2021 American Straight Pool Championship

Bob Jewett

Bob Jewett

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New dates -- just before the International 9-Ball Open. This is from Peter Burrows, the organizer. (Here's the website for more info: https://americanstraightpool.com/)

After much discussion with our board, the WPA/BCA, and Gre Leenders at EPBA, the American 14.1 Straight Pool Championship has decided that, in our best interest and to avoid a potential conflict with the EPBF Euro Championship in Turkey (first week in November), we should reschedule our event. After consultation with many past players the consensus was almost unanimously in favor of rescheduling the five day American Straight Pool Championship to the week prior to Pat Fleming’s International 9 Ball. So, this is what we have done. The new dates are now Tuesday Oct 19 - Saturday Oct. 23, 2021

Tues. Oct. 19 - Players Meeting, draw and opening rounds of the Round Robin.

Wed. & Thursday Oct. 20 - 21 - further Round Robin.

Fri. & Sat. Oct. 22-23 - top 24 players from the RR will be in the single elimination knockout.

We also hope to have a Ladies flight if there is interest.
 
If you guys ever did a high run challenge again, it would seem this event might be a good place for it?
 
I'm curious what the format will be. I don't dislike Charlie Williams but I don't care for his format. To me a game to 150 is championship level and 200 is too long and causes players to lose focus.
 
alstl said:
I'm curious what the format will be. I don't dislike Charlie Williams but I don't care for his format. To me a game to 150 is championship level and 200 is too long and causes players to lose focus.
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From the website linked above:

Round Robin: 8 flights of 6-8 players (depending on the size of the field). Players will be rated A-H with the A players seeded. Each player plays 5-7 matches up to 125 points. The top 24 advance to single elimination. Each Round Robin flight winner typically receives a bye in the first round of single elimination. This may change slightly based on the number of entries. ​

So the length of the elimination games is not stated, but I don't think it has ever been to 200. On the other hand, several players are capable of running 200-and-out in under an hour, so I don't think it is too long. Also, because it is single elimination rather than double, a longer match is reasonable.
 
Thanks for this info- I would think that matches to 125 for the round robin, matches to 150 for the single elimination rounds, and a match to 200 for the finals makes sense to all involved. The best player should prevail through all of this. It would be nice if there were a regional qualifier in each of the 4 sections of the U.S to allow 4 people to qualify to play in this event- after all - they call it the American 14.1 championship.

I remember back in 1989 when they revitalized the 14.1 U.S. Open and several qualifiers were well planned, advertised months in advance, and well attended by 14.1 participants. I attended the qualifier at Chelsea billiards in NYC- won by Jack Colavita - there were over 200 people there playing and attending throughout the event. I guess we are not in Kansas any more Dorothy:(:rolleyes:

Attempts to hold qualifiers for the 14.1 in the more recent past have been shoddy at best- not well advertised to the general pool playing public and planned and unplanned at the last minute.

It just would be nice to give a few of us mere mortals at 14.1 the opportunity to play - is it asking too much to hold a total of 4 regional qualifiers for non pro players - announced and open for registration three months prior to this tournament?

I am planning to attend the event this year- but let's have the promoters work a little harder at drawing us all in for this more than just as attendees.
 
Bob Jewett said:
On the other hand, several players are capable of running 200-and-out in under an hour, so I don't think it is too long.
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lol... takes me an hour to get to 80. Forget about 200.

Makes me realize how badly I suck at this game....lol
 
The_JV said:
lol... takes me an hour to get to 80. Forget about 200.

Makes me realize how badly I suck at this game....lol
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I don't recall too many players running 200 balls in less than an hour- it may happen from time to time- perhaps- but that is very far from being a common occurrence , even among the best around- maybe a few very fast playing 14.1 pros, not many I suspect. Running 80 is a nice accomplishment, even in an hour - 14.1 should not have a time clock, IMO.
 
mikemosconi said:
I don't recall too many players running 200 balls in less than an hour- it may happen from time to time- perhaps- but that is very far from being a common occurrence , even among the best around- maybe a few very fast playing 14.1 pros, not many I suspect. Running 80 is a nice accomplishment, even in an hour - 14.1 should not have a time clock, IMO.
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I agree it's not average, but Hohmann took 26 minutes to run 100-and-out on me and Schmidt was about 200/hour in warm-up mode in his high run efforts.

I disagree with the comment about a shot clock though. I think one of the matches in CW's events ran to 5 1/2 hours. In a private match, I don't care. In a match that might have spectators, that's completely unacceptable.
 
