Bustamante and Abraham Co-Champions at Blaze Stop

One Shot Billiards hosted Blaze 9 Ball Tour Sunday August 31, 2008.  A strong field came out player’s like Francisco Bustamante, Matt Krah, Eddie Abraham, and  Mike Fingers to name a few.

Leading the top half of the bracket was Matt Krah with wins over Ben Sadowski 7-4, Jose Burgos 7-0, and Noel Bensurto 7-2.  Leading  the bottom half of the bracket was Francisco Bustamante with wins over Mike Seas 7-2, Eddie Abraham 7-4  Playing for the hot seat was Mat Krah Vs Francisco Bustamante this was a great match that went to the hill when it was all said and done it was Francisco Bustamante winning the match 7-6 and sending Matt Krah to the one lost side.  Waiting for Matt Krah on the one lost side was Eddie Abraham, this too was a great match that went to the hill but it was Eddie Abraham with the win 7-6.

Playing in the finals was Eddie Abraham Vs Francisco Bustamante  both players are co-champions of the tournament.

Asia 10-Ball Championships in Seoul, Korea

Seoul, Korea- Dragon Promotions is pleased to announce The 5th Annual Asia 10-Ball Championships which will take place November 10-14, 2008 at the Hamilton Hotel, Seoul Korea. The event will be broadcasted on XTM and XPORTS, two of the top channels in South Korea.

Top names in the field so far include Mika Immonen FIN, Rodney Morris USA, Thorsten Hohmann GER, Raj Hundal IND, Lee Chenman HK, and Young Hwa Jeong KOR. The event will pay a guaranteed $10,000 to the winner of the men's division and $3500 to the winner of the women's division.

All players from all countries are welcomed to come join the event and should contact Dragon Promotions at koreaprotour@yahoo.com for information on Stage 2 of the event beginning November 11.  All other players are welcome to join Stage 1 with 4 qualifying rounds on November 10.

Players wishing to visit and compete in Asia in November will find it convenient as there are three back to back events including The All Japan Championships November 19-24 and Puyat Sports Bacolod Open November 27-30 in the Philippines.

Dragon Promotions is one of the leading producers of billiard programming in the world today. Dragon produces over 40 events a year airing on networks in USA, Korea, India, and Europe such as ESPN, MBC ESPN, XTM, XPORTS, and Euro Sport. Events include The World 14.1 Championship, The Predator International 10-Ball Championship, King & Queen of Carom, Empress Cup, Pro Pool Schools, Women's Trickshot Challenge, World Junior 10-Ball Championships, Korea vs USA, and many more.  Dragon also manages some of the world's best players including  Rodney Morris,  Mika Immonen, Shanelle Loraine, Charlie Williams, Jeanette Lee, Mike Davis, Yu Ram Cha, Raj Hundal and many more.

Orcollo Takes Guangzhou Guinness Title

After Taiwan's cueists dominated the Guinness 9-Ball Tour for a year and a half, the balance of power appears to have swung back towards the Philippines. Alex Pagulayan won July's Singapore leg of the Asian professional tour, and Dennis Orcollo snapped off last weekend's stop in Guangzhou, China.

Before Pagulayan's win, Taiwan had captured all six titles of 2007 and the first three of this season. Chang Jung Lin has collected six titles in that time.

But the all-Filipino final between Orcollo and Pagulayan at the Singapore stop has changed the momentum on tour.

At this past weekend's event in Guangzhou, Orcollo breezed into the final. He won his two group matches, then posted 9-1 victories in his quarterfinal and semifinal matches.

Taiwan's Wang Hung Hsiang, meanwhile, was shaking up the other side of the bracket. He sent Chang home with a 9-4 in in the quarterfinal round, then edged Pagulayan in a hill-hill semifinal.

On the hill in the final, 10-7, Orcollo failed to pocket the 3 on a seemingly easy attempt, allowing Wang to win the rack.

The Filipino ace then committed another foul in the 19th rack and his Taiwanese foe converted on a 1-9 combination to narrow the gap to 10–9.

Wang was tripped up in the next rack, missing the 2 ball, leaving Orcollo to clean the table for his first win on the Guinness Tour.

Check Listings: Fox Sports to Air World Pool Masters

Fox Sports Network will air matches from the 2008 World Pool Masters — won in dramatic, come-from-behind fashion by Alex Pagulayan of the Philippines — every week during the month of September.

FSN is divided into regional networks across the U.S. (such as FSN Midwest and FSN Rocky Mountain), so you need to check your local listings for airdates and times. A lion’s share of the networks are slating the programming for either 11 a.m. or 3 p.m.

The airings come as part of the continuing relationship between FSN for U.K.-based Matchroom Sport, producer of the World Pool Masters as well as such highly regarded fare as the Mosconi Cup and World Pool Championship. Matchroom has been providing FSN with pool programming steadily since 2003.

The World Pool Masters took place in May at the Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. In the final against Mika Immonen, Pagulayan fell behind, 6-3, before winning five consecutive racks for the title-clinching victory.

Comcast New England and Comcast Philadelphia also will air programming from the World Pool Masters.

More Top Players Fall at Predator Straight Pool

As play continued at the Predator World Straight Pool Championship in East Brunswick, NJ, several top players were eliminated including Johnny Archer, Tony Robles, Mike Davis and Charlie Williams.  The tournament has seen several upsets and surprises thus far, but with some of the pre-tournment favorites and round robin monsters out of contention, it seems like anybody’s tournament after these early extis.

Inside POOL Magazine would like to apologize for the misinformation that was passed along to our readers.  We originally reported that the top 32 players, the top four players from each grouping of the round robin stages, would advance into a single elimination bracket to continue the remainder of the tournament.  This information was incorrect as the top 32 players advance into a double elminiation bracket. 

