"Simply the Best": SVB Wins 3rd Consecutive U.S Open

By: Erik Hjorleifson 

The final day at the U.S. Open took place on Sunday and what a day it was. The field was down to 4 players on Sunday with  Shane Van Boening and Nikos Ekonomopolus being the two remaining on the winners side and Dennis Orcollo and Mike Dechaine were left on the losers side to match up in the 4th place match. I was not in attendance for the winners side final and the 4th place match but both matches were one sided affairs. Van Boening advanced undefeated through the winners side with an 11-4 score line and Dechaine went down to Orcollo by a score of 11-2.

In the third place match Ekonomopolous showed his inexperience in the final stages of major international tournaments, making a handful of errors in the first 8 games. From there Orcollo took control with several break and runs and did not give Ekonomoplous much of a chance between the score lines of 5-2 until 9-2. During these games Orcollo was hitting the break very soft at a speed where the wing ball would go near the corner and then get kicked in by another ball.

 I think it was the opposite wing ball coming around 3 rails that was kicking it in but regardless you could tell that he was playing this break and that it was very relative to speed. I have seen this break happen before with the 9 ball racked on the spot. It was nice to see a player attempting to play a consistent break that did not involve manipulating the rack to make the wing ball directly in the corner. 

After Orcollo made a great jump on the 7 when the score was 9-2 he went on to miss the 9. Ekonomopolous made a nice cross bank on the 9 to bring the score to 9-3 but would not be able to manage another game as Orcollo took the win 11-3. Still a very strong showing for the player from Greece, and this should cement his spot on the European Mosconi Cup team, however there are so many champions on the European side that nothing is guaranteed.

This victory for Orcollo would set up a rematch of the winners side semi-finals where Van Boening beat Orcoolo 11-8. Van Boening had been living on the edge all week making large comebacks in two of his victories that ended up in 11-10 wins for him. He was attempting to make history in this final; in the 39 years of the event no player has ever won the title on three consecutive occasions. 

Three other players have won the title back to back in the past: Darren Appleton, Mika Immonen and Nick Varner. Van Boening and Orcollo have been among the most consistent finishers in the last 5 years and the consistency in which they finish near the end or winning all kinds of major tournaments is truly staggering. The two players have played in the final of the U.S. Open before, in 2012 with Van Boening coming out on top 13-7. This was billed as a battle for the ages and did not disappoint.

Both players are a contrast in style, Orcollo has a shorter, faster backstroke and stands about 5 foot 5. Van Boening has a longer fluent backstroke and stands over 6 feet tall. Van Boening also tends to lean more toward the power side of the game where as Orcollo tends to play more of a finesse style. Both players obviously have all the tools that it takes to be a world class player and it is just interesting to watch how they go about it. 

In watching Orcollo today I was particularly impressed by how much action he can get on the cue ball without hitting it very hard. Both players play at a faster pace but not rushed, Orcollo plays a little faster than Van Boening. The match started out with Orcollo taking a 6-3 lead with a few break and runs thrown in. 

At 6-3 Orcollo missed the first ball of the match, a tough thin cut on the 2 ball. Van Boening took advantage and got the score near even. At around 7 all Van Boening pulled off one of many amazing shots in the match, he jumped in a ball using two rests, the shot literally brought the house down! In the next rack Van Boening missed I believe the only ball he missed in the match. Orcollo ran out and took the lead, however he didn't make a ball on the next break. 

The break was really the difference in this match as Orcollo only made a ball on about half the breaks. Van Boening ran out, then went on to break and run two of the next three games to take and 11-8 lead. The two exchanged the next two racks putting Van Boening on the hill at 12 -9. He broke on the hill and pushed out to a jump, Orcollo refused and Van Boening barely missed making the jump attempt. At 12 -10 with Orcollo breaking, he surprisingly failed to execute a legal break. Van Boening had to jump in the 3 ball and make a very tough shot on the 4 with the bridge, but he held his nerve and ran out for the win. WHAT A MATCH and a fitting end to a great week of 9 ball in Chesapeake, Virginia.

Cuesport Nation would like to extend a big congratulations to Van Boening and all the players that threw their hats in the ring this week. We will be back later in the week with some insight on the format changes and the current state of the U.S. Open. Thank you for following along with us this week and we are excited to have now launched our website cuesportnation.com. Stay tuned for some new features that we will be releasing soon. 

