It was war. Plain and simple. In a great tournament not to be forgotten anytime soon by this author, nobody knew who was going to end up with the top 2 spots to qualify into the Nationals. There were quite a few upsets; some were classics.
The venue was Hall of Fame Billiards in Warren, Michigan, with 3 Verhoeven tables. The cloth was not new, in fact it was 6 months old and played pretty short which presented a lot of challenges to most of the top players. Out of the 10 players that participated, only 2 would end up qualifying into the 2009 USBA National Championship to be held February 18-22, 2009 at Carom Café Billiards in Flushing, NY.
The favorites going into the event were Mike Bengels and Jamil Isreal. Gary Elias, the 2008 USBA “B” player rankings champion was also a favorite, Bill Johnson and Jim Shovak always a threat. Other dangerous players included Bassel Elshaar, Steve Andersen and Gary Scharf. The two surprises of the tournament were Ramy Noja and Bob Schmaus who have improved their games and pulled off some important upsets.
It was a 10-player round robin with each match going to 25 points.
With 3 tables and plenty of time, the event was played in “rounds” where 3 matches were played at the same time and the next round did not start until all 3 matches were finished. This made it a lot easier to clean the balls and the tables between each round.
This event was also streamed live on the internet for all to see. From what I was told, there were actually thousands of viewers; not consistently, but thousands of unique viewers, probably pool players who were curious. Each video-taped match (available from Steve Elzinga) also had a commentator which gave the event a more “professional” feeling.
Summary of tournament round-by-round:
Round 1: Bengels defeated Noja (video-taped), Johnson over Andersen and Isreal over Schmaus.
Round 2: Shovak over Scharf 25-24 (video-taped), Bengels over Schmaus, Isreal over Noja.
Round 3: Elias over Andersen (video-taped), Johnson over Scharf (25-24), Shovak over Elshaar.
Round 4: Elshaar upsets Bengels 25-15 (video-taped), Isreal over Andersen, Noja upsets Elias 25-10.
Round 5: Shovak over Johnson 25-23 (video-taped), Schmaus over Scharf, Elshaar upsets Elias 25-23.
Round 6: Andersen upsets Bengels 25-24, Isreal over Elshaar (video-taped), Elias over Scharf.
Round 7: Schmaus upsets Johnson, Shovak over Noja, Bengels over Scharf (video-taped).
Standings so far:
Jamil Isreal 4-0
Jim Shovak 4-0
Mike Bengels 3-2
Gary Elias 2-2
Johnson 2-2
Schmaus 2-2
Elshaar 2-2
Noja 1-3
Andersen 1-3
Scharf 0-5
Round 8: Jim Shovak defeats Jamil Isreal 25-12 in just 14 innings for the tournament best game average (as far as we know) of 1.786. Averages were not kept for most games. Only Mike Bengels kept all his innings. Elias over Schmaus (video-taped), Noja upsets Johnson.
Standings so far:
Jim Shovak 5-0
Jamil Isreal 4-1
Mike Bengels 3-2
Gary Elias 3-2
Elshaar 2-2
Johnson 2-3
Schmaus 2-3
Noja 2-3
Andersen 1-3
Scharf 0-5
Round 9: Elshaar over Andersen, Isreal over Scharf, Bengels over Shovak (video-taped).
Jim Shovak 5-1
Jamil Isreal 5-1
Mike Bengels 4-2
Gary Elias 3-2
Elshaar 3-2
Johnson 2-3
Schmaus 2-3
Noja 2-3
Andersen 1-4
Scharf 0-6
Round 10: Elias over Johnson (video-taped), Schmaus over Andersen, Elshaar over Noja 25-24.
Jim Shovak 5-1
Jamil Isreal 5-1
Mike Bengels 4-2
Gary Elias 4-2
Elshaar 4-2
Johnson 2-4
Schmaus 3-3
Noja 2-4
Andersen 1-5
Scharf 0-6
Round 11: Bengels over Johnson, Isreal over Elias 25-24 (video-taped) eliminaTed Elias from winning the event, Andersen pulls off a miracle come-from-behind upset over Shovak 25-21 while trailing 20-11.
Jamil Isreal 6-1
Mike Bengels 5-2
Jim Shovak 5-2
Elshaar 4-2
Gary Elias 4-3
Schmaus 3-3
Noja 2-4
Andersen 2-5
Johnson 2-5
Scharf 0-6
Round 12: Noja over Scharf 25-24, Elshaar over Schmaus, Elias over Bengels 25-23 handing Bengels his 3rd loss and keeping Elias's hopes alive (video-taped).
Jamil Isreal 6-1
Jim Shovak 5-2
Elshaar 5-2
Mike Bengels 5-3
Gary Elias 5-3
Schmaus 3-4
Noja 3-4
Andersen 2-5
Johnson 2-5
Scharf 0-7
Round 13: Isreal over Johnson (video-taped), Scharf defeats Elshaar in an important game for Elshaar, Bob Schmaus averages about 1.000 and hands Shovak another crushing defeat. A victory would have virtually assured Shovak 2nd place. The loss guaranteed 1st place to Jamil Isreal and kept Bengels, Elias and Elshaar's hopes alive.
