Efren’s Revenge!
After losing to countryman Francisco Bustamante in the Challenge of Champions, and to Charlie Williams in the final of the Big Apple 9-Ball Challenge, Efren Reyes nabbed his second U.S. title of the year at the Gabriel’s Las Vegas 9-Ball Open in Las Vegas. Reyes, who exacted revenge by beating Williams, 10-5, in the winner’s bracket semi-final of the 64-player field, defeated Dutchman Neils Feijen, 10-7, in the title match to earn the $10,000 top prize. Reyes also won the Mid-Atlantic Open in January.
Johnny Archer finished third at the Riviera Hotel, followed by Williams in fourth place. Feijen, the 26-year-old current European 14.1 champion, reached his spot in the final by surviving loser’s bracket shoot-outs with Alex Lely, Danny Harriman, Max Eberle, Williams and Archer. He earned $5,000 as runner-up.
Williams Beats Reyes for Big Apple Title
Williams’ cues may be up in the air, but his game is rock solid.
Williams’ back-to-back wins over “The Magician” were all the more impressive because he played every game with a borrowed cue. Williams’ plane was rerouted to Connecticut because his flight was in the air at the time of the blackout that affected many cities in the Eastern U.S. and Canada, and in the confusion, his luggage (including his cues) was lost.
Williams took home $12,000 for the win, while Reyes settled for $7,000. In third was Rodney Morris for $4,500; Jose Parica took fourth place and $3,000 and Francisco Bustamante and Alex Pagulayan tied at fifth for $2,000 apiece.
Lights are ON for Big Apple 9-Ball Challenge
Despite Thursday’s massive power outage, which brought New York City to a virtual standstill, the Big Apple 9-Ball Challenge at Master Billiards in Queens will kick off Friday afternoon as scheduled. According to tournament director Alexandra Dyer, power has been fully restored at the billiard club, and a stellar 90-player field is slated for action.
“I’ll admit,” said Dyer Friday morning, just prior to the player’s draw, “last night was really bleak. I tried to be philosophical, telling myself to deal with this the best way we can. Then the power came back on at around five o’clock this morning. It was such a relief.”
Dyer added that several players phoned in, citing difficulties in getting into the city, but that their arrivals were imminent.
“We’ll fall just short of a 96-player field,” Dyer said. “But I’m ecstatic that we have 90 players and such a strong field.”
Buoyed by the attendance of star players who participated in the eight-player International Challenge of Champions, held Wednesday and Thursday in nearby Uncasville, Conn., and won by Francisco Bustamante, the Big Apple 9-Ball Challenge field includes Bustamante, Efren Reyes, Holland’s Nick Van den Berg, Germany’s Ralf Souquet and American Johnny Archer. The $20,000-added tournament runs through Sunday.
Berhman To Run U.S. Open From Jail?
Behrman may have to conduct his business from behind bars.
Behrman, 57, owner of Q-Master Billiards and promoter of the long-running pro pool event, has been jailed in Chesapeake, Va., since July 18 for a violation of his probation. It is the second probation violation against Behrman since his 2002 felony convictions for holding illegal gaming parties at his Chesapeake home.
Despite his legal woes, Behrman has vowed that the U.S. Open, scheduled to run Sept. 15 – 21 at the Chesapeake Convention Center, will go on as planned. According to an article by The Virginian-Pilot reporter Cindy Clayton, Behrman has been calling his employees at the Virginia Beach poolroom with instructions on running the tournament in his stead.
“I don’t want to take away the pleasures of the people who come [to the U.S. Open] every year, just because of my mistake,” Behrman is quoted as saying.
Behrman will find out on Sept. 8 whether he will be released in time to run the tournament, or if he’ll spend more time behind bars. According to the Virginian-Pilot story, Behrman could be sentenced to at least six years in prison. Behrman’s first probation violation came in April, when he failed several drug tests and was convicted in Virginia Beach for not paying back taxes on his business.
How Behrman’s incarcaration will affect this year’s Open remains to be seen. The embattled promoter ran a successful U.S. Open in 2002, after suffering financial setbacks on both his 2001 Masters and 2001 U.S. Open, the latter of which coincided with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Germany’s Hohmann Surprises the World!
Hohmann’s amazing dedication to the game paid off in a public way.
Hohmann controlled the match, running out three times in the first eight games, to gain a 6-2 lead, and holding his lead through the rest of the match. “I don’t know what to say,” said the overwhelmed Hohmann, whose hands partially covered a face that suddenly matched the bright red golf shirt he wore for the final. “I may not realize what I did for a few days.”
