Tuesday 30 August 2016

Shaw Wins his 4th Turning Stone Classic Championship!

Champion Jayson Shaw Photo by Erin Bechner

By: Markus Noé

August 25-28 the 26th edition of the Turning Stone Classic took place. As always this was played at the Turning Stone Casino and Resort located in Verona New York. This is a $25,000 added tournament that takes place August and January. This was the fourth time that I had the opportunity to attend this event and if last January was the strongest field I witnessed last weeks was the weakest.

Unfortunately in the pool world with so many separate organizations, events often collide with each other. Most of the top players in the world went to Shanghai to play as the prize pools are considerably higher. For those that did not want to go to Shanghai others went to Las Vegas to play in the U.S Bar Box Championships.

With the year beginning to wrap up players looking to make their Mosconi Cup Teams are scrambling for points. An interesting observation here is that the U.S Bar Box Championship held three events last week all carrying these valuable Mosconi Cup Points. Turning Stone also carries these points however I heard some top players who are in the running wondering if each tournament in Vegas held the same amount of points as Turning Stone? Which would not really be fair and is a little confusing considering that these are bar box tournaments.

All that aside going into last week the favourites in my opinion were Jayson Shaw, Mike Dechane, Earl Strickland and Rodney Morris. The next group of favourites to win was Erik Hjorleifson, Hunter Lombardo, Brandon Shuff, Donnie Mills, Ernesto Dominguez, Karen Corr. Throughout the first two days there was not really any upsets to speak of. Martin Daigle did knock Erik Hjorleifson over to the one lose side in the first round 9-4.

It was not until Saturday evening deep on the winners side until the bigger names met up and some entertaining matches took place. Dechaine and Strickland was in my opinion the most entertaining match of the weekend. This took place in the final 8 of the winners side. Both players are incredible talents and both players are very animated around the table thus around 200 fans gathered to watch this match to see if there would be any fireworks. This match went 8-8 in a race to 9 with Strickland edging out Dechaine in the end, when Strickland won he did his patent fist pump to the delight of the crowd.




Alongside this match on the stream table Karen Corr legendary Women's player was up against a young stud from Russia. His name is Maksim Dudanets and he is only 17 years old. He came to the U.S about a month ago for the Atlantic Cup Challenge and has stayed to play in some events. He had Corr stuck in this set 7-3 however Corr showed her experience and slowed the momentum of this match right down and ended up winning. Another seasoned player Ernesto Dominguez ended his run in the 7/8 bracket 9-2. Once Dudanets was eliminated from the tournament he wasted no time going to an empty table and setting up advanced practice drills and did this for hours. I would look over and even some of the others pro's where watching and impressed with this young mans work ethic and dedication. I am predicting we will be hearing a lot from this player in the future.

As always there was a strong contingent of players from Québec. Alain, Parent, Danny Hewitt Joey Cicero all ended up cashing in this event. Cicero once against finished in the 9-12 bracket and Hewitt was the top finishing Canadian in this event ending up in the 7/8 bracket..

The final 4 remaining players on Sunday were the same final 4 from the winners bracket. As Corr, Strickland, Mills and Shaw were are still in the running.  Shaw beat Strickland earlier in the winners side final 4 and then Strickland went on to beat Dominguez 9-8. Corr edged out Mills 9-8 and then lost in the winners side final to Shaw 9-2. Mills and Strickland met up in the 4th place match as Corr waited for her shot at history, as no female player has ever been to the final of the Turning Stone Classic let alone any men's professional tournament.

Runner-up Karen Corr photo by Erin Bechner 

Strickland eliminated Mills and in a bit of an upset Corr beat Strickland 9-8 and was visibly happy, as she not only made history but I believe she never beat Strickland in competition before. Shaw who in my opinion is a top 3 player in the world currently was just too much for the field. He virtually cruised through the brackets undefeated and was never really threatened. He took the final 13-5 and won his 4th Turning Stone title in his last 5 tries. There is another great thing about Shaw and that is the manner in which he plays, if there was anyone that can make pool watchable to the masses it is this man here.  Congratulation to Shaw who has also been crushing it in Europe and I expect him to make his first Mosconi Cup team this year.

