Some results from Boston:
This is the first time I've had access to a computer. We have been playing from 10 am to late in the evening each night (or into the early morning hours). We have played 23 rounds in two days, with 18 players and 2 tables, it is been very busy, but I apologize for not being able to post earlier. I am at Mazin's house now and have a little time before heading back to Napoles to begin the finals.
Mazin Shooni and Luis Avila advanced from group A, with Avila suporting a perfect record and Shooni with one loss. In the final game of the preliminaries, Avila bested Shooni 25 to 15. Shooni jumped to an early lead 11 to 2 but Avila ran a 9 and followed up with a 7. Dave Egdahl finished 3rd with close wins over Rick Kirk, Ellis Lawrence and Andy Janquitto.
Group B was the group of death with Pedro Piedrabuena, Miguel Torres and Sonny Cho, along with Jim Shovak and two very good local players, Camillo Medina and Norman Zulaga. Piedrabuena and Cho advanced. Cho needed to score 12 in his last game against Piedrabuena to move ahead of Torres, and he managed 13. Torres finished 3rd and Shovak 4th.
Hugo Patino and Michael Kang moved into the finals from Group C. On the outside was Roberto Rojas, who lost to both Patino and Kang. Bob Page played well but finished 4th. Rounding out the group was Joe DeAmato and a local player, John Gomez.
In the lottery, Jim Shovak won to fill the 7th spot in the finals. Miguel Torres won the auction to become the 8th player.
Play today begins at 11:00 a.m. with games to 30 points. There will be 8 rounds (4 games for each player) today and six rounds (3 games each) tomorrow.
I will try to post again later today, but my only access to a computer is at Mazin's house, which is 1 hour from the tournament venue. We are using the wi-fi at Napoles to run the u-stream so I can't overload the system by trying to post during the day. I'll talk to Dru to see if something can be worked out, etc.
The folks at Napoles have been great. The patrons are billiard fans and have packed the place to watch all of the games.
Andy J., USBA President (from Mazin's Login)