Big Changes at IPT: Tour to Be Sold, London Event Cancelled
The future of the fledgling, multimillion-dollar International Pool Tour was cast in a new light on Saturday by the surprising news that tour founder Kevin Trudeau had entered into an agreement to sell the tour, and that the IPT Players 8-Ball Championship, scheduled for Oct. 22-29, had been cancelled.
Both announcements came during the players’ meeting Saturday for the IPT’s World 8-Ball Open Championship, set for Sept. 3-10 at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nev.
According to an IPT release, the IPT has agreed to a purchase by Ho Interactive, a new company started by casino owner billionaire Stanley Ho, who also owns online gambling site www.hocasino.com. IPT founder Trudeau told the crowd of 200 players that Ho Interactive will be taken public on the London exchange at some point in the near future.
The 84-year-old Ho is worth $6.5 billion, according to Forbes magazine’s 2006 list of the richest people in the world. The Hong Kong-based Ho controls virtually all casinos and gaming in Macau, a small Chinese territory off China’s southern coast.
Little was immediately known about the sale, or how it will affect the IPT’s plans for a 2007 season. BD will release new information as it becomes available.
The players also were informed that the London-based Players Championship was cancelled, due to problems in negotiations with The Excel, the intended host facility.
IPT Director Deno Andrews had told BD in the days leading up to the World 8-Ball Open event that cancellation of the event was a possibility, due to several reasons. They included the fear among some players of a terrorist attack, sparked by recent terrorist arrests in the U.K.; the trouble several international players were encountering obtaining visas for the U.K.; and conflicts in the programming schedule of EuroSport, the broadcast network that had planned to air some of the IPT matches live.
“At every juncture, we’ve had a problem with the London tournament,” Andrews told BD on Aug. 25.
Three more events are set on the IPT’s 2006 schedule: the Masters 8-Ball Championship, Nov. 26-Dec. 3 in Chicago; the King of the Hill Invitational 8-Ball Shootout, Dec. 12-17 in Las Vegas; and a simultaneous 2007 qualifying event, also set for Dec. 12-17 in Las Vegas.
At the players’ meeting, IPT members were promised a minimum of $13,000 for the 2006 season for every player who played in all the 2006 tournaments. Those whose total winnings were short of the figure would be written a check for the difference.
IPT World Open Preview: Talented Tots Wu and Ouschan to Debut
The big news in the first round of the International Pool Tour’s latest multi-million dollar 8-ball tournament will be the debuts of young superstars Chia-Ching Wu of Taiwan and Jasmin Ouschan of Austria, both looking for a big piece of the record-setting $3 million purse.
The eight-day 8-ball event — with a precedent-setting $500,000 first-place prize — kicks off Sunday, Sept. 3, at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nev.
Both 17-year-old Wu and 20-year-old Ouschan earned entry into the tournament through the IPT’s rugged qualifier process, and they’re expected to go deep. The precocious Wu is the current WPA world 9-ball and 8-ball champion, and Ouschan topped the star-studded field at the EnjoyPool.com 9-Ball Championship in May.
Otherwise, it looks like smooth sailing for most of the favorites in the first round of the International Pool Tour’s World 8-Ball Open Championship, as the just-released groupings reveal predominantly balanced matchups for the first two days of the event. Top-ranked players were seeded in the field.
Of course, a few players had cause for muttering under their breaths when the groups were announced early Friday. Of the best-known players, Hall-of-Famers and best buddies Ewa Laurance and Loree Jon Jones appear to have their work cut out for them. For that matter, the groupings did no favors for Ouschan, the only female player to have won a spot in an IPT field through the qualifier process.
Expect some surprises. As the players learned in the IPT’s first event of the 2006 season — the North American Open 8-Ball Championship in July — there are dozens of unheralded 8-ball whizzes out there waiting for their big shot, and the 200-player World field features 50 qualifiers who have already proved their mettle.
Look for surprising runs from several Asian qualifiers who now have their feet in the IPT’s door, including Wu from Taiwan (who was seeded 16th in the absence of Filipino Rodolfo Luat), and his countryman Hui-Kai Hsia, a two-time world juniors champion.
