Big Apple Nine Ball Challenge on Tap

sjm

sjm

Older and Wiser
Silver Member
I spent the day at Master Billiards in Queens on the day before the Big Apple Nine Ball challenge. This is some kind of field! Earl was rumored to be playing but isn't, and Efren didn't make it, but this is a field of thoroughbreads, and it couldn't be much tougher.

The 94 players include Archer, Morris, Bustamante, Williams, Hohmann, Souquet, Immonen, Schmidt, Sambajon, Jeong, Petroni, Harriman, Davis, Eberle, Robles, SanSouci, Parica, Bryant, Owen, Double J, Saez, Hewitt and many other potential world beaters, too. Someone's going to have to play some great pool to win this!

Grady Matthews is in the field, which is really nice to see as he has had some bumps in the road in his dealings with the UPA. Hopefully, this is a sign of reconciliation between Grady and the tour.

The players meeting was followed by a player auction.The Calcutta raised about 13,500, with Archer fetching about 900 of it, and Bustmante, Morris, Souquet and Immonen nearly as much.

Can't wait for 11 AM Thursday when all the action starts.
 
Buckster_uk said:
Yeah, I heard Ginky quit to try and make it in Pro Poker.
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from what I know Ginky did play Pro Poker for a while and actually won a pretty big tournament and walked away with a nice sum of money.
 
I don't think that Ginky fully retired from the pool scene, and I believe the Ginksters home room is Master Billiards in Queens, so how could he not play in the tournament that is sponsored by them.
I, for one will be happy to see him compete again.
 
Anyone know what happened to Dennis Hatch at this tourney?

I heard he went down there, but looking at the brackets, I don't see that he entered.
 
Brits are going strong, Lee Chenman (not Chin Man), Raj Hundal and sort of Anthony Crosby (now American!) have all won their first matches.

Good luck to the boys and also Gareth Esprite who narrowly lost his first match.
 
I noticed alot of byes in the brackets. From the pairings Ralf Souquet's first 3 matches look fairly easy. I don't know who Scott Ireland, Lenny Favata, Edgar Irrevary, Rob Hart is, I know who Martin Rimlinger is. Up until the 4th round is when Souquet should be challanged. All the luck to those other players. Not much of a point to this, I was wondering if the top players were being seated by the UPA.
 
First, Corey Deuel, Rob Saez, Ronnie Wiseman, Jimmy Fusco, Jose Garcia, all expected to play, and a couple of others didn’t show. Ginky is playing, but received a forfeit as a result of Wiseman’s no show. Dennis Hatch didn’t play.

I didn't stay until the end of the session today, but saw more than a few matches, and here's my take on things:

Archer and Rodney appear to be in their top form. Jeremy Jones. Thorsten Hohmann, and Danny Hewitt looked sharp, too.

In other action:

Lee Chen Man jumped to a 5 – 1 lead on Immonen, but lost the next seven racks, and ended up losing the match, 11 -7, I think.

Scott Ireland played some great pool, giving Ralf Souquet a serious test. The key moment of the match was in rack 11, with Ireland ahead 6 – 4, Souquet was hooked on the two after a well-played safety by Ireland, and every indication was that Ireland was about to go up 7 – 4. Ralf kicked the two in, but, unluckily, ended up hooked on the three. Remarkably, though, he kicked in the three as well, and proceeded to run out. After a break and run in the next rack, Ralf tied it at 6 – 6, and he proceeded to play at his highest level for the remainder of the match and prevailed.

A guy generating a lot of talk is Charlie “Hillbilly” Bryant, who is impressing everybody with his powerful game. When I left, he was 7 – 7 with Max Eberle in second round winner’s side action.

In a match that many thought might be a good one, Gabe Owen jumped out to 3 – 1 against Young Hwa Jeong, but a couple of uncharacteristic errors by Owen allowed Jeong to tie it at 4 – 4, and Jeong played like a champion for the remainder of the match to prevail 11 – 5.

Bustamante doesn’t appear to be in his top form yet, letting elderly, but accomplished, Bill Dunsmore get within 7 – 6, before putting him away.

For the most part, day one was one in which form held, but Archer and Rodney seemed to serve notice that they may well be the ones to beat this weekend. Of course, some great players, including John Schmidt, Jose Parica, and Danny Basavich, all of whom got byes, won’t play their first matches until Friday, so their form is not yet known.

Can’t wait for tomorrow!
 
Thanks, SJM for the report ! Good stuff, and we're expecting more :)

Also, you should follow Mika's matches because he is going to win this one ! :D

Umm, just noticed, this Englishman Raj Hundal someone mentioned already put Thomas Engert to the one-loss side. Not bad.

Interesting match to come: Hohmann vs. Morris !
 
Raj Hundal recently won back to back events in the UK both on the UK Tour and the BPPPA Tour, and is really on form.
 
