Category: Features

More divisions and events were created for players at this year’s (35th) BCAPL National 8-Ball Championships. With the addition of the Men’s and Women’s 9-Ball Open Singles divisions, two new 9-ball team divisions were added to the end of the 10-day extravaganza so players could have more events in which to participate. A new 8-Ball Mixed Advanced division was also created to allow more teams to compete as well.

Of the nine total 8-ball and 9-ball team divisions, three of the winning teams came from the Chicago area. In the Men’s Mixed 8-Ball Open Team division, the Chicago team Off Constantly was not off at all. They went undefeated through the field of 618 teams with only a couple close matches. In the finals, they bested The Little Rascals from Downey, California by a devastating score of 13 to 4. “œThis was our first time playing nationals together,” said Off Constantly team captain Tony Gahala.

(L-R) Muslim Sarfaraz (2nd) and Joe Girdpool (1st)

Stop #8 on the 2011 United States Snooker Association (USSA) Tour, sponsored by Aramith Billiard Balls and Strachan West Of England snooker cloth, was won by Joe Girdpool who claimed his second Las Vegas tour win of the year, including this one at his host room, 4 Kaz Snooker Club & Bar, May 21-22.

The finals of the 3rd U.S. Open 10-Ball Championship was between two highly decorated professionals from both sides of the Atlantic. After 6 days the field of 96 player, representing 10 countries, whittled down to U.S. favorite Shane Van Boening and Spain’s David Alcaide.  Held at the Riviera Hotel & Casino and produced by CueSports International (CSI), in front of an enthusiastic crowd, Van Boening was crowned the 2011 champion winning 11-6.

Starting the day four players returned for day six of the event. The first match featured Spain’s David Alcaide versus relatively unknown player, Dennis Haar from Terre Haute, Indiana. This was Haar’s first professional 10-ball tournament and his best finish in any big event. Haar cleared a path to the final four by way of defeating top players James Baraks, Mitch Ellerman, Mike Dechaine, and Jonathan Pinegar. Unfortunately, his efforts fell short against Alcaide who jumped ahead at 6-5. Haar jumped and hung a 1-ball for Alcaide to get on the hill. At 7-5, Haar missed a 4-7 combination that would cost him the match.

Dechaine is Story of Day 4 at the 3rd U.S. Open 10-Ball Championship

Going into Friday morning at the 3rd Annual U.S. Open 10-Ball Championship the story on everyone’s lips was the outstanding performance by currently #1 U.S. ranked player “œFireball” Mike Dechaine. As the field gets smaller, the matches get tighter. Although moved to the one loss side earlier in the week by Kenichi Uchigaki, Dechaine has fired through the one loss side with a vengeance. After eliminating Earl Strickland during the 6 pm Thursday round, Dechaine then defeated “œThe Scorpion” Johnny Archer 8-0 in the 11 pm round, running seven consecutive racks to close out the set. Friday morning Dechaine then went on to defeat Jeremy Sossei 8-4 and Raj Hundal 8-5.

Reyes Crowned U.S. Open One Pocket Champion

“œThe Magician” Efren Reyes went undefeated through the full 64-player field to become the 2011 (12^th) U.S. Open One Pocket Champion at the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Produced by CueSports International, the $10,000 added event drew the finest one pocket players from around the world as well a sophisticated room full of spectators. Reyes defeated poker star Chris Gentile in the single set finals 5-2. This was Gentile’s first U.S. Open One Pocket and his most successful finish in a major one pocket event.

Read more to see flow charts of the Prelims

Also check out some pictures of the players

Jun Lin Chang and Yu Ram Cha are the 2011 Champions of the Beijing Open.  Chang, a former winner on the Guinness Tour, proved his mettle this week by taking on a series of tough opponents and vanquishing them all.  He first eliminated Carlo Dalmatin of Croatia who had earned his pedigree by bettering Thomas Engert (9-6) and Charlie Williams (9-2) Just to get into the Championship draw sheet.

His next opponent had promise of being a very tough match. Feng-Ban Zhao had just come from a solid 11-4 trouncing of newly crowned Philippine Open champ Thorsten Hohmann but Chang was simply an over-reach for Zhao as Chang mangled him 11-5  to earn the right to do battle with Nick Van Den Berg.