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.

Inaugural Scotty Townsend

If you didn't know Scotty Townsend, there's a good chance you have at least heard the name.  He was a larger than life pool player and legend.  I had heard so many tales of Scotty Townsend while playing pool in North Louisiana that I wasn't sure he was even real.  Until the one day he walked into a pool room in Ruston, Louisiana.  Shenanigan's was the name of the place, no longer in business in Ruston.  The owner knew Scotty and we practically begged him to call Scotty to come up there...and he did.

Tragically, Scotty was killed while riding his motorcycle.  Being from around the Monroe/West Monroe area, The Arena Billiards in West Monroe held the Inaugural Scotty Townsend Memorial Tournament March 13-19, 2017.  There was a HUGE turnout!!

There were some big names that showed up to the tournament including:

Shane Van Boening
Dennis Orcollo
Jeremy Jones
Sky Woodward
Warren Kiamco
Billy Thorpe
Charlie Bryant


One Pocket ($1,000 entry with $5,000 added to the Calcutta)

1st - Billy Thorpe
2nd - Shane Van Boening
3rd - Evan Lunda
4th - Charlie Bryant

10-Ball Ring Game ($100 entry)

1st - Dennis Orcollo
2nd - Warren Kiamco
3rd - Johann Gonzales Chua
4th - Joshua Roberts

Open 9-Ball ($75 entry, $25 Green Fee)

1st - Dennis Orcollo
2nd - Sky Woodward
3rd - Ramil Gallego
4th - Gary Abood


Here are some pics I took during the 9-Ball tournament.

Shane Van Boening warming up.

Warren Kiamco playing right in front of where I was sitting.

Charlie "Hillbilly" Bryant.  Skylar Woodward is just behind him in the b/w shirt.

2014 Mosconi Cup Results

Well, another Mosconi Cup has come and gone...to team Europe, again.  Being a US citizen, I had hoped for a different outcome given the fact that Team USA retooled this year and had a stronger team, in my opinion, than in years past.  Unfortunately, I did not get to watch this year's event.  I did see some video clips on YouTube and the environment there looked outright hostile.  The Europeans really get behind their players.

Although Team USA lost again, I feel as though this year's team was much better than in year's past.  The European team over the last few years has taken the Mosconi Cup very seriously by forming the team months early, practicing together, spending time together, and becoming a team focused on winning.  This is something the USA team didn't do, usually throwing the team together weeks before and never spending time together or practicing...and it showed.

This year, Team USA selected Mark Wilson as the team Captain and he handpicked eight players.  The eight potential players were:

Shane Van Boening *
John Schmidt *
Corey Deuel *
Brandon Shuff
Justin Hall *
Oscar Dominguez
Justin Bergman *
Jeremy Sossei

* 2014 Mosconi Cup team members

Team USA had a tough task ahead in this year's Mosconi Cup.  Team Europe had been dominating, winning the last 5 in a row and the last 7 of 8 Mosconi Cup tournaments.  Also adding to the fact that Team USA took a whole new approach to the 2014 Mosconi Cup, they had to travel to Blackpool, England to play on the Europeans' home turf.  Following, last year's drubbing  11-2 loss by Team Europe, Team USA had nowhere to go but up.

In the hostile environment of Blackpool, Team USA started Day 1 pretty well, ending the day with a final matchup of Shane Van Boening vs. Darren Appleton and a chance to take a one point advantage.  Darren ruined those hopes with a 5-3 victory, putting the European team ahead 3-2 at the close of the first day's matches.

Team USA started Day 2 on a high note, tying the score at 3 each, but Team Europe charged ahead to 6-3, winning 3 matches in a row before Appleton/Gray fell in the last match of the day to Deuel/Van Boening, ending Day 2 with a score of 6-4 in favor of Team Europe.

Day 3 started off with a European win to make the score 7-4.  Justin Hall beat Nikos Ekononmopoulos 5-3 to get back to within 2 points, but Team Europe was too strong and won the next 2 matches to pull ahead 9-5.

It was over quickly for Team USA on Day 4 as Team Europe only needed 2 wins to claim the 2014 Mosconi Cup and they cleaned it up in the first 2 matches.  Darren Appleton defeated Shane Van Boening 5-2 and Nikos Ekonomopoulos also defeated Shane Van Boening by the same score to once again claim the Mosconi Cup for Team Europe.

Although Team USA lost by 6 points, there were some positives in my mind.

1.  We actually formed a team vs. previous years where we just threw a team together at the last minute.
2.  We had a non-playing Captain, which I feel is important to actually have time to properly form a team, schedule practices, etc.
3.  We didn't lose by 9 points like last year.
4.  We added youth, which in time could grow as a team and hopefully win.
5.  We play next year in LAS VEGAS!!  

