Steinway Classic has Begun!

By: Markus Noé

Day one of the Steinway Classic kicked off with an 8 hour drive for myself and road partner/C.S.N sponsor David Touhey. As I write this brief update it is 1:15 am and I have been on the go since 5:00 a.m. yesterday. En route we got slightly sidetracked just before Lake Placid which is about an hour away from where we began in Cornwall, Ontario. Somehow lost in our excitement on the way to Queens, New York to watch some world class pool we forgot to fill up on gas.

We ended up running out of gas about 3 miles outside the nearest gas station. While making the trek in the pouring rain we watched helplessly as about 30 cars passed on this country road until finally a very nice couple from Michigan pulled over and offered us a ride. When we got over this embarrassing aggravation we made fairly good time the rest of the way. We reached Steinway Billiards and immediately immersed ourselves in the most action packed pool hall either one of us has ever walked into.

Hsu Kai-Lin

The first match I witnessed was Alex Pagulayan vs Hsu Kai-Lun. Pagulayan of course needs no introduction however Lun, would be a fairly new face for North Americans. He is one of the many talented players from Chinese-Taipei. He had his coming out party in North America with his 5/6 finish at the U.S Open last week.

This match was close with these two playing at an extremely high level. However at 5-5 Pagulayan who had a bit of a disappointing U.S Open, appeared to have regained his form stringing some racks together quickly and winning 9-5. This was a winners side match so Lun was done, yet I believe he won his next match and is still currently in the tournament. With nearly 100 world beaters in one pool room it is a bit difficult to keep up with more than 2-3 matches at a time.

Daryl Peach and Ralf Souquet  also played a very entertaining match. This match like the previous one was played on the streamed table so some of you might have enjoyed this one along with me. Souquet was dominate in the start and took advantage of some errors from Peach. When the score was 8-5 for Souquet, Peach mounted a charge which came up just short as he went on to lose.

Souquet then went on to play Jayson Shaw on the third round of the winners side. In this match Shaw exacted some revenge on Souquet who beat him out in the 5/6 position at the U.S Open just a few days ago 11-10. Shaw was back to an exciting run and gun style while making everything, he easily won 9-2.

John Morra

John Morra won his first two matches against Zion Zvi and Hunter Lombardo before he ran into homeroom favourite, Earl Strickland. This was a very entertaining match for the locals as well as for the fans who came from out of town to watch. The lead exchanged several times until Strickland just got his nose across the finish line 9-7. There was one major upset of the day as Shane VanBoening lost to Alan Rolon.

Come back daily to Cue Sport Nation for updates on the Steinway Classic. We will be posting articles as well as updates throughout the day on our Facebook page in the form of pictures and video. If you don't have to work this week I highly recommend going to http://www.steinwaybilliards.com/ to purchase the live stream hosted by Upstate Al. I would like to thank Tony Robles for helping me secure everything I need to cover this great event as well as one of Cue Sport Nation's biggest supporters, David Touhey of Touhey Management.