U.S Open Day 5: Field Cut down to Final Four

By: Erik Hjorleifson

Today was a very big day at the 39th U.S. Open in Chesapeake, Virginia. The day began with 32 players still in action; 8 were left on the winners side and 24 were left on the losers side. As you would expect the competition was fierce and the best players in the world were once again going head to head. 

On the winners side the biggest long shot left was Ernesto Dominguez. He was up against Francisco Bustamante, who unlike most of the top players was hitting the break with huge power and hitting the rack square. Bustamante is known as one of  the top breakers in the game and this style has worked for him as he advanced with an 11-6 win. 

In the other winners side matches the closest affair was between Nick Ekonomoplous (Greece) and Warren Kiamco (Philippines), in this match Ekonompolous came away with the 11-10 victory. Dennis Orcollo also defeated Mike Dechaine and Shane van Boening moved on with a win over Karl Boyes. In the winners side semi finals Orcollo and Van Boening faced off, arguably two of the best players in the world. This one was close and Van Boening came away with an 11-8 victory. 

The other semi-final match was between dark horse Ekonomopolous and Bustamante. The young player from Greece continued his strong play and advanced to the winners side final against Van Boening. Ekonomoplous has had some strong finishes in Europe but regardless of where he finishes from here this will be his highest finish in a North American event. Tomorrow Van Boening will go after his third U.S. Open in a row, attempting to become the first player to accomplish this feat. Mika Immonen, Darren Appleton and Nick Varner have also won the event twice in a row.

The losers side was packed with good matches. Justin Hall made the longest run on the losers side including notable wins over Alex Pagulayan, Darryl Peach and Karl Boyes. Hall's run was finally ended by Mike Dechaine. A nice bonus for Hall is that after this performance it will be hard to turn him down for the upcoming Mosconi Cup team which will take place in December. Most of the other players that finished near the end came over from losses late in the tournament on the winners side. Waleed Al Hassan from Qatar had some impressive wins with victories over John Scmidt and Earl Strickland, he eventually lost an 11-10 match to Chris Futrell. The tournament is now down to 4 players Dennis Orcollo vs Dechaine on the losers sides and Shan Van Boening vs Nick Ekonomopoulos in the hot-seat match. 

The two remaining Canadians John Morra and Jason Klatt left it all on the table today. Morra started the day off with a nice win over Li He Wen (China) 11-3. His next match was against Darren Apppleton, and this one went right down to the wire. After trailing 6-0 Morra brought it back to 10-10 with him breaking. On the break the balls spread to difficult positions, this allowed Morra to go for a low percentage combo on the  nine, he tried it and missed.

 He left Appleton a very tough carom on the 9 and after studying the shot for a long time he stepped up and made it. Morra finished in 17th place. Jason Klatt had a fantastic day, he started out with a win over current World Champion Neils Feijen and went on to defeat Efren Reyes and Ernesto Dominguez. None of the opponents got past 7 in the race to 11 format. Klatts run came to an end against Warren Kiamco. The match was close in the early going but in the end Kiamco won 7 of the last 8 games not giving Klatt much chance.

To me it is surprising that the Europeans did not have a better showing this year, as they only have 1 player in the final 8. Especially considering that they have more experience in playing in tournaments with the 9 on the spot. I guess the break from the box rule took away this edge in experience as they are used to breaking from the rail. Also in their tournaments they have tapped balls instead of a rack your own format. Tomorrow promises to be another action packed day and you can catch all the action at accu-stats.com.

U.S Open Day 4: SVB 3 Peat Hopes Still Alive

By: Markus Noé

Day 4 is now in the books, and what an action packed day it was. There were several match-ups today that could have easily been played as finals, which is a testament to the talent packed field at this years U.S Open. Many are calling this 126 player field the strongest ever assembled during the 39 year storied history of this event.

In the 10:30 am time slot, Cue Sport Nations own Erik Hjorleifson had a tough match on the 1 loss side against Oscar Dominquez. Hjorleifson who was admittedly in fine form, suffered another close loss 11-9 after losing to Jason Klatt 11-10 the day before. Dominguez celebration was short lived however as he was eliminated in the next round against Imran Majid.

