Pool & Snooker Success Stories

I’m getting tired of all these weird pool twilight stories – it is getting too depressing. Therefore, this post is dedicated to positive pool & snooker success and victory stories.

Dennis Orcollo Tops 2008 Japan 9-ball Open

Dennis Orcollo is the winner of the 2008 Japan 9-Ball Open held last week in Japan. A week after beating fellow Filipino Ronnie Alcano in San Miguel Beer-Quezon City 9-Ball, “The Philippines’ Money-game King” grabbed the Japan 9-Ball Open Championship title from Japanese Ryoji Aoki after defeating him 9-2.

Snooker’s Rising Star

15 years old John Roberts is introduced by Liverpool Echo as a rising star in snooker. The young cueist has recently won an older and wiser contestant in a recent under 19s snooker tournament. Roberts is already receiving professional guidance from a former World Snooker Championship referee and personal coach of Mark Williams and Paul Hunter, Reg Davies who grows high expectations from the snooker protégé.

Pakistan’s New Snooker Champion

Muhammad Sajjad Butt of Punjab, Pakistan has gathered the 33th National Snooker Championship title after beating former World Championship runner up Saleh Muhammad 7-3 in Tuesday’s final match. It was the first participation in a national ranking event for the new snooker champion.

New Face to BCA 9-Ball Pool Championship

The BCA (Billiard Congress of America) 9-ball pool championship, will be called, as for 2008 GenerationPool.com 9-Ball Championships. Additionally, the prestigious 9-ball tournament will be held along with the International Billiard & Home Recreation Expo in Charlotte, North Carolina. The closing events of the 9-ball pool championship will take place on June 11-12 while the billiards expo is scheduled to June 12-14, 2008. About the same time, the BCA will also be inducting its fifty-second member into the BCA Hall of Fame.

 

The name of the 9-ball pool tournament is not the only detail changed this year by the governing body, the Billiard Congress of America. According to the BCA President, Ivan Lee, the arena, the format, the production techniques, and the environment will be changed as well.

 

GenerationPool.com 9-Ball Championships will be broadcast on ESPN and ESPN2 throughout 2008. The sports network intends to cover 3 hours from both the men’s and women’s GenerationPool.com 9-Ball Championship events in 2008.

New Breakers Billiards in West Salem

Good news for the 9,000 billiards players of West Salem billiards league – a new billiards hall, a retail outlet for billiard supplies and a snack bar will be opened downtown in the building at 153 S. Leonard Street (the former location of Coulee News, which also reported this breakers, sorry breaking news).

Additionally, the first pool tournament in the history of West Salem will take place in February 9 at three different locations: Krome’s, Hunter’s Last Chance and Crazy Horse. The opening of Breakers Billiards is scheduled to follow West Salem pool tournament.

Double Wins for Indian Billiards Champ

Indian billiards master Pankaj Advani is ending 2007 holding two major titles: World Billiards Championship (for the 3rd time) and the National Billiards and Snooker championship.

For Advani, it is the third World Billiards Championship title and the second time holding both billiards and snooker titles at the same year;  Advani enjoyed double wins back in 2005.

Ronnie O’sullivan wins UK Snooker Championship

Ronnie “The Rocket” O’sullivan won 10-2 Stephen Maguire in the Maplin UK Championship, which took place last week at the Telford International Centre. Following his 4th UK Championship victory, the 32 years old snooker player climbed back to number one spot in World Ranking.

Europe Takes Mosconi Cup

The 14th Mosconi Cup ended up yesterday, December 16 2007 with the victory of the European team 11-8. The European billiards team victory was declared after Ralph Souquet of Germany had defeated Hawaiian pool player Rodney Morris 6-4.

For Souquet it was the 11th participation in the European team for Mosconi Cup. This time, he had finally brought Europe the desired trophy for the first time since 2002.

Southeast Asian Games

The Philippines billiards team is ruling the 24th Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games). The men’s 8-ball singles gold was gained by Ronnie “Toothless” Alcano, former World 9-ball pool, who’ve beat his Singapore contestant. The women’s gold in 9-ball singles was captured by Rubilen Amit, while Philippines’ currently number 1 8-ball pool player had only made it to the bronze in the women’s 8-ball singles.

Breaking News: New Breaking Rules on 2007 Mosconi Cup

New 9-ball breaking rules will come into effect at the he 2007 Mosconi Cup, which is scheduled to take place on December 13 at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas. Instead of the recently dominant soft break, the power break will be brought back to the scene. According to the new breaking rules, the breaker will be required to:

1. Rack the balls higher up the table with the 9-ball resting on the spot.
2. Strike the cue ball from within a break box in the center of the table.
3. At the end of the break shot, three balls must pass the head string (including pocketed balls excluding the cue ball).
4. Strike the rack lightly

I guess we’ll have to wait and see how these changes will affect the teams’ performances…

Billiards News from the Arab World

For now, Kuwait’s Billiards team leads the Billiards and Snooker tournament of the 4th Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The Billiards and snooker event, which started on Friday, November 23, with the Kuwait’s Billiards team victory over the Bahraini team in 8ball and 9ball match, will continue until Wednesday, November 28.

The Kuwaiti Billiards team won in every 8ball and 9ball pool match including individual and team competitions, besides a single 8ball match won by the Saudi Arabian team. Next up, Kuwait’s Billiards team will try to defend its current superiority against UAE team.

Billiard – Last Week News

New President To AACA
Bill Stroud, a well known cue maker, is the new president of AACA – The Academy of American Cue Art, an organization dedicated to the promotion of billiard cues as a legitimate art form.

Guiness 9-Ball Tour Finals
The Guiness 9-ball tour finals will take place at the Grand Hyatt Bali in Nusa Dua.
It will start on August 31st and will end on September 2nd.

Great Southern Billiard Tour
Tony Watson is the winner of  August 25-26 stop of the Great Southern Billiard Tour.
The event took place at the Palace Billiards in Greenville with 61 players, 5 of them are women players.

New York 9Ball Tournament Winner
The winner of the New York 9-ball tournament is Filipino billiards ace Lee Vann “The Slayer” Corteza. He won 8,000$ on the IX Turning Stone 9-Ball Tournament  that took place at the Turning Stone and Casino in Verona, New York.
Second place prize (5,300$) was given to the top player of San Diego, Ulrich.
Dennis “Robocop” Orcollo, finished third and won $3,800.