Roy D'Fish

Player of the Year 2009

2009-07-25T11:05:00.000+02:00

More than half of 2009 is in the historybooks, so who is in the "lead" so far for the prestigous title "Player of the Year 2009"?

What major tournaments do you think InsidePool uses for their calculation and summary to decide who it will be?

My suggestions:

DCC 9-ball: Shane Van Boening, Van Corteza 2nd
Turning Stone Classic XII: Ralf Souquet, Hatch 2nd
World Pool Masters: Darren Appleton, van den Berg 2nd
Qatar 9-ball Open: Mika Immonen, Ko 2nd
Predator 10-ball: Dennis Orcullo, Souquet 2nd
Philippine 10-ball Open: Ricky Yang, De Luna 2nd
Pro 10-ball Expo: John Schmidt, Deuel 2nd
China 9-ball Open: Thorsten Hohmann, Feijen 2nd
World Games: Souquet vs Yang in the final playing right now
Million Dollar 9-ball:
US Open:
World 14-1 Championship:
World Ten Ball Championship:
All Japan Championship:
WPA-ranking: Darren Appleton is currently the #1, Souquet 2nd

Tournaments/rankings that I believe can add value if very close race between players:

Eurotour-ranking: Ralf Souquet current #1, Feijen 2nd
BCA-ranking: Johnny Archer #1, Immonen 2nd
DCC 10-ball Challenge: Lee Van Corteza, Souquet 2nd
US Bar Table Overall: Glen Atwell, Appleton 2nd
DCC Master of the table: Brumback, Hennessee 2nd
World Cup of Pool (teams):
European Championships 9-ball : Nick van den Berg, Ruslan 2nd
European Championships 14-1 : Dimitri Jungo, Feijen 2nd
European Championships 8-ball : Andreas Roschkowsky, Ekonomopoulos 2nd

So far I can't see anyone dominate the first half of 2009, but Souquet has some very good finishes in all tournaments, plus he is so far ranked #3rd on the BCA-ranking. Very small (tiny) favourite so far, imo.

Should there be other tournaments added to the list? Please come with your suggestions

Back posting again

2009-07-24T22:59:00.003+02:00

I haven't been posting for a long while, but it has it's reason. I have been tired of pool, and it's summer, and I haven't been playing myself more than twice in the last 3 or 4 months. Both times were tournaments in Bergen.

The tournaments didn't end too well for me, but I had lots of fun and it was great to play pool again. But when I got home I just didn't have the desire and motivation to practice. I still haven't 100 % motivation, but I'll start practicing again very soon.

As of now, the World Games is being played in Taiwan, at www.wpapoolonline.com. My favourite, Line Kjorsvik, didn't make it, and lost 9-8 in the quarterfinal after being up 8-7. I was sweating the rack-by-rack update on the website, but luckily Ralf Souquet was able to provide me with live-reports through chat after each ball made during the last racks. That was fun, and I think he will be a good commentator when he is no longer able to compete at the highest level. (In like 30 years :D)

If any of you are interested in buying a great pooltable, I have one for sale. It's not the one in my private room, but it's a beautiful Brunswick Gold Crown IV, 2005-model, in black & chrome. 9ft, tight pockets.

Drop me a message if interested.

Here's a pic of what the table looks like, brand new.

One Pocket - the best game of billiards

2009-04-27T00:52:00.004+02:00

As most of you know, One Pocket is my preferred game when playing pool, and by doing this blog-article I hope that I can get a few more players interested in the game.

First of all, I recommend everyone to visit the OnePocket.org, which is the best website when it comes to information, history and knowledge about this game.

A lot of people think One Pocket is very easy, because it is just to pick a pocket and make 8 balls in it before your opponent does. Well, yes, that is the extreme short summary of the rules, and the purpose of the game.

The game itself is however a lot more complicated, and you need all kind of skills to execute the many different shots needed in this game. You need to play dead perfect safeties, have to be able to bank at a high level, controlling the speed of the cueball and all shots, and when finally given a chance to shoot at your pocket you have to be able to execute it perfectly. As a player you must have the gifts of patience, confidence and creativity.

Many times you can be stuck playing safeties for 15-20 shots in a row, trying to move the balls around the table where they will be in a more favourable position and at the same time a disadvantage for your opponent.

After longer periods of not shooting a ball at a pocket, and then be able to execute a long cut-shot when finally given a chance, that demands focus, concentration and determination. Add some extra pressure on the shot if your chance is a result of a miss by your opponent, and a ball is hanging in his pocket, waiting for you to miss. If you miss, he will run out.

For me, One Pocket is the ultimate pool game.

Yes, some games can last forever, but others can last 3 minutes. It all depends on the level, creativity and style of the players. Matches with Eren Reyes are very seldom boring to watch ;)

If you haven’t played the game, try it for a while. I am sure you will improve on certain areas in your game, and don’t be surprised if you will be playing better 9-ball after just a short period of playing one-pocket.

Here’s some useful stuff for you, books, dvd’s, drills and a couple of great shots. Check it out!

Incardona's instructional DVD

Banking with the Beard. A book and DVD by one of the most famous bankers in the world, Fred Bentivegna. Will definitely teach you how to play better bankpool!

Drills (PAT). In the PAT-books you can find a lot of useful drills that will improve your one-pocket play.

OnePocket.org

Some great shots everyone should try to memorize.

You want a Brunswick Gold Crown V for just $ 20? Read more...

2009-04-26T15:52:00.004+02:00

Robin Dodson, former pro-player for women, are now doing a raffle where people can buy tickets for $ 20. She will only sell 500 tickets, and 1 of the tickets will be rewarded with a brand new Brunswick Gold Crown V, shipped and installed at your house, for no extra price. http://www.robindodson.com/Brunswick_Raffle.htm

Important, this offer is ONLY open for people living in USA & Canada, but people from other countries can still buy tickets in the raffle, and then sell the table ;)

The winning number will be pulled during the BCAPL Nationals in Las Vegas in the middle of May.

Snooker Quiz

2009-04-26T01:42:00.002+02:00

The World Snooker Championship is now broadcasted live on TV, so I guess we all have learnt the rules by now. :)

Here's a little quiz. If you know the answer of these two, then you certainly know your snooker.

1) Assuming that you are playing a frame of snooker with a full set of 15 reds and all the colours, what is the minimum number of shots which would have to take place in order for one of the two players to have reached a score which exceeds the maximum potential break value of all the balls which would then be remaining on the table.......or in other words for one of the players to be placed in a situation where he needs at least one snooker and all the balls to win?

2) How can you legally pocket the yellow three times in a row?

Do you know the answers? Post a comment!

Total dominance by Jasmin Ouschan in the European Championships!

2009-04-25T19:27:00.007+02:00

Congratulations to Jasmin Ouschan from Austria, who happened to be only 5 balls away from her main goal of winning all three diciplines in the European Championships, held at her homecountry Austria.

In the last event of the Championships, 9-ball, she had a stunning 42 - 12 score in racks. She only lost 12 games in 6 matches, and won two of her matches with 7 - 0, including the final against Veronica Hubrtova from Chezk Republic.

In the 8-all it was almost the same story. Her rack wins was 36 while she only defeated 12. Jasmin's powerbreak is too much for her opponents to handle, and she is always playing superb 8-ball compared to the rest of the field.

The first dicipline that was played, 14-1, was were everyone expected Jasmin to win. She has finished 5th, 9th and 3rd in the last three World 14-1 Championships, for men, with major wins against some of the best 14-1 players in the world such as Mika Immonen, Oliver Ortmann and John Schmidt. In the European 14-1 Championships in Chezk Repuplic in 2006, she ran 75 and out in the semifinal for a perfect 75-0 win. In the final she fouled on her opening break, giving her opponent the chance of running 30+ balls. When she missed, Jasmin ran 76 and out for the win.

In my opinion, no woman on earth plays better 14-1 than Jasmin, and I was surprised that she lost the final this year. Although her opponent in the final, experienced Gerda Hofstatter, certainly knows how to play 14-1 very well, I don't think Gerda would consider herself a favourite in that match-up.

In 14-1 Jasmin had a very good overall performance, with a total score of 445 - 186. Impressive!

Jasmin was only 5 balls away from her main goal, since she lost the final against Gerda with 75-70. I can only imagine the major pressure Jasmin felt in the 14-1 final, infront of her family, friends and media, expecting her to succeed in all three diciplines.

Even though she didn't manage to win all three, I think she is very happy and satisfied with 2 gold medals and 1 silver medal.

Once again, congratulations Jasmin!

Would also like to congratulate Nick van den Berg with his first gold medal in the European Championships, winning 9-8 in the final against Russian wonderboy (16?) Chinahov Ruslan.

Mario He vs Vegar Kristiansen in the Quarterfinals of EC

2009-04-25T10:08:00.004+02:00

In today's quarterfinals there are two young kids playing. One of them will be facing Norwegian Vegar Kristiansen and is the young Mario He who finished second on one of the recent Eurotours, after beating Ralf Souquet in the semifinal.

The other young player is Russia's Chinahov Ruslan, who will play Niels Feijen.

Today's quarterfinals, available on live-stream at http://www.epconline.eu/:

Marcus Chamat - Sascha Specchia
Chinahov Ruslan - Niels Feijen
Stephan Cohen - Nick van den Berg
Mario He - Vegar Kristiansen

My guess, based on heart :)

Semifinals:
Marcus Chamat - Niels Feijen
Nick van den Berg - Vegar Kristiansen

Final
Marcus Chamat - Vegar Kristiansen

Winner
Vegar Kristiansen

In the women's division these are the Quarterfinals:

Estelle Bijnen - Gerda Hofstatter
Veronika Hubrtova - Eylul Kibaroglu
Christine Feldmann - Sabrina Naverschnig
Tamara Rademakers - Jasmin Ouschan

I predict a final between Jasmin Ouschan and Eylul Kibaroglu, with Jasmin as winner.

The show starts in 45 minutes. About time to eat breakfast and order the PPV :)

Unofficial ranking for the Norwegians in the European Championships

2009-04-21T16:20:00.005+02:00

Germany and Sweden have forever been the two countries in Europe winning the majority of all medals in European Championships. Germany is superior and it will take decades to pass them, if a country will ever be able to do that, since they keep on getting medals in all divisions and diciplines, for juniors, pupils, seniors, men, women and wheelchair, year after year.

Norway has always been ranked high, and is currently #4 on the overall ranking even though Norway have not been blessed with many medals the last 10 years, and I think it is Austria that know has the #3 spot. Much because of the many medals won by Jasmin Ouschan in the girls and women tournaments.

EDIT: (Norway is ranked #3 on the official EPBF ranking, which is obviously based on gold medals. If based on medals in total, Austria is on 3rd and Norway on 4th. Check the stats here: http://www.epconline.eu/medallist.asp Impressive amount of gold-medals by Germany, or what do you think?.)

During all the past European Championships the Norwegian players have always had a "fun" competition based on who they beat during the tournament.

The score-system is pretty simple. If you win a match, you get 1 point. If you beat a player from Sweden you get 2 points, and if you win against a German you get 3 points.

Based on this, here's the top Norwegian for men and women so far, after the 14-1 and 8-ball is over for the Norwegian players.

Line Kjorsvik - 7 points (4 regular wins + 1 german)
Mats Schjetne - 3 points. (3 wins)

Hope the Norwegians will score lots of points in the 9-ball division :D

Follow the European Championships live at www.epconline.eu

World Snooker Championships, 1st day completed

2009-04-20T10:00:00.001+02:00

The first day of the World Snooker Championships, held at "the Cruicible" in Sheffield, UK, is completed.

This event can be watched live on Eurosport/BBC, and probably through live-streams on the net.

Here's the draw:
http://www.worldsnooker.com/ws_championship_drawsheet.htm?tid=124

European Straight (14-1) Championships completed. Dimitri Jungo and Gerda Hofstatter wins!

2009-04-19T23:24:00.004+02:00

Two "minor" upsets in the finals of the European Championships in the 14-1/straigth pool division.

I say minor, because even if both of the winners are champion players, they were certainly the underdogs in the finals, in my opinion.

Dimitri Jungo, one of the better players on the Eurotours (he also won a Eurotour event last year), had to beat Niels Feijen in the final. Niels Feijen, the current World 14-1 Champion, and 4 x European Champion the last 7 years, was the big favourite.