On the Accu-Stats stream, which has provided top quality coverage all week, it was a day of blow outs. The first one I was witnessed was Johnny Archer eliminating Sky Woodward 11-5. This match started off with a fortunate roll for Archer which he pounced on and before you could blink he had Woodward stuck 7-0 down. From there the young talent fought back a bit, but in the end the experience of Archer was too much.

The next match was one that had the attention of all the fans as Dennis Orcollo took on legend Efren Reyes. This had people talking before the match because not only was this a match-up between two of greatest Filipino players to ever hold a cue, but they were both still on the winners side. Unfortunately in this match for Reyes fans, his age showed a bit as a few mental errors combined with a few missed long shots cost him the match 11-5.

Orcollo is off to play one of the only Americans left on the winners side Mike"Fireball" Dechaine. Dechaine defeated Canadian Jason Klatt 11-8 sending him to the 1 loss side, where he joins fellow Canadian John Morra as the last two canucks remaining.

The last streamed match of the day, which could have easily been a final for this tournament, was between Mika Immonen and Niels Feijen. The "Iceman" as Mika is known, was in tough from the start by not getting the rolls early on. Current World Champion Feijen, who does not need any help was never leaving Immonen a shot whether intentional or not. Midway though this set an error on a jump shot by Immonen caused him to hit the table shattering his shaft. Never really regaining his composure in this match he went on to lose 11-7.

While this match was on the stream the crowd could be heard celebrating a 11-10 win for Shane Van Boening. This was the second time the current back to back U.S Open Champion dodged a hill match. He is now in the final 8 of the winners side where he will play Karl Boyes, who beat Darren Appleton 11-1.

Also in the 10:30 pm slot there was an upset of sorts as the recent Turning Stone Champion Jayson Shaw fell to Raj Hundal 11-9 ending his bid for this year. Tomorrow a key match-up will take place on the losers side between Earl Strickland and Waleed Al-hassan who is the best player from Qatar.

Waleed has been turning a lot of heads this year, finishing in quarter-finals of the World Championships and following it up with a deep run at the this years Open.  He got the praise from John Schmidt as he eliminated him 11-2. Come back tomorrow as we will have the results on  what will be an exciting day 5 at the U.S Open.

 Notable Scorlines

EfrenReyes 5 - Dennis Orcollo 11
Rodney Morris 3 - Daryl Peach 11
Sky Woodward 5 -  Johnny Archer 11
Chris Bartram 7 - Earl Strickland 11
Jayson Shaw 9 Raj - Hundal 11 
Albing Ouschan 8 - Jeremy Sossei 11 

US Open Day 3: Klatt Last Canadian On Winners Side

By: Erik Hjorleifson 

Day 3 is now in the books at the 39th annual U.S. Open 9 ball championships in Chesapeake, Virginia. Today was a big day for winners side matches as we went from 64 players to 16 players left on the winners side by the end of the day.  There was also some losers side matches today and some parts of the bracket are in the final 64 stage and some parts of the brackets are in the final 96 stage. 

Starting off the day Earl Strickland was up against Dang Jinhu (China). Earl fell behind to an early 4-1 deficit but took control from there and advanced with an 11-5 win. At this point in the tournament, Strickland looked very strong and he is once again proving to be a threat to win any tournament he enters. 

In the next round Strickland would face The winner of Robb Saez and Shane Van Boening. At one point in this match Van Boening was down 9-5 but made a great comeback to win 11-10. He would carry on that momentum against Strickland in the next round with an 11-7 victory. There were a lot of close scorelines, here are some winners side matches that went right down to the wire:

Jason Klatt 11 - Erik Hjorleifson 10

Thorsten Hohmann 11 - Li He Wen 10

Chris Futrell 11 - B. Shearer 10

Corey Deuel 11 - Jayson Shaw 10

Mike Dechaine 11 - Jusin Bergman 10

Quan D.H 11 - Johnny Archer 10

Jorge Rodriguez 11 - Skyler Woodward 10

Shane Van Boening 11 - Robb Saez 10

A couple of matches that were one sided were Nick Van Den Berg defeating Mika Immonen 11-2 and Darren Appleton defeating Alex Kazakis 11-4. Of the 16 players remaining on the winners side 5 are American and 5 are European, 3 are Filipino and 3 are from other countries.

