IPT Announces Live European Broadcasts
The International Pool Tour has announced its newly-minted deal with Eurosport and British Eurosport, which will show live, prime-time coverage of every round of all major IPT events in 2006.
The Pan-European network will also air a number of produced IPT highlights programs, including the recent “King of the Hill 8-Ball Shootout.” Plans call for approximately two hours nightly of live coverage.
The announcement was made by IPT Founder Kevin Trudeau at a major press conference held May 31 at the Hard Rock Café in London. Eurosport, the first pan-European sports channel created in 1989, is now available in 19 different languages, reaches over 107 million homes and over 240 million viewers across 54 countries. British Eurosport, which will also provide live coverage of the IPT, is the most widely available sports channel in the U.K., reaching over 10 million homes.
The first live IPT event to be aired on Eurosport will be the North American 8-Ball Open Championship held at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas from July 22-July 30. Players will be competing for $2 million, the largest prize money in the sport’s history.
IPT Holds Press Conference in London Relating to International Television Deals
International Pool Tour founder Kevin Trudeau, along with IPT Executive Director Jon Denny and IPT Tour Director Deno Andrews, is expected to make several major announcements about the global television deals that have been signed by the tour, including unprecedented live coverage of all 2006 events.
The event, held today at the Hard Rock Café in central London, is being called the biggest press conference in the history of pool, with dozens of representatives of major U.K. and European newspapers, magazines and television networks expected to attend.
Top IPT European players are scheduled to attend the media event, including Ronnie O’Sullivan and Raj Hundal of the U.K., Neils Feijin and Nick Van Den Berg of the Netherlands, France’s Vincent Facquet and Gerda Hofstatter, originally from Austria.
Stay tuned to Headstring News for any breaking news items that result from the press conference.
“The Miz” Will Be Missed
Billiard legend and Hall-of-Famer Steve Mizerak passed away on May 29, after being hospitalized since January when he was admitted for gall bladder problems. “The Miz” had been in a coma for the past few months, never having fully recovered from a stroke he suffered in 2001. He was 61 years old.
Mizerak was born Oct. 12, 1944 in Perth Amboy, N.J. and became a world champion pool player, dominant during the 1970s and early 1980s in the game of 14.1 continuous. He earned a teaching degree and taught school for 13 years before he gained notoriety for the game of pool. He appeared in a humorous commercial for Miller Lite beer in which he proclaimed that you can “really work up a thirst even when you’re just showing off” and later as an actor in the 1986 film “The Color of Money.”
Mizerak is most famous for winning the U.S. Open 14.1 Pocket Billiards Championship four years in a row from 1970 to 1973. He was also the U.S. Open 9-Ball Champion in 1978. He was inducted into the BCA Hall of Fame 1980 as the youngest member ever and was named the sixth best player of the century by Billiards Digest in 2000.
During the 1990s and 2000s, Mizerak owned and operated pool halls in the West Palm Beach-Lake Park, Fla., area. He founded the “Senior Tour” in 1996 for players 50 years of age and older and often hosted Senior Tour events at his pool hall in Lake Park. Mizerak suffered a stroke in 2001 which left him with physical challenges that prevented him from playing pool competitively. He is survived by his wife Karen, two sons and a stepson.
You can read or post memories of “The Miz” on Billiard Digest’s forum, “the cue chalkboard.”
Predator Florida Open Turns To 10-Ball
The 6th Annual Predator Florida Open began on May 25 at the Hyatt Regency in Jacksonville, bringing in 73 players, a third of which were non-Americans.
The first round saw several big names drop to the one-loss side, including Earl Strickland, Johnny Archer, Gabe Owen, Ralf Souquet and Rodney Morris.
Strickland was ahead in the entire match against Go Takami, but he turned on the afterburners at the end, pulling ahead to win 9-8. Archer trailed the whole match against the speedy Sparky Ferrell, who won 9-7. Owen also lost a 9-7 match to local favorite Butch Croft.
Souquet, who just won the Enjoypool.com 9-Ball Championship the weekend before, lost to Dennis Hatch, 9-7, who is also in the midst of a hot streak. Morris lost a close 9-7 match to Rodolfo Luat. Jeremy Jones made it to round two, defeating Rocky McElroy, 9-3, but couldn’t rally against an 8-4 deficit against Thomas Engert.
