The annual BCA Pool League Nine Ball event is now underway at the Plaza Hotel & Casino in downtown Las Vegas. As always this event features Men's and Women's Nine Ball events as well as Scotch Doubles. Also featured this year are both men's and women's Ten Ball competitions. These events are being played on the Diamond 'Smart Table', a seven-foot barbox that uses a set of Super Aramith Pro balls and Simonis Tour Blue 860 cloth.
Also being contested at the Plaza is the US Open One Pocket event open to pros as well as amateurs that is being played on the Diamond 9-foot table. In attendance at this event are such names as 2004 US Open Champion Gabe Owen, Shannon Daulton, Ronnie Allen and Ron Wiseman. When this event ends these same tables will host a Bank Pool event that will also be open to all players wishing to enter.
Additionally, there is a double-elimination Ten Ball Ring game tournament that found forty-five players tossing their hats into the ring. One hundred eighty-seven players entered the Men's Open Nine Ball event, forty-one ladies entered the Women's Open and forty-eight teams are competing in the Scotch Doubles. Fifty-two cueists are battling for the One Pocket crown.
We will update this site daily with lists of winners and notes on interesting matches. There have been many already, including a great One Pocket match between Shannon Daulton and Gabe Owen that found Owen surviving victorious. For his efforts Owen then had to face the 'Motor City Madman', Ron Wiseman. Gabe would win that match as well but then ran into a buzz-saw named Scott Frost. Frost won their match and claimed the hot seat in the contest by so doing.
Several events have already had their champion's crowned. The Scotch Doubles event was captured by the duo of Glenn Atwell and Elizabeth Cole from Vancouver. Runner-up honors went to Chisolm Woodson and Samm Diep of Denver while Justin Whitehead of Arizona and Connie Williams of Tulsa claimed third place on the podium. Samm Diep of Denver is our new Ladies Nine Ball Queen, an honor she took by relegating Connie Williams of Tulsa to second place. Julie Perkins traveled from Oklahoma City to take the third place slot.
The Men's Nine Ball world has a new set of heroes. This was an interesting event that featured a handicap system allowing Master level players to compete against those in the Open class. Lance Salazar of Cotati, California bested the field by beating Stan Tourangeau of Vancouver, BC. Pulling up in third was another Californian, Deo Mark Alpajora of San Leandro.
Azmi Nabhan of Rock Ledge, Florida took out Ken Greer of Austin Texas in the Ten Ball Ring game competition while a familiar name, Ronnie Allen of Chico, California, was forced to settle for third.
We will have a new title-holder in One Pocket later today and will post the results as soon as they are available.
