For those of you that don't know, online streaming of pool tournaments and matches are blowing up right now (and really over the past few years). There are several options now for viewing tournaments and specialty matches online. The Action Report has been putting together challenge matches between some of the top professionals in billiards. TAR #1 was a matchup of a relatively unknown Shane Van Boening and Corey Deuel. The match was race to 100, 10-ball, $10,000 per man.
TAR #37 is a rematch of Shane Van Boening and Corey Deuel. It is an all-around format with the games being Friday, November 1, One Pocket, race to 8, Saturday, November 2, 8-ball, race to 30, and Sunday, November 3, 9-ball, race to 30.
One Pocket: Friday, November 1, TAR #37 started with a One Pocket race to 8 games match. From what the commentators said before the 8-ball match started, nether player really shot spectacular in the One Pocket challenge. With Corey a heavy favorite to win the One Pocket round, it ended up going hill-hill and Corey won 8-7. I did not watch this event to see how worthy the match was, but in my opinion, when two top players go hill-hill in a match, that's a battle.
8-ball: Saturday, November 2, Corey and Shane squared off on the second challenge match, 8-ball race to 30. The commentators predicted Shane to be the heavy favorite in this challenge and I agreed with them. Shane crushed the balls on the break every rack while Corey opted to soft-break trying to make the head ball in the side pocket, which he did several times. Corey even broke left-handed a few times (apparently he's been having some arm/elbow issues in his right arm).
After a delay waiting on Corey to finish his Bonus Ball match, they got right to it. Shane won the lag and broke the balls wide open, but came up dry. Corey ran out the first game to take the early lead. Neither player really ran away from the other, except a few strings of break and runs by Shane. I believe he put together a 3-pack on at least one occasion and a 4-pack once or twice. Shane was really flustered by Corey's soft-break. Multiple times Corey left a cluster of balls for Shane to deal with which looked more like a One Pocket table after the break, compared to Shane's thunderous break style.
It was also interesting to see how the players racked the balls. Toward the end of the challenge, the commentators noted that after the break by Corey especially, there would be a cluster of solids together and the stripes would be together. In this challenge, the players racked their own using a triangle rack and the only stipulation was that the 8 had to be in the center of the rack, with a stripe and solid on the bottom corners. The commentators suspected Corey knew exactly what he was doing by racking the balls in a manner that would leave him the solids after making the 1-ball in the side pocket.
I expected Shane to really run away with this one, but due to several dry breaks where Corey would then run out, some easy misses, and the soft-break bothering him, Shane never really took control. As expected, though, Shane did come out on top by a score of 30-24.
9-ball: Sunday, November 3. The final night of this challenge was 9-ball race to 30. It looked like Shane was going to run away with it. At one point during the match, Shane was up 22-7 and also put together a 5-pack and a 6-pack early in the match. Corey started catching back up after the intermission getting the score to 23-18 before Shane took advantage of some misses and safety battles.
Corey had a more consistent soft-break, making the corner ball in the corner pocket, but kept getting the 3-ball froze to the 9-ball. Shane broke fairly soft, but didn't always leave himself a good shot on the 1-ball.
The commentators and myself were amazed at the consistency that both players were making a ball on the break and leaving themselves (especially Corey, who is good at racking and breaking with the soft-break style) the same pattern almost every time.
Shane wins by a score of 30-18.
Final thoughts:
Overall, I don't think either player on any of the three nights were at the top of their game. Corey should have and did win the One Pocket night. Shane should have and did win the 8-ball night and it was a complete toss up, maybe with Shane a slight edge, on who would win the 9-ball match. Both players are capable of running multiple racks of 9-ball, but it was Shane who did that the most. Corey only put together a 3-pack. Corey's soft-break wasn't really working for him tonight.
It was a good matchup. Shane will face Darren Appleton in TAR #38. (*Edit: TAR38 will feature Dennis Orcollo vs. Darren Appleton)
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