Hurricane Billiards

From the new Stardust Convention Center at the Blue Chip Casino, day two began with a web match featuring rookie Kathleen Moon and P&B’s own Ewa Laurance. Ewa showed no mercy and defeated the young qualifier 9-0… Liz Ford and Sarah Rousey matched up on the one loss side in what would normally be a 2nd round winner’s bracket match. Although Liz put up a good fight, eventually Sarah gained the advantage and won 9-7. Meanwhile, Iris Ranola, who’d had a tough match against Jeanette Lee in the 2nd round winner’s bracket, came back today on the one loss side to face veteran player and Billiard Education Foundation Executive Director, Laura Smith. According to Iris, Laura played very well and defeated Iris 9-3. Iris may have finally succumbed to the pressures of traveling as she’d been on the road along with many of the pros for several back-to-back international events. Sarah Ellerby, back for her first event since mid 2008, also finished 33rd, along with top Arizona Women’s Billiard Tour player, Nicole Keeney; Exempt pro Sueyen Rhee and former Exempt player, Morgan Steinman. Round 3 winner’s bracket action was fierce and included a fantastic web match between current #1 Ranked Monica Webb against up-and-comer Yu Ram Cha. Both players were like dogs with bone, not yielding one to the other until the score was 6-5 Monica. From that point, the wheels seemed to fall off of Monica’s game as Yu Ram won the next four games to send Monica to the one loss side. Monica goes on to face Kim Shaw for a berth in the final 16. Jasmin Ouschan defeated a formidable Karen Corr 9-6. Jeanette Lee faced off against Ga Young Kim but the Little Devil Girl proved too strong and won easily 9-4. Vivian Villarreal, Xiaoting Pan & Kelly Fisher all advanced, and once again Gerda Hofstatter and Allison Fisher matched up in “Groundhog Day” fashion. Allison is playing very well and defeated Gerda 9-4. Allison is definitely riding a high after finding out about her BCA Hall of Fame nomination and she’ll be inducted along with favorite Johnny Archer in a ceremony on October 22nd, in Chesapeake, VA. The one tight match of the round was Japan’s Miyuki Sakai vs. former World 9 Ball Champion, Julie Kelly. The match went hill-hill, and although Julie fought like a lion, Miyuki came through in the end and advanced into the final 16. On the one loss side, a great match ensued between veterans Laura Smith and Ewa Laurance. It looked as though Ewa would pull through but Laura wouldn’t give up and sank the 9 to win after a hard fought hill-hill match. Last year’s US Open surprise dark-horse, Pam Cimarelli, will play for a place in the final 16 on Saturday. Pam had defeated Helena Thornfeldt in the first round, but lost to Julie Kelly thereafter. She’s since picked her way through the one loss side, including a sound victory over Janet Atwell, 9-2. She goes on to face the #14 seed for this event, Melissa Herndon. Check back to www.wpba.com for the most up-to-date brackets (posted after each round is completed). CLICK HERE for a front row webstreaming seat to these featured matches!