Tough 1st bracket

3 of the biggest names, all in the first bracket. Archer, Bustamante, Immonen.

If I'd have been there, that would be the bracket I drew, for sure. I like it tough though. LOL
 
Just a little more info on the UPA event.

Alternate break in effect, and you DON'T have to break from the box.

Of the no-shows, the most perplexing was Rob Saez, who DID attend the player meeting on Wednesday but DID NOT show for his match.

Just saw the brackets, and I see Charlie "Hillbilly" Bryant went on to win the match over Max Eberle on which I reported 7 - 7.

Great matches on today's slate include Hohmann/Morris and Jeong/Harriman.

Archer/Hernandez is intriguing, too. Brooklyn based Frankie Hernandez knocked Johynny Archer out of the BCA Open in May. Johnny's first loss at the BCA Open was to another NYC native, Tony Robles, who went on to win the event. If Johnny has a little beef with NYC, it's understandable, and this weekend may be payback time for him.

Also noticed that in the all-NYC battle, Robles topped Barouty. Both are known for running 200's in their sleep in straight pool, and these two friends have competed against each other for years. Robles, who seems to be popular everywhere he goes for his superb sportsmanship, and friendly nature, is particularly well liked in his home town, and nothing would make the fans happier than to see the newly crowned BCA Open champion have a good tournament this weekend.

OK, will catch up with the forum tonight after I get home from the event.
 
Just a little more info on the UPA event.

Alternate break in effect, and you DON'T have to break from the box.

Of the no-shows, the most perplexing was Rob Saez, who DID attend the player meeting on Wednesday but DID NOT show for his match.

Just saw the brackets, and I see Charlie "Hillbilly" Bryant went on to win the match over Max Eberle on which I reported 7 - 7.

Great matches on today's slate include Hohmann/Morris and Jeong/Harriman.

Archer/Hernandez is intriguing, too. Brooklyn based Frankie Hernandez knocked Johynny Archer out of the BCA Open in May. Johnny's first loss at the BCA Open was to another NYC native, Tony Robles, who went on to win the event. If Johnny has a little beef with NYC, it's understandable, and this weekend may be payback time for him.

Also noticed that in the all-NYC battle, Robles topped Barouty. Both are known for running 200's in their sleep in straight pool, and these two friends have competed against each other for years. Robles, who seems to be popular everywhere he goes for his superb sportsmanship, and friendly nature, is particularly well liked in his home town, and nothing would make the fans happier than to see the newly crowned BCA Open champion have a good tournament this weekend.

OK, will catch up with the forum tonight after I get home from the event


SJM, AZB should hire you for reporting on billiard events. AZB doen't even have their brackets updated as of noon today. Keep up the good work. Thank You!
 
JustPlay said:
Just a little more info on the UPA event.

Alternate break in effect, and you DON'T have to break from the box.

Of the no-shows, the most perplexing was Rob Saez, who DID attend the player meeting on Wednesday but DID NOT show for his match.

Just saw the brackets, and I see Charlie "Hillbilly" Bryant went on to win the match over Max Eberle on which I reported 7 - 7.

Great matches on today's slate include Hohmann/Morris and Jeong/Harriman.

Archer/Hernandez is intriguing, too. Brooklyn based Frankie Hernandez knocked Johynny Archer out of the BCA Open in May. Johnny's first loss at the BCA Open was to another NYC native, Tony Robles, who went on to win the event. If Johnny has a little beef with NYC, it's understandable, and this weekend may be payback time for him.

Also noticed that in the all-NYC battle, Robles topped Barouty. Both are known for running 200's in their sleep in straight pool, and these two friends have competed against each other for years. Robles, who seems to be popular everywhere he goes for his superb sportsmanship, and friendly nature, is particularly well liked in his home town, and nothing would make the fans happier than to see the newly crowned BCA Open champion have a good tournament this weekend.

OK, will catch up with the forum tonight after I get home from the event


SJM, AZB should hire you for reporting on billiard events. AZB doen't even have their brackets updated as of noon today. Keep up the good work. Thank You!
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how much is it to get in for the rest of the weekend / And what time does the matches end ? And is there action up in there ??
I'm looking for person for the info..And the action report..
 
Rob Saez did show up, unfortunately he was put on the clock, he was coming in from Connecticut and ran into some traffic, and he showed up about 5 minutes after his time ran out.

Fabio Petroni's forfeit was a result of him oversleeping.

All of the no shows were supposedly guaranteed to show but like they say, $hit happens.

I'm working this tournament with Alexandra and I'm running low on my brain battery (results from being in the room for over 17 hours a day since this thing started!).

Well, time to get back to the tourney!
 
Thanks for the update, Wendy!

I would swing by but between work and a tournament on Sunday, looks like it ain't gonna happen :(


Eric >Go Tony R.
 
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