Despite being the underdog, Dimitri managed to beat Niels with a 125-74 score. To get intot the finals, Dimitri beat the 2007 World 14-1 Champion Oliver Ortmann in the semifinal 125-108, young german Thomas Luttich 125-92 in the Quarterfinal and 3rd place finisher in the World 14-1 Championship in 2007 Huidji See in the last 16 with 125-54.

Niels beat the top-ranked German Andreas Rochowsky in the semifinal by 125-107, then his dutch teammate Nick van den Berg in the Quarterfinal 125-97 and Sascha Specchia in the last 16 by the score of 125-44.

In the women's event Jasmin Ouschan will always be the favourite in that dicipline, especially since she has a 5th, 9th and 3rd from the last three World 14-1 Championships in the mens division, but also how she became European 14-1 Champion 2 years ago, running 75 and out in the semi, and 76 and out in the final. (made a mistake on the opening break).

She plays 14-1 a little better than most of the other European women, and will always be the favourite to win that title, but her opponent in the final was not a surprice. Gerda Hofstatter competed in the European Championships for the first time for many, many years, and I guess the reason was that it was being held in Austria, her homeland. Guess the home-crowd were very happy with having both finalists coming from Austria!

Gerda won the final by 75-70.

The 8-ball division has now started.

More information about the European Championships can be found on:

www.europeanpoolchampionships.com

Edwin Reyes shot dead in his home by fake DHL-delivery guys

2009-04-19T23:07:00.008+02:00

It's sure been a lot happening the last couple of days...

First I have to say that I am still in shock after getting the message that the perhaps best cuemaker in the Philippines, Edwin Reyes, was shot dead in his house Saturday morning. He had just moved from Davao to Manila with his family, and after spending 1,5 year with the BMPAP-group working for the professional players he had decided to start spend more time with his wife and his 3 kids of age 8, 6 and 4.

There has been a "war" between the two billiard groups in the Philippines, the BMPAP and the BSCP, and Edwin was the press official of the BMPAP. He received lots of threatening text-messages on his phone, including deat threats, but he never seem too worried about it.

2 days after he moved into his new house, two men on motorcycle, disguised in DHL-uniforms had a package delivery to him. Edwin had his 4-year old kid in his arms while signing the paper, and before he finished his signature he was shot in his heart. He died at hospital within one hour.

Very, very few people knew that Edwin had just recently moved to a new house, and since the package was a broken, cheap cue many people now think he got killed because of "poolitics", and that the broken cue was a message to the rest of the BMPAP camp. Edwin never got to open the package, so it surely can't be meant for him?

I don't know what to believe. I am still in a kind of shock. It sounds unreal, but I know it has happened.

I have met Edwin on all my trips to the Philippines, and he was a good guy. I know that he will be missed by a lot of people, and I hope that his spirit and thoughts about pro pool will live on forever.

There are some work in progress for a memorial tournament for Edwin, where the goal is to collect money for his family. I will post more information about this as soon as I get the information.

R.I.P. Edwin Reyes ("Bandido on AZBilliards Forum)

Here's some threads on the forum of AZBilliards.com, about the assassination of Edwin Reyes.

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=139253

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=139245

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=139248

Billiards schedule - tournaments happening in April, May and June.

2009-04-14T23:27:00.011+02:00

A lot of things coming up from now till the end of June! It will be A LOT of international tournaments (and three Norwegian tournaments) to follow the next months!!!

Here's a summary:

APRIL
16th - 26th April - European Pool Championships in 9-ball, 8-ball and 14-1 for men, women and wheelchair. Livestream
18th - 19th April - JPBA Hokkaido Open in Japan
18th April - 4th May - World Snooker Championship Live on Eurosport & BBC
26th April - 3rd May - AMWAY WPA Women's World 9-ball Open, Taipei

MAY
1st - 3rd May - Zagreb 8-ball Open, Croatia
1st - 3rd May - Interpool Open, Sweden
1st - 3rd May - Bergen 10-ball Open, Norway
4th - 6th May - TAR: Darren Appleton - Dennis Hatch, race to 100, 10-ball, Las Vegas Livestream
8th - 10th May - World Pool Masters, Las Vegas
8th - 10th May - TAR: Rodney Morris - Chris Bartram, race to 100, 10-ball, Las Vegas Livestream
10th - 16th May - Predator 10-ball Championships, Las Vegas Livestream???
20th - 22nd May - Eurotour Sindelfingen 10-ball, Germany Livestream
22nd - 31st May - Philippine 10-ball Open, Philippines Broadcasted live on TV?
24th - 29th May - APBU Women's 9-ball Championships (ASIA), Korea
29th - 30th May - Norwegian Team Championships (9-ball, 8-ball, 14-1) Livestream 29th - 30th May - Malmo 10-ball Open, Sweden Livestream?

JUNE
1st - 7th June - WPA Women's World 10-ball Championship, Manila, Philippines Live on Philippine TV
8th - 14th June - WPA China Open
16th - 21st June - EPBF Nations Cup Livestream
17th - 21st June - WPBA Classic Tour Event Livestream + ESPN
19th - 21st June - Norwegian 10-ball Championship, Oslo Livestream
20th - 21st June - JPBA 9-ball Festival, Japan
27th June - 6th of July - Qatar International Open 9-ball, Qatar

Phuh....

Guess I need to go to the store and buy beer and popcorn so I am ready for all the online updates on these tournaments :D

Please leave a comment if there are any other tournaments worth to mention around the world during these months, and I'll edit my list.

Billiard blogs and websites I read often

2009-04-14T00:07:00.005+02:00

During a week I am browsing a lot of websites related to pool, to see if there is any new information available.

This is a list of some of the websites I normally visits atleast once in a week:

www.azbilliards.com - World's biggest newssite for pool. American site, with lots of information on regular tours around America. Checking the frontpage and forum on a daily basis.

www.insidepoolmag.com - They got the nicest magazine out there, but I don't like their website. Too much pictures, videos, links. Too much on very little space, imo. But checking every now and then what they have to say.

www.pro9.co.uk - European site, but since the owner is British most of the news are about English poolplayers or tournaments.

www.biljardforbundet.no - Norwegian Pool Federations's official website.

www.nielsfeijen.nl - Niels Feijen's official website. He is updating his news very often, so I am checking his site very often.

www.souquet.de - Ralf Souquet's official website. I love his tournament-articles, and I am checking it about once a week to see if he has updated it yet, but seems like he has quit with that... Last updated in November...

www.jasmin-ouschan.com - Jasmin Oushcan's official website. She has great tournament-articles, and the site is normally updated a couple of times each month.

http://sarahrousey.blogspot.com - Sarah Rousey's official website. I am following her blog, so checking it every time she updates. Like her style of writing, and it's fun reading about her experiences.

http://massiveunderstatement.blogspot.com - "OMGWTF"/Melinda Huang's blog. She has some of the funniest stories about pool, and I especially like to read about her visiting the big pro-events. Check her review's on for example the IPT tournament in Reno.

http://icemanmika.blogspot.com - Mika Immonen's blog, where he updates about his latest wins. He seems to never lose in tournaments anymore, so it's basically about what tournament did he win last week...

www.pooltipjar.com - Samm Diep's official website. Samm is a writer for InsidePool, and she has a nice blog/website with lots of information. Her latest article about a video-instructional is worth a visit :)

http://anitokid.blogspot.com is a blog about mostly Filipino-pool. I love to read his stories about Efren Reyes etc., and is checking his site every now and then to see if there's some interesting news about the top Filipinos.

Some weeks I visit more sites, and some weeks I do not visit all these sites, but during a year these are basically the sites I visits with a higher frequensy than others.

How about you? Do you have any websites that you strongly recommend me to visit?

Please share them with me.

Woman World 10-ball Championships, 31 may-1 June Philippines

2009-04-13T16:57:00.010+02:00

Dragon Promotions and WPA will stage the first ever Woman World 10-ball Championships!

It will be held in Manila, Philippines, and there will be 6 qualifiers held around the world. 2 of them in USA, 1 in Japan and 3 in Philippines.

The qualifiers in USA will be held in Orlando, Florida the 2nd and 3rd of May, while the Tokyo, Japan qualifier will be held the 11th of May.

The three qualifiers in Philippines will be held the days before the main-event starts!

For more information about the event and qualifiers, visit http://www.dragonpromotions.com/

As always I am cheering on one of my favourite-players, Jasmin Ouschan, in this event.

I know a lot of people feel it's about time for her to start dominate the women's events, and I am pretty sure that she will (already is?) be the best female player in the world someday. I predict she will be for women's pool what Ralf Souquet has been and still is for men's pool. Always a threat to finish top 3 in all events he is joining, a class act and a good ambassador for our sport.

It would for sure be fun to see her take home the World Championship, but to achieve that goal she needs to bring her best game and beat all the top women in the world!

Mika Immonen vs Niels Feijen in Blackpool Open in Finland

2009-04-13T13:08:00.006+02:00

The Blackpool Open was once again held in Finland during Easter holiday. It's a handicap-tournament race to 7 only, where the best players have to give games on the wire/head start, to other players.

Last year, in 2008, Niels Feijen beat Mika Immonen in the final, Niels kicked Mika's ass with a demolishing 7-0.

They also had a mini-tournament for all contestants where you played one-rack only. The guy who won the mini last year won almost 2,000 Euro!! ($ 2,500)

This year Mika Immonen, Niels Feijen, Marcus Chamat and some other good players entered. It's basically a fun-tournament for all the amateur players, and they just love that there are pro's there battling it out together with them.

Still, the pricemoney aren't too bad either, with 5000 Euro first and 1500 Euro for second.

The final this year was almost a re-run from last year. Mika Immonen vs Niels Feijen. The only difference this time was that Mika was not on the losing side of the table, and he managed to beat Niels with 7-3 to become the new Champion!

Congratulations Mika, with another 1st place.

Must be boring to win all those tournaments :D

Efren Reyes - Mika Immonen at the 7th Derby City Classic 9-ball

2009-04-11T00:10:00.003+02:00

Here you can watch the just added match on YouTube by BClub.

It's a match where Efren Reyes is playing nearly perfect 9-ball against Mika Immonen.

Enjoy the clinic put up by the Magician :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRvwlX3ihRg

Predict the outcome of the World Snooker Championship!

2009-04-10T23:22:00.005+02:00

Who do you think will win the "2009 betfred.com World Championship?"

By visiting this link http://ep.laboremus.no/registration.asp?comp=2009 you can try to predict the winners of all the matches at the World Snooker Championship, from the first round to the final!

Registrations are free, and first prize is the acknowledgement of being the best to predict the World Championship + a fantastic price! Read more :)

It's the author of the blog http://www.billiardpulse.com/ who has created the site, and he is running this contest for I think the 15th year in a row now. 1200+ people tried to predict the outcome in 2000, but the average the last 5 years has been around 650. If you are interested in snooker, the website http://www.snooker.org/ is also worth a visit.

The World Snooker Championship competition ends 18th of April.

In addition to the points and the pride of being number one on the list, the winner will also receive an autographed cue, personally signed by many of the world's top players, including Ronnie O'Sullivan, Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and Jimmy White.

Music while practicing

2009-04-10T04:46:00.005+02:00

The other day I was reading on a blog by John Chow, about a contest sponsored by http://www.onlineradiostations.com/, where other bloggers can win $ 4,000 in cash just by doing a review of their radiostations.

I thought this was something I could join, since when I am practicing pool the radio is always on. The last couple of days I have not used my regular radio, but instead listened to a few selected of the hundreds of stations available on OnlineRadioStations. Since I am practicing on my own table, I could bring my lap-top and loudspeakers and listen to the kind of music I like.

I have mostly listened to channels where they play music of Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, B.B. King and music like that, and I haven't been dissapointed about the selections I found on OnlineRadioStations.

Anyway, this contest made me curious about how other poolplayers do when practicing pool alone. I know many players like to use iPod's when practicing, but I have never liked to practice using iPod. I enjoy listening to the sound of the chalk, the tip hitting the cueball, balls hitting eachother, and finally the ball dropping in the pocket. When using iPod during play I have felt that something is missing, and for me the sound of pool is a big part of the "whole package" of playing pool, and it wouldn't be as stimulating and relaxing without the sounds I have become so familiar with.