Hopefully this team will be able to stay together for the 2015 event, which will be held on US soil and should provide the advantage to Team USA.

We'll get them in 2015!!!

Coming on strong...Skyler Woodward

If you haven't already heard the name, let me introduce you to Skyler Woodward.  Skyler, according to his Facebook fan page, is 21 years old and is from Ledbetter, Kentucky.  I've been hearing his name more and more lately as he is starting to rack up top 5 finishes left and right.  Starting in January 2014 at the Derby City Classic, he has continued to get hot.  At the Derby City Classic, he placed pretty low in the 9-Ball Banks division at 65th, but placed 13th in the One Pocket tournament.  He won the Bank Pool Ring Game, taking home $6,000 for that win alone.

The next month, February 24 - March 2, he placed 5th in the US Bar Box Championship in Reno, Nevada, and took 3rd in the 9-Ball division.  But he was just getting warmed up...

In March 2014 he placed 5th in the Big Tyme Billiards One Pocket tournament and took home the top prize in the 9-Ball tournament ($4,000).  Later that month, he played in the White Diamond Billiards annual tournament in Lafayette, Louisiana, placing 7th.

In a unique event, Skyler took on Jesse Bowman in Wisconsin June 13 - 14 for a 9-Ball race to 100 event for $20,000!!  After the first night, Skyler was up by just 1 rack, 50-49.  On day 2, after it was all over, Skyler came out on top 100-82.  $20,000!!

July saw Skyler play in the 2014 BCAPL National 8-Ball Championships...he won it.  Rounding out the top 5 were Charlie Bryant, Oscar Dominguez, Dennis Hatch, and Greg Harada, Jr.  Stiff competition!

Lastly, Skyler just won the Smokin' Aces Bar Box Tournament...undefeated, I might add, held August 16-17, in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.  Key to this win was defeating Shane Van Boening, not once, but twice!!

I predict we'll be seeing a lot of Skyler in the future!

If you would like to keep up with Skyler, you can follow his Facebook fan page.

Latest 2014 Mosconi Cup Team USA News

Not a whole lot has been mentioned lately about the 2014 Team USA Mosconi Cup Team.  Team Captain Mark Wilson has stated in the past he probably won't make a decision on the final team of 5 until after the US Open in October.

Most of the candidates did assemble in San Diego, California for the first time for a team get-together in late May.  According to Captain Mark Wilson, they discussed what is expected of the team, professionalism and dedication being two of the topics.

They also had some challenge matches for charity.

It's good to see Captain Mark Wilson is taking this serious and getting the team together early to provide some unity.  I look forward to hearing more about this and can't wait to see who the final five team members will be!

2014 Mosconi Cup Team USA and other news

2014 Mosconi Cup Team USA News

So those of you who have not been keeping up with the 2014 Mosconi Cup Team USA news, team captain, Mark Wilson has announced the 8 players vying for the 5 member team.  The 8 players are Shane Van Boening, Corey Deuel, John Schmidt, Oscar Dominguez, Brandon Shuff, Justin Bergman, Justin Hall, and Jeremy Sossei.

Mark Wilson has been working on a practice routine to analyze player performance.  He is doing some pretty high tech stuff with video analysis on an iPad and trying to get the players together to participate in various events together to build team unity and support.

Wilson plans to announce the final team of 5 in October, probably just after the US Open 9-ball Championships.

On another note, in an article in the May 2014 issue of Billiards Digest, Johnny Archer was quoted as saying, "I'm very disappointed. I don't understand why a few of us don't even have a chance to earn a spot on the team.  I know they want to go young, but Corey and John [Schmidt] aren't young."

Here's my thoughts to that statement...STOP YOUR WHINING JOHNNY!!!  It's time for CHANGE!!  Johnny was a part of 17 Mosconi Cup teams and in my opinion, he seems like a nice guy, but only seems to care about himself.  He was team captain a few times and never organized team practices, never brought the team together...it was just "We're team USA, we're badass, and we'll show up and kick Team Europe's butt."  Guess what, Johnny, Team Europe united their team, organized team practices, and showed up to US soil and kicked OUR butts.  Change was overdue.

Other Billiard News

The Billiard Congress of America will hold it's 31st annual Summit on June 24-27.  The BCA's annual industry trade fair will return to Louisville, Kentucky, which has been the host city three times before, the last being in 1990.  The event organizers expect only 75 vendors to show up, the lowest in the 31 year history of the event, however, more on-floor events are planned and more after-hours social events.  The lack of vendors doesn't bode well for the future of the Summit, but the American pool industry seems to be in an evolving state right now.  I'm sure it will be a great event and maybe the change of venue will make future Summits better.

