Four Women Take on The Predator World 14.1: Ouschan Leads The Entourage

koreandragon · 2008-08-21T01:29:07+00:00

East Brunswick, New Jersey- Dragon Promotions presents four top notch women pro players who will take a shot at being the World 14.1 Champion in the upcoming 2008 Predator World Straight Pool Championship held at the Hilton East Brunswick, NJ from Aug 25-30,2008. Jasmin Ouschan of Austria will lead the female invasion against the men, and the ladies will see how many of them they can take down. The beautiful Ouschan will be a dangerous draw Gerda Hofstatter, ranked # 8 on the Women's Professional Billiards Tour and sponsored into the event by Predator Cues & Dr.Louis Pannullo, will be representing Austria as well with Ouschan. Both players have extensive 14.1 backgrounds growing up and competing in Europe. This will be Hofstatter's debut in the World 14.1 Championship. Hofstatter is the highest ranked women's pro in the event Yu Ram Cha of Korea, currently ranked #18 in her WPBA debut with a high third place recent finish at the US Open, will be making her second straight appearance at the Predator World 14.1. Last year she won three matches, with a high run of 63. She had just played her very first game of 14.1 three days before the event. "Straight pool is a very hard game, more difficult than 9-Ball I think. But it's good for me to learn because there is so much knowledge in the game. I think I did quite well last year for my first time, and I hope I do better this year." Cha gave Ouschan a scare with a close 100-92 loss and also gave European #1 ,at that time, Konstantine Stepanov a hard time with a 100-90 battle. Cha is sponsored in the event by Predator and Dragon Promotions. Cha in 3 days became deadly in 14.1 WPBA pro Liz Ford will also be making her debut in the event. Ford has quickly made her name in the pool world and is no stranger to upsetting men pros as she defeated Hall of Famer Earl Strickland and local NYC pro Frankie Hernandez in open 9-Ball events. Liz Ford makes her World 14.1 debut But the cream of the crop here will be the performance of young gun killer Jasmin Ouschan. Ouschan in back to back years at the Predator World 14.1 has finished 5th and 9th, which is in the third stage of the event. A player must place in top half of their round robin group, then win two matches in last 32, and then advance into the final 16 races to 200 points. Ouschan has put away top men such as John Schmidt and Allen Hopkins in the round robin stages. How will the women stand against the men? "Gerda and Jasmin have enough straight pool knowledge to defeat any men's pro in the event. But to win the whole event...very unlikely. They just don't have the consistency and stamina to get to the very end." said Mika Immonen, Bronze finisher in 2006 and recent runner up in the Lucasi Hybrid 14.1 Classic. What's Jasmin's chances of making it to the third and final stage of 16 again? "Jasmin is definitely favorite to make it out of her group. And then in the second stage, I put her at 50/50 to make it to the final sixteen. A lot of it depends on the draw in the 32 man brackets." predicted Immonen. At any rate, it will definitely be entertaining and exciting to see these women put some heat on the men pros. There are sure to be some upsets and notches on their side. Fans and players can still reserve rooms at Hilton East Brunswick at 1-732-828-2000 The room code for the event is "POL" There are still limited amount of rooms available. Tickets can be purchased in advanced at www.dragonpromotions.com or in person at Amsterdam Billiards in NYC or Comet Billiards in NJ. The 2008 Predator World Straight Pool Championship is proudly sponsored by Dr.Michael Fedak of NYC, Joel Schapiro of NYC, The Predator Group, Diamond Billiard Products, Aramith Balls, and Simonis Cloth. For more information on player registration, sponsorship, or if you would like to submit a comment, please email worldstraightpoolchampionships@gmail.com or contact Dragon Promotions at 1-407-782-4978. For more details on the World 14.1 Championship go to www.dragonpromotions.com or email worldstraightpoolchampionships@gmail.com