If I played pool using headsets I think I would have missed all the barking and woofing of the other players at the poolhall, and it would have made me crazy trying to figure out what people were talking about all the time :D

During Derby City Classic I saw a player with big headsets (sp?) on during his matches. I had never seen anything like that before, and especially not during a tournament. That would not be allowed on Norwegian tournaments. Another player used iPod during his match, and his opponent actually had to tell him to reduce the volume because it bothered him when he was at the table. It would probably bothered me too if my opponent used iPod during a match, so I don't blame him.

Personally I prefer having the music on in the background, and when playing my best pool music by the already mentioned artists are normally on loud, mixed with songs by Guns N'Roses, Dire Straits and U2. My favourite artist to listen to, no matter what I do, is Bob Dylan.

If I ever start another poolhall I can guarantee you that it will be that kind of music in the background. Perhaps it will end up with only me playing there, but atleast I will have a good time :D

European Pool Championships

2009-04-10T03:22:00.013+02:00

The European Pool Championships for men and women will start in about one week. This year it will be held in Austria, and the players will battle it out in three diciplines, 14-1, 8-ball and 9-ball.

At the official homepage, http://www.epconline.eu/, you can check the registered nations, players, player profiles, hall of fame, photogallery and during the tournaments you will get rack-by-rack update from all matches, all rounds. On top of that some of the matches will be broadcasted live on their stream.

Obviously, I am rooting for the Norwegians. I am especially hoping that Line Kjorsvik will do well, and become the first woman to win all 3 events in one year. It would also be nice if Vegar Kristiansen can improve his bronzemedal in 14-1 from last year. I am curious of how Ronny Oldervik will perform, and have a feeling he will do very well in the 8-ball. Would be cool if one of the 5 men players from Norway could get atleast 1 medal this year also.

Norway is still ranked 4th in Europe on the Hall of Fame of medals won on the European Championships, just passed by Germany, Sweden and Austria, even though it is a long time since the men were regulars top 3 finishers at the EC. It's time to perform better than the last 10 years if Norway is going to keep that ranking!

I am a fan of good pool, and I normally root for Ralf Souquet, Niels Feijen, Darren Appleton etc., during big tournaments, but at the EC I am having other "favourites" that I hope will do good.

Here's some of the players I want to do well:

Artem Koshovyy from Ukraine. A young boy with amazing talent. Shoots great with both hands, and has at young age got great finishes in many international tournaments. Feared by a lot of the top-players.

Jasmin Ouschan is another player I always root for, and as long as she won't be playing against Line Kjorsvik I will normally root for her. Albin Ouschan Jr., her brother, is another great talent worth watching if you get the chance. Don't be surprised if he gets a medal in one of the three mens events!

Thomas Luttich from Germany is another great young player, and I just love to watching him play pool. The way he walks around the table, and the confidence he has when playing is just awesome. Watch out for this man. If I am not mistaken he became German 9-ball Champion last year. As a side-note Thorsten Hohmann won the World Championship before he finally managed to win a German Championship...

Chinahov Ruslan isn't even old enough to watch movies like "Seven" or "Pulp Fiction", but he is playing phenomenal pool. Has two great finishes on the Eurotour, and I believe he will also play in the upcoming World Pool Masters. He is however not my favourite Russian player.

Russian Konstantin Stepanov, in his mid-twenties I believe, has one of the most fantastic styles and his stroke is nothing else than pure beauty. About 2 years ago he was ranked #1 in Europe for almost a year, performing well on the Eurotour and the European Championships. I remember I watched him beat Efren Reyes in the knock-out stage at the World 9-ball Championship in Manila, 2007, and even though I was sad since I rooted for Efren to win, I enjoyed the show Konstantin put up.

Looking forward to the Championships! Let the games begin :)

2 and out

2009-04-10T01:31:00.002+02:00

21 players at the tournament in Stavanger. I got a bye in the first round so had to wait 2,5 hours before my first match, but the waitingtime didn't bother me. I felt good, wanted to do well and was relaxed and ready.

Well, I ended up losing my first two matches. I felt so uncomfortable at the table, couldn't get out on open tables. The only thing I managed was to play good safeties, and I won 2 games on 3 fouls. Unfortunately I couldn't win all games on fouls, so had to run out also. I missed five easy/medium 9-balls, leaving my opponent easy 9 and easy 10. In a handicap-tournament race to 7 alternate break, that is brutal, especially when I was down 6-1 in both matches after just a few racks. I was out of the tournament before the fun started.

Sometimes that's just the way it goes.

Raymond Hauge played Trond Larsen in the final. They splitted the money and just played one rack to get a winner, and Trond ended up winning that game :)

I played a couple of games with Raymond before his Quarterfinal, and it as fun playing him. Even though he hasn't pocketed a ball for 4 years he would still do very good if he played national tournaments again. Hope he will start to play again, but doubt it.

Maybe I will play a regional tournament here in Stavanger next weekend, but most likely my next tournament will be the Bergen 10-ball Open the first weekend of May.

Wish me luck, if I played like today I need a lot of it!!

Upcoming TAR-matches in May

2009-04-09T01:33:00.005+02:00

In the beginning of May there will be a lot of pool to watch for us die-hard fans. Just days before the World Pool Masters in Las Vegas, the Action Report has put Darren Appleton and Dennis Hatch in the box. During the World Pool Masters they will broadcast another match, between Rodney Morris and Chris Bartram. On top of that the BCA has their annual bar-box tournament in Las Vegas, with more than 8000 players.

It will be a great week, with lots of action both for the players, fans and us who likes to put up a few $ betting on our favourite. There will be lots of online-bets made in the TAR-chatroom and also on the forums prior to these fantastic matches.

Here's the press-releases from The Action Report:

Darren Appleton - Dennis Hatch

"On May 4-6 at Pool Sharks in Las Vegas, NV, two of the strongest ten ball players in the world will face off for $20,000 per man, winner take all.

Current World 10 Ball Champion Darren "Dynamite" Appleton will face Dennis "The Hatchetman" Hatch in a race to 100 over three days at Pool Sharks in the notorious "Pit" where many historic action matches have taken place over the years. This match is sponsored by OB Cues, Diamond Billiard Products, BCA Pool Leagues and Baby's Pro Shop.

The exciting and unique TAR Race to 100 format will be played over three days. The players will play Monday May 4th until one player reaches 35 wins, they will return on Tuesday May 5th and play until one reaches 70 total victories and finish the race to 100 on Wednesday May 6th.

Fans can watch all of the action LIVE on streaming Pay Per view at www.theactionreport.com for only $25 for all three days."

Rodney Morris - Chris Bartram

"The Action Report is proud to present another exciting event. On May 8th at 3PM Pacific/6PM Eastern in the TAR BAR at the BCA Pool League 8 Ball Nationals in the Riviera Hotel and Casino Las Vegas, Nevada, Chris Bartram and Rodney Morris will face off in a $10,000 per man challenge match.

Rodney Morris is a former U.S. Open Champion and one of the most feared money players in the world. On May 8th he will face a fearless road man in Chris Bartram. Rodney wanted to get in the ring and Chris stepped up and made a game with him.

The game is ten ball, 15 Ahead with Chris receiving a ball spot. The spot consists of the "Call 8 and 9" which means that when Chris pockets either the 8 or 9 ball in a called pocket he wins that particular game. All other rules are the same.

Play will begin on Friday May 8th at 3PM Pacific/6PM Eastern. The 15 Ahead set format is a new twist for a TAR match. For example if player one wins the first four games and player two wins the next game player one is three games ahead. In this format play continues until one player is 15 games ahead of his opponent at which time he wins the match. Chris and Rodney will play 12 hours the first day and 12 hours the second day if necessary. If by some slight chance there is no one 15 Ahead after 24 hours of play the prize fund will be pro-rated and paid off to whoever is ahead at the time.

You can watch the action LIVE on streaming pay per view at http://www.theactionreport.com/ for $25 for the the entire match. The exciting part of an ahead set format is that it could take two hours or it could take twenty.

Don't miss any of the action. The match will be taking place in the TAR BAR. This exciting new idea is a players lounge and action room with a full bar, television, comfortable seating, four Diamond 9 Foot Pro-Am Tables and several 7 Foot Diamond Smart Tables for players, fans and spectators to hang out, play and watch some great action or just relax with some friends for drinks after their tournament match. This match is sponsored by the BCA Pool Leagues and Diamond Billiard Products.

Special thanks to Jimmy for all his hard work in putting this match together. Come join us in the TAR BAR for all the action !!! "

Posters and press-releases copied from http://www.theactionreport.com/

Don't forget to visit their site and check their store. You will find some fantastic DVD's, including Shane Van Boening - Efren Reyes race to 23 in 10-ball.

History-review: Norwegian 9-ball Challenge 2006

2009-04-08T16:01:00.008+02:00

After the Eurotour for women, in October 2005, both me and the EPBF/IBP, organizers of the Eurotour, wanted to do a men's event too.

Unfortunately the IBP had 3 years contracts with most the 7 yearly tour-stops, and I didn't want to wait that long. So I decided that I could do a tournament of my own.

I worked hard for weeks trying to get in touch with the right person in the Norwegian TV-channel TV2. I wanted to talk to the guy who could say yes or no, not only people that said "maybe, send me an email". That wasn't easy to accomplish, but in the end I finally got a chance to talk to the chief of sportprograms, and loaded with confidence I told him that I wanted to host a pro-tournament in Oslo at our poolhall, and I wanted TV2 to broadcast it.

"No", was his short reply after I had talked for minutes.

I was desperate. I wanted this tournament to happen, and I wanted tv-coverage. I lied.

"Did I mention that Ronnie O'Sullivan has agreed to play?"

That sparked his interest and he put me up for a meeting with another guy.

Now I had a big challenge ahead of me. Not only did I have to get in touch with O'Sullivan, I also had to convince him to join my tournament. I had only organized small local tournaments before, held on evenings in the weekdays.

I made a few phonecalls, and I got to Tony Drago. He told me that Raj Hundal was spending a lot of time together with Ronnie, so I should call him. Got his phonenumber, and called. I ended up convincing Raj, Ronnie and Tony to join the event.

The meeting with TV2 went ok, and I put them in touch with Kozoom Production and Bwin.com, which I had talked to prior our meeting, and now I had dates for the event, 12th - 15th of June, I had 3 great players agreeing to join, tv-coverage (PPV) + livestream and 28 matches broadcasted on Bwin.com where fans could make small bets on the matches.

I then called Niels Feijen, and based on his experience in Oslo from the women's event, he said yes. So did Marcus Chamat, Mika Immonen, Jasmin Ouschan and a few more pros I can't remember right now.

In the end we ended up with 125 players, $ 10 000 first price. We played for 3 days, with groups of 8 players, round-robin race to 5, alternate break.

The players meeting was on Wednesday evening, and O'Sullivan trigged the interest of lots of spectators and media. 3 TV-stations, radiostations, newspapers etc. did stories about the upcoming tournament, and they all wrote about the last match in Ronnie's group, which would be played on Friday at 1 PM. Then Ronnie was scheduled to play on the tv-table against the young Jasmin Ouschan.

At Tuesday night, at 02 AM, I got a text from Ronnie's manager, saying that because of an ear-infection Ronnie wasn't allowed to travel by air, and had to cancel.

That was popular! haha. The 4 players who travelled all the way from Kuwait to play never complained or said a word about it, but I think they wanted to play this event because of O'Sullivan joining. I felt bad for them, but there was nothing I could do. I told O'Sullivan's manager to make a press-release about his cancellation, which the newspapers printed.

Despite of this, the tournament was a huge success. We had more than 35 mini-tournaments during that tournament, with 8 players in each. The tournaments varied from race to 1, $15 entry, to race to 5 $ 150 entry. There was something for everyone, and it was like a big party till closing time every night.

Marcus Chamat was the top seeded after the groups, with only losing 3 games on 7 matches. He was in top-form, and therefore he got to meet the last seeded in the single elimination, young snooker player Kurt Maflin. Kurt Maflin ended up beating Marcus 9-8 in a thriller, and then proceed to finish 3rd in the tournament. Kurt later on won the World Amateur Snooker Championship.

Jasmin Ouschan lost 9-8 to #1 ranked in Netherland, Brian Beekers, in the quarterfinal, and got a nice 5th finish.

