The 2016 WPA World Artistic Pool Championship took place October 21st – 23rd in Oklahoma City at the upscale billiard room Jamaica Joe’s. This prestigious event showcased top professionals and online viral video sensations like Florian “Venom” Kohler from France (now residing in Las Vegas), world famous “trick shot” artist Mike “Tennessee Tarzan” Massey, and William “The Gentleman” DeYonker, ESPN competitor and magnetic Artistic Pool playing artist, along with numerous other WPA world-ranked players.
The Artistic Pool competition kicked off on the first day in grand fashion. In the evening a very entertaining speed pool competition was held with local players as well as artistic pro players participating. This latter challenge was done as a charity event for 10 Strong (mothers with children with cancer in Oklahoma City) and raised over $1100.
William DeYonker did an outstanding job during the Artistic Pool competition with an all-time recordbreaking preliminary score of 296 points out of 320 possible. Florian Kohler beat the old record as well with 280 points. The playoff rounds presented the top eight scoring players from the preliminary rounds in a head-to-head match play format. Semi-final results revealed William over Jason “The Michigan Kid” Lynch (61-44) and Abram “Too Tall” Diaz over Florian (54-47). William achieved first place honors by defeating Abram (69-40) in the finals. Abram finished second, Florian third, and Jason fourth.
The Sportsmanship Recipient Award was presented to Iana “Venomette” Kohler by a vote of the players, and Andrew “The Enigma” Sozio won the Rising Star Recipient Award. William DeYonker won 3 disciplines – Trick/Fancy, Stroke, and Masse; Jamie “The Bayou Bullet” Moody won 2 disciplines – Special Arts and Follow; Florian Kohler won 2 disciplines – Draw and Jump; Mark “Dr. Popper” Dimick won the Bank/Kick discipline!
The WPA Artistic Pool Division (WPA APD) would like to thank Delta racks for donating one of their high quality racks for the speed pool champion and McDermott Cues for their donation of a beautiful cue and case, which was raffled off. In addition, a special thanks to the major sponsors: Jamaica Joe’s; the WPPA; and the WPA for their official World event sanctioning / recognition for Artistic Pool (15th WC) and a provision by them of Olympic-style medals for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd place finishers.
On Saturday evening the “artistic” players gave an entertaining show to all in attendance with some of their favorite shots and an awesome concluding pool table skit by consummate “trick shot” inventor and performer Rick “The Barber” Hawkinson. The WPA APD would like to remind the players and fans of our sport that we will be holding the next WPA World Artistic Pool Championship in China in January 2017. If anyone wants to play in that event or knows someone that is interested in competing, please contact WPA APD president Mark Dimick at dimickmark@aol.com. The WPA APD would also like to thank the wonderful staff at Jamaica Joe’s, Jessica Finch Massey, and KC Massey, for their valued support of Artistic Pool with another great event.
