Billiards

One of the toughest and most prestigious WPA ranking events in the world, The China Open, is now leading into its final day of competition. Professional pool players from around the globe have come together at this international summit in Shanghai. Check out the breakdown of the results of Saturday’s action below in the story by WPA Press Officer, Ted Lerner. … A KUWAITI IN SHANGHAI! UPSTART OMAR AL SHAHEEN BARGES INTO THE SEMI FINALS AT THE CHINA OPEN, JOINS CORTEZA, WU AND FU FOR SUNDAY’S FINAL FOUR By Ted Lerner, ?WPA Press Officer Photos Courtesy of Jin Li/Top147.com (Shanghai)–Omar Al Shaheen just booked his place in pool history. After defeating Taiwan’s Hsu Kai Lun, 11-8, in the quarterfinals of the China Open 9-ball in Shanghai on Saturday night, the 20-year-old Kuwaiti became the first pool player in his country, and indeed in the entire Middle East region, to ever advance to the semi-finals of a major world ranking pool event. It is an accomplishment that will surely have profound repercussions for not only Al Shaheen’s budding career, but also for the progress of the sport in the Middle East, which is one of the few growth areas worldwide—along with China–for the American game of pool. Whether Al Shaheen can take the prestigious crown and the $40,000 winner’s purse on Sunday is something that is entirely up to the pool gods.  But the way things have fallen in place for Al Shaheen this week in Shanghai, anything must surely be in the realm of possibility. Al Shaheen will have all he can handle and more as he takes on the Philippine veteran Lee Van Corteza in the first semi-final. In the second semi-final, Taiwan veteran Fu Che Wei will go up against his former countryman and surprise entry, the two time former world champion Wu Jiajing (formerly Wu Chia Ching), who now plays out of China. Al Shaheen has had an amazing run through the field this week in Shanghai and it was capped off with an all-time gritty performance throughout the day today. He first came back from a 10-7 deficit to beat Poland’s Radislaw Babica, 11-10. In his next match, he fended off Great Britain’s Karl Boyes down the stretch, and won another cliff hanger, 11-10. After taking down Taiwan’s Hsu, Al Shaheen whooped it up with his fellow Kuwait teammate and various friends in the arena. Omar Al Shaheen “I’ve very happy,” a beaming Al Shaheen said.  “A lot of people back in Kuwait are waiting for something like this. All over the Middle East this is very big. They will be proud of this. I have worked very hard for this.” The youngster’s rise to the upper echelons of pool is not totally out of the blue. When four Kuwaitis made it to the final 64 of the World 9-ball Championship in Qatar last June, it showed Kuwait is a growing force in professional pool.  When Al Shaheen advanced all the way to the final 16 of the event, it showed that he is clearly the face of the new and hungry generation coming out of the Middle East. Al Shaheen revealed that he goes to university during the day where he studies sports psychology. At night he trains on the pool table for 5-6 hours. He said he uses what he learns in the classroom on the pool table. “I try to control my thinking out there when I play, and I take my time on each shot.” If Al Shaheen wants to send the entire population of his small city state country into the streets to celebrate—something he says will happen if he manages to win the China Open—he’ll have to employ more than psychology against Corteza. The Filipino played marvellous pool on Saturday first taking down Austria’s capable Albin Ouschan, 11-8, then smothering Taiwan’s Ko Pin Yi, 11 -6. In the final match of the day, Corteza defeated another strong Taiwanese player, Zheng Yu Xuan, 11 -7. Corteza is certainly one of the world’s top players, but he said he had to take a rather unconventional approach for a Filipino player in preparing for the China Open. With the tournament and money game scene having all but dri

TEENAGE PRODIGIES EYE THE PRIZE CHEN SIMING AND LIU SHASHA REACH THE FINALS OF THE CHINA OPEN 9-BALL By Ted Lerner WPA Press Officer (Shanghai)–Chen Siming and Liu Shasha are both 19 years old. They are both members of the Chinese national women’s team. And they each have a prodigious talent with a cue stick [...] Want to know the full story? Check it out

By NYC Grind Contributor, Mark Finkelstein I’m off to Tampa to teach another seminar with Tom Simpson. I always enjoy working with people that are improving their game. This week I want to look at ways that our runs stop, and some ways to eliminate some of these errors. Small improvements over time make for big gains in your game. First is missing the shot! A lot of misses come about because we shoot the shot with out a clear picture in our mind of what we want to do with the shot, and we jump up. Make sure you finish every shot. Have a clear idea of what you are doing on the shot and stay down on the shot. This means you have to slow down a little and have a plan. Watch any good player and you will see how much time they take on some shots. They don’t get down until they have a clear picture in their mind what they want to do. The next run stopper is losing the cue ball. Their are two things to look at here. Play better patterns that don’t have the cue ball moving around so much, and secondly, shoot softer. The less the cue ball moves, the easier it is for you to control where it will stop. These run stoppers probably aren’t much of a surprise to you, but I want to add 3 other to this list as a lot of advanced players fall into these traps. Losing the middle ball in a combination stops a lot of nice runs. What happened in this diagram is that after cutting the one ball to the right, it kept going to the long rail. Our shooter was so focused on making the shot, that the cue ball only went to the end rail, not leaving a high percentage shot on the one. Make sure you take the extra time to figure out how to play position on the middle ball so that your run can continue. The next area that stops runs is blasting away at a dead shot, and then winding up with no next shot. This is the kind of cruel fate you that can happen to you if you blast away at dead balls and don’t take the time to play position on another ball. The trick is to know where the cue ball is heading and control the speed and the other balls so that you are left with some options.You’d have to look really close, but this combination might also work if you went in to the 7 first, leaving you the 11 no matter what else happened. The specifics of this particular dead shot are not as important as the idea, when you have a dead shot, don’t just blast away at it, make sure you play position on the next shot so your run continues. The next run stopper that I want to look at is separating clusters of 2 to 4 or 5 balls. Again, if you are not careful, it is easy to stick on a ball or get left with out a shot. Look what happened to me the other day. I was on a nice little run. cruising right along, and I thought I was going to hit the 8 on the side nearest the 2 to leave me another shot. I didn’t take enough time and wound up stuck on the back of the 8 with out another shot! The trick is to take adequate time planning the shot so that you don’t make the mistake I did. The final run stopper I want to look at is bumping in to balls when you don’t have to. Eliminate this error and your game will come up at least one ball. Pay attention for a week how many games are lost or thrown away because the player bumped a make-able ball. Watch how good players take pains to not hit other balls! MENTAL TRAINING TIP: The Japanese have an expression called ‘kaizen’, and it means steady improvement. Adopting this attitude for our pool game will help you play better. Every miss, loss or bad game isn’t seen as an ego destroying event, but rather as an opportunity to learn something. As CJ Wiley says, “the game is the teacher”. After every miss, loss or bad shot, when you have a quiet moment, rather than beating yourself up, ask what the game is trying to teach you. I miss a lot of shots when I am teaching and have learned I can’t shoot and talk at the same time. If you take the time to learn the lesson of each miss, and apply it to your game, you will get better. This accepting