The final was a superp performance by Mika Immonen, winning 9-4 over Oliver Ortmann.

History-review: Eurotour for women in Oslo, 2005

2009-04-08T15:36:00.003+02:00

15th - 16th of October, 2005, the poolroom Kim and I had just opened 3 weeks earlier, the ElbowRoom, were host for the Eurotour for women.

A week before the tournament the organizer, IBP, sent me a list of all the players and a list of hotelrooms, and there I saw that Niels Feijen were going too, together with Katrine Jensen to support her. I immidiately got his phonenumber and called him, and said I wanted to do a tournament the week before the Eurotour where the winner would play him a race to 9 for the pricemoney. Niels wouldn't have to pay anything, all he needed to do was to bring his cue and play a match against a local player.

He said yes, and we put up a tournament and it became popular to join. In the end Timo Makela won it. Timo was playing good, and I remember watching him beat Mika Immonen 9-3 on the Eurotour when we travelled together to the tournament in Belgium 6 months earlier. He could beat a top-player, but he couldn't do it regulary, but this was just one match.

I also contacted the top 4 on the Eurotour-ranking for women, and asked them if they wanted to play a tournament on Friday evening. They would all be guaranteed money, and it wouldn't cost them anything. I seeded them into the Quarterfinal, and then had a tournament on Friday where all the others, men and women, played for the other 4 spots in the Quarterfinals. I don't remember who won this tournament, but I remember that the women on the tour appreciated what we did for them, and how we treated them.

When the tournament-play ended on Saturday, it was time for the battle between Timo and Niels. Timo was full of confidence, too much perhaps, and wanted to put up about $ 500 more of his own money, and make it a race to 11 instead. Niels agreed, and the many spectators witnessed the first 8 racks being split, with the score 4-4. Then Niels figured out how break on the tripple shimmed Brunswick Gold Crown IV table, and from there it was no contest at all. Niels ended up winning 11-5, but Timo showed a lot, perhaps too much, heart, and it was fun.

After that match I asked him if he wanted to play more against local players, for money. He wasn't sure how to do the handicaps since he had never seen them before, but I took care of that. I told him what the other player should need, and he played. I had a long list of players waiting, and they all got to play either race to 5 or 7 in 9-ball, for $ 30 - $ 60.

Niels ended up winning against almost everyone, but most of the matches were real close, so no one complained about the handicap. It was a great experience for everyone involved. Niels loved it, and played till 6 in the morning, with no breaks at all. He won around $ 2000 that night :)

At Sunday it was time for the Eurotour again, and we all had Line Kjorsvik, ranked #1 on the tour, as our big favourite. The home-crowd cheered on her, but in the end Charlotte Sorensen from Denmark beat her in the final.

Line still ended up as winner of the Eurotour League (ranking) that season, and the tournament in Oslo was unfortunately the last Eurotour for women held...

Final ranking:
http://www.epbf.com/sportsite/Rankings/wometrk.html

Eastern tournaments

2009-04-08T15:17:00.004+02:00

As usual, during the holiday-seasons of Eastern and Chrstimas it is packed with small tournaments all over Norway, and they are normally not put on the same dates, which is great.

About 2 years ago, at Christmas, the 27th, I played in a local tournament in Stavanger, then drove 6 h the next day to play in another tournament with $ 500 added in Porsgrunn. The next day I drove to Oslo to play, and then I spent the weekend in Sweden playing Royal 9-ball Masters in Malmo.

I have wanted to do that again, to do a mini-Norwegian-roadtrip, and this Eastern it would be a great time. Tomorrow there is a tournament in Stavanger, the next day in Bergen, and the weekend in Oslo. Unfortunately I am only going to Stavanger this time, for a 10-ball tournament with handcap.

As of now, it is just a small tournament, with 18 players registered so far. I guess we will end up with between 24-32 players, and the total pricemoney will be around $ 500.

This time it will be very cool that one of my favourite players, Raymond Hauge, the player I admired before I had ever seen any foreign players, is going to enter. He hasn't played pool for around 4 years now, and it will be exciting to see him in action again.

He was an amature in 1989, but then decided he wanted to be European Champion within 5 years. He didn't succeed, but during those 5 years he finished 3rd four times, and before he retired he finished 3rd four times on the Eurotour's too. I can't find the stats for all the Norwegian Champions during the years, but I found the stats from 98 till he retired in 2005, and during that period he won 4 Norwegian Championships + atleast 4 Team Championships.

Have already asked him if he remember how to hold a cue, and he said he wasn't even sure where he had put his cues. Will be nice meeting him again. During the World 9-ball Championships in Taiwan I helped him trying to get sponsors and press coverage, and I made a brochure for him. He finished 17th that year.

Hope I will be able to beat him tomorrow. When he hasn't played for 4 years I should have a chance :D

Youtube: Ralf Souquet vs Efren Reyes

2009-04-05T23:37:00.003+02:00

Sometimes it is better to not practice pool yourself, and just sit back and relax a good match between two of the best players in the world.

You can learn far more by studying their moves, patterns, shot-routine etc., in the 1 hour this match last, than practicing yourself for 1 hour. Every now and then it is highly recommended to watch a match, and try to copy some of the things the pros do next time you enter the table.

I haven't watched this match yet, but will start at it right now. I expect it to be a good one. It's from the World Pool Masters 2006, held in the Netherlands, between Efren Reyes and Ralf Souquet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2HXlOPziWM

WPBA San Diego Classic

2009-04-05T23:18:00.005+02:00

The last couple of days I have been following the tournament San Diego Classic, which was the first tour-stop this season for the professional league for women, the WPBA.

As usually, 64 women fills the field, most of them regular tour-members but also players who won their spot to this tournament by playing and winning one of many qualifiers out there.

The WPBA San Diego Classic, hosted by Viejas Casino in California for the 13th time, was broadcasted live on the net by AZBilliards.com, on this link: http://www.mogulus.com/azbtv

They broadcasted matches from the first 3 days, and the final 3 matches will be broadcasted by ESPN on later dates. I believe, and hope, that the WPBA will continue with live-streaming on their future tournaments.

I have been sweating most of the matches the last days, except yesterday when I fell asleep during the match between Jasmin Ouschan and Helena Thornfeldt. (It was 2 in the morning here in Norway). I have been doing bets with other viewers in the chatroom, and I happened to lose on that particular match. I had a good run, but lost all I had won on my first two days in just 3 rounds that day. I am still far ahead in online-bets on live-streaming this year, so can't complain.

I have to say that I just love the live-streaming and the way us viewers can both watch the match and also interact with other viewers, and ask questions to the commentators. Many of the players on the tour did some commentary too, and I have to say that there is a future commentator in many of them when their pro-career ends. I was especially impressed with how Jennifer Barretta handled the booth. Very good job.

The tournament is still going on, and unfortunately neither of my two favourites, Line Kjorsvik and Jasmin Ouschan, made it to the final 16 of this event. Sarah Rousey had a good tournament, but seemed to run out of gas in the last match, but still ended in a nice 5th.

Right now the first semifinal has started, and Monica Webb is leading 6-1 over Jeanette Lee. The other semifinal will be between Gerda Hofstatter and Ga Young Kim. I am now hoping that Ga Young Kim will win this event.

You can read more about this tournament, stats, the players etc on www.wpba.com

Here's the brackets for this tournament:
http://www.wpba.com/pdfs/2009SDC-TournamentChart.pdf

News about the tournament can be read on www.azbilliards.com

9th at Happy Sunday

2009-04-02T00:11:00.003+02:00

I went to Oslo to compete at the Happy Sunday event, and 42 players joined, which made it $ 1,000 first price.

I made it to the single-elimination through the winners-side, beating one of the tournaments best players, Kent Halldin, 8-6 to get that spot. In the next round I met Eirik Eide, a former Norwegian Youth Team player, who has a bronze-medal in the European 14-1 Championship.

I didn't play too well in this match, and combined with a couple of bad rolls, I lost 8-3 and finished 9th, and out of the money. If I had won, I would have met the eventual winner, Tom Bjerke, in the Quarter Final and I think it would have been a good match.

Today I played a mini-tournament in Stavanger. 5 people put up $ 30 each, played a round-robin group race to 7, with a final of the 2 best in the group. I ended up winning the mini, but the moment that brought me most joy was to beat the 2009 Norwegian 8-ball Champion for women, Ine Helvik, 7-0 ;) :D (It is more fun to beat some people than other, and Ine just happens to be in the category where a big win feels more wonderful than anything else) :D

That's a nice warm-up for our coming session, which will take place before she goes to the European Championships. She is dying to get revenge now, so will be a great match-up :)

On my way to Oslo

2009-03-28T01:19:00.002+01:00

Have a meeting in Oslo this weekend, so will play the tournament at Strommen, the "Happy Sunday".

42 players registered for the 9-ball tournament, with about $ 1,000 first price. It's race to 8, with handicap, so players are getting games on the wire based on their level. I am starting with 1 game on the wire.

I think this tournament will be streamed at Ustream, but don't know where yet. Will post the link if I can find it.

Hopefully there will be some action or mini-tournament at the poolhall Molla during Saturday evening/night.

Norwegian 8-ball Championship for seniors

2009-03-22T21:08:00.002+01:00

Went to Stavanger to watch the Norwegian 8-ball Championship for dinasours (40+) this weekend.

My friend, Christian Johannessen from Oslo, was the big favourite in the field of 21 players, and he did not dissapoint. In the semifinal he beat the Norwegian Snooker Champion, Knut Kvaal Pedersen, 7-5, and in the final he played awesome pool and won 8-3 against Vidar Blidensol from Bergen.

After the tournament I asked if someone were interested in a mini-tournament in 10-ball, but only me, Christian and 2 more wanted to join. We still played, with a $ 30 entry and $ 120 to the winner. We made it a true-double elimination, race to 3, alternate break.

The tournament lasted for about 2 hours, and I ended up with winning the tournament over Christian in the final :)

Didn't play very good, but had luck on my side. In the final set I had THREE lucky rolls, in a race to 3. Haha, can't lose with such rolls, and won 3-1.

Gonna play Norwegian Woman Champion Ine Helvik on Wednesday, gambling in 9-ball, race to 10. First to win two sets.

Maybe I will go to Oslo this weekend to play the "Happy Sunday" on Strommen, a tournament with about $ 850 first price. This will be the third time there is a Happy Sunday tournament, and in the first I finished second. Would be fun to try to improve that finish :)

I am still having pains when playing, so don't think I am ready to play a tournament over two days yet...

I almost won against "Souquet"

2009-03-17T23:14:00.002+01:00

Played the 10-ball Ghost today, or "Ralf Souquet" as I have named the Ghost, since neither of them ever miss. It was the first time I played for about a week, and I jumped right at it playing a race to 7 with no warm-ups.

In the first rack I was left with this position and thought for a while how to break up the 3-ball cluster. In the end I decided to play position for cueball B and go for the blue line, and it worked out perfect.

Ran that rack and the next, to take the lead 2-0. In the third rack I had two clusters on the table, and a 1 - 10 combination that was not easy, bot not too difficult either. Because of the clusters I decided to try the combination instead of the run-out. Missed it by a hair, and "Ralf" ran out. 2-1.

Ralf kept the table to get up to 5-2, before I managed to turn it around again and tie the score at 5-5. Then I once again were faced with a situation with clusters and a combination, and again I failed the combination by the smallest possible margin. Lost 7-5.

I felt I played ok. Not great, but not bad considering I still have pains, and I haven't played much the last 1,5 months.

Because I still have pains I didn't play any more today, but will give it another try tomorrow again.

Have to put in more time on the table the next weeks, preparing for the upcoming tournaments. Hopefully I will not get worse in my arms then I already am, and that I will be able to put in atleast 2 hours in average a day the coming weeks.

Registered for Eurotour Germany

2009-03-07T15:28:00.003+01:00

Yesterday I sent in my registration for the Eurotour in Sindelfingen, Germany, which will be the first 10-ball event of the nearly 100 Eurotours since 1992. They have all been 9-ball before, but now 3 of the yearly 7 events will be 10-ball.

