It’s No Fluke — Putnam Keeps Winning
Surprising Shawn Putnam in now 2-for-2 in major pro events this year after powering past Fabio Petroni, 10-6, in the finals of the Brunswick Pro Players Championship, held March 17-20 in Valley Forge, Pa.
After scratching on his first break shot, Putnam fell into a 4-2 hole against Italy’s Petroni. But the vastly improved shooter from Youngstown, Ohio, went on a 6-1 run to take control of the match, 8-5. Putnam received almost no open shots after his thunderous breaks, but he created spectacular run-outs with an array of ballsy jump shots, combos and pinpoint-accurate kicks. Any hope Petroni had for a comeback ended in the 16th rack, when he broke dry for the fourth time in the match.
Early in the year, 33-year-old Putnam reengineered his game by trying more reliable run-out patterns, using center-ball hits instead of extreme English, and staying calm while shooting. He then won the North American Open Tour event in February in Pittsburgh — his first major pro victory — and followed up with his decisive Pro Players win.
“The whole thing is about keeping your heart rate constant — the same heart rate when you’re playing as when you’re sitting down, so you don’t have to get adrenaline going as you’re playing and then sit down and cool down,” Putnam said of his newfound Zen strategy.
With his $10,000 in winnings, Putnam planned to buy a 1996 Cadillac Seville he had test-driven recently. “Now it’s really getting bought; I don’t care what he wants for it,” he said.
Allison Fisher Locks Up First and Throws Away The Key
Allison Fisher continued her domination of the Women’s Professional Billiards Association’s Classic tour at the Mueller Recreational Products Great Lakes Classic in Michigan City, Ind., March 2-6.
While Fisher’s continuing reign at the top of the rankings is far from unexpected, other pros made waves at the Great Lakes, too. Most notable was Fisher’s final-match opponent, Tiffany Nelson, who’s last trip to the television rounds was in 1994, when Nelson was just 14 years old.
Nelson defeated Texas tornado Vivian Villarreal in a television round in order to get to the final. In the final, Nelson played well and looked cool and unflustered under the lights, but she couldn’t get a look at the 1 ball after her breaks in the alternate-break format. The result was a 7-1 win for Fisher.
Fisher collected $10,000 for first prize, while Nelson settled for $7,000. Villarreal took home $5,500 for third place, and snooker import Kelly Fisher collected $4,500 for a fourth-place finish.
Pool Mourns Passing of Johnny Ervolino
All-around pocket-billiard talent Johnny Ervolino passed away on Saturday, Feb. 19, due to congestive heart failure. Ervolino, a resident of Henderson, Nev., was 69.
A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Ervolino was known to be a ferocious money player with great pool intelligence and a soft cue ball. His best games were one-pocket and straight pool, although he was adept at most games.
In 1947, at age 12, Ervolino won a national junior championship. By 16, he had dropped out of school and rented his own apartment a few blocks from the New York City poolroom 7-11. Early in his career he was befriended by such legends as Jack “Jersey Red” Breit, James Evans and Cisero Murphy, and the husky-voiced shooter later served as a mentor for many New York-based players, including George “Ginky” SanSouci. His major tournament wins included the one-pocket title at the 1971 Stardust National in Las Vegas. Ervolino also moved to the Las Vegas area in 1971, but still made frequent trips back to New York City.
Survivors include two daughters, Nicole Ervolino and Linda Peterson, and his former wife, Margaux Ervolino.
Duchess Continues Her Reign in Carolina
“Duchess of Doom” Allison Fisher won the season-opening Women’s Professional Billiards Association’s Carolina Classic, defeating Helena Thornfeldt, 7-4, in the final to collect the $10,000 prize.
This is the tour’s first visit to the community of Rocky Mount, N.C., where the event was held, Feb. 9-13, at Nash Community College. The town responded with enthusiastic, sold-out crowds. After her win, Fisher (who lives just outside of Charlotte, N.C.) commented, “I hope we’ll be back next year, especially as it’s home turf for me. I haven’t quite picked up the accent yet, as you can tell, but I’m working on it. This is a very good way to start my year.”
Karen Corr took third and Monica Webb came in fourth place.
BCA Announces Hall of Fame Winners
The Billiards Congress of America has elected Mike Massey and Robin Dodson to the Hall of Fame.