The U.S. Amateur Championships are coming up in November.  November 5-9, 2014 in Tampa, Florida.  The entry window is April 1 - June 15, so if you plan on entering, get signed up.  For more information, visit www.poolplayers.com/usam/

2014 Team USA

Yesterday, (March 21, 2014) Team USA captain, Mark Wilson, announced the squad of 8, which will be eventually narrowed down to 5, for the 2014 Mosconi Cup tournament.  He has picked a good group of pool professionals, with some having been on past Mosconi Cup teams and some young players that have not.

The team of 8:

Name, age

Shane Van Boening, 30
John Schmidt, 40
Corey Deuel, 36
Brandon Shuff, 30
Justin Hall, 26
Oscar Dominguez, 29
Justin Bergman, 26
Jeremy Sossei, 35

Having announced the potential team members this early will hopefully give them time to evaluate the 5 guys that will best work together toward a common goal of winning the Mosconi Cup.  It has been five years since the USA won the Mosconi Cup and were getting left in the dust compared to Team Europe who worked together so much better as a team.

I feel like Mark Wilson has made huge leaps already by naming the potential team members early and making plans to pick the five based on who he feels will bring a good attitude and work ethic.  In years past, Johnny Archer was the team captain, but he also played, which I feel hurt more than helped.  Team USA also did not get together before the tournament to practice, build team unity, or put together a plan.  I feel confident that if Mark Wilson does this and brings a solid, unified team to the 2014 Mosconi Cup, even if we don't win, it will be a huge step in the right direction.

So look for Mark Wilson to narrow this squad of 8 down in the coming months before the November showdown in Blackpool, England.

2014 Derby City Classic Diamond "Big Foot" Challenge

Once again the Derby City Classic held the "Big Foot" Challenge.  This is 10-ball on a 10 foot Diamond table with, I believe, 4.25" pockets.  It was an all-star lineup featuring players such as Ralph Souquet, Efren Reyes, Rodney Morris, Corey Deuel, Neils Feijen, Shane Van Boening, Dennis Orcollo, Earl Strickland, Francisco Bustamante, Darren Appleton, and more.

Each player put up $1,000 with $16,000 added.  The winner got $16,000 and 2nd place $8,000.  I did not get to watch all these matches, but I did watch online via Accu-Stats live stream Sunday night and Monday night (Semi-finals and Finals).

Neils Feijen is a beast.  He handily sent Corey Deuel packing with an opening round defeat 11-2.  He then took down Efren Reyes by a score of 11-8.  In his 3rd round match, he trounced his Mosconi Cup teammate, Ralph Souquet 11-4 to face Shane Van Boening in the Finals.

Shane Van Boening had an opening round match against Dennis Orcollo and beat him 11-8.  He then faced John Morra in a close, hill-hill match that I watched on Sunday night.  It looked like Shane would easily take him down, but with a large lead (6-1, I believe), John Morra came fighting back to eventually make it hill-hill.  Shane managed to get the win.  I also watched the Earl Strickland vs. Francisco Bustamante match.  I really had no favorite between these two, but I figured Earl would have the advantage since he likes these big 10 foot tables with tight pockets and he practices on a 10 foot table.  It wasn't meant to be for Earl.  He was playing good, but Bustamante got a few rolls and defeated him 11-7.  Surprisingly, Earl didn't have a meltdown, although he had the crowd laughing about the bad rolls he was getting.

Shane then faced Bustamante Monday night, which again looked like it was going to be all Shane as he got ahead early 7-3.  Bustamante got the score to 10-8 after Shane missed the 10-ball for the match.  Shane got the win in the next rack.  Final score was 11-8.

The Final was Neils Feijen vs. Shane Van Boening.  Yet again it looked like SVB was going to dominate the match.  Neils won the first 2 games, but SVB took over from there.  Shane won the next 6 games, breaking and running 2, 2 packs and took a comfortable lead 6-2.  Neils capitalized on a Shane miss, but in rack 10, Neils rattled the 10 leaving a tough, table-length bank for Shane.  Shane thought about playing safe, but fired the bank 10 feet down into the corner.  SVB took a 7-3 lead.  The next rack showed just how tough this Diamond 10 foot table was.  Shane got on the 10, but rattled it in the corner pocket.  He left Neils a long, but makeable shot on the 10.  Neils also rattled it, leaving a straight in shot to give Shane an 8-3 lead.

Shane got on the hill with the score 10-3, but Neils wasn't going to go down without a fight.  Shane broke dry in rack 14 and Neils ran out to make it 10-4.  Neils eventually fought to 10-7, but in rack 18 and the final rack of the match, Neils accidentally went off the 8-ball and scratched in the side pocket.  It was over then.  Shane ran out the rest of the rack to take the win 11-7.

I love watching these top players play on this big 10 foot table.  As the commentators said at one point, it really separates the men from the boys.  Banks, One Pocket, and 9-ball is still to be determined at the 2014 Derby City Classic, but after it was all said and done on the "Big Foot", Shane Van Boening is your winner.