The Florida Open, sponsored by Predator, has changed its format for the first time in its six-year lifespan, to 10-ball, race-to-9, with alternating breaks. One significant modification has been established, however, so that If the 10 ball is made on the break in the two closest corner pockets to the rack, it will not count as a win. It will count only as a pocketed ball and the player will continue his inning.
“All pro events should move to 10-ball. It should just be automatic,” said Owen. “Now strategy, cue ball control, kicks, banks, and even shotmaking becomes more into play. Any good player that thinks he can compete with the pros should push for playing 10-ball.”
BCA Pool League Bolsters Fierce Eight-Ball Competition
The Riviera Hotel and Casino in fabulous Las Vegas, Nev., was filled with 227 bright blue, brand new Diamond tables and some 7,000 amateurs ranging in skill from recreational to Grand Master, and coming from as far as Tonga to compete in the 30th annual BCA Pool League National 8-Ball Championships, May 12-20.
Teams “Slightly Competitive” and “Strategeary” did Denver, Colo. proud, taking home their division titles. “Slightly Competitive” topped the 17-team field in the Women’s Master division, toppling the California CueTees in the final for the second year in a row. Slightly Competitive consisted of Bonnie Plowman, Julie Schultz, Samm Diep, Katrina Games and Chris Honeman. Team “Strategeary” outlasted all of the 695 five-man teams in the Men’s Open division, made up of Billiard Digest’s own Tom Ross, Scott Tollefson, Bob Winters, Bob Keller, and Chizolm Woodson.
In the most formidable field of the tournament, the Men’s Master Team division saw the Young Guns of St. Louis, Miss. take top honors, after besting the British dream team, Team Manston, made up of Men’s Master Singles winner, Michael Hill, and Men’s Grand Master Singles champion, Darren Appleton. All six members are highly decorated in their homeland game of British “reds and yellows.” The Young Guns have ample trophy cases as well, with four-time Missouri State champion Andy Quinn, Ozark Mountain champion Joe Woolford, two-time NCAA chamption Lars Varderman, Chuck Ralston, and the young gun of Young Guns, 18-year-old Justin Bergman, a former Junior National champion.
The Women’s Open champions, the Las Vegas CueTees, didn’t have to travel far to set forth on their undefeated streak through the 119-team field. Members Norma Deitz, Summer Anderson, Karen Arthur, Pam Fletcher and Sarah Chatterjee credit their team mascots, “Spot” the turtle and “Aces” the river rat, for their win.
In the singles tournaments, Lauren Ward of Los Angeles won the Women’s Open, beating Caroline Pao, who went on to win the Open Scotch Doubles tournament with partner William Rueben. In the Women’s Master Division, Rebecca Wagner, who has recently moved from Chicago to Las Vegas, beat her teammate and Chicago native Amy Latzko, who took first in the Master Scotch Doubles with partner Ike Runnels. In the Women’s Grand Master division, Tammy Jones of Dallas, Tex. defeated a familiar opponent in the final, Pamela Patton of Milwaukee, Wisc.
While friends and Englishmen Hill and Appleton swept the Grand Master and Master divisions for the men, Derek Cumm, a mailman in Buelah, Ariz., delivered in the Men’s Open final against Bergman, winning, 5-1.
In this, the 30th year of the BCA Pool Leage National Championships, over 7,100 players entered, and took home $92,250 more in prize money than the previous year.
IPT Announces Qualifier Venue in Toronto
The International Pool Tour has announced that Danny Green’s Billiards, in Toronto, Canada, will host an IPT North American Open 8-Ball Championship Qualifier on June 3-5.
This qualifying tournament will be a double-elimination, race-to-10 competition. The first and second place competitors will secure spots in the 2006 IPT North American 8-Ball Open Championship, which will be held July 22-30 at the Venetian in Las Vegas, Nev. Players who advance to the Venetian will compete for their share of an unprecedented $2,000,000 prize fund and a historic first place prize of $350,000. Full entry into IPT qualification tournaments is $1,000, with a second option to enter for a $500 fee.
The full schedule of all 25 IPT qualification tournaments for the IPT North American Open 8-Ball Championships is available online at www.internationalpooltour.com. Any person, of any age, man or woman, from any country, can play in these truly “open” tournaments.