The tournament isn't before 20th - 23rd of May, so I have lots of time to get in shape. As you might know I haven't been playing for about a month because pain in my arms, and I still don't know what is wrong. Going to a specialist next week, but I am starting to feel a little better so I registered for the event. Need something to look forward to :)

My next event in Norway will be the Bergen 10-ball Open, the 1st - 3rd of May. Unfortunately it is the same weekend as Marcus Chamat's yearly Interpool Open... I would love to go to Interpool Open, more than Bergen, but with me being completely out of form + Bergen only a short ride away I had to choose Bergen Open.

So almost 2 months with time to get healed, practice and preparations, and I am hopefully back to playing good pool again.

Tried to play pool two days ago, and it hurt so I only played for like 45 minutes.

Today I spent another 1 hour and 15 minutes on the table and today it didn't hurt as much, but I didn't play longer because I don't want to rush it. If I now can manage to play between 30 minutes to 1 hour a day for the next weeks without any pain I will be more than happy. I can put in some serious hours when I am fully recovered.

If you are considering signing up for the Eurotour in Germany, or any other Eurotour's, check out their website: http://www.eurotour.nu/

If you are from another continent and don't want to travel just for one event, there is also the "Best of the East" a couple of days prior to the Eurotour, in Poland, the neighbour of Germany. And a week after the Eurotour there is a 9-ball event in Finland. I don't have any information about those two events, but will be happy to help you out with getting the information if you are considering a trip to Europe.

Just a couple of days after the Eurotour there is the Philippines Open in 10-ball, so if you are planning to play the Philippines Open the Eurotour might be a good event to play to get in shape. All the best European players plays these events!

Hope to see you there!

DVD review: Alex Pagulayan - Shane Van Boening, round 1 & round 2

2009-03-06T00:47:00.009+01:00

At Derby City Classic I bought a couple of dvd's from TAR (The Action Report), and two of them were filmed at the Derby City Classic the year before.

The matches were:

1: Alex Pagulayan vs Shane Van Boening, 10-ball, rack your own, race to 21, for $ 5,000 each. Commentators John Schmidt, Darren Appleton, Bob Hunter, Jeanette Lee and Jay Helfert

2: Alex Pagulayan vs Shane Van Boening, 10-ball, rack your own, race to 25, for $ 5,000 each.

Commentators Jay Helfert, Justin Collett and Shawn Putnam.

Both matches lasted for more than 5 hours, but as a pool-lover you got to watch them. The play both of them perform is at the highest level, and most of the time the commentary is very good.

You will see some spectalur run-outs, excellent safeties, fantastic kick- and jump-shots, and you will see things you never thought a player of this caliber would ever do. I won't tell you what it is, you have to buy the DVD to see it, but it's something Alex Pagulayan does when he has ball in hand on the 1-ball. It's unbelivable.

Matches broadcasted at TAR has the viewers at home interacting with the commentators through a chat, and since the chat is not viewable on the dvd you sometimes gets lost in the commentary, but overall the commentary was very good, especially on the second match.

Both matches ended with a very small margin of victory, and they were very exciting to watch. I knew who would win the matches, and I knew that the first one went 20-20, but in the second match I had no idea what the score would be.

I think they played another set to 25 immidiately after the second set ended, and I don't know if that is available on tape. For the next weeks after these matches Alex and Shane battled it out at different poolhalls, before they finally played a match at TAR again a couple of months later.

That match I haven't seen yet, and it is told to be the best 10-ball match ever taped. It's a race to 100, rack your own, $ 20 000 each. It's filmed immidiately, talking minutes, after Alex became World Pool Master 2008. During that match Shane had a lead of 22 games, but Alex managed to close the gap at 92 - 92.

I will buy that match + the two matches Shane played at this years DCC, Shane - Fransico Bustamante and Shane - Efren Reyes, as soon as the Shane - Bustamante match is available.

My recommandation for you who read this:

Visit http://www.theactionreport.com/ and buy those DVD's!

Links:

The race to 21

http://www.theactionreport.net/product.sc?categoryId=1&productId=24

The race to 25

http://www.theactionreport.net/product.sc?categoryId=1&productId=54

Norwegian 9-ball Championship

2009-03-03T22:55:00.003+01:00

With 90 players in the Norwegian 9-ball Championship, 15 (or 16) year old Mats Schjetne did like he did in the Norwegian 14-1 Championship last year, and went through the field undefeated.

He was down 7-4 in the quarterfinal against favourite Vegar Kristiansen, but managed to turn the alternate break match around and win 8-7.

In the final he played the winner of the Oslo 10-ball Open from last year, Malvin Bjelland, and won 8-4.

Congratulations Mats. Looking forward to see how you and the rest of the Team Norway will do in the upcoming European Championship!!!

The rest of the Norwegian Team will be Vegar Kristiansen, Malvin Bjelland, Ronny Oldervik and Joakim Haugen.

Team Norway will also have two women to represent them, and that will be Line Kjorsvik and Ine Helvik.

"Everyone" guessed that these two would end up in the final of the Norwegian Women 9-ball Championship the past weekend, but surprisingly Christine Ingrebrigtsen won 8-7 in the semifinal against Ine. Line won the final against Christine with a 8-1 victory, just minutes after she lost 8-7 in the quarterfinal of the mens division. Once again Line won a Norwegian Championship, and I think even her has lost the count of how many she now has...

If you want to read more about the upcoming European Championship in Austria, visit www.europeanpoolchampionships.com

Pool Wars

2009-03-03T19:38:00.002+01:00

Jay Helfert, the American "all-rounder" in pool, has now become an author, and published the book "Pool Wars".

Jay has been involved in "everything" in pool in America the last 30 years, from being tournament director, referee, commentator, backer and even a player himself. His tournaments have paid out more than $ 2,000,000 in pricemoney, and he is still putting up a tournament every now and then.

He has now written a book that consist of lots of short-stories from his experiences, and based on his stories from AZBilliards.com, the book will be a best-seller!

The first edition is 500 copies for the price of $ 19.90, and international shipping is $ 14.90. During the first 4 days since he advertised it on AZBilliards, more than half of the books were sold!

You can order the book on http://jayhelfert.com/poolwars/order.php

If you mention my name in your order, Roy Steffensen, you will get a $ 5 discount.

What's up?

2009-02-27T17:28:00.005+01:00

In 30 minutes the Norwegian 9-ball Championship 2009 kicks off, without me.

I am not able to play pool because of the injury in my arms, and I am still on sickleave. I can't even play playstation, so the last couple of days I have only been glued to the computer watching pool. Haven't happened much pool-related in my real-life, so I'll do a quick update from those tournaments.

In the weekend it was the Turning Stone, which Ralf Souquet ended up winning, and now it is the US Open Bar Box Championships in 10-ball, 9-ball and 8-ball.

Darren Appleton won the 10-ball and is now in the final of the 9-ball event. He is playing superb at the moment, and I suspect he will win the 8-ball event too, which IS his strongest game.

These events are being streamed at http://www.theactionreport.com/, and today's stream is PPV (pay-per-view), and cost $ 15. Tomorrow it is free, and Sunday it costs another $ 15.

I do hope that the Norwegian 9-ball Championship will be streamed too, but as of now there is no such information. I will post the link here if it will be streamed.

The draw has been done, and of the 90 players in the tournament I predict that Vegar Kristiansen will end up as the Norwegian 9-ball Champion this year.

Line Kjorsvik will most likely end up som winner of the Women Championship.

Turning Stone - Watching it live

2009-02-22T16:44:00.003+01:00

Here you can watch the final matches from the Turning Stone tournament:
http://www.mogulus.com/azbtv

Here's the final brackets:
http://www.azbilliards.com/brackets/show128final.cfm?tourneynum=3189

Right now they are broadcasting Shane Van Boening vs Ralf Souquet

Time to laugh

2009-02-18T23:55:00.003+01:00

Since pool and my arms ain't making me smile these days, I figured out I could post a video that made me laugh.

It is the ultimate proof why women should take the bus ;)

My arms still hurts...

2009-02-16T20:58:00.002+01:00

Went to see the doctor again today, but still no answer on the tests they took las Monday. Will get the results on Wednesday.

But the doctor put me on sick leave for one week, since I am struggling with using my hands and arms at work. Hope some rest will do good for my arms, and that I will be back at work by next week, and fit for fight for the Norwegian 9-ball Championship next weekend...

After some beers...

2009-02-16T03:57:00.005+01:00

I had about 45 minutes to kill before the bus home, after been to the cinema watching Frost/Nixon. I really liked the movie, but that could be because of my background as a former politician though :)

Anyway, I went to buy a beer at Ovenpaa, a pub in Stavanger. Here they have liveband, 2 pooltables, jukebox and lots of people every night. I went there to have a beer before taking the bus, but I knew a lot of the people in the bar so one beer would obviously not be enough :D

After a couple of beers I decided to try my luck at one of the pooltables, and there I got to challenge one of Norway's best boxer's ever, Ole Klemetsen.

He actually has a pooltable at home, and I could see that he knew some good shots, but before we got to play eachother a friend of us told him I was the best player in town. So then Ole told me that "ok, then I will only play you $ 50 per game instead of $ 250" :D

When we played pool, after a while boxing became the subject of our conversation, and I told him that a former Norwegian Champion in boxing had teached me some boxing when I was like 12 years old. (I walked his dog every day, and in return he teached me boxing). Ole confirmed that he had been taught boxing by the same guy himself when he was 14-15 years old :)

After that, I told Ole that instead of gambling all night I could give him some pool-lessons, and we decided to give it a try later, and he got my phonenumber and we agreed on some lessons later this month.

Then we went for a nightclub, "Backstage", and at the bar Ole said that no one had ever beaten him in drinking a pint faster than him before.

Well, I beat him twice in a row... Haha...

Norwegian 9-ball Championship coming up

2009-02-15T14:59:00.003+01:00

It's now less than 2 weeks till the Norwegian 9-ball Championship. This year it will be played in the city of Trondheim, and aproximately 100 players will enter.

Hopefully I will be able to compete in this tournament, but as of today it doesn't look good. I have some problems with my arms and hands, and it sometimes hurts even when brushing my teeth. I tried to play some pool on Friday, but had to quit after about 40 minutes. Some days I can't feel any pain at all, other day's it hurts like hell.

Went to the doctor on Monday, got some pills and took a bloodtest. Will be back tomorrow, and hopefully things will be sorted out very quickly. If it keeps on hurting like this, it isn't worth the trouble of travelling and competing.

I hope that I will be able to play the Norwegian 9-ball Championship. I finished 5th last year, and I feel that I am capable of atleast repeating that performance. Of course I need to play my very best, but it isn't impossible to win it all, and that's my goal.

Now I am crossing my fingers and hoping that I will be fit for fight...

Eurotour French Open, day 1

2009-02-12T19:05:00.007+01:00

The Eurotour French Open is underway, and in the time of writing some players are about to be eliminated. I am not present at this Eurotour, just following the draw through the website http://www.eurotour.nu/.

At that website you can find brackets, results, hall of fame, schedule, ranking etc. It's a very informal website, with the results of EVERY SINGLE MATCH played on each of the Eurotour's 7 yearly stops from many previous years. During the tournament you can get live updates from each of the 24 tables, each 10th second.

If you want to bet a little, you can watch the tv-table on http://www.bwin.com/, and bet on who will win the match, the next rack, how many balls made on the break etc. When betting it can be extremely worthful checking out results from previous tournaments, which players have this guy beaten etc, before making your final bet on the match.

235 players entered this tournament, including ALL the best European players. Wish I could have been there myself... :( I will try to play in atleast one of the other 6 stops during the year.

I won't try to predict any winner of the event, but I will predict an interesting match :) In round 2 on the winnerside, played at 10:30 tomorrow European time (France, Paris), Ralf Souquet will play Jasmin Ouschan.

Most probably that match will be played on the tv-table, I can't see a more interesting match-up :)

I am sorry Ralf, but I hope you get your ass kicked badly in that match!

Other interesting matches in the winners bracket, round 2:

Oliver Ortmann - Sandor Tot

Dominic Jentsch - Dimitri Jungo

Niels Feijen - Bahram Lotfy

Bahram Lotfy hasn't won his round 1 match yet against Kozaric, the score is 8-6 to Bahram race to 9, but I assume he will win. I find that match interesting because Bahram is a very solid player, and he is used to practice together with Niels every now and then. He is from Denmark, like Niels' girlfriend Kat, so when Niels go to Denmark they often practice together. Can be an interesting match, and even though Niels is clearly the favourite I wouldn't be surpriced if Bahram can manage to make it a close match, and perhaps also snap off a hill-hill victory ;)

Dimitri Jungo is one of the best European players, and he will play one of most promising European youth players, German player Dominic Jentsch. I have a feeling that Dominic will win.

