After 2 days of sterling play, 20 players from the original field of 42 made it to 4 flights of 5 players each for the semi final rounds. Event highlights from the qualification rounds revealed 6 players with perfect 6-0 records ““ Pedro Piedrabuena, Mazin Shooni, Michael Kang, Felipe Razon, Sonny Cho, and defending champion, Miguel Torres. The balance of the semi-final field demonstrated great resolve on the road to the championship finals.
The USBA 2009 National 3-Cushion Championships is now underway with a field of 42 players from all over the country at Carom Café Billiards in Flushing, NY.
Defending National Champion ““ Miguel Torres”¨2008 Runner-up ““ Pedro Piedrabuena along with Mazin Shooni, Sonny Cho, Hugo Patino and Michael Kang are the six seeded players.
Format in the Prielims will be six flights of 7 players. Race to 25, with 3 top players of each flight advancing along with the 2 top 4th place winners making it 20 players in the semi-finals.
This type of shot does not have a diamond system to help the player. So it is a challenge to find the right cue ball speed and angles to get the correct trajectory to score the point. Although there are 2 or 3 other ways to attempt the shot let’s stick with this one for now.
Kissing the cueball back off a ball frozen to a rail is another idea that seldom occurs to beginning three-cushion players. Kiss-back opportunities may not arise for hundreds of points: then several may crop up in a single game. The pattern is common enough that every student should devote some time to learning the angles, English, and speed required.
Left to right, Felipe & Hugo
Patino, Kolacz, Razon, and Ashby all earned their National entry at no charge, but had to play 2 final matches to determine the overall positions of finish in the Qualifier event and ranking points assigned by the USBA. Razon performed brilliantly as he defeated Patino by a score of 20 ““ 17 for 1st place honors. Meanwhile, Ashby sailed to victory over Kolacz 20 ““ 12 to win 3rd place positioning.