Two-time world champion Dodson was elected in the “Greatest Player” category. Trick-shot artist and multiple trick-shot world title holder Massey was elected in the “Meritorious Service” category.
The official induction ceremony will take place at the BCA’s International Billiard & Home Recreation Expo, April 7-9 in Las Vegas.
Basavich on Top at Ocean State
Continuing his amazing coming-out year of tournament play, Danny “Kid Delicious” Basavich won the Joss N.E. 9-Ball Tour’s 16th Ocean State 9-Ball Championship.
The field of 75 that showed up at Snooker’s Cafe & Billiards in Providence, RI, Jan. 29-30, included recognized names such as Joe Tucker, Frankie Hernandez, Tony Robles and Joey Korsiak. Basavich bested them all, facing Tucker in the finals after sending him to the one-loss side in the third round. Though Tucker got to a 4-0 lead in the championship match, Basavich got to the table in game seven and won the next seven straight games to win it all, 9-4.
“Joe Tucker actually ran the first 4 racks, and was up 4-0,” Basavich said. “I didn’t run all of my games, but I’d run three racks, then run another three racks, like that.”
Things keep just keep getting better for Basavich, with his “Kid Delicious” cue sticks and a four-disc DVD set selling like hotcakes. But the capper by far is his game: “I’m playing the best I’ve ever played,” Basavich said. “[At Ocean City] nobody got past 4 games against me the whole tournament. I’m not being cocky — I can’t believe how things are going myself.”
Basavich collected $2,500 for the win, while Tucker settled for $1,800.
Lion Wins Derby City Ring Game
The 2005 Derby City Classic is underway with 408 players competing in the bank pool event. That is more more players than competed last year. Promoter Greg Sullivan was elated with the event so far. “It is great to see our goals being accomplished in such a big way” Sullivan said.
The 10-Ball ring game took place in front of a standing room only crowd between Efren Reyes, Johnny Archer, Shannon Daulton, John Schmidt, Robb Saez and Alex Pagulayan. Each player was putting up $3000 for the chance to walk away with $18,000.
Johnny Archer was the first player eliminated, and Robb Saez quickly joined him as a spectator. At the time of Saez’s elimination, Alex Pagulayan led with $8600. John Schmidt was in second with $5000 and Efren Reyes was in third with $3600. Shannon Daulton is on the bubble with $1100 and the players are playing for $400 a rack.
Shannon Daulton was the third player eliminated. At the time of the elimination, Alex Pagulayan held $7100 with Efren Reyes and John Schmidt only $100 apart at $5500 and $5400.
The fourth player eliminated was John Schmidt and Alex Pagulayan was in the lead with $9900 and Efren Reyes trailing with $8100. At that time, the format went to ‘no miss – roll out’ where a player can push out at any time, but the next shooter must make a ball or give up ball in hand. The wager on each game was raised to the amount that the lower player had, which meant the first game was for $8100.
It only took one game after that when Efren missed a ball mid-rack and Alex ran out for the ring game win.
Deuel wins UPA Championship
Corey Deuel completed an undefeated run to win the UPA Pro Tour Championship at the Bicycle Club in Bellflower California this weekend.
Deuel, known as the master of the soft break, was working that break to perfection all weekend and had wins over Charlie Williams, Mika Immonen and Efren Reyes before a 7-5 win over Danny Basavich for the hot-seat.
On the one-loss side, Basavich eliminated US Open Champion Gabe Owen 7-3 and forced Owen to settle for third place.
The finals were one race to seven on the ESPN table, and it went all the way to hill-hill before Corey put it away.
Deuel earned $10,000 for first place, while Basavich settled for $5000 in second place prize money. Owen and Efren Reyes filled out the top four places.
Complete Results:
1st Corey Deuel $10,000
2nd Danny Basavich $5,000
3rd Gabe Owen $4,000
4th Efren Reyes $3,000
5th/6th Rodney Morris, Mika Immonen $2,400
7th/8th Ralf Souquet, Santos Sambajon $1,850
9th/12th Frankie Hernandez, Mike Davis, Paul Potier, Troy Frank $1,350
13th/16th Francisco Bustamante, Johnny Archer, Tony Robles, Rodolfo Luat $900
17th/24th Charlie Williams, Neil Fujiwara, Bill Ferguson, Danny Kuykendall, Dave Hemmah, Max Eberle, Robb Saez, Charlie Bryant $400