 

The 4 remaining Canadians were all in action today; the day started with Jason Klatt vs Erik Hjorleifson. We both played high quality matches with several break and runs each and very few errors. I took the lead 10-6 and after a couple of break and runs and a safety error Jason brought it back to hill hill. I pushed on the break and he left me a tough safety exchange but make-able shot on the 1. Unfortunately I came up short this time and Klatt went on to run out for the win. 

He then went on to defeat Justin Hall 11-8 to book a place in the final 16 on the winners side against Mike Dechaine, best of luck to Jason. John Morra was slotted in the night match against Francisco Bustamante and after an early miss on a tough nine by Morra, Bustamante took control in the middle of the match locking out Morra for 4 games.

It was too much to overcome and Bustamante went on to win 11-6. Morra will await the result of losers side matches and his next match will be at 10 30 pm Thursday. Alex Pagulayan continued his charge on the losers side with a win over Marc Vidal and will have a tough opponent up first tommorow in Ralf Soquet.  

Play will continue all day tomorrow and live streaming will be available at accustats.com 

U.S Open Day 2: Morra Off to Third Round

John Morra, photo by Erik Hjorleifson 

By: Erik Hjorleifson

Day 2 at the U.S. Open 9 ball championships saw the last of the first round winners side matches get underway at 10:30 am. The afternoon rounds were reserved for first round losers side matches which saw many top players pack their bags in this talent packed event. In the late night rounds the schedule shifted gear back to second round winners side matches.

Alex Pagulayan vs Sky Woodward photo by Shawn Beck-Cummings 

The first streamed match of the day saw Alex Pagulayan up against rising star Skyler Woodward. The young Kentucky native has had some major wins in 7 foot tournaments in the past years and was the Derby City Classic banks ring game champion in 2014. The titles have been piling up for Woodward but he is still somewhat of an unknown commodity in 9 foot rotation games. Today he made a statement in the 9 ball world with a big first round win against Pagulayan with an 11-8 scoreline. Also in first round winners side play yesterday morning, tournament favorites Johhny Archer, Earl Strickland and Karl Boyes advanced and Chinas Dang Jinhu advanced in a close 11-10 match with Donnie Mills.

Losers side afternoon action saw some tough match ups with Mosconi Cup hopeful Brandon Shuff going down in defeat against Rodney Morris. Haitao Liu, one of the top players from China defeated young Russian talent Ruslan Chinakov by a score of 11-9 and Adam Smith defeated Filipino star Israel Rota 11-7. Neils Feijen, Tony Drago and Alex Pagulayan advanced on the losers side after first round losses. Canadian Paul Potier lost 11-9 to Mike Delawder and will surely only get stronger in his return to major competitive play after recently taking some time away from the game.

The night session saw second round winners side matches in play and Canadian John Morra was up against American Joe Dupuis, who is a dangerous opponent with many strong finishes in tournaments on the East Coast. Morra played an excellent match missing only 1 ball! He struggled a little on the break but i will definitely tell you that he is not the only player that has not completely mastered the new breaking requirements at this years U.S. Open.

Morra held an early lead 6-2 and 7-3, and after his only miss in the match Dupuis took advantage and brought the score to 7-6 but Morra held strong and finished off the match with an 11-7 win. Other highlights from the late night winners side matches included relative unknown B. Shearer putting up another strong win after defeating Jeremy Jones in the first round. His second victory was against Jeremy Sossei, both scores were 11-10. Ernesto Dominguez also pulled off an upset against Ralf Soquet with an 11-7 win.

Today will be another full day of play. All four Canadian remaining in the tournament will be in action starting off with Klatt vs. Hjorleifson at 10:30 am. John Morra will play his 3rd round winners side match against Franciso Bustamante at 10:30 pm and Alex Pagulayan will continue his losers side run tomorrow as well. Check in tomorrow as Cue Sport Nation will continue with our daily updates throughout the tournament.