The first round will feature 40 groups of five players each. After round-robin play, the top three finishers in each group will proceed to the second round. Eliminated players from the first round will each receive a whopping $5,000.
The complete list of groupings is available at the IPT Web site: www.internationalpooltour.com.
Here are some of the more intriguing brackets from the first round:
Bracket 23 — BD Bloodbath Special: Spectators looking for an exciting bracket to follow should check out this group. No superstars, just tough and hungry veterans: Ivica Putnik (Croatia), Thomas Engert (Germany), Tony Chohan (USA), Tony Drago (Malta), and Zlatko Jakulj (Croatia)
Bracket 1: German sensation Thorsten Hohmann received the top seed by virtue of his $350,000 win at the North American Open, joined here by talented American Steve Moore, Filipino toughie Warren Kiamco, and Americans Jim Raney and Loree Jon Jones. Jones, who survived the first round at the North American Open, will have to bring her “A” game here.
Bracket 26: Austria’s Jasmin Ouschan must contend with Hall-of-Famer Earl Strickland, Swedish veteran Tom Storm, Aruba national champion Roland Acosta and American Pete Fusco. Ouschan regularly hones her skills against the best male players in Europe, so don’t expect her to be intimidated by Strickland, or anyone else in the field, for that matter,
Bracket 18: Hall-of-Famer Ewa Laurance will have her hands full with Australia’s Quinten Hann, the snooker bad boy who finished a surprising 18th at the North American Open; snooker ace Ronnie O’Sullivan from the U.K.; and Jeremy Jones (USA) and Jose Parica (Philippines), both experienced champions who met untimely exits at the North American Open. This bracket will be a dog fight.
Bracket 35: Future Hall-of-Famer Allison Fisher, who was undefeated in the first round of the North American Open, once again has a clean look at the second round. But watch out for qualifier Hui-Kai Hsia of Taiwan and surprising Frenchman Yannick Beaufils. Tough Americans Teddy Garrahan and John Ditoro round out the group, and neither will play patsy.
Bracket 10: Once again, 13-year-old Austin Murphy has a good shot at leaving the first round, this time sharing a bracket with 10th-ranked Darren Appleton (U.K.), Paul Potier (Canada), George San Souci (USA) and Ouahbi Amine (Morocco). Murphy missed the second round at the North American Open by a single rack, losing an 8-7 nailbiter to Danny Basavich. Let’s go, Austin.
You Guessed It: Filipinos Reign at First World Cup
The Filipino dream team of Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante became the inaugural PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool champions as they blew away Team USA, 13-5, in front of a packed arena at the Newport Centre, South Wales.
The American duo of Earl Strickland and Rodney Morris were expected to make a match of it, but a combination of bad luck and loose shots on the part of the Americans and unrelenting skill from the Filipinos kept them at bay.
With upwards of 900 people in the arena including a large contingent of expatriate Filipinos, the atmosphere was electric and the tension mounted as the two teams shared the first eight racks of the race-to-13 final.
From there though things unraveled for the Americans. They lost control of the cue ball on the break and consequently found it difficult to get any momentum.
By contrast the Philippines turned up the heat with Reyes in particular playing a series of stunning shots to get out of jail and pot some seemingly impossible balls.
The second half of the match became something of a procession as the Philippines won seven consecutive racks to leave their opponents in no man’s land.
Team USA got one back to take the score to 11-5, but Reyes and Bustamante knocked off the final two racks to take the magnificent silver trophy, the title and a check for $60,000.
“It’s funny that every time there is a new big tournament, I win it, but all week I thought if we could get to the final we can win, said a delighted Efren Reyes after the match.
“The USA is a good team but they were unlucky and that made it easy for us,” he said.
Bustamante was thrilled to take pool’s first ever World Cup event. “In the beginning there was a lot of pressure on us but when we went three games ahead it all lifted,” he said.
“Efren played lots of unbelievable shots; some of them I’ve never seen in my life! That’s why we won.”
For the Americans, Rodney Morris summed up their feelings: “That was pretty disappointing. After 4-4 it didn’t go our way although the match was closer than the score suggested, but when it went to 7-4 we were both pretty deflated and felt it slipping away.”
