Pedro Piedrabuena Has Great 2012

Pedro Piedrabuena continued his charge through American three-cushion billiards, adding yet another title to his steadily growing list of accomplishments when he bested the field at the USBA Tour event at Hard Times Billiards in Bellflower, California. In the finals, Piedrabuena beat former Pan American Champion Luis Avila from Mexico 35-26 in 21 innings (1.667). After three days of play, Piedrabuena's record was perfect, 5-0 in the preliminaries, 5-0 in the semi-finals and 2-0 in the finals. His grand average was 1.667 in the semi-finals and also in the finals. He also posted a best game of 2.727 and pocketed $3,800 for his efforts.

Finishing second was Avila, who earned $2,900 while posting a 1.605 grand average in the semi-finals and a 1.600 in the finals. Notably, Avila did not qualify for the semi-finals but was given an auction spot by a fan. With the new life, Avila went 4-1 and earned his way into the first round of the finals, where he bested Ricardo Carranco 30-14 in 14 innings, including a run of 9. In the other first round, Piedrabuena topped Hugo Patiño 30-13 in 18 innings. Like Avila, Piedrabuena had a run of 9. Piedrabuena then defeated Avila in the finals, and Patiño beat Carranco 30-13 for third place and a $2,200 pay check. Carranco received $1,800 for fourth place.

With two weeks left in 2012, one thing is clear: Piedrabuena dominated the three-cushion scene as no one had since the days of Sang Lee. In order, Piedrabuena, the Uruguay-born resident of San Diego, won the USBA Tour event at MGM Billiards in February, the Champion of Champions invitational in March, the USBA National Championship in Las Vegas in May, the Verhoeven Open in New York in August, the USBA Tour Event in Houston in October, and, finally, the USBA tour event in Bellflower. From his dramatic come-from-behind victory over Mazin Shooni at the USBA Nationals in Las Vegas in May to his defeat of the great Torbjorn Blomdahl in the finals of the Verhoeven open, Piedrabuena, a five-time USBA National champion, showed that he was not only in a class by himself in the United States but also that his game could be considered world class. His only blemish was a second place finish at the USBA tour event in New York in November, where he lost to Blomdahl 30-24. But even with that loss, Piedrabuena dominated three-cushion billiards in America. 2012 was truly Piedrabuena's year.

Thanks are extended to Gilbert Najm, Raye Raskin, Jim Shovak and Mazin Shooni for sending charts and photos to the USBA so that they could be posted on the website. A special thanks goes to Daniel Busch and povpool.com. Busch tested the waters by agreeing to live-stream the last two days of the tournament. Although Busch’s live streaming usually features pocket billiards, he is interested in growing his audience by including carom billiards. Busch experimented with different camera angles and configurations and was joined in the booth by many guest commentators during the 20 plus hours of live streaming. For more information on Busch’s next live stream, go to www.povpool.com.

We've posted the pictures that were sent to us right here in the USBA site in in our Photo Gallery and the video of the award ceremony can be viewed in our Video Gallery.