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Saturday, 25 June 2016
6 Qualifiers for the World 14.1: Iowa, New Jersey, NYC Added
Friday, 17 June 2016
Details Have Emerged from The Cornerbank $225,000 Added 10 Ball Series
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Details from the highly anticipated Corner Bank 10 Ball series have recently been announced. A few weeks back owners Jim Wych and John White caused a stir announcing a five event $225,000 added 10 Ball pro circuit with a grande final. There will be $25,000 added to each event and $100,000 added to the Grand Final, instantly making this one of the most coveted pro tours to play on in North America and perhaps the World.
In order to qualify for the final one needs to play in 3 out of 5 of the preliminaries. The entry fee for the 5 prelims will be $250 each and the final entry will be $500, all entry fee prices and payouts are represented in Canadian currency.
Each event will take place at The Corner Bank Sports Bar & Grill, located at 925 Warden Avenue, Toronto, Canada. This establishment has not even celebrated its second anniversary and has already established itself as one of the elite establishments in the country.
Adding to the prestige of this circuit, each event will be carrying Mosconi Cup points for the 2017 teams. This is great news for Mosconi Cup hopefuls, with these prize pools I expect to see most of the top players in the world at these events and it's nice for them to be able to kill two birds with one stone. Each field is limited to the first 128 players paid, an online payment method will be made available shortly. There is an option for those who want to guarantee their spot now for the first event. You can mail your entry directly to the address below;
The Corner Bank
925 Warden Ave.
Toronto, Ontario, M1L 4C5
Canada
ATTN: Jim Wych
Tournament Format, Dates and Payout Structure:
16 groups of 8 players (two seeds per group) playing in a double elimination format, race to 7 games, and alternate break. 3 players from each group will advance to the single elimination stage (48 players in total). The group winners will be seeded into the final 16. The remaining 32 players will be randomly drawn to face each other with the match winners playing into the group winners to make up the final 32.
Winner: $15,000
Runner-Up: $8,000
3-4 Place: $4,000 each
5-8 Place: $2,000 each
9 -16 Place: $1,000 each
17-32 Place: $500 each
33-48 Place: $250 each
Runner-Up: $8,000
3-4 Place: $4,000 each
5-8 Place: $2,000 each
9 -16 Place: $1,000 each
17-32 Place: $500 each
33-48 Place: $250 each
EVENT 1: September 20-23, 2016
EVENT 2: October 11-14, 2016
EVENT 3: November 8-11, 2016
EVENT 4: January 10-14, 2017
EVENT 5: February 14-17, 2017
Grand Final: April 17-21. 2017
Make sure to keep visiting cuesportnation.com as well as our Facebook Page to stay up to date on this new and exciting circuit.
Wednesday, 8 June 2016
2016 Amway eSpring International Women 9-Ball Championship is Triggering
Unlike its predecessors, this year's Amway Cup has been re-scheduled to avoid a clash with the 2016 YuShan Chinese 8-Ball World Championship which was held in March.
The 2016 Amway eSpring International Women 9-Ball Championship will be held on June 16th-19th in Taiwan. The event will be moved to a new venue at the Banqiao Gymnasium in New Taipei City.
Formerly known as Taipei County, New Taipei City is a special municipality and the most populous city in Taiwan. Located in northern Taiwan, the city surrounds the Taipei Basin. Banqiao District is its municipal seat and the biggest commercial area.
This summer, the world best female players from all over the world will gather in Taiwan, 40 of them will go head to head and try to win the most prestigious title in women's pool. A total of US$93,400 prize fund are at stake with US$34,000 going to the winner alone while the runner-up will receive US$13,000.
The qualifiers will get underway from June 13th to 15th at the Ji-Hsien Pool Club in Luzhou, New Taipei City. Over than 70 players will scramble for the last 8 spots (2,2,4) to get qualified for the main stage of the Championship. The format will be played with single elimination and race to 7, winner breaks.
The main stage shall commence on June 16th at the Banqiao Gymnasium, with the field completed with the 8 players from the qualifiers. The players will be divided into 8 groups of 5. They will play in a round robin format and race to 7, winner breaks. The top 3 players of each group will advance to the Last 24, in which the format will become single elimination, race to 7 and alternate breaks. The semi-finals will be race to 9. The final will be race to 11 and is going to be played on Sunday June 19th.
As for the local girls, they are well-prepared with a 3-week-training, under the help and supervision from Jung-Lin Chang and Yu-Hsuan Cheng, the former men's World Nr.1 and the current World Nr. 2, invited by the Chinese Taipei Billiards Federation. Yu-Wen Hsieh and Szu-Ting Kuo earned their main stage passes via the qualifiers that were held recently in Taiwan. They will both join Yuan-Chun Lin (the reigning champion), Chieh-Yu Chou, Ho-Yun Chen as well as Tzu-Chien Wei who are directly qualified in the main stage.
Across from the other side of the shore, Liu ShaSha, Chen Siming, Han Yu and Liu YuChen will be representing China in the main stage of the Amway Cup this year. The four girls will be staying at the CBSA Training Centre for a 10-days intensive training session before the tournament commences. Liu YuChen, being the youngest in the lot, was selected as a member of the national youth team this year. She was underrated last year but managed to make it to the semi-final before losing to Yuan-Chun Lin.