I would like to thank my sponsor for this event David Touhey of Touhey Management located in Ottawa, Ontario. The next Pro event for me will be the Falcon Tour stop in Valleyfield, Quebec September 17-18 look forward to seeing you all there. To stay up to date at the events we will be at follow us on our Cue Sport Nation Facebook Page.


Monday 8 August 2016

Albins Ouschan Wins World 9 Ball Championship


By: Erik Hjorleifson

The 2016 World Championships are now in the books and the final player standing. Albin Ouschan from Austria has become to my knowledge the second youngest world champion next to Wu Jiaqing. 128 of the world best players assembled in Qatar to compete for the most prestigious title in men's 9 ball. This year would see the first time since the early 2000s that the nine ball would be moved to the spot. Darren Appleton predicted in one of his facebook live broadcasts that the Europeans would have a good shot at the title because of their experience in breaking with the nine on the spot at euro tour events. Although only one of the final four was European his prediction would prove to be true.


The first player to make a statement towards his run for the title was Jayson Shaw from Scotland. He defeated the defending champion Ko Pin Yi in the round of 64 and tournament favourite Dennis Orcollo in the round of 32. He advanced all the way to the quarter finals before losing to eventual champion Albin Ouschan. Dennis Grabe and Alex Kazakis also had breakout performances ending up in the quarter final rounds.



The semi finals would feature newly invigorated Alex Pagulayan who had his best performance at the World Championships since winning it in 2004. He would face Albin Ouschan from Austria the 2015 China Open champion and the 2014 runner up at the world championships. I was able to watch the first few games of this match and  Pagulayan made a couple spectacular shots to take a 3 1 lead. In the 5th game Alex had a one ball skid on him and that seemed to turn the tide. As he made a few errors from there and went on to lose the match 11 4. In the other semi final Shane Van Boening booked his spot in the final for the second year in a row and after years of struggling overseas he has become a perennial threat.

In the final SVB made some critical errors and never really gained momementum in this match. The young Austrian who already has world final experience took full advantage going to win with ease 13-6.

There will always be critics whenever a major event like this happens but the one thing that really sticks out like a sore thumb is the prize money. The cost of travel is very high and the $40 000 is somewhere in the ball park but the rest of the prize money is pitiful. Assuming players are paying their own expense only 8 of 128 are turning a profit and really only 2 of those 8 are turning a good profit.

In my opinion and i'm sure in any full time players opinion this is completely unacceptable. The most obvious way to create revenue for the prize money is to get the championships back on global tv and I sincerely hope that the WPA creates a requirement for the promoters to do so when they start a new contract. Frankly the latest inception since the tournament has been in Qatar has been an embarassment and under no circumstances do I believe that hey should be allowed to promote the World Championships in the future.




Top 5 Pay Outs:

1. Albin Ouschan $40,000 

2. Shane Van Boening $20,000

3/4th. Alex Pagulayan $8,000
Kevin Cheng $8,000

5th. Alex Kazakis, Jayson Shaw, Ko Ping Chung $5,000

6th Annual Straight Pool Hall of Fame Nominees: Final Qualifiers for the World 14.1


 

6th Annual Straight Pool Hall of Fame Nominees: Final Qualifiers for the World 14.1Tomorrow

76th World 14.1 September 5-11, 2016  New York City,  Steinway Billiards



The greatest 14.1 players in history come back each year to vie for the most prestigious & traditional title in pool



New York City- The 2016 nominees for the prestigious Straight Pool Hall of Fame are now announced. The ballot list is built from nominations from past HOF's, sponsors, and fans. Also, the final 2 qualifiers for the World 14.1 takes place on Saturday August 6th at Amsterdam Billiards in New York City and Big Dog Billiards in Iowa respectively. 2016 will mark the 11th consecutive year the World Tournament of 14.1 will be staged. This is the longest consecutive run of the championship ever in its 104 year history with Dragon Promotions  continuing production of the world's oldest billiards event.This year's confirmed dates for the 76th WorldTournament of 14.1 will take place on September 5th-11th,2016. For the fourth straight year,Steinway Billiards in New York City will host the prestigious championship. As usual, a star studded 56 player field is expected for this year's lineup to win the world's greatest straight pool championship.