OH, WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN IT’S THE THRILL OF VICTORY AND THE AGONY OF DEFEAT AS JUDGEMENT DAY TAKES ITS TOLL AT THE CHINA OPEN 9-BALL By Ted Lerner WPA Press Officer Photos Courtesy of Jin Li / TOP147.com (Shanghai)–There’s nothing quite like Judgement Day in the world of professional pool. Otherwise known as the [...] Want to know the full story? Check it out

One of the nation’s top regional WPBA qualifier tours is back in swing in 2013… as the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour’s (JPNEWT) season got underway at Triple Nines Bar & Billiards on April 20-21. The event, which was a qualifier for the WPBA US Open, was taken by storm by 20-year-old World #3-Ranked Siming Chen of China, who defeated newly-inducted BCA Hall of Famer Karen Corr in the finals. New York’s Yomaylin Feliz came in strong in third place in this event, while Kathy Friend finished in fourth. Check out the video of the final match between Corr & Chen below. Video streaming by Ustream This weekend, May 18-19, the JPNEWT will be heading to New York for it’s second tour stop of the season, to be held at Raxx Pool Room in West Hempstead, NY on Long Island. The event will be a qualifier for the Ultimate 10-Ball Championships, set to take place on June 16-20 (www.Ultimate10Ball.com). Check out the complete results from the event at Triple Nines below, in the story by

APA’S TOP LEAGUE OPERATORS RECOGNIZED Ewa Laurance Amongst Group to Win League Operator of the Year Awards LAKE SAINT LOUIS, MO (May 13, 2013) — The American Poolplayers Association (APA) recognized five of their top franchisees with League Operator of the Year awards during the APA Annual Convention in late April in Las Vegas. The [...] Want to know the full story? Check it out

“l LOVE WINNING. I LOVE THE FEELING” AS SHE GETS SET TO DEFEND HER CHINA OPEN TITLE THIS WEEK IN SHANGHAI, Kelly Fisher REFLECTS ON AN AMAZING 2012, AND WHAT SHE EXPECTS TO ACHIEVE IN 2013 By Ted Lerner WPA Press Officer (Shanghai)–When Great Britain’s Kelly Fisher won the 2012 China Open 9-ball in Shanghai [...] Want to know the full story? Check it out

It may not be regulation but we love the creativity of Cleon Daniel's banana pool table! #billiards #howdoyouplay

For many pool players, the ultimate dream is to have the opportunity to play alongside the world’s best in an international competition. Each year, Dragon Promotions, the producer of the World Tournament of 14.1 gives players around the U.S. that opportunity, as they hold qualifiers for the international straight pool tournament. Dragon Promotions has now announced the dates and locations for the 2013 qualifiers, read on for more details… Amsterdam Billiards & Red Shoe Billiards Lead National Qualifiers for the World Tournament NYC's Amsterdam Billiards New York, New York – Straight pool players across the United States will have opportunity to qualify and earn a free spot into the world’s most prestigious 14.1 event. Qualifiers will be held for the 8th year in a row since Dragon Promotions revival of the World Tournament back in 2006. Another star studded field is expected at this year’s 73rd World Tournament hosted by Steinway Billiards in New York on August 19th-24th,2013.

“Sorry it took so long to climb those steps, this burnout’s a killer,” was Barry Hearn’s opening gambit in his speech at the World Snooker Awards in London last week.It was a good line and got a big laugh. It also underlined Hearn’s attitude to players complaining that their workload is too arduous since the circuit rapidly expanded under his chairmanship.Hearn has previously suggested players “go and tell the working man on the street they are burnt out,” the assumption being that the working man on the street would give them short shrift.Jason Ferguson, the WPBSA chairman, appears to agree. He told prosnookerblog: “my father worked down the mines all his life, he did 12 hour shifts digging coal out, he did it year-in, year-out and I never heard him complain once.”To be fair to Ferguson, he takes a more nuanced view than Hearn. He also said: “Some people might say, oh poor things, they are doing something that they love, they are out there, in front of an audience, everybody likes them, they have become cele