Jamil Isreal 7-1
Mike Bengels 5-3
Jim Shovak 5-3
Elshaar 5-3
Gary Elias 5-3
Schmaus 4-4
Noja 3-4
Andersen 2-5
Johnson 2-6
Scharf 1-7
Round 14: Schmaus over Noja, Scharf over Andersen, Johnson over Elshaar eliminating Elshaar from contention (video-taped).
Jamil Isreal 7-1
Mike Bengels 5-3
Jim Shovak 5-3
Elshaar 5-4
Gary Elias 5-3
Schmaus 5-4
Noja 3-5
Andersen 2-6
Johnson 3-6
Scharf 2-7
Round 15 (Final Round): Andersen over Noja 25-24, Bengels over Isreal 25-22 guaranteeing Bengels a playoff game for 2nd place with the winner of the Elias/Shovak match. Elias defeats Shovak 25-11 (video-taped). Elias rises from the dead to play with Bengels for 2nd place. Shovak settles for 4th place.
Order of finished is determined by win/loss record. In case of a tie, “total points scored” is the next criteria. If there is still a tie, then the winner of the head-to-head match between the two tied players is the tie-breaker. If there is a 3-way tie in wins/losses and total points scored and also the head-to-head matches which is unlikely but possible, then “points-against” is the final tie-breaker. “Point-against” is the total amount of points that are scored by all tournament players during the matches that are played against that particular player. Whoever has the LEAST “points against” is the winner. Example: If you win a match 25-12, then you have 12 points against you. If you win another match 25-10, then you now have a total of 22 points against you.
It was decided ahead-of-time that if there was a tie for 2nd place in win/loss record, that there would be a 25 point playoff match to determine 2nd place. The other positions (except 1st place) would be decided by total points scored, etc. as indicated above.
1) Jamil Isreal 7-2
2) Mike Bengels 6-3 (tied for 2nd place)
2) Gary Elias 6-3 (tied for 2nd place)
4) Jim Shovak 5-4 (190 total points scored)
5) Elshaar 5-4 (186 total points scored)
6) Schmaus 5-4 (178 total points scored)
7) Noja 3-6 (190 total points scored)
8) Andersen 3-6 (163 points scored)
9) Johnson 3-6 (157 points scored)
10) Scharf 2-7
In the final playoff match for 2nd place, Mike Bengels defeated Gary Elias 25-13 to earn the 2nd spot in the Nationals (video-taped). Elias finishes in 3rd place.
Some notes:
1) Bob Schmaus has improved greatly and finished strong. He deserves a lot of credit. He also upset Bill Johnson and Jim Shovak.
2) Steve Andersen only had 3 victories, but 2 of them were upsets over Bengels and Shovak.
3) Ramy Noja has also improved greatly and lost 4 close matches scoring 24, 24, 22 and 20 points. He also had victories over Gary Elias, Bill Johnson and Gary Scharf.
4) Gary Scharf lost 3 matches in the one-hole (24 points scored). His win/loss record is deceiving.
5) Bassel Elshaar also has improved greatly, coming very close to qualifying with upset victories over Mike Bengels and Gary Elias.
6) Jamil Isreal received entry into the Nationals ($ 300.00) + $ 200.00 expense money when he arrives at the Nationals + $ 100.00 prize money.
7) Mike Bengels received entry into the Nationals ($ 300.00) + $ 200.00 expense money when he arrives at the Nationals + $ 50.00 for his high run of 7 in his match against Shovak.
8) Gary Elias received $ 100.00 in prize money.
If anyone is interested in getting a DVD of any of the recorded matches, please contact Steve Elzinga: SteveElzinga@yahoo.com
Some of the players purchased DVD's at the event for just $ 10.00 apiece.
Special thanks to Bill Johnson for running the event and Mike Bengels who helped a lot with ball cleaning and table cleaning. Also thanks to anyone else who helped out with the balls and tables. Thanks to the players who provided commentary over the internet and on the DVD's: Ramy Noja, Mike Bengels, Gary Elias, Steve Andersen, Bill Johnson and Jim Shovak. If we forgot anyone, I apologize.
Once again, a special thank you to Steve Elzinga and Curly who provided and ran the live-streaming equipment. It was a great thing for 3-cushion and perhaps this will be the wave of the future for 3-cushion billiards. Thanks, guys.
Thank you to the room owner, Louie, for providing the tables, free-of-charge to the players for the event. It is extremely appreciated. Thanks for your usual hospitality.
The Nationals are only a month away! Now is the time to reserve your spot. Only 48 players can participate. Contact the Secretary, Jim Shovak, right away. He can be emailed by clicking here.
What a great tournament this was! I am glad that some of you got to experience it through the internet and also on DVD! Hopefully, we can have more events live-streamed in the future.