As several of the WPBA Sponsors looked on with the capacity crowd at the Blue Chip Casino, Kelly Fisher and Jasmin Ouschan stepped up for the lag in the finals of the 2009 WPBA Great Lakes Classic. Both had won events last year, and were looking to win their first title of the new season. If Kelly won this event, she would vault back into the #1 position by herself. If she came in second, she would be tied for 1st place with Ga Young Kim. If Jasmin were to win, she’d tie for 2nd along with Xiaoting Pan and Monica Webb. Jasmin won the lag and broke, but found herself embroiled in a safety battle with Kelly Fisher on several of the balls in the rack including the 7. Kelly stuck Jasmin directly behind the 9 but Jasmin was able to kick one side rail, leaving the 7 ball at the foot of the table and the cue ball near the 1st spot by the corner pocket. She attempted to cut the ball, missed but got lucky and left Jasmin hooked, the 7 ball having come to rest behind the 9. Jasmin kicked from the back rail, and the two kept going back and forth until finally Jasmin gained the upper hand and finished out the rack to win the first game of the match. Kelly broke in game 2 but failed to pocket a ball. Jasmin had a touchy thin cut on the one and the crowd applauded as she made it with positing for the 2/9 combination. Just like that, she earned her 2nd game in just minutes of play to go up 2-0 and into game 3 with the break advantage. She pocketed the 3 ball, but the one proved unmake-able and she chose to play a great safety, striking the cue ball behind the 7 forcing Kelly to kick. She missed entirely giving Jasmin ball in hand, but Jasmin failed to take advantage of the opportunity and missed the 6 ball. As luck would have it, she didn’t leave Kelly an open shot so Kelly sent the 6 ball to the side rail behind the 7. Jasmin could see enough of the ball to play a great cross bank to the side pocket and left herself straight in on the 7. She drew back the cue ball for the 8, giving herself an out and taking a 3-0 lead. Kelly broke but failed to pocket a ball and Jasmin made a pretty shot on the 1 with position for the 2. She wasn’t so perfect from the 3 to the four, though and was forced to play a safe. Her attempt failed and Kelly had an open shot to run out and post her first game of this final match, down 1-3. Jasmin looked to fare better in game 5 as she had the break, but nothing fell for her. Several of the balls clustered around each other, preventing an easy run-out. Kelly made a beautiful cut shot on the one ball and tapped the 2 ball into a makeable position on the table. The crowd gasped as she undercut the 2, leaving Jasmin a wide open shot. The three barely cleared the 5 ball while the 4 was wide open in the side. Jasmin successfully navigated through all of these issues until she found herself straight in on the 6. Without missing a beat she force followed the cue ball (cheating the very tight pockets) down-table for great position on the 7, to the 8 and finally the 9 to retake a 3 game lead, 4-1. Kelly broke and made a ball but her safety attempt came up short. Jasmin made a thin cut on the one, sending her cue ball up-table and snookering herself behind the 9 for the 2 ball. She jumped, struck the 2 and left Kelly with a side pocket cut shot. Kelly quickly came to the table and made short work of the rack, now facing a 2 game deficit instead of 3, down 2-4. Jasmin stepped up to break in game 7, and after pocketing a ball on the break, had a monster cluster to contend with as the 2, 6, 7 and 9 ball were all tied up on the side rail by the corner pocket. It was ugly! However, Jasmin calmly played the 2/7 carom, breaking the 2 away from the 6 and 9, giving herself the opportunity to run out and retake the 3 game lead. Kelly looked on without any expression as Jasmin ran out, up 5-2. Much to Kelly’s chagrin, she scratched on the break. Jasmin played a great position shot from the 1 to the 2 ball to get in line and run out another rack. As Kelly crossed her arms in obvious frustration, Jasmin came around from the 2 to the 3, and from the 3 to the 5 squeezing between the 7/8 balls. Steve called out “10″ and Jasmin took her extension on the 6 ball as she carefully thought out how she’d get position to the 7. Pocketing the 6 in the side and coming off the side rail, she was perfect on the 7, the 8 and the 9 to reach the hill, 6-2. It appeared as though Jasmin was putting on a clinic for all to see, including Kelly Fisher. Jasmin continued on in game 9 with the break and pocketed 2 balls but found herself without a pocket for the one ball. She played safety and Kelly fired back with one of her own, starting a safety exchange. Jasmin slow rolled the cue ball, barely kissing the one, then onto the rail as Kelly came back to the table smiling at the great shot. The two competitors continued on with the safety battle of wits, which ended when Jasmin went for a bank shot into the side pocket. She barely missed, leaving Kelly a very thin cut into the corner pocket. She came up short and Jasmin had an open shot to the one ball. However, she still would face the 3 and 4 ball tied up near the side rail. Eyeing the shot, she played a beautiful throw/combination, pocketing the four and leaving perfect shape back on the 3 ball. With only four balls left on the table between her and victory, Jasmin strode around the “Zanzibar” table with confidence, and won her first event of 2009! For full round results and tournament brackets, visit www.wpba.com

The 26th annual Billiard Congress of America Billiard & Home Recreation Expo kicked off in Vegas with a brisk first day’s business. The 150 exhibitors saw quite a few buyers on the show floor opening day, and exhibitors report that the nation’s billiard retailers and billiard clubs are there to shop! When not shopping for new cues, pool tables, poker tables and gameroom accessories, buyers are attending one of several BCA seminars, from improving online customer appeal to marketing in challenging economic times. On the docket for today’s activities: A seminar on “Generation Youth” – and a new benefit for exhibitors as BCA will begin signing up exhibitor space for next year’s event, again to be staged in Las Vegas. Stay tuned for more details and photos from the show…