In the classic battle between Oliver Ortmann and Sandor Tot I believe Ortmann will be the strongest player, but it is hard to tell. Sandor Tot is playing as good as anyone when he is on fire, and it is nice to see that he has chosen to start playing on the Eurotour again. Will be an exciting match, and perhaps a possible tv-match if they don't broadcast Jasmin-Ralf.

An impossible cutshot

2009-02-11T23:20:00.005+01:00

I had an hour to kill today before watching the friendly footballmatch (soccer) between Germany-Norway, and decided to play the 9-ball Ghost a race to 7.

In this particular situation the score was 3-6, but I hadn't given up. Because I am lazy, the table and balls haven't been cleaned for quite some time, so in this match against the 9-ball Ghost I hit the balls a little harder than normal, to prevent the balls from skidding.

And in the tenth rack I once again overhit a ball, and I got too far when playing position on the 6-ball. I thought over the different options, and because of the position on the 9-ball I couldn't bank the 6-ball in the corner. I considered kicking and attempting to make the 6 in the side, but then I got a crazy idea.

What if I raised my cue a little, and cut the 6-ball in the corner, trying to make the cueball bounce in the back of the sidepocket and jump out on the table again?

Crazy, but since I was down 3-6 I thought it was worth a try. This is how it went:

Couldn't ask for a better position on the 9-ball? ;)

I lost 5-7 in the end, but it was a fun shot, so thought I could share it with you. What is your favourite "crazy" shot?

If you don't believe me, here's the shot on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGeigN485mE

PS: Norway won 1-0 against Germany, "our" first win in almost 1,5 years. Haha

I couldn't help myself sending some texts to some few Germans after the match. Some of the comments:
"Losing to Norway is not as bad as losing to Holland" - Ralf Souquet
"I thought Norwegians could only fish salmon and make snowmen. This is worse than losing for a team of women!" - Thorsten Hohmann

Time to focus on practicing again!

2009-02-08T15:37:00.004+01:00

The Derby City Classic adventure is gone, and the experiences I made there have been used to set up a practice schedule for the upcoming Norwegian 9-ball Championship.

I will post the schedule during one of the next days, but it includes many different drills. During DCC I had problems with overcutting many shots, especially when sending them up the longrail.

After my matches I did some notes on what I need to improve, and in my match against Jeanette Lee (Picture copied from www.jeanettelee.com), at score 6-6, I did 2 bad mistakes. One was a position error, and the other one a miss. I missed the 5-ball by overcutting it, and I should have lost the match there. Luckily for me, JL missed position when pocketing the 8-ball, so I won the deciding rack with her hanging the 9 in the corner on a very difficult cutshot.

I played poor position from the 2-ball to the 3-ball, I believe it was. It was supposed to be a stun-shot with follow. I wanted to make the cueball follow just an inch or two, but I didn't want to softroll the shot. I was straight-in, and I didn't want to see the 2-ball curve away from the pocket because of skid, bad contact or simply a not levelled table, so I wanted to hit it firm. I made the ball, but I didn't get any follow, and the cueball simply stopped.

So the next days I will practice on those stun-shots + cutshots.

Here's a cuetable-layout of parts of the last rack against Jeanette.

As you can see, I would have got a much better position on the 3-ball going to the 5-ball if I could simply move the cueball from A to B while pocketing the 2-ball. Instead it stopped, and I got wrong angle. I have also showed how I missed the 5-ball.
(The 5-ball was not makeable in the upper right corner, that's why I needed position to make it in the upper left corner)

My sleep-schedule is all messed up...

2009-02-04T06:30:00.003+01:00

I guess I am having jet-lag...

I didn't sleep too much at the Derby City Classic, and had problems sleeping at the long flight back home, and thought I would sleep for 12 hours or more when I finally got a chance to sleep.

Well, I was wrong.

Having major problems getting into a normal routine now, and yesterday I fell asleep immidiately after work, slept for 5 hours, then couldn't get any more sleep untill the middle of the night. After a few hours, I woke up at 5 in the morning, and now I am here at 6:30 typing this.

The night before I slept 3 x 2 hours, and was awake for atleast 1 hour in between those sessions without being possible to fall asleep.

Guess I will have to force myself to not sleep after work today, and wait till late in the evening trying to get into a normal sleep-schedule again...

My DCC adventure

2009-02-02T13:59:00.002+01:00

Once again I am at Chicago O’Hare Airport, but this time I am having three hours to kill waiting for my flight back home to Europe. I am just sitting here at the gate, putting my thoughts about the previous week down on paper.

One week ago, at this airport, I entered the United States of America for the first time. I was very excited, since I have always wanted to visit America. I didn’t have so many expectations, though, since I have been to lots of pool tournaments before, and I knew that I would probably not leave the hotel during my weekly stay. And I was almost correct. I went outside the hotel for 2 minutes, twice, to get some fresh air…

When I arrived at Chicago O’Hare I had to re-check in my luggage, and when talking to the guy at the desk he asked me what my purpose of the trip was, and I told him I was going to the worlds biggest pool tournament. His immediately response was that he watched women’s pool on ESPN all the time, and was wondering if this tournament would be broadcasted too. I said that I didn’t know if it would be broadcasted live or not, but that he could check AZBilliards.com for more information.

When walking into the terminal I was surprised that the first American I talked to watched pool on tv, and thought that the people posting on AZ saying that pool in America is dying slowly might not be correct. Where I come from I would probably think I was on “hidden camera” if someone told me that they watched pool on tv.

Anyway, I walked to Chili’s Bar to get a beer while waiting, and at the bar I met Jo. Just like I have expected from Americans, she started a friendly conversation. That never happens in Europe, Europeans seldom talk to strangers. She was quite surprised when I told her that I was going to Louisville to shoot pool, and she asked me if I was the new Minnesota Fats. She even forced me to write my autograph on a napkin, even though I tried to tell her that I was just an amateur using parts of my holiday trying my luck in a pro-tournament.

Well, Jo had to leave for her flight, and a new person sat down at the bar. I can’t remember his name, but just like Jo he started a friendly conversation. He was going to Louisville too, to promote his company who worked with laser-aiming on guns. When he heard that I was going to play in a pool tournament he asked me if that woman in black will play, you know, the woman on ESPN. He meant Jeanette Lee, and I told him that he should visit the Horseshoe Hotel & Casino if he wanted to see her play in person.

So, the first three regular Americans I talked to, they all knew something about pool. Perhaps having that women’s tour running on ESPN all the time might be worth something after all?

Anyway, in Louisville, the friendly taxi-driver Papa from Senegal talked about America and how excited he was, because soon he would get his American Citizenship. He had lived in America for 10 (or was it 12) years now, and he was looking forward to finally becoming an American Citizen.

When I entered the venue, Horseshoe Hotel & Casino, I was shocked with how huge it was. After walking around for an hour watching some bank-pool, saying hi to people in the Action Room and in the AZ-room, I was impressed with the setup, and was really looking forward to a great week with just pool.

AZ-room, One-Pocket Challenge and One-Pocket mini-tournament.

I spent a lot of time in the AZ-room the first couple of days, and even though the room was quite small it served my purpose. I used it to practice during the day, and to say hi to people, putting faces and real names on peoples screen-names from the online-forum. Unfortunately I am real bad on remembering names, so I won’t even try to mention all of the people I met. I can only say that I enjoyed meeting all of you, and would love to see you all again and hopefully also meet even more of the guys and girls posting here.

Some people I met deserve to be mentioned though, and I would start to thank SJM for his 14-1 lesson with me, and I would like to say that I wish I could have spent more time with both Williebetmore and John Henderson. Sir Williebetmore visited DCC late, and disappeared just as quickly, so we managed barely to say hi to each other. John Henderson is a kind man, with more classic lines than any other I have met. It would be fun to play some one-pocket with him, but unfortunately I asked him too late, and he was already hooked up with a guy playing 100-200 $ a game. “I haven’t known you long enough to spot you” is just one of many fine lines from John, and I certainly hope that I will get a chance to play him some one-pocket in the future.

I am real glad that Joey Aguzin changed his mind about not going to DCC 09. It was a pleasure meeting him, and he was just as friendly, funny and nice as I had thought. We had a lot of fun together, and sometimes it felt like we had been friends for years. I think that he doesn’t regret his decision about going to Derby, especially since he once again won the one-pocket mini-tournament at DCC.

We had been drinking some beers together with “pooladdict” and “T” when we remembered that it was the night of the one-pocket mini, and Joey wanted to not compete in the one-pocket mini-tournament because he had been drinking a few beers to many. Efren Reyes was out of the 9-ball tournament at this time, and I called him over to our table, and to Joey’s big surprise Efren agreed to take the spot in the mini.

We sweated most of Efren’s matches in the mini, and it was obvious to everyone that Efren really enjoyed playing that tournament. In between his matches he gambled with a guy, for $ 20 a game. I asked Efren what the handicap was, and Efren turned around to me and smiled with all his face when saying “the handicap is great”. Efren had only given up the break. Efren ran out from everywhere, putting up one hell of an exhibition for us to see. He made 300 $ in a very short time, but the guy that lost was more than happy just to play Efren, so it was a win-win for both.

I also got a chance to play a small set against Efren, and it was Efren who decided that we should play for $ 20, with our normal handicap. As I normally do when we play I lost, but when I tried to pay him he refused to accept my money. “No, no, you don’t pay. When we play in Philippines again, you can pay if you lose, but not here.” I was a little surprised that he didn’t want the winnings, and bought him a Budweiser instead. He seemed satisfied with that.

The mini lasted from midnight till almost 7:30 in the morning, so in between I also got a chance to play some friendly $ 20 a game of one-pocket with Freddie the Beard. I lost 8-4 in games, and learned some lessons from him. “You won’t get arrested if you play safe every now and then” was just one of the few sentences that I’ll try to remember.

After Efren won the tournament and the $ 800, the three of us, Joey, Efren and I, went for the breakfast buffet. A guy came to our table telling Efren that he thought it was so nice of Efren agreeing to play with his friend, and that the friend was already in the mainroom hitting some balls. Efren smiled and said no problem, and when the guy walked away Efren just laughed and told us that he had completely forgot about agreeing on playing a guy at 9 in the morning.

So when I went to my room to sleep, Efren went on to play a race to 10 for $ 200 with a fan…

Earlier that week I was in the AZ-room watching the One Pocket Challenge. Mika Immonen had just ran a 53, and Jay Helfert said that no one would beat that run. I then made a $ 50 bet with him that the winning run would be higher.

I then asked him if he had asked Efren to play, and he said that he had tried for 2 years, but Efren didn’t want to. I told him that I would back Efren, and went downstairs to talk to him. After a few minutes telling him about the $ 1000 added + that I have made a bet with Jay Helfert, I told him that I wanted to be his backer in the Challenge. ($ 50). He laughed and said ok, and the people in the AZ-room was thrilled to watch Efren entering the room to compete.

Darren Appleton had just ran a 42, but immediately gave up the table despite having one more try, and he sat down watching Efren play. Efren started out with a perfect 15 on his first try, then a 12, before he got some smaller runs. He ended on a 47 and a 44 in total, but he entertained the whole room with his jokes, laugths and just by being Efren playing pool and having fun.

Efren finished 4th in the Challenge, and Jay payed me $ 200. When I ran into Efren again, I gave him $ 150, and he then wanted to give me $ 75 back. I told him that I just wanted my entry back, and I had already taken it out of the price, and that the money was his. He told me that I was his backer, and we split 50/50, so he put $ 50 in my pocket. Then he said that I should have told him to try the Challenge one more time, because he said he was sure he could do better. I said why didn’t you just do it, but he then smiled and said he didn’t want to try without his backer approving, before saying “next year you back me also, then we will win. I think 61 I can do”.

Gotta love that guy! I am so thankful for being able to watch him play, and once again Efren Reyes has increased the quality of my life just by being himself. I enjoyed spending so much time with him here at the Derby City Classic, and it looked like he had some fun too.