Fu Xiaofang was in the top 8 last year and therefore should have a spot in the main stage. However, she had her big day last year getting married and it seems that she will not be playing on this occasion for her own personal reasons. Pan Xiaoting also finished top 8 last year, but, up to the time of writing, is still yet to decide upon her visit this time round.
Before the actual battles begin, world top-class players including Allison Fisher、Kelly Fisher、Chieh-Yu Chou、Tzu-Chien Wei and Yuan-Chun Lin have been invited by the organiser of the Amway Cup to present at a promotional event to interact with billiard fans at the Mega City (Far Eastern Department Store) in Banqiao tomorrow (June 9). Don't miss this great opportunity to meet the elites.
The whole event will be broadcast LIVE on Videoland TV in Taiwan and Live on YouTube at same time.
VL Sports YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/vlsports
Event Official Website: http://www.videoland.com.tw/event/20160401/game01.asp
By Alison Chang & Samuel Lai
Monday, 6 June 2016
First Qualifiers for the World 14.1: New York, California, Chicago
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Thursday, 28 April 2016
Canadians Shocked as W.P.A Announces China will Host 2016 World 8 Ball Championships
By: Markus Noé
Canadian pool players and fans alike had to swallow a tough pill today as it has been announced that the World 8 Ball Championships have been granted to China. Just over a month ago the story broke that the World 8 Ball would be played at the Corner Bank pool hall in Toronto, Ontario. This was exciting news for North American players as they usually have to take a plane to the other side of the world to compete in a World Championship. There has not been a world title held on this continent since the 1990's and this was a real opportunity to grow the game here.
The word is that the China association after hearing about the Toronto announcement just simply outbid them. Once again we get to see how poorly pool is run even at the highest level, when saying that I mean the World Pool-Association. There has not been a World 8 Ball Championship in the last 4-5 years as pool has seen one if its biggest downturns in the last century. In Toronto a group came together stepped up, and put in the $275,000 needed for the prize fund and the W.P.A announced the first World 8 Ball in years, a good thing right?
This was announced as a firm bid but China countered with a long term deal and supposedly for the best interest of the sport the Toronto organizers stepped aside. The W.P.A like many associations is just a hollow organization who's sole ability is to give a rubber stamp sanction so you can call your promotion a World Championship. They do not organize any event, they sit back and wait for someone to come up with the minimum prize fund and a venue and then they take their cut of "administration fee's". This is the reason that we have had so much trouble getting the World 8 and 10 Ball played over the last decade. No one is putting up the money and the W.P.A is not doing anything to raise it so it simply does not happen.
This is what made the Toronto announcement so exciting. Someone is stepping up and doing a good thing for pool. You could say China is doing the same but why could they not wait until next year? Especially if there has not been a World 8 Ball in years. This is how it breaks down, China has guaranteed $300,000 prize pool for this years men's and women's events and have committed to invest $3,000,000 over the next 5 years. Overall this would be good news but it really speaks volumes to how the W.P.A is run, just based on integrity they should have postponed this announcement until next year. Let Canada enjoy a year of the World Championships and build the sport here then they can have it for the next 5 years that would have been perfectly acceptable.
The other thing that really burns for Canadian pool players is the timeline of this cancellation. I know many players personally who have signed up for the Canadian Championships next week in Québec City just so they have a shot to qualify for the World 8 Ball in Toronto. The commitment this takes financially and in terms of being away from work and family is significant and for this news to come out a week before the Canadians kick off is ridiculous. This did not happen overnight, the organizers must have had some advanced noticed and and should have shared this. Once again before a ball has been hit players going into the Canadian Championships players can only shake their head in disbelief.
For now Canadians and all North American players just have to suck up another disappointment as many were looking forward to having a World Championship in their backyard. In the end hopefully this does not mean that people will cancel their plans to play in the Canadian Championships. The C.B.S.A is struggling and could really use the boost in participation which was happening this year with the new location and the announcement of the World 8 Ball.
When a World Association in any sport announces a World Championship and location that's where it should be, this would never happen in any other sport. They are reporting this as the best move for pool which financially I guess could be argued for the players. For the W.P.A the reality is they are going to make more in fee's and hopefully strengthen the W.P.A. However I would compare this to a government program, sometimes more money does not mean the service will be better. As a Canadian pool fan I am severely disappointed in how this was handled and I think by making one announcement then changing their minds when a "better deal" comes through shows a lack of integrity.
Fortunately for Canadian pool fans their are rumors of another big event coming to Toronto around August nothing has been secured yet, so I will let you all speculate. Overall this does look like a good deal especially for the Women's side who get left out of a lot. But for myself and many others a bad taste has once again been left in our mouths.