2003 World Championship Coverage
The knock-out stage of the 2003 empirepoker.com World Pool Championship are underway, as the final 64 player battle for their share of the $300,000 prize fund at the Cardiff International Arena in Cardiff, Wales. The final is scheduled for Sunday evening, with the winner carting off $65,000 and the trophy emblematic of World Champion. Click on the “2003 World Championship” logo above to keep up with all the latest action from Cardiff.
Brunswick Buys Out Valley-Dynamo
It certainly helps to have “parents” with deep pockets. Parent company Brunswick Corp. may have doubled the annual sales of its billiards division — aka Brunswick Billiards — on June 10 when it announced its acquisition of coin-operated pool table giant Valley-Dynamo LP from private equity firm Fenway Partners and Dynamo founder Bill Ricketts. Brunswick purchased the Richland, Tex.-based company for $34.5 million in cash. According to Fenway Partners, Valley-Dynamo had net sales of $35 million in 2002.
With the acquisition, brand heritage-conscious Brunswick gains the No. 1 brand in coin-operated pool tables in Valley-Dynamo, and the No. 1 brands in consumer table soccer and air hockey with the Tornado, Valley and Dynamo brand names.
“When someone tells you that you have an opportunity to acquire the No. 1 brands in several categories, you get excited,” said Mark McCleary, vice president of marketing for Brunswick Billiards. “And by using our strengths in marketing, design and sourcing, we feel we can build on those brands.”
According to McCleary, Valley-Dynamo will retain its corporate identity, and will operate as a separate division of Brunswick Billiards.
“The division will maintain its current sales force and will have its own general manager, who will replace Bill Ricketts when Bill retires at the end of the year,” said McCleary. Ricketts had served as CEO of Valley-Dynamo LP.
Valley-Dynamo merged in 1998, when Fenway Partners, which had purchased then Bay City, Mich.-based Valley Manufacturing in 1995, partnered with Ricketts to combine the coin-op table companies into one manufacturing facility. In the gravy days of the late 1970s and early 1990s, domestic production of coin-operated pool tables was estimated at around 25,000 tables a year. A weak economy and continued slide in the coin-op industry have cut that number in half, or worse, some experts say.
“Valley-Dynamo still has very strong brand names, and very strong market channels,” said Ricketts, 58, who founded Dynamo in 1978 with the introduction of table soccer games. “And Brunswick’s marketing expertise will add strength to those brands.
“Brunswick was clearly the best buyer we could have hoped for,” added Ricketts. “It’s a great fit and a very synergistic acquisition.”
Kelly, Reyes, To Be Inducted Into Hall of Fame
This year’s BCA Expo will see two living legends inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Edwin Kelly made his name during the peak of the legendary Johnston City (Illinois) tournaments in the 1960s. He won the one-pocket and 9-ball titles in 1966. The versatile Kelly won titles in four different games during his career: one-pocket, 14.1, straight pool, and three-cushion.
Efren Reyes was the leading figure of the Philippine “invasion” of the 1980s and 1990s. Among the most recent of his many major titles was the Tokyo 9-Ball International Billiard Tournament in 1991, which paid him $160,000 for first place. Reyes is considered by many to be the world’s best living 9-ball player.
(Michael Shamos, curator of The Billiard Archive, contributed to these player biographies)
Archer on Top at Valley Forge
Archer ended a long dry spell at Valley Forge
Archer felt a year’s worth of frustrating, close-but-no-cigar finishes lift from his shoulders. “Any time you win a tournament, it takes the heat off of you,” he said. “It doesn’t make ’em any easier, that’s for sure, but it does take a little bit of pressure off, because now in the back of your mind you know you can do it, so if you get there again, just go ahead and perform again.”
The tournament was held March 21-23 in conjunction with the Super Billiard Expo in Valley Forge, Pa. The Expo also hosted an eight-player round-robin event featuring top women pros. Helena Thornfeldt and Karen Corr emerged from the pack and faced off in a two-set final. Corr dominated the first set and capitalized on a rash of Thornfeldt scratches in the second to win, 6-3, 6-4.
Duchess On Top Again!
Allison Fisher beat down her rivals with a smile.
The new alternating-racks format shook up the charts some, with Corr going to the loser’s bracket care of snooker import Kim Shaw and Lee losing to come-from-nowhere Texan Kim White, both in the second round. Both Shaw and White finished unexpectedly high in the field, with formerly 28th-ranked White taking fifth place, and formerly 19th-ranked Shaw taking fourth place and making her first appearance in the television rounds.
Fisher claimed $9,000 for her win, while Lee settled for $6,500. Taiwanese starlet Jennifer Chen took home $5,000 for third place and Shaw took home $4,000 for fourth. Helena Thornfeldt tied White for fifth place and $2,800.