Latest tournament happenings and Mosconi Cup 2017

Hello everyone.  I have been keeping up lately with some of the tournament action.  Skyler Woodward 3-peated the Side Pocket Open in Shreveport, LA.  They have never had anyone win that tournament 3 times in a row!

Dennis Orcollo went undefeated in the West State Billiards/POV Pool West Coast Swing One Pocket tournament at California Billiards in Fremont, CA, beating opponents like Shane Van Boening, Jayson Shaw, and Alex Pagulayan.  Dennis beat Alex in the finals to win the tournament.

Also at this stop, Dennis and Tony Chohan each put up $50k for a One Pocket race to 40 match.

Vivial Villarreal smoked the field at an AWBT event recently.  The site was Main Street Billiards (Mesa, Arizona, I believe), July 8th and 9th.  Villarreal went on a tear with 7-1 wins over 3 opponents.  Sunday was much of the same with a 7-1 win and a 7-2 win.

In upcoming tournament news, the US Open 10-ball players have been announced.  The field includes (to name a few):

Shane Van Boening

Dennis Orcollo

Alex Pagulayan

Lee Vann Corteza

Justin Bergman

Francisco Bustamante

Vilmos Foldes

Ralf Souquet

Mika Immonen

Warren Kiamco

Karl Boyes

Alex Kazakis

Thorsten Hohmann

Rodney Morris

Mario He

Skyler Woodward

This tournament will be played July 17-19 at Griff's in Las Vegas.

MOSCONI CUP 2017

As of this writing, the top ten in points for the 2017 Mosconi Cup are:

Shane van Boening
Dennis Hatch
Oscar Dominguez
Rodney Morris
Billy Thorpe
Donny Mills
Hunter Lombardo
Skyler Woodward
Johnny Archer
Ernesto Dominguez

The 2017 Mosconi Cup will be held in Las Vegas.  In my opinion, having the tournament in Las Vegas will give team USA a slight chance of not getting crushed by team Europe...but I just don't see team USA winning.  Might as well start calling it the European Cup.

The smoky pool room

March 7-8 Sidepocket Billiards in Shreveport hosted their annual Open 9-ball Championship.  I decided to go over there to watch, but not play in the tournament as I haven't played in a tournament in quite a while.  So my friend and I drove over there the day before the tournament started so he could get a feel for the tables and see who was there.  I was also interested in seeing which pro players might show up.  Johnny Archer had come to the previous tournament (and won it) back in October, I believe.  Skyler Woodward was there along with a few other names I've heard in big tournaments.

We walked in and it was like somebody had set a big pile of wet leaves on fire.  The smoke was BAD.

Now I don't mind a little smoke, hey, if you choose to smoke, that's your business, but when it's so thick that I can barely see across the room, that's too much for me.  5 minutes in there and I felt like I was at risk for lung cancer.

I think it's pretty clear with all the research done that smoking is bad for you and second hand smoke equally bad if not worse.  Many of establishments I've been to over the years allowed smoking, but NONE as bad as this place.  I will not go back there.  Ever.

It was disappointing too, because it's a fine establishment.  Good size place, lots of tables (mainly bar tables and two 9-footers), great food, etc.  But the smoke...

Many places now don't allow smoking, which I feel is a good thing.  I know some smokers that don't even like all the smoke.  It gets in your clothes, hair, hell, I even smelled the smoke on my leather belt...days after I left.

I feel it would just be better for pool in general if places did not allow smoking inside.  Smoky pool rooms just add to the negativity that pool has accumulated over the years.  Time to fix that and get more people interested in shooting some pool.