The European contingent is living up to expectations, continuing to dominate and lay all comers to waste.  Nick Van Den Berg, Mika Immonen, Thorsten Hohmann, Niels Feijen, Thomas Engert, Oliver Ortmann, and young phenom Dominic Jentsch all are still alive and on the right side of the brackets.  One slight shocker was Raj Hundal defeating round robin killer Johnny Archer in the first round.

Eberle Wins Unusual Billiards Event

Some of the finest players in Southern California assembled at Danny K’s Billiards in Orange, CA, the weekend of August 23-24 to play in the second rotation continuous double-elimination pool tournament. Even though only 32 players entered, the field hosted some local and national pros, like Jose Parica, Ernesto Dominguez, Tang Hoa, David Hemmah, Oscar Dominguez, and ultimate winner Max Eberle.

The entry fee was $50, with $2,000 added to the prize money.

The format was a race to 100 point on the winners’ side and 75 points on the one-loss side. Rotation continuous is played like rotation, with each ball counting a point and with each player coming to the table with cue ball in hand. Safeties are not allowed, and if the shooter makes a ball on the break, he or she takes cue ball in hand,

On Sunday, Eberle played Parica in the winners’-bracket semifinals. Tied at 75 points, Eberle scratched on the break. Parica had the option to give the shot back to Eberle and did so because the 1 ball was tied up on the spot with other balls. Eberle banked the one in the side, breaking up any clusters and ran the table.

Parica then went to the one-loss side, where he played Hoa. At 74 points, Parica got out of line on his out ball and rattled it in the corner. Hoa had 56 points when this happened and mounted a charge, running 11 balls. However, he got out of line on the 8 ball and missed position on his next ball. Hoa missed, and Parica won 75-66. Parica then had to play Nick Spano from Victorville. Spano showed a lot of heart but lost 75-55. Meanwhile, Eberle and Dominguez were battling it out for the hot seat. The audience witnessed some great pool, with Eberle winning 100-40.

Dominguez then had to face Parica in the semifinal match. Dominguez displayed great cue ball control in winning 75-54. In the finals, a single race to 100, Eberle displayed near-perfect cue ball control, running 28 balls and then 22 later in the match, while Dominguez seemed to have a difficult time making a ball on the break. Ultimately Eberle won the match 100-54 and the tournament, stating, “Rotation continuous may just be my new favorite game. I’ve always loved rotation and this is a great way to bring it into an exciting and highly playable format. It’s an awesome test of skill and focus, and this may well be the game of the future.”

2008 Predator World 14.1 Championship Group Pairings

East Brunswick, New Jersey-  Dragon Promotions announces the official group pairings for the 2008 Predator World Straight Pool Championship. The round robin stage will be held Aug 25-27, with the field narrowed to 32 in the double elimination stage races to 150 on Aug 28, and the last sixteen playing race to 200 points on Aug 29-30.

There may be last minute changes and substitutions in the schedule and the event if a player is not able to attend.
Official Group Pairings of the 2008 Predator World 14.1 Championship. Round Robin Races to 100 Points.

Group 1

Oliver Ortmann  GER
Allen Hopkins USA
Yu Ram Cha KOR
Mike Dechaine USA
Bernie Pettipiece USA
Bob Chamberlain USA
Bill Maropolous USA
Peter Burrows USA

Group 2

Thorsten Hohmann  GER
Mike Sigel USA
Jonathan Fulcher  SCO 
Charlie Williams USA
Stevie Moore USA
Jim Gottier USA
Devon Cataldi USA
Allan Cornia USA

Group 3

Huidji See NED
John Schmidt USA 
Dominic Jentsch GER
Shaun Wilkie USA
Mark Vidal SPN
Jimmy Mendoza  USA
Dan Heidrich USA USA
David Daya USA

Group 4

Danny Harriman USA
Niels Feijen  NED
Danny Barouty USA
Gerda Hofstatter AUT
Bob Maidhof USA
Chris Lynch USA
Mark Snodgrass USA
Stefan Cohen FRA

Group 5

Martin Kempter AUT
Ralf Souquet GER
Tony Robles USA
Francisco Bustamante PHI
Vincent Facquet FRA
Dan Wallace USA
Dennis Hatch USA
Jonathan Smith USA

Group 6

Thomas Engert GER
Raj Hundal  IND
Corey Deuel USA
Nick Van Denberg NED
Sebastian Staab GER
Liz Ford USA
Tom Parisian USA
Shin Young Park KOR

Group 7

Mika Immonen FIN
Bobby Hunter USA
Konstantin Stepanov RUS
Mike Davis USA
Ed Deska USA
Mark Ritter USA
Michael Yednak USA
Bob M. Cozzolino USA

Group 8

Johnny Archer USA
Jasmin Ouschan AUT
Radoslaw Babica POL
Tony Rodriguez  USA 
Calvin Coker USA
Mohammed Hakim NED 
Steve Lipsky USA
Steve Lillis USA

Fans and players can still reserve rooms at Hilton East Brunswick at 1-732-828-2000. The room code for the event is "POL"    There are still limited amount of rooms available. Tickets can be purchased in advanced at www.dragonpromotions.com or in person at the event, or at Amsterdam Billiards in NYC or Comet Billiards in NJ.

The 2008 Predator World Straight Pool Championship is proudly sponsored by Dr.Michael Fedak of NYC, Joel Schapiro of NYC, The Predator Group, Diamond Billiard Products, Aramith Balls, and Simonis Cloth. For more information on player registration, sponsorship, or if you would like to submit a comment, please email, worldstraightpoolchampionships@gmail.com or contact Dragon Promotions at 1-407-782-4978.