Fans can vote now for the following candidates:
The 2016 14.1 Hall of Fame nominees for the Greatest Player category are
  • Pete Margo legendary northeast star
  • Nick Varner 2x World 14.1 champ
  • Bobby Hunter last American to hoist the World 14.1 title until his protege John Schmidt.
For the Unsung Hero category:
  • Tom Jennings,  2x US Open Champion 
  • Cue Ball Kelly , longtime 14.1 promoter
  • Frank McGown, Brooklyn legend and elite 14.1 pro
Thank you to the Hall of Famers, sponsor & World 141 Club members for your nominations & votes. On Sunday morning the winning 3 inductees will be announced.

The AZBTV livestream TV table will be on 
Rasson Billiards  uniquely designed Victory Table premiering in New York City for the first time. Event elite partners include Mr.Tom Gleich, Dr. Gregory Diehl, Mr. Greg Hunt of Amsterdam Billiards, and Mr. Harold Siegel of Excelsior Graphics. The World Tournament Official Equipment will feature all matches played on Andy Cloth with Aramith Balls. Patron sponsors include Dr. James Heller, Dennis Walsh of Walsh & Townsend Attorneys, Maropolus Motors, Mr. Charles Eames of Charles Eames Photography, Frank Scharbach of Frank's Billard CafeFocused Apparel and Eli Ceballos of Cryfoto Photography.

PAY PER VIEW on sale NOW** Goto
WorldStraightPool.com *EARLY bird special save $20 now on ALL week pass 7 days of elite World 14.1 matches. Don't miss any historic moments! Streamed by AZBtv.

Qualifier winners thus far in 2016:



76th Andy Cloth World Straight 
#PoolChampionship in NYC Sept 5-11. Final qualifier Aug 6 tomorrow at Amsterdam Billiards & Big Dog Billiards. Want to help out? Join the World 141 Club at WorldStraightPool.com . Want to Host a Qualifier? Call 407-782-4978 support@dragonpromotions.com . Sponsored by AndyClothUSA.com andwww.Rasson.cn


For 11 years straight, every year the World 14.1 has been revived for, Amsterdam Billiards has been a staunch sponsor, supporter and qualifier host courtesy of NYC's Greg Hunt, its Founder.

In addition, the 6th Annual Straight Pool Hall of Fame Banquet will take place in the middle of the event on September 7th at 7:30pm. Every year the popular dinner sells out with all the pool stars and legends attending.


The 14.1 HOF is always the hottest ticket in town every year with laughter & tears

This year will also be a great opportunity for players coming from far away to play in 4 consecutive events within driving distance with Turningstone Casino, Robles 9-Ball Tour, and the World 14.1.


Great players have been honored & fans of billiards have been treated to some unforgettable moments during the past decade of the World 14.1 revival


Be a proud sponsor of the most prestigious and classiest event in the United States, the World Tournament of 14.1 which has been ongoing since 1912.  For only $250, become part of the elite World 141 Club and garner all the benefits that well exceed the money you will spend. Click here for full details. We invite you to join this year's 76th anniversary event in New York City as a supporter or attendee. For those interested in a higher level of support as one of our advertisers or elite World 14.1 Patrons, please reply here or call 407-782-4978 . 

Throughout a decade, Dragon Promotions has been able to revitalize straight pool back into the sport and to new audiences. In 2006, straight pool was near it’s complete death in the US. Since then we have poured our resources in media, finance, and know-how to grow the popularity of 14.1. Today, the consensus among the professionals on tour is that the World 14.1 is one of, if not the most, important titles to win in America. Something not expected decades ago.

Sponsors are welcomed to contact 
407-782-4978  Also for tickets, Vendors, tournament entries and information:  worldstraightpoolchampionships@gmail.com
Follow our daily social media updates at : Visit 
www.facebook.com/Worldstraightpool
www.twitter.com/Dragonpromoter & www.instagram.com/dragonpromotions
.

7 Time World 14.1 Champion Willie Mosconi


7 Time World 14.1 Champion Willie Mosconi