Ouschan Upsets Fisher; Souquet Gives Archer Second Second-place Finish
Jasmin Ouschan, who has become known as the “Ice Princess” for her arctic facial expression during competition, couldn’t help but crack the no-nonsense mask, revealing a stunning smile after ousting the undefeated defending champion Allison Fisher, 7-5, in the 2006 Enjoypool.com 9-ball Championship final, held May 20 at the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nev.
Ouschan joined German Ralf Souquet in the winner’s circle after Souquet gave Johnny Archer his second second-place finish at the event, 7-5, after a 7-0 whitewashing by Thorsten Hohmann last year. Both victors worked hard for the $20,000 payout, battling back from the one-loss side, where they had to overcome some stringent competition.
Just 20 years old, Ouschan is an Austrian native who came onto the U.S. women’s pool scene four years ago. Ouschan made waves early on in the tournament, knocking two-time World Champion Ga-Young Kim to the losers’ side in the first round. She had a mettle-testing road to the finals after Melissa Herndon knocked her down to the one-loss side in the third round. She beat the likes of Dawn Hopkins, 9-8, Karen Corr, 9-7, Kelly Fisher, 9-3, Pam Treadway, 9-3, fellow Austrian Gerda Hofstatter, 9-3, and Shin-Mei Lui, 9-2, to meet Helena Thornfeldt in the semifinal, who she defeated, 7-6.
In the final Ouschan faced the favorite Allison Fisher, who remained unscathed through the winners’ side. Fisher was flawless early in the match, jumping out to a 3-0 lead. Ouschan then came back and won 3 games of her own to tie the match at 3-3. The match was tied again at 4-4, but Ouschan won two in a row to get to the hill at 6-4. From there, they split racks on their breaks and Ouschan won, 7-5.
After making it to the fifth round by beating the revered Efren Reyes, 11-8, Souquet was knocked to the one-loss side by Archer, 11-8, where he had to face Reyes again. He came out on top once again to redeem himself against Archer in the final, 7-5.
Both Archer and Fisher took home $10,000 for their efforts.
Up-And-Comers Make Their Mark in Las Vegas
Day two of the Enjoypool.com 9-Ball Championship was full of excitement at the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nev.
In what many fans are calling the best match they’ve ever witnessed, Efren “The Magician” Reyes would not succumb to a 10-1 deficit to Allen Hopkins, who was playing near flawless pool. In the case match, Hopkins jarred the 8-ball, allowing Reyes back to the table. This would prove a fatal mistake, as Reyes strung together a 10-game comeback to win the match 11-10.
Also on the men’s side, Taipei’s Po Cheng Kuo knocked crowd favorite Tony Robles to the one-loss side, 11-8. Kuo will next face Johnny Archer who scored an 11-0 win over John Schmidt on Monday.
The women’s side had its share of excitement as well, as Arizona’s Angel Paglia upset Karen Corr, ranked second in the Women’s Professional Billiard Association, with a 9-7 win.
Another non-WPBA player, Jasmin Ouschan, scored a hill-hill win over former World Champion Ga-Young Kim. Ouschan went on to score a 9-2 win over Alice Rim later on Monday. Chinese up-and-comer Xiao-Ting Pan continued to make waves with her impressive play, scoring a 9-6 win over Jeanette Lee.
Enjoypool.com 9-Ball Championships Underway
Pool heavyweights and hopefuls alike arrived in Las Vegas over the weekend to compete in the Enjoypool.com 9-Ball Championships, which got underway May 14, at the Riviera Hotel and Casino.
This event always draws the top fields from both the men’s and women’s games, and this year is no different. Reigning champions Allison Fisher and Thorsten Hohmann will both be defending the titles they earned last year. Fisher will started off with a 9-1 win over My-Hahn Lac, while Hohmann will get his start today at 11 a.m. with a match against Bruce Wilkinson.
The first round of matches on Sunday featured a fair share of marquee matches. Johnny Archer defeated Kim Davenport, 11-4, and Jose Parica bested veteran Nick Varner, 11-8. On the women’s side, Chinese newcomer Xiao-Ting Pan tipped the scales against Tracie Hines, 9-6.
Hofstatter Graduates With Honors
Gerda Hofstatter, ninth-ranked player in the Women’s Professional Billiard Association and member of the International Pool Tour, graduated from the prestigious New York University on May 11.
Hoftstatter, who is originally from Austria, studied business, specifically leadership and management. She graduated with honors and now holds a bachelor’s of science degree.