The 26th Annual Billiard Congress of America (BCA) International Billiard & Home Recreation Expo came to a successful conclusionat the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas. Buyer attendance for the three-day event was 1,120. The number of companies exhibiting at the event was 116, while the total number of booths was 412. A smaller show to be sure, but exhibitors were pleased with the results. “I was excited to see how well the show turned out and I am very pleased with all of the positive comments that I have received from both exhibitors and buyers,” said Ivan Lee, co-chair of the Expo and 2008-2009 chairman of the BCA Board of Directors. “Informally, the show was a roll-call for the billiard industry and the exhibitors that attended saw a strong show of support from the retail base. Many buyers commented that Las Vegas is the right place for the BCA Expo and they were happy to be back in Vegas. I was also impressed with the Business of Billiards Seminar Series. We had very good attendance at the seminars this year and the information presented was timely and very useful. If you are involved in the billiard industry and didn’t participate in the BCA Expo you missed out,” said Lee. Kicking off the Expo was the BCA’s annual general membership meeting, where results of the 2009-2010 Board of Directors elections were announced: Category 1 (Manufacturer/Distributor) Tom Gregory (Toltec Lighting), three-year term Eric Weber (CueStix International), three-year term Fred Cohen (D&R Industries/Championship LLC), three-year term Skip Nemecek (Tweeten Fibre Co.), three-year term Michael Serra (MBS Group, Inc.), two-year term Thomas Rodgers (Robertson Billiard Supplies), one-year term Category 3 (Room Operator) Danny Kuykendall (Danny K’s Billiards), three-year term In follow-up elections, Ivan Lee of Iwan Simonis, Inc. (pictured) accepted a one-year term as BCA Board chairman, as did each of the remaining seated officers: First Vice Chairman Renee Lyle (American Poolplayers Association); Second Vice Chairman Kathy Vegh (Danny Vegh’s Billiards & Home); Secretary Eric Weber (CueStix International); and Treasurer Karim Belhaj (Predator Group). The remaining directors include: Nick Alexander (Clicks Billiards); George Darafeev (Mikhail Darafeev, Inc.); Barry Hart (Viking Cue Mfg., Inc.); John Petti (Atlas Billiard Supplies); and Tony Stick (The Billiard Factory). “The past year has been turbulent for the economy, as well as for our industry, and leading the Board though this period has been demanding,” said Lee. “However, I will accept the challenge to lead the Board once again and I will work diligently to ensure that the BCA’s key initiatives of enhancing the value of both membership and the BCA Expo will remain in focus. The Board members, individually and collectively, must remain dedicated and committed to the success of the BCA and I am confident that we can work together to accomplish our stated objectives.” The BCA has secured the Las Vegas Convention Center for the 2010 Expo, which will take place June 24-26, 2010, and the Sands Expo and Convention Center, June 23-25, 2011.

John D. Rockefeller founds the Standard Oil Company; Thomas Edison turns on the first functioning light bulb, and writers such as Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott and Henry James publish some of their finest works. During this same time, 1870 to 1880, Brunswick Billiards was impressing connoisseurs across the country with its Exposition Novelty table, which is now being resurrected in honor of Brunswick Billiard’s 165-year anniversary celebration taking place in 2010… The 1878 J.M. Brunswick and Balke Co. catalog defined the Exposition Novelty as a table manufactured for “gentlemen’s private residences” that was “a marvel of artistic excellence.” With its superb workmanship, exquisite and elaborate inlay, and elegantly carved leg, the Exposition Novelty represents the contrast between that 19th Century decade’s sophisticated culture of innovation and the country’s untamed west. Accordingly, this stately and detailed table was a judge’s favorite of the age, winning gold medals in San Francisco and Cincinnati, and, as the 1878 catalog states, “wherever exhibited.” “Brunswick produced more than 130 different table models during its first 100 years,” said Austin Rothbard, president of Brunswick Billiards. “But we chose to revive the Exposition Novelty due to the table’s heritage design that speaks to a bold era of art, culture and politics in America and around the world. It is an elegant table that finely represents how we’ve been connecting generations of billiards enthusiasts throughout our rich 165-year history.” The commemorative antique replica Exposition Novelty boasts of magnificent craftsmanship through the use of sapele rails, solid white oak legs, a variety of beautifully grained veneers, solid brass rosettes and rail sights made of Asian Water Buffalo bone. Each table features a limited edition brass Brunswick emblem, and will be offered with a matching cue rack and distinctive Brunswick Exposition Novelty cue. Only 25, nine-foot Exposition Novelty tables will be made available to the public beginning October, 2009, in preparation for the company’s 165th anniversary celebration in 2010. The table, with matching cue rack and cue, retails for $39,999. For more information about Brunswick Billiards and its product line, visit www.brunswickbilliards.com.