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Gold Crown Billiards: Deuel Wins 32 Player 9 Ball Invitational
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| Runner up Shawn Putnam and winner Corey Deuel |
This past weekend at Gold Crown Billiards in Erie, Pennsylvania the annual Tri-State open took place. Gold Crown billiards is a very impressive two level complex that contains a nice upscale restaurant at street level and a 20 table pool hall on the lower level. Although the pool room area is underground there is ground level windows that allow natural light into the playing area. I must say that this was one of the nicest pool rooms I have ever been in. You can tell that owner Paul Schofield takes a lot of pride in his business , which has been in operation for 37 years. The Gold crown 3 tables were newly clothed and the balls seemed brand new for this 32 player invitational.
The format for this weekend is something that is rarely seen. Players would be eliminated in a quadruple elimination format until 8 players remained. From their it turned into single knockout bracket to determine the winner. Two players would advance undefeated, two with one loss, two with two losses and two with 3 losses. Players were seeded in the single elimination according to their performance in the quadruple elimination portion. For example players with no losses were drawn into players with 3 losses. In addition the tournament featured "No conflict" rules for racking and breaking. Breakers were not required to pocket a ball on the break, the goal on the break is to play position on the one and not have to worry about manipulating the rack to make a ball. Opponents also place the balls randomly in the rack and then the breaker racks their own balls. Might sound a little quirky but I can assure you that compared to the alternative traditional rules this is in my opinion a great way to play. The spirit of the rules is to have no conflict over racking and breaking and from what I saw there was none and for all the top players in the room this was nice to see.
The player auction drew a nice total of approximately $10 000, last years winner Dennis Hatch went off in the first blind, Mike Dechaine was second and John Morra third. Other notable players in the field included Corey Deuel, Billy Thorpe, Danny Smith, Shawn Putnam and Shane Winters. Gold Crown Billiards also generously added $5000 to the prize fund with the help of local sponsors. Play began Friday night and continued until about 6 pm on Saturday here are some of the notable matches fro the quadruple elimination portion.
Dennis Hatch over Corey Deuel
Mario Morra over Shawn Putnam
Shawn Putnam over Mike Dechaine
Erik Hjorleifson over Billy Thorpe
John Morra over Mario Morra
Mike Dechaine over Billy Thorpe
Here is the bracket for the final 8 re-draw
The key in this format was the break especially considering that the pockets were fairly generous. As expected Deuel excelled at this employing a cut break playing the 1 ball back down to the same corner he was breaking from. I chose to use the same break as did Thorpe, Putnam and Hatch. John Morra chose to hit the break square from the box also bringing the one back to the top corner pocket on the same track it takes playing ten ball, Danny Smith also used this strategy and Dechaine used a bit of both.
Match scores from the single elimination:
Quarter finals
Thorpe 8 Hjorleifson 7
Morra 8 Smith 7
Putnam 8 Dechaine 5
Deuel 8 Hatch 5
Semi Finals
Deuel 8 Morra 5
Putnam 8 Thorpe 5
Finals
Deuel 8 Putnam 6
Overall it was interesting to play in a tournament that didn't have a traditional format and I will definitely be back and plan to hopefully run some tournaments in the Toronto area with the same format. The main advantages of the quadruple elimination is that if you lose once it does not devastate you for the rest of the tournament, it also keeps players playing throughout the weekend and those entering to gain experience are able to get in a lot of play. It should also be mentioned that owner Paul Schofield has been running these tournaments for years and has perfected the scheduling and placement of players in the brackets.
Prize money
1st Corey Deuel $2500
2nd Shawn Putnam $1700
3rd/4th Billy Thorpe $1000
John Morra
5th/8th Erik Hjorleifson $500
Mike Dechaine
Dennis Hatch
Danny Smith
Player Auction
1st $4000
2nd $3000
3rd/4th 1400
Saturday, 23 April 2016
Founder of the U.S Open Barry Behrman Passes Away.
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| Photo of Barry Behrman photo taken from Q-Master Billiards Facebook Page. |
By: Markus Noé
The pool world is reeling today as it lost one of its biggest figures over the past 40 years. Barry Behrman founder of the U.S Open 9 Ball Championship and owner of Q-Master Billiards, who turned 70 on April 1st has passed away today after a short battle with MRSA-based pneumonia, which caused septic shock. When it comes to prestige the U.S Open ranks as the second most important title to add for any Hall of Fame hopeful right after a World Championship.
Late last October Behrman celebrated the 40th anniversary of this coveted event. To think when it originated it was a 15 player invitational and has now grown into a 128 player field of the best players in the world. Behrman will be remembered as a very passionate promoter for pool, who would often take the mic during the U.S Open Championships to give various heartfelt speeches where he exuded energy and excitement for the sport.
Behrman was not without controversy as over the past few years the U.S Open was experiencing a bit of a decline. The prize fund was shrinking, the venues were not up to par and at times players were being paid out weeks after the tournament. When it is all said and done I think Behrman has left a gem for the world of 9 Ball with this event and I believe his legacy is intact.
From years of watching him on television and the Accu-Stats stream you can tell this man let his emotions hang on his sleeve. If he had a fault it was that he loved the sport of pool and its top players too much and perhaps over extended himself at times. It should be noted there has been no issues with payouts recently and this year with a full field, first prize is guaranteed to be $40,000 once again. Myself and Erik Hjorleifson would like to extend our condolences to the the Behrman family at this difficult time.
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