The tournaments.

I played in the one-pocket and 9-ball tournament, and I started good with winning my first two matches in one-pocket. Then I played Tom Neil, a fellow AZ’er. I started out with running 7 on him, and winning 8 - -1 in the first game. After that I don’t think I got a chance to shoot at my pocket, and he told me after he won the match that after the first game he realised he needed to play tight to win. He simply outmoved me, and totally deserved the win.

In my fourth round match I got the privilege to play John Brumback, the newly crowned Bank Pool Champion at DCC 09. I started out real good, focused on playing real tight and not giving him a shot. When I finally got a chance, I played aggressive trying to run out. I dogged it the first game, had an open table, and had 4 balls to his -2, but failed to run out, and in the end I lost that game and the next.

At 2-0 I got 2 chances to run the balls I needed, and in the fourth rack I found a four ball combination in the pack. I think very few players would have tried that combination, but I went all-in, and hit it with solid draw. The 3-ball rolled very slowly heading for my pocket, with balls crossing its path in front of it, but none of them collided and the ball went down.

I then ran 8 and out on him, and racked the balls, getting ready for a hill-hill battle and my break. When finished racking, we both noticed that there was a coin next to my pocket, and we realized that I owed a ball and should have ran 9 balls. To make the story short, the tourmament director forfeited me since I had racked the balls before the game was finished… I wrote more about that in another thread, called “DCC sucks bigtime right now…”

In the 9-ball tournament I played terrible in my first match, and lost 7-4. In my next match I had to play Jeanette Lee, in front of many spectators in the mainroom. I managed to keep my head calm, and even though none of us played great, I had the necessary luck on my side and two terrible mistakes from Jeanette helped me seize the 7-6 victory which sent her out of the tournament.

In my next match I played Oscar Dominguez, and my first shot was an attempt on the 3-ball in rack 4. The ball skidded. My next attempt was at 4-0 to Oscar, and it was a two rail kick. I kicked the ball in and ran out that rack to make it 4-1. At 6-5 to Oscar he touched so badly when pocketing the 6-ball that the 9-ball moved 3 feet. Well, it’s cue ball fouls only at DCC, so I had to watch him run the remaining three balls for the 7-5 victory.

I was now out of both the 9-ball and one-pocket tournament, but I wasn’t too sad. It was a great experience, and I enjoyed playing in both events. Hopefully I will do better next time.

Gambling & The Action Room.

It’s not easy to travel half the world to join a pool tournament, especially not if you want to gamble also, not only play tournament matches. It was hard getting matches, because people thought I had to be real good since I travelled so far to compete at the DCC. They don’t believe you when saying that you are just an amateur on holiday.

I ended up playing some cheap one-pocket action with several people, most of them AZ’ers, and I also beat Sarah Rousey in 10-ball 2 sets. Sarah was obviously off her game, and we both wanted a rematch, but for some reason it didn’t happen. I am pretty sure we will meet in the future, so I’ll start practising for our rematch as soon as possible.

After calling JoeyA a nit for three days my strategy worked, and he finally agreed to play me a set of 9-ball. I managed to win the set, but neither of us was too proud of the game we brought to the table. Anyway, I managed to get some of my money back, after he had literally hustled me in one-pocket some days before.

I did a lot of sidebets during the tournament, and also some in the action room, and in total during the week I was in profit, till the last few hours. Then I decided to play Jason Klatt some 10-ball, and my poor performance in those two sets made me a $ 100 loser during the week on gambling and sidebets.

I spent some time in the Action Room the first couple of days, and it was fun meeting people like JCIN, Bignasty, Beav and Sarah Rousey. Sarah Rousey will perhaps be one of the very few American players that I will root for in the future, but only if she promises not to beat any Europeans.

Sarah and I were in the TAR-booth chatting a little, and after I had talked Sarah and Katrine Jensen, Niels Feijen’s girlfriend, into doing a 10-ball match together, I brought Niels into the booth so the 500 people watching Sarah and Kat also could chat together with Niels.

Niels really enjoyed doing a live-interview with the people on the chat, and he will perhaps also play some matches on TAR later. He is interested in playing all-around matches, and also straight pool matches only.

I would love to spend more time in the Action Room, but it was too filled with smoke there for me. I would have stayed there for the Efren-Shane match, but I went for a little nap and overslept and lost the whole match. Good for me, it saved me at least $ 200, since I would have been betting on The Magician.

Chris (pooladdict) and I walked to the lunch buffet one of the days, and when we were about to pay at the desk, a guy we had never seen before stopped us before we paid and told the girl in the counter that we were his guests. He was a big gambler at the Casino, and was allowed to bring guests for free for lunch. That’s another thing that would never happen in Europe. In Europe people don’t interact too much with strangers, but here we got a free lunch from an unknown guy. We offered to pay him instead, but he declined, and we invited him to join us at our table. As mentioned he was gambling high at the Casino, and he told us that last year he made $ 180 000 profit. I asked him about blackjack, and then he told us a funny story that happened to him just days before.

A guy wanted to play behind him on the blackjack table for $ 1000 a hand, and our guy asked what was in it for him. The player behind said that why should he give something away, since our guy was already betting several thousands per hand. Well, he turned around again facing the dealer, and on the very first hand the dealer gave him 20. Then he turned around facing the player playing behind on his hand, smiled, the player behind gave a smile in return, then he turned to the dealer again and said “hit me”, and the player behind screamed “no, what are you doing”. He said “hit me” again, and got one more card. Of course he didn’t get an Ace, and he lost the hand. It was the best hand he had ever lost in his whole life.

Summary

I really enjoyed my stay at the Derby City Classic. I met a lot of nice, friendly and funny people, and it was definitely worth going. It’s expensive to travel all the way from Norway just for a pool tournament, but I can’t figure out a better way to spend a holiday-week so I will probably join the DCC more than once in the future.

As for the organizing of the tournament I can’t understand why there are so many problems with scheduling matches, but I know they are working on it, so I will leave that for now. Another thing I do not understand is why the tournament director doesn’t provide the players and spectators information during the tournaments, like brackets and results.

If they had printed out the draw for each round, and the results, and put them up on a wall for everyone to see, that would probably have been one of the most visited places at the venue. Players and fans would love to check results.

For example, I watched Adam Smith warming up before one of his one-pocket matches and I really liked his attitude, way of behaving, shots etc, and I would love to be able to walk downstairs, look at the results from the previous rounds to see he whom he had played. Now I could only get that information by either asking him or ask the tournament director. That is bad service for the other players, and especially to the fans that pays money to watch this tournament. They should be able to get that information very easily.

Anyway, it was all a great experience for me, I loved being in America for the first time, and even though the Europeans failed to win the prestigious 9-ball title for the first time in 3 years, they put up a good fight. Shane Van Boening keeps on with impressing me with his game, and the scary part is that the best is probably yet to come from this young man.

Luckily the Team USA doesn’t consist of 5 Shane’s, but only 1, so I am not afraid that Team Europe will lose in the Mosconi Cup in 2009 either.

I am a dumbass - did a stupid mistake in one-pocket

2009-01-28T19:58:00.002+01:00

Well, I am here at the Derby City Classic 2009, have been travelling for 24 hours from Norway just to get here to play my favourit game of One Pocket in the worlds biggest One Pocket tournament, and then I do the most stupid mistake ever!

"I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me" is the tune that keeps playing in my head right now...

I played the One Pocket tournament this morning, and the luck of the draw made me play John Brumback, the 2009 Bank Pool Champion. I started out good on my break, and made him do two fouls, and at one time he needed 10 balls and I only like 4, I think.

I had an open table, but dogged it, and he ended up winning the first rack. The next rack lasted very long, with many safeties, but John grabbed that rack too, so now I was down 2-0.

I kept on doing the stuff JoeyA from AZBilliards.com teached me last night, and I played smarter than before, but aggressive when I finally got a chance, and I took the next rack to make it 2-1 to John.

In the next rack I found a four ball combination in the pack and hit it with solid draw, and got a wide open table. I ran 8 and out on him, with position to keep on running 10-11-12 balls.I racked the balls, and when I had finished racking we noticed that I owed a ball, and should have ran 9 balls.

Tournament director made me lose the game on forfeit, and then lose the match 3-1 instead of 2-2 and my break.

I have done many tournaments myself, and would probably have made the same call myself. There is only one person to blame here, and that's me...

But it still sucks, especially since I have used my buyback...Despite this completely idiotic, stupid, dumbass thing, Derby City Classic is still awesome. I wished John good luck in the all-around and asked him to buy me a beer tonight...

Now I just feel very, very pity for the guy I will meet in the 9-ball. Someone's gonna be punished for this!

Draw will be done very shortly.

DCC - One Pocket round 2

2009-01-26T23:46:00.002+01:00

Played against Stevie Dronkley (or something like that).

I played very good in the first game, won it 8-2, after some great moving and banking. In the next game I played just ok, but still enough to make it 2-0 in the match.

I started to feel pretty comfortable about winning the match, and tried dumb things. Lost two racks in a row, being very nervous in the last rack which I lost 8-7.

Took a deep breath before the last rack, broke the ball and got a good result after the break. Moved well from there, and put him in a trap and forced him to commit a foul, so now he was on -1, and after a few innings I had won 8 - -1 in the last rack to win the match 3-2.

Still in, undefeated, and round 3 will start tomorrow.

Quick update from DCC

2009-01-26T19:40:00.002+01:00

Ok, a quick update from DCC.

I travelled for 24 hours before I got the the Horseshoe Hotel, then I went straight to the Action Room and was in cheap action for almost 12 hours. Slept for 4 hours, played some cheap one-pocket for 3-4 hours before I played my first match in the One-Pocket tournament. Slept only 4 hours this night too, so hopefully I will be able to get some sleep during the day today. Crossing my fingers for a late match for me.

Played a guy called Aaron Toth in the tournament, and he played some very solid bankshots, winning the first rack 8-3. I decided to play very aggressive instead of "only" defense, which looks like being the standard here, and it paid out. I had some very nice runs to win the games, and it was a confidence boost having Niels Feijen cheering on me ringside. Won my first ever DCC match 3-1, and I am right now waiting for the draw for round 2.

Derby City Classic is not like other tournaments with double elimination, groups etc. Here it is a random draw of all the players, and once you lost two matches you are out. You can basically ending up with playing the same player twice, because there is no loser or winner brackets.

Chris played just an hour ago, against an old guy, but Chris got totally outmoved and lost 3-0, but is still in.

Yesterday I challenged WPBA-pro Sarah Rousey, who finished 3rd in one of the last WPBA tournaments, and we decided to play for a $ 100 a set in 10-ball, race to 9. I beat her 9-5 and 9-6, but she was obviously not too happy with her performance so it looks like we will play some more sets during the week.

Tonight it looks like Efren Reyes will play Shane Van Boening a race to 21 in 10-ball, live on www.theactionreport.com

Other possible match-ups during the week are Efren Reyes - Gabe Owen in one-pocket. Efren said he will give anyone at DCC 9-7 in hcp in one-pocket, and Gabe wants to play him. Will probably be tomorrow, also on The Action Report.

Rumour has it that Marcus Chamat will play an ahead set against Chris Bartram tonight, and Niels Feijen might play John Schmidt a race to 300 in 14-1. John Schmidt ran 154 in the Straight Pool Challenge, and has the high run so far, with Corey Deuel second with a 153.

Sarah Rousey has agreed to play some cheap sets with Niels Feijen's girlfriend, the danish poolplayer Katrine Jensen. They will also probably play on TAR, with Sarah giving up the 8 in 10-ball.

Stay tuned, more updates later :)

DCC - Here I come!

2009-01-22T23:57:00.004+01:00

It's now less than 30 hours till I will be walking into the plane, heading for Frankfurt, then Chicago before reaching Louisville, Kentucky at 18:07 pm on Saturday.

My final destionation is the Horseshoe Hotel & Casino in Louisville and the 11th Derby City Classic. The worlds biggest pool-tournament, or call it a pool-festival if you like. The previous years more than 400 players have joined the 3 main-tournaments. Read more about Derby City Classic here, http://www.dcctickets.com/.