Bob Jewett said:
... So the length of the elimination games is not stated, but I don't think it has ever been to 200. ...
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Right. However, the American Straight Pool Championship has tinkered with their match lengths quite a bit in recent years:

2015 -- Round robin (RR) matches to 100, rounds of 16 and 8 players to 125, Semifinals and Finals to 150​
​
2016 -- RR to 100, all single-elimination (SE) matches to 150​
​
2017 -- RR to 100, first 2 rounds of SE to 125, last 3 rounds to 150​
​
2018 -- RR to 125, all SE matches except Finals to 150, Finals to 200​
​
2019 -- RR to 125, all SE matches except Finals to 150, Finals to 175​
 
Bob Jewett said:
From the website linked above:

Round Robin: 8 flights of 6-8 players (depending on the size of the field). Players will be rated A-H with the A players seeded. Each player plays 5-7 matches up to 125 points. The top 24 advance to single elimination. Each Round Robin flight winner typically receives a bye in the first round of single elimination. This may change slightly based on the number of entries. ​

So the length of the elimination games is not stated, but I don't think it has ever been to 200. On the other hand, several players are capable of running 200-and-out in under an hour, so I don't think it is too long. Also, because it is single elimination rather than double, a longer match is reasonable.
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The reason I say that is because I saw a couple of Charlie's events and by the time they had the finals the players were out of gas. He was having 200 ball games beginning in the round of 16. Following Appleton's 200 and out vs Bustamante both he and Hohmann struggled in the finals.

It seems to me 150 is a better number but I'm not criticizing because I'm glad to see somebody having straight pool tournaments.
 
alstl said:
The reason I say that is because I saw a couple of Charlie's events and by the time they had the finals the players were out of gas. He was having 200 ball games beginning in the round of 16. Following Appleton's 200 and out vs Bustamante both he and Hohmann struggled in the finals.

It seems to me 150 is a better number but I'm not criticizing because I'm glad to see somebody having straight pool tournaments.
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Agree 100% - no sense at all having the final 16 compete in races to 200- way too long and of course by the time you get to the semis- the guys left in it would be exhausted - I want to see the BEST 14.1 played- not the longest!
 
mikemosconi said:
... no sense at all having the final 16 compete in races to 200- ...
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Although it may seem like a long match, the tournament at that point is single elimination. In effect, SE to 200 is about the same as playing DE to 100.
 
Here are the match lengths used in the World 14.1 Tournament in recent years:

2015 -- Round robin (RR) matches to 100, double-elimination (DE) matches (reducing the field from 24 to 16) to 150, all single-elimination matches except Finals to 200, Finals to 300​
​
2016 -- same as 2015​
​
2017 -- RR to 100, DE matches (reducing field from 24 to 12) to 150, all SE matches except Finals to 200, Finals to 300​
​
2018 -- RR to 100, DE matches (reducing field from 20 to 12) to 150, all SE matches except Finals to 200, Finals to 300​
​
2019 -- RR to 100, no DE portion, all SE matches (15 players) except Finals to 200, Finals to 300​

For the first 9 years of the event (2006-2014), the Finals were to 200.
 
Why not just do double elimination? Worked for many tournaments back in the day like the 91 US Open and noone then complained.
 
Positively Ralf said:
I'm curious to know the reasons as to why you think it's a lousy format.
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I don't want to speak for Bob, but for me, my issue is the inequitable path two players might take to get to the finals in double elimination vs. everyone plays everyone and the cream rises to the top.
 
JusticeNJ said:
I don't want to speak for Bob, but for me, my issue is the inequitable path two players might take to get to the finals in double elimination vs. everyone plays everyone and the cream rises to the top.
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That's certainly one of the problems. One of the others is all the waiting around which is usually made worse by a lack of tables and one or two slow players.

If DE is race to 6, you can play SE race to 9 and finish sooner. Look at all the DE tournaments where they split the cash at the end so they don't have to play a final. But that's OK since the two finalists are the only ones left in the room at 3 in the morning.
 
I’m pleased to announce that Peter Burrows has appointed me as the Head Referee for the upcoming American 14.1 Straight Pool Championship.

americanstraightpool.com

American 14.1 Straight Pool Championship

Wed. Oct. 25 - Sun. Oct. 29, 2023 Q- MASTER BILLIARDS 5612 Princess Anne Rd., Virginia Beach, VA 23462
americanstraightpool.com americanstraightpool.com

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