US Open Day 1: Klatt, Morra and Hjorleifson Post Wins

                             Klatt vs Schmidt phto by Shawn Beck-Cummings 

By:Erik Hjorleifson

The first break of the 2014 U.S. Open was struck at 10:30 am yesterday morning, kicking off the 39th U.S Open Championship. As opposed to previous U.S. Open's, the overall quality of players entered in this year's field produced a lot of tough first round matches. There were a few cases today that you could consider upsets as far as a higher seeded player losing to a lower seeded player but only one case of a relative unknown beating a seasoned pro. 

That being said the list of casualties today was pretty long including 2014 World 9 Ball champion Neils Feijen, Rodney Morris, Brandon Shuff, Oscar Dominguez, John Schmidt and Ruslan Chinakov just to name a few. Interesting to note that three of the members that are in the running for the Mosconi Cup team have lost in the first round. It will be interesting to see which of these three is able to mount a charge on the losers side, which could be the deciding factor in the final selections.

Here are some notable score lines from day one:

 Max Eberle 11 - Neils Feijen 8

Francisco Bustamante 11 - Nick Malai 9

John Morra 11 -  Raj Hundal 8

Johnathan Pinegar 11 - Oscar Dominguez 9

Alex Kazakis 11 - Rodney Morris 8

Shawn Putnam 11 - Ruslan Chinakov 6

Nick Van Den berg 11 - Steve Moore 6

Kenichi Uchigaki 11 - Brandon Shuff 10

Brad Shearer 11 - Jeremy Jones 10

Oscar vs Pinegar photo by Shawn Beck-Cummings 

The Canadians got off to a very good start on Monday, Jason Klatt and John Morra both had very tough opponents in John Schmidt and Raj Hundal. I watched the first bit of Johns match, both players seemed to be playing very well and it was tied at 4 all in the early going. When I returned Morra had taken the lead 10-5 and eventually closed out the match with a good opening round win against a strong opponent. 

Klatt was up against former U.S. Open champion John Schmidt and Jason played very well to go ahead 9-5. After a routine miss on the 8 Schmidt brought the score back to 9-8 but Klatt regrouped and won the match 11-9. Going into my match I was really confident in my game, my opponent was a local qualifier who plays at a high level. 

It was a combination of things that kept this one close. In summary I am happy with the way I dealt with what was presented to me in this match and I also realize that I will have to improve my play going forward. Paul Potier, Cue Sport Nation instructional contributor, was also in action today and after trailing by a large deficit early on he almost completed a big comeback but was stopped short by an 11-9 scoreline by Michael Yednak. 

Klatt, Morra and myself will have the day off on Tuesday and will resume play Wednesday. Unfortunately Klatt and I have drawn each other on Wednesday and only one will be able to advance on the winners side. Morra will play Joe Dupuis on Tuesday night in the second round and Alex Pagulayan will play his first round match against Skyler Woodward early Tuesday Morning.

So far I have noticed that most players are cutting the break with varied success, the wing ball can still go in sometimes depending on how the balls are racked and they are also trying to make the 1 in the side. The allure for making a consistent ball on the break is big and so it should be, but it is a lot tougher with the new breaking rules. We will see if players end up breaking square by the end of the week. Stay tuned as there will be plenty more to come this week!

U.S Open Begins Today

Accu-Stats T.V table Photo by Big Red 

By: Erik Hjorleifson 

The 39th installment of the U.S. open is upon us meaning the most prestigious american title is once again up for grabs.  This year saw some changes to the format and by all accounts they seem to be well received and are more well suited to the current state of the Open, particularly the size of the venue. Round 1 begins at 10:30 am Monday. 

Since moving away from the Chesapeake Conference Center, the Open went through some growing pains in figuring out how to accommodate the previous field size of 256 players. Competition in the last two years has been overshadowed by crowded playing arenas, poor spectator viewing and have given an overall tainted feel to the storied tournament. 

This year tournament promoter Barry Behrman and tournament director Jay Helfert made the decision to limit the field to 128 players and raise the entry fee to $750 in order to maintain the same prize fund as years past. They have accomplished that goal coming only a few players short of a full field. This has served to make the field more prestigious, and more importantly has once again allowed the tournament to be played all in the same room for the first time since moving away from the Conference Center. This year the tournament features nine diamond tables with one streaming table provided by accu-stats.com. 