During the 9 days of competition players will be able to compete in the following diciplines:

Short rack bank pool (Starting 22nd, max 500 players)
10-ball Challenge (Starting 24th, max 16 players, $ 1,000 entry)
One-pocket (Starting 25th, max 500 players)
Straight pool challenge (Starting 25th)
One-pocket challenge (Starting 27th)
9-ball (Starting 27th, max 500 players)

The tournament will be played on more than 50 Diamondtables, and every evening when the tournament ends the tables will be available for players and spectators to play on, till a few hours before the morningmatches starts.

The Action Report (TAR) will have their TAR-Pit, the "action room", with 5 Diamondtables + 1 Diamond barbox, and they will broadcast live 24 hours a day from this room at http://www.theactionreport.com/. At this room there is one rule for playing on the tables, and that's "No no gambling allowed".

I will compete in the One-pocket tournament and the 9-ball tournament, and will most likely also try my luck in the One-pocket challenge. In the One-pocket challenge you pay $ 50 for 3 x 5 tries. You break, and then play from where the cueball ends, and see how many balls you are able to pocket in your cornerpocket without missing. After 5 tries you get your total score. Maximum is 75, and last year Gabe Owen won with an amazing 60 balls. Below you can see me running 13 balls in one inning.

Because of DCC I am not able to compete in the Norwegian 8-ball Championship, which will be played at Strommen Storsenter, a shopping mall just outside Oslo. Almost 100 players will compete there, and I am guessing that Ronny Oldervik from Trondheim will win this tournament.

I'll try to keep you updated about DCC here on the blog, and I believe that you will be able to find updates from each round on http://www.azbilliards.com/.

Teaching my nephew (8)

2009-01-18T20:22:00.002+01:00

My nephew, Kristian, age 8 (soon 9), loves to play pool, and asks me all the time to come play with me. He has joined me a couple of times before, with his brother Arve (age 10), but when they are both it's impossible to teach them anything.

Have done some easy drills together with them, tried to show them how to hold the cue etc., but it's not easy when they are both there. Too much talk :)

Today Kristian went with me alone, and he is very interested to learn. At school they have a 6-fot table with wooden slate, and he plays with some friends there as often as possible, and last time he set up a drill for them :)

At first today I refreshed his memory of how to hold the cue, and how to stand, and they we practised on drawing the ball.

Then I set up this drill for him, where he has to use follow on every shot. On the video below you can see him finishing this drill. (I forgot to press tape when he made ball 1...) He has made a lot of progress since last time we played.

In between the drills we played some 8-ball, with me needing to bank or kick each ball, but he preferred doing drills. I will try to bring him and his brother with me every now and then, and I have told them they can play the Norwegian 8-ball Championship for Youth, which will be played sometimes during Summer in Stavanger.

Here you can see him shooting:

Back at the practice table

2009-01-16T23:57:00.002+01:00

I haven't been practising much the last days, since I have been waiting for my OB-1 shaft to arrive. Something went wrong with the tip/ferrule just before Christmas, and I sent it to be repaired.

Have been playing with a z-shaft the last weeks, but the tip is so worn out now that I couldn't play with it anymore, and I figured out I could just take a break and wait for my shaft. The last days I have instead spent doing non-pool related stuff, like spending some time with my family, played football (soccer) both in real life and on XBox 360 (FIFA09), relaxed and watched the first season of Cheers.

I remember when I was a young kid, around 10-12 years old, I loved to watch Cheers and my parents always allowed me to stay up late on Thursdays so I could be able to watch it :) Cheers has always got a special place in my heart, and is the main-reason why I have always wanted to own a bar myself.

My favourite line has to be when Norm walks into the bar, and one of the guests ask him "What's up, Norm?" and he replies: "My nipples, it's freezing out there". Classic Norm.

Anyway, I got my OB-1's today, and I spent a couple of hours playing some one-pocket ghost and 10-ball ghost. It felt great playing pool again, after some days off, and I started with running 33 balls against the One Pocket Ghost in 5 tries, with a high run of 12.

Then I played the 10-ball Ghost, race to 7. Since I tightened the pockets I haven't beaten the 10-ball ghost yet, but I felt good today, so I gave it a try. I had some pretty nice textbook outs, and some real creative shots in other games, and I was up 6-5. Then I REALLY dogged it. I just started to laugh out loud, because I missed two straight in 10-balls in the next two games, to lose 6-7. Very easy balls. But I dogged them bad!

I felt so stupid, but I think it did me good, because I am now even more motivated to "kill" that Ghost.

Tomorrow I will be more focused than ever!

Only 1 week and 6 hours to my flight to Derby City Classic. Can't wait ;)

Some more one-pocket practise

2009-01-10T00:22:00.005+01:00

Here's another good one-pocket drill that I just found. Will give it a try tomorrow!

The last couple of days I have been practising the drill I mentioned the other day + tried around 50 times against the One-pocket Ghost.

When playing the One-pocket Ghost the goal is to pocket as many balls as possible in one of the corner pockets, picked before your break. You have to start shooting from where your cueball ends up after the break.

I have not succeeded in running all 15 yet, but have run 13, 12 and 11 the last 2 days. Here's a video of those runs.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5765876443269669378

I've figured out a break that I think works ok. I hit the third ball with low inside, so the cueball wll go two rails and bump into balls kicking them into the table again away from the other pocket.

Shimmed the pockets the other day. Didn't use the proper equipment, since I didn't want to change the cloth on the rails yet. I just used hard rubber, cut it with knife to fit next to the rail and then glued some cloth on to prevent the balls from getting dirty/black when hitting the rubber before dropping into the pocket.

It works perfectly well, and now the pockets are much tighter but still reacts like they should.

When I recloth the table sometimes after the Summer I will shim the pockets with original equipment, but this was an easy solution right now.

What to practise, week 2, January 09

2009-01-07T15:39:00.003+01:00

It's getting closer to the Derby City Classic, the worlds biggest one-pocket event, and I will practise some one-pocket the following weeks.

This is a drill that I saw on onepocket.org, and I will give it a try. If you have any other one-pocket related drills, please let me know!

The rules are to pocket as many balls possible in the upper left corner, starting with ball in hand behind the headstring. Don't bump into other balls while playing!

Preperations for DCC

2009-01-05T23:07:00.004+01:00

It's now less than 3 weeks till the Derby City Classic kicks off, and I have started my preparations. I am practising many hours every day, and later this week I will get my table shimmed, to reduce the pocketsize.

For the first time in about a month I hit em good, and today I destroyed the 9-ball Ghost in practise. The rules when playing the Ghost are quite simple: Ball in hand after the break, you don't need to pocket balls on the break and it doesn't matter if you scratch. Then it's all about offense. If you fail to pocket a ball, the Ghost wins the rack. You have to run-out, or make the 9 on a legal shot, to win the rack. I played a race to 9 today, and it's available in the slideshow-menu on the UStream-screen in the bottom of this page.

Another part of my preparations for the DCC was to get myself a new passport. My old one is not accepted in the US, so I needed a new. I headed down to the police station today to deliver my old one and order a new.

The lady in the desk politely asked me after I gave her my passport; "where are your emergency passport?".

"Huh?" I replied, before I remembered that I had got an emergency passport, valid for six months only, when I couldn't find my passport in 2003 when going to Warzawa, Poland. Back then I was in panic the day before departure because I couldn't find my passport, so I headed to the policestation and got an emergency passport.

When I arrived in Poland and opened up my suitcase I found my original passport :)

Back home, after a few months, I moved from my apartment, and since the passport wasn't valid anymore I threw it in the garbage instead of hand it to the police. Not too smart...

A few weeks later the Norgwegian Directorate of Immigration called me at work, and asked me if I had lost my passport. I hadn't, so I said no, and asked why, and then they could tell me that in the airport in Oslo they had caught a Bulgarian claiming he was me, using my passport!

I had to admit to them that I had threw it away, and they believed me and since then I haven't heard more about it.

But the lady in the desk today wanted the old emergency passport... So I told her that a Bulgarian guy used it. She just said "pardon?". And I told her once again that there is a Bulgarian guy who used that passport, I don't have it anymore. She looked around as to see if there was a hidden camera or something, and when she looked at me again she didn't say anything. Just looked at me.

I managed to keep my face deadly serious, and she must have thought that I was either mad or stupid, or both. In the end I started to laugh, and told her the story, and she laughed nervous. I don't think she quite believed me, but she didn't ask anymore questions about the old passport :D

Another funny passportstory is from 2002, when I had been in Copenhagen, Denmark. Scandinavians don't need passport when crossing the Scandinavian borders, but after 2001 9/11 we do need ID when travelling with aircrafts. Well, I lost my ID in Denmark after too many beers, and at the airport they refused to let me into the plane, and I was sent to the airport-police. I explained them the situation, but they couldn't help me, and adviced me to take train through Sweden and half of Norway to get home...

Out of desperation I got a crazy idea, and asked them to call the police in Stavanger, my hometown. There I told them that I was stucked in Copenhagen without ID, and asked them to fax a copy of my passport to the police at the airport Kastrup in Copenhagen. To my surprise a friendly man there said he could try, and minutes later my passport got faxed to Denmark :D

It was impossible to see the picture, because it was all black after being faxed, but another surprise happened. The police in Copenhagen obviously felt pity for me, and wrote a note that I could show to the guards when entering the plane. The guards just barely looked at it and said "welcome aboard", and I was on my way home as scheduled.

It can only happen in the peaceful countries of Scandinavia, I guess :)

World Snooker investigate Jamie Burnett betting suspension

2009-01-03T11:39:00.003+01:00

From The Telegraph:

"World Snooker has launched an investigation after Stephen Maguire’s UK Championship win over Jamie Burnett on Monday was overshadowed by reports of irregular betting patterns. Bookmakers suspended activity on the first-round match in Telford after a flurry of bets were placed on a 9-3 scoreline in Maguire’s favour. That did eventually prove the final score after world No 45 Burnett missed a black in the 12th frame that would have made it 8-4."

Several days before the match, lots of new betting accounts opened in Scotland, and they all made one bet, and one bet only, that the score in this match would end 9-3...

Here's the last frame from that match

Please read the full article in the Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/snooker/3777998/World-Snooker-investigate-Jamie-Burnett-betting-suspension.html

This insident made me remember the European Pool Championships from 2006, in Brandenburg. The event was sponsored by betandwin.com, now bwin.com, and this was the first time (as far as I know) that online betting was offered to fans and spectators of European pool.

What I am going to tell is not about someone losing on purpose. I saw nothing of that, and the max amount people could bet on these matches were less than $ 500, so it would not be worth it for anyone to even consider doing such a thing.

It was during the 8-ball divison on the European Championship that I decided to watch a match outside the tv-arena, between Goran Mladenovic from Serbia and another player I can't remember right now. Goran is a well-known gambler, and during Eurotour's you can easily find him in action during nights either playing one-handed 8-ball or his famous 2-ball game.

Since I had played him some during an Eurotour in Belgium, I thought I would just check and see if he used his same tactic in tournaments. One of his tactics are the ultra soft-break in 8-ball to frustrate his opponent. And he sure did use it. On several occasions the opponent asked the ref to watch Goran's break to see if 4 balls or more hit the rail after the breakshot :) Goran won that match because the opponent got so frustrated and couldn't keep his head calm when he got oppurtunites.

Later that day Goran was scheduled to play in the tv-arena, and then it was possible to bet on his match, on each and every game. It's possible to bet on winner of lag, how many balls pocketed on break, who will win, how long will the match last etc.

A friend of mine called me when he saw that Goran was put on the tv-table, and asked me immidiately if I had watch Goran play. I said yes, and he asked "how did he break?". I laughed and said he broke so soft that he nearly fouled on each break because barely 4 balls hit the rail. My friend thanked me for the information and said he was going all-in on the option dry break on Goran's first break, meaning he would bet like $ 500 that no balls would be pocketed.

Once again I sat down to watch Goran's match, and after he won the lag he prepared to break. To my big surprise he fired of like I had never seen him before. The balls were flying everywhere, all over the table.

I was shocked by the change of tactic, but was immidiately checking my phone for the text-message I knew I would receive in short time. When the last ball stopped rolling, it luckily didn't find a pocket to drop into, and it DID end up with a dry break!

The text-message came in, and it said: "Oh my god, I think my heart stopped beating. All bets are off :)"

A funny little story about my first experience with betting on pool :)

Regarding the snooker investigation I will keep you updated as soon as more information will be published. It's real