Here is the final bracket if you would like to see how your favorite player fared.

http://www.azbilliards.com/tours_and_events/124-derby-city-classic/6069-derby-city-classic-2014-bigfoot-10-ball-challenge/brackets/59-main-event/

The Decider Results. Shane Van Boening vs. Earl Strickland

Well, it's all over except Earl's rants.  Shane Van Boening swept Earl Strickland in all 3 days of pool in Helena, Montana.

Day 1 was a race to 30 in 9-ball.  Shane Van Boening won by a score of 30-20.

Day 2 was a race to 30 in 8-ball.  Shane strung together 8 racks to finish off Earl 30-22.

Day 3 was a race to 30 in 10-ball.  Shane beat Earl by a score of 30-27.

Here are some stats compiled by Pool-Trax.net

Day 1 - 9-ball

Day 2 - 8-ball

Day 3 - 10-ball

I personally did not watch this event, seriously considered purchasing the PPV live stream, but decided against it.  I would have liked to have watched Shane Van Boening run those last 8 racks on Day 2!!  Maybe it will be up on YouTube sometime.

I really like these one-on-one matchups against top professional players.  I hope many more of these types of events can be held.  Earl Strickland thinks the pros should play on 10 foot tables.  Apparently 8-ball is easier for the pros.

What do you think?

The Decider. Shane Van Boening vs. Earl Strickland

Two of the top professional pool players in the world, Shane Van Boening and Earl Strickland, are facing off this weekend in Helena, Montana in a 3-day match-up of 9-ball, 8-ball, and 10-ball.  The competition is taking place on a 7 foot Diamond bar box table and is being live streamed by POVpool.com.

Yesterday, Shane and Earl played a race to 30 in 9-ball.  Shane Van Boening won the match by a score of 30-20.  Today, the action took place at 1 p.m. Pacific/4 p.m. Eastern and once again, Shane Van Boening came out on top by a score of 30-22.  Shane found his break towards the end of the match and strung together 8 racks to finish off Earl.

Tomorrow, (August 4, 2013) the action starts again at 1 p.m. Pacific/4 p.m. Eastern with another race to 30, this time in 10-ball.

If you would like to tune in and watch live, go to http://povpool.com/decider-tickets/

2013 US Open 10-Ball and One Pocket Championships

     The 2013 US Open One Pocket Championship is just about in the books.  64 players started the tournament and it all came down to Corey Deuel from the loser's side playing undefeated Dennis Orcollo.  Orcollo had blanked Corey earlier in the tournament by a score of 4-0 sending him to the loser's side to face Carlo Biado.  Corey squeaked by Biado 3-2, setting up a rematch in the final with Orcollo.  Winner side matches are a race to 4 and a race to 3 over on the loser side.
     Orcollo is up 3-2 over Deuel at the time of this writing.

     Meanwhile, the 10-Ball Championship continues into day 3.  A few of the matches were delayed due to some pretty severe storms blowing through Las Vegas which knocked out the power, suspending play on some of the matches until the next day.  A few notable matches were both Corey Deuel and Shane Van Boening losing in nail biters to Jin-Hu Dang of China, both by the score of 9-8 in a race to 9.  
     Charlie Williams also lost deep in the winner side in a close one to Denis Grabe 9-8.  Earl Strickland got knocked out of the tournament over on the loser side by Shane Van Boening by a score of 9-5.

     Someone I've had my eye on lately is Jonathan "Hennessee" Pinegar.  I saw this guy play in a tournament in my hometown several years back and he's been showing up at lot lately at the bigger tournaments.  This year at the US Open 10-Ball Championship, he lost 9-6 to Denis Grabe, but has torn through the loser side with wins of 9-1, 9-7, 9-6, 9-6, and at the time of this writing is up 7-5 over Karl Boyes of Great Britain in Round 6.

Welcome!

Hi! Welcome to the Onthe9 Billiards blog!

I will give you tips on how to improve your pool game, pro and amateur tournament updates, billiard news, some product reviews occasionally, and lots of other billiard related stuff!

Today starts the US Open 10 Ball Championship at the Rio All Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.  10 ball is quickly becoming more popular with the professional players as it presents a more challenging game than 9 ball.  Sure, 10 ball is just one more ball and is similar to 9 ball in that the balls must be pocketed in rotation, but there are a few key differences that make it more challenging.

With the balls racked similar to 8 ball with the 10 ball in the middle of the rack, it makes it more difficult to pocket the 10 ball on the break.  If, however, the 10 ball is made on the break, it is spotted and the player continues his turn at the table.  Also, all balls must be called before pocketing them.

See the BCA rules for 10 ball here:  http://home.bca-pool.com/associations/7744/files/10ball.pdf

Be sure to visit all the Onthe9 Billiards sites for more great billiard happenings!

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