free-standing poolroom on the post (Ft. Leonard Wood, MO). Got away with it, too. I’ve always been about four-fifths nuts. But the 20% that yet remains unto me is, in my view anyway, still worth knowing. The other time my pool jones kicked into overdrive was in March of 1974. The date wouldn’t matter much, except that America was in the distressing throes of the worst gasoline shortage on record. I was in Winter Park, Colo., to help produce a snowmobile commercial I had written. Our lodge was considered to have one of the finest beginners’ ski courses in the country; in fact, they were so proud of that that they didn’t offer much else, not even TV. At night, everyone was expected to sit around the fireplace, or bar, and drink and swap skiing stories until they were totally blitzed and ready for bed by default. The place did have a steambath, and since I’m not much of a drinker and don’t ski at all, I sat in that steambath for two solid nights in a rich mixture of boredom and dehydration. On the second night, Colorado got many, many inches of snow. During the night, a skunk crawled under the lodge seeking warmth from the unexpected storm, and died when none was found. Before passing, the poor creature announced, in its customary way, that it was just seriously pissed about the whole damn thing. My eyes watered all night as I slept. The next day, our shoot was postponed (you can’t snowmobile on fresh powder). The whole crew took skiing lessons in the morning and skied all afternoon, and I’ll admit I enjoyed it a lot more than I ever thought I would. But I had been reliably told there was a three-table poolhall in nearby Idaho Falls, at the base of the mountain, and even wobbling down that hill at what I fantasized was warp speed, all I could see were balls and pockets. My pool jones was sounding off raucously again. That night, I asked for the company car, explaining, “I can’t do another night of steambath and skunk. I’ll crack. I’ve gotta hit some balls.” “You’re an idiot,” my boss noted. “That road is really treacherous right now. Plus, there’s not enough gas left to go down the mountain and come back up. What’re you gonna do if you can’t find a gas station down there that
56
BILLIARDS DIGEST
Jan11 Fels.indd 56
actually has any gas?” “The Lord works in mysterious ways,” was the best I could do. My boss, a good Christian, reprised the idiocy concept and gave me the keys. The trip down that mountain could not have been a finer case history in making oneself miserable. The road was indeed slippery, and unlit too; only a puny guide rail stood between my car and an undesirable express route to Idaho Falls. The gas-gauge needle hovered above “E” as daintily as a mother’s lips over her newborn. I rode the brake all the way down — almost no accelerator — and my technique for dealing with all that stress was to concoct wondrously putrid scenarios of doom should I actually run out of gas. What if there were roving escaped convicts? (I casually considered that there were no prisons within 100 miles. Then I comforted myself further that even if a chain gang were wandering around in the cold, their balls-andchains combined with all that snow would likely hinder their mobility, so I could probably outrun them.) What if a bear awoke from hibernation grumpy and hungry and found me? (It was too early in the year for bears, and they always awake in the daytime anyhow. Still, as the Navy SEALs say, “Proper Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance.”) I made the gas station only because it was on a downhill slope away from the mountain; I barely had fumes left, and yes, they did have gas. I wanted to cry almost as badly as I wanted to pee, but settled for the latter. And the poolroom was right where I was told it would be. One of its three tables was still lit, but those players were disassembling their cues. “When do you close, sir?” I asked the counterman, stifling a sob. “About to close right now.” “Oh, nononono,” I murmured intelligently (I think I limited myself to four no’s; it might have been five. Possibly six). I recounted everything I just told you, including the skunk but leaving out the convicts and bears. “You’ve got to let me hit a few balls. A few racks. Twenty minutes. Half an hour.” “Quit begging, son,” he said, and I felt about cue-ball tall. “You’re too old for that. Go ahead and play. I’ll close when you quit.” I didn’t want to take advantage, so I played less than an hour. My best was a run of 25, which drew a grudging “Not bad” from the counter guy. But the generosity or tightness of the pockets, the slowness or swiftness of the cloth, the quality of my play (such as it was), none of any of that mattered. My gas tank was full, my bladder was empty; I was now immune to hardened criminals, bloodthirsty animals or any other predators, because best of all, I got my pool jones fi xed. I tell you, central Colorado is fantastic in early March.
January 2011
12/14/10 2:28:03 PM
560114md003.indd C3
12/14/10 4:12:42 PM
560104md010.indd C4
12/14/10 3:59:06 PM