MIKE DECHAINE, winner of the recent Ultimate Ten Ball Championship in Frisco, Texas, moves to the top of the US PartyPoker.net Mosconi Cup rankings, as the ten event series reaches the halfway stage. The 23 year-old from Maine is starting to put together a string of impressive finishes and has a real chance of making his Mosconi Cup debut in December.
The 'Fireball' defeated Mosconi veteran Jeremy Jones in a hard fought final to take the title, and jumps over Dennis Hatch, Shawn Putnam and Earl Strickland into the No.1 position.
Holding his ground in the No.2 spot is 2009 Mosconi MVP Hatch, whose 9th place finish in Texas was good enough to keep him in the all-important top three. Falling from #2 to #3 is Shawn Putnam who trailed in 17th place.
There was plenty of other movement with the biggest climber being Charlie Williams who flew from 14th to 6th, courtesy of a fourth place finish at the Ultimate Ten Ball.
Big gun Shane Van Boening and Mosconi Cup legend Johnny Archer are languishing in 10th and 11th spots respectively and will need to pick up the pace in the remaining five events.
The US Mosconi Cup Ranking consists of 10 events throughout the United States, culminating in the US Open in October. Points will be allocated as per the BCA Points List and each event will be weighted depending on total purse, size of field and number of top-ranked players competing.
Only players finishing in the last 32 of each event will be allocated points and at the conclusion, after the 2011 US Open, the top three players will automatically gain entry to the Mosconi Cup side.
The remaining two players will be Matchroom Sport wildcard picks although the ranking will play a part in this.
The next qualifying event is the US Open 10 Ball Championship which runs from 16-21 May at the Riviera in Las Vegas.
