This was the 3 rd year in a row that a 3-Cushion Regional Qualifier was held at the beautiful and historic Pendennis Club in Louisville, Kentucky on January 14-16, 2011. The games were played on 3 beautiful heated tables with two of them being 10 or 15 year old Bretons and one Brunswick table. All of the tables were newly clothed with the brand-new Simonis 300 rapide, and they played great.
On Thursday afternoon, several players were treated with a wonderful clinic held by 2006 USBA Champion, Mazin Shooni. Mazin taught those players some solid principles for improving their game.
On Thursday night, the crowd at the Pendennis Club was also treated to a spectacular trick-shot exhibition by Dr. Cue, himself, Tom Rossman. Tom is a World Pool Trick-Shot ESPN Champion and Master entertainer. Also throughout the event Paul Frankel (Master of sleight of hand with cards) dazzled the players and spectators with his magic.
Twenty-Four players were scheduled for the event, but one of them was unable because of an emergency. There were 4 groups with 6 players each, going to 20 points, except for one group, the “A” group, which only had 5 players. To add to the complexity, one of the players in that group, Bill Carrelli, got sick and left the tournament after playing 2 matches. This only left 4 players in the “A” group. All of Bill Carrelli's matches were wiped out giving every other player a free “win”.
The top 4-ranked USBA players were seeded into each group: Mazin Shooni (2006 USBA Champion), Jim Shovak (2010 “B” Rankings Champion), Dan Kolacz (Last year's Pendennis Qualifier Champion) and Tom Rossman (Dr. Cue-World Artistic Pool Champion).
The top 2 finishers based on W/L, total points scored, head-to-head and points against advanced to the Semi-Finals along with the two-best 3rd place finishers.
Preliminary Results:
Flight A: Dan Kolacz wins the group, going 5-0. Johnathan Anderson, one of last year's finalists, goes 4-1.
Flight B: Jim Shovak wins the group, going 5-0. Jim Bishop from Florida goes 4-1.
Flight C: Mazin Shooni (no surprise here) wins the group, going 5-0. Paul Frankel manages 2nd place going 3-2 and Ellis Lawrence squeaks in, also going 3-2 in 3rd place.
Flight D: Rick Kirk from Michigan wins the group, going 5-0. Last year's runner-up, Max Fisher gets 2nd place with a 4-1 record. Dennis Douberteen from South Bend, Indiana, manages 3rd place and a semi-finals berth, going 3-2.
Eric Hughes was also 3-2 in 3rd place in his group, but had slightly less total points scored than Ellis Lawrence.
The Semi-Finals was then a total of 10 players who were divided into 2 groups with 5 players each to 25 points. They were seeded into the groups based on their preliminary performances. After each player completed their 4 matches in the semi-finals, the top 2 finishers from each semi-finals group would then advance to a 4-player single-elimination (actually, modified single-elimination) to determine the Champion. The 1st place finisher from Group E would play the 2nd place finisher of Group F and the 2nd place finisher of Group E would play the 1st place finisher of Group F.
Semi-Final Results:
Group E: Paul Frankel (Professor-Q-Ball) surprises everyone, going 4-0. Jim Bishop gets 2nd place going 3-1. Dan Kolacz gets 3rd place, going 2-2.
Group F: Mazin Shooni surprises nobody, going 4-0. Jim Shovak gets 2nd place going 3-1. Johnathan Anderson, Max Fisher and Ellis Lawrence all go 1-3. Johnathan Anderson gets 3rd place because of his highest total points scored.
Modified Single-Elimination Semi-Finals:
Mazin Shooni defeats Jim Bishop, 25-14, advancing Mazin to the Final Match.
Jim Shovak defeats Paul Frankel, 25-13, advancing Shovak to the Final Match.
Modified Single-Elimination Finals:
Max Fisher (9th place) defeats Dennis Douberteen (10th place), 25-23.
Rick Kirk (7th place) defeats Ellis Lawrence (8th place), 25-14.
Dan Kolacz (5th place) defeats Johnathan Anderson (6th place), 25-17.
Jim Bishop (3rd place) defeats Paul Frankel (4th place), 25-18.
Mazin Shooni (1st place) defeats Jim Shovak (2nd place), 25-13.
Mazin Shooni, Jim Shovak, Jim Bishop & Paul Frankel all qualify for the 2011 USBA National Championship to be held on May 9-13th, 2011 at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The players all receive free entry ($300) + $200 expense money at the event. All 10 finalists also received some prize money ranging from $75 to $225.
We would like to thank the following:
The Pendennis Club for their warm hospitality and agreeing to allow this event to take place again, especially to Daron Van Vactor. All those that helped out with the cleaning of the tables, especially Chip Sutherland and Tom Rossman. Tom also was in charge of cleaning the balls for most of the event and did a wonderful job. All those that did commentary for the live-streamed matches, especially Max Fisher, Tom Rossman, Mazin Shooni and Jim Shovak. All those that maintained the scoreboard for the live-streamed matches. Glen Dockstader who donated $100 for the high run which went to Jim Bishop in his final match against Paul Frankel (he ran a 9). Other benefactors such as Bob Watson and the late James Barnett.
A special thanks to the 2 men that have given of their time and resources, Steve Elzinga and Michael Christenson (Curly). Thanks, guys, for giving of yourselves and making the live-stream possible. Please support these men! The easiest way to support them is to purchase a DVD or two, or 10 of the live-streamed matches. This helps them cover their costs and you actually get a great deal to show for it. Steve can be reached at: Mi_billiards@yahoo.com
To see archived videos of live-streamed events by Mi-Billiards, go to: http://live2ustreams.com/Mi_Billiards.html