“We never really got a clear shot off the break and it was a tough hill to climb but they played great – the way they were supposed to, so congratulations to them,” Morris added.
Hall-of-Famers Hall, Rempe Opt Out of IPT Again
Hall of Fame Members Jim Rempe and Buddy Hall have withdrawn from the IPT World Open 8-Ball Championship set to take place Sept. 2-10 in Reno, Nev. Both cited “personal reasons” that are keeping them from being able to perform under the grueling tournament format and conditions.
These two spots are now up for grabs and the IPT will fill them based on the qualification tournaments for the World Open. Players who have taken third place in World Open qualification tournaments more than once will be considered first. Then, players who took third place once will be considered. If there are ties, the IPT will consider the total number of qualification tournaments the players have played in. There are still five remaining qualification tournament in which to compete.
Qualification tournaments this weekend are being played in Florida, Chicago, Tokyo, London, and Pasadena. Entry fee deadline is TODAY (Aug. 24) at 4 p.m. CST.
Thirty-one Countries Vie for World Dominance in Wales
National pride is at stake at the PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool, taking place now at the Newport Centre in Newport, Wales. Pressure is high as the scotch doubles matches are played on a straight knock-out basis.
The first round began on Aug. 22, with 32 two-man teams working together to represent their country. Thailand, represented by Tepwin Arunnath and Amnuayporn Chotipong, fell to Canadians Luc Salvas and Tyler Edey, 9-5. Team Qatar (Fahad Mohammadi and Bashar Hussain) was stymied by Malaysians Patrick Ooi Fook Yuen and Ibrahim Bin Amir, 9-3. And in an inter-continental contest, the Czech Republic, represented by Roman Hybler and Michal Gavenciak, defeated Poland’s Radoslaw Babica and Mariusz Roter.
The Phillipines, represented by Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante, were the clear crowd favorites, and rose to the occasion in round one, with a 9-0 massacre over Malta’s Tony Drago and Alex Borg. It was a tight battle between Taiwan’s Wang Hung-hsiang and Yang Ching-shun and India’s Dharminder Lilly and Alok Kumar. The tiny island nation prevailed, 9-6.
England has two teams in the running, one of which is represented by Steve Davis and Daryl Peach. It was 5-5 before the Brits were able to pull ahead of Jeong Young-hwa and Lee Gun-jae of Team Korea. On Davis’ 49th birthday, he joyously accepted their 9-6 victory.
In the second day of play on Wednesday, Aug. 23, Russia’s Konstantin Stepanov and Konstantin Zolotilov starved Hungary’s Vilmos Foldes and Gabor Solymosi of opportunities, defeating them 9-3.
Hong Kong produced a heroic performance to stun sixth- seeded Sweden in the biggest shock thus far in the PartyPoker.com World Cup of Pool. Sweden, whose side consisted of former World Championship finalist Tom Storm and former World Championship semi-finalist Marcus Chamat, had been 4-1, 6-2, and 8-5 ahead in the race-to-9. But the Hong Kong pairing of Lee Chenman and Kong Man-Ho showed their character to win the last four racks to secure a place in the final 16.
Team Japan, Maasaki Tanaka and Satoshi Kawabata obliterated Indonesia’s Imran Ibrahim and Ricky Yang, 9-0. While the English “A” team of Ronnie O’Sullivan and Raj Hundal, didn’t have it quite so easy against Spain’s David Alcaide and Rafael Guzman. The crowd was gutted as the duo fell to a fast 4-0 deficit, but had their hopes back up as England got their nose in front at 8-7, but the Spaniards took the final two racks to close out a famous victory.
Team U.S.A. is composed of Rodney Morris and Earl Strickland, who had a decided victory over Singapore. The home team, Rob McKenna and Ben Davies of Wales, disappointed their fan base with a heart-breaking 9-2 loss to Germany (Thomas Engert and Oliver Ortmann).
Today, Aug. 24, three matches are left to determine the final 16. This morning, Ireland had no luck against Finland’s Mika Immonen and Markus Juva, heading home after a 9-5 loss.
The first matches of round two will begin tonight, with No. 1-ranked Phillipines and No. 3-ranked U.S.A. taking on their respective opponents. For up-to-the minute coverage at www.partypoker.com!