The table spacing is not comparable to that of the world championships but they have done the best with the space they have been given. This year they have gone back to the raised spectator stands around all the playing areas that we had become accustom to at the previous venue. At the players meeting you could tell tournament promoter Behrman was once again proud of the venue he has put together for this years event. He also announced major plans for next years 40th anniversary tournament, including corporate sponsorship, and you could just tell by the way he said it that he will do everything in his power to execute this plan.

Players practicing in the Arena photo by Big Red 

I would say that this is one of the strongest U.S Open fields in years, 24 of the top 32 players in the WPA rankings are in attendance and with the shortened field there are very few spots in the draw that are easy. There were 3 last minute entries from China, Dang Jinhu, Wang Can and Li He wen will carry the hopes for the east. Most of the top Europeans are in attendance and as usual the American and Filipino stars are all here to take their shot at the title. There are plenty of tough first round match ups and you can view all the brackets at Azbilliards.

The Canadian contingent this year consists of myself, John Morra, Jason Klatt, Alex Pagulayan and Paul Potier .Here are are the first round match-ups for the Canadian Players:

Mon 2:30    Paul Potier vs Michael Yednak

Mon 6:30    John Morra vs Raj Hundal

Mon 8:30    Erik Hjorleifson vs Eric Moore

Mon 8:30    Jason Klatt vs John Schmidt

Tues             Alex Pagulayan vs Skyler Woodward

As you can tell from this small sample of matches, the field is packed with top players. As always a big factor of success in 9 ball is the break and we will see who will be able to adapt best to the new breaking rules that will see the 9 on the spot and break from the box. We will be back tomorrow with updates and insight from day 1.

Efren Reyes 25k At Smokin' Aces 1 Pocket Event

By: Erik Hjorleifson

 Another great week of action promoted by Smokin' Aces BBQ and Billiards in Poplar Bluff, Missouri has taken place. The room owned by Mike McKuin has been host to some of the biggest prize funds paid out in the U.S. over the past year.  They have been promoting a new style of event that has caught on in the past year, which is  to have monster entry fees open to anybody who is willing to test their skills.

In the past 6 months, Smokin' Aces has successfully run two bar table events carrying a $2000 entry and $20 000 first prize. This time they took on the large task of promoting a $10 000 entry one pocket tournament, again open to anyone willing to throw their hat in the ring. After a few months of promotion they settled on making the entry fee $6000, still to my knowledge the largest entry fee ever attempted in the history of pool.

The tournament received 8 entries and most of the one pocket giants were in attendance. One pocket legend Efren Reyes was in the field as well as one pocket guru Scott Frost. Francisco Bustamante  and Corey Dueul rounded up the more well known entrants. Young guns Chip Compton, Joey Gray and Justin Bergman took their shots along with one pocket specialist Josh Roberts. The action was fierce right from the get go as tournament favorites Frost and Reyes drew each other in the first round of the double knockout race to 7 format.

Reyes began his path to victory with a nail biting 7-6 victory, he advanced to the winners side final against Josh Roberts, who has made a real statements in the past year in the one pocket world. This was highlighted by a win at the $1000 a man one pocket tournament promoted by Big Dogs billiard earlier in the year. On the losers side of the bracket Francisco Bustamante charged all the way back to the final including a hill hill win over Joey Gray.

After defeating Josh Roberts in the 3rd place match, Bustamante set up a final confrontation with his longtime friend Reyes. As expected and as his reputation has preceded him, Reyes took the final in style with a 7 to 1 victory. Reyes' record in one pocket tournaments is second to none, most notably winning the 400+ player one pocket tournament at the Derby City Classic 5 times. I felt like when this tournament was announced, Reyes would be right in the mix and it is encouraging to see that someone at the age of 60 can still win against the best of the best.

I think this new trend of higher entry fees and smaller fields is a very good thing for billiards in the long run. It is producing some very impressive prize funds and I believe it serves as a way to promote the sports best players, who in the past were easily lost in the mix of 200 player fields. In the future we will see if this format can stand up with traditional games like nine footer 9 ball and 10 ball.

Payouts

Efren Reyes $25 000

Francisco Bustamante $15 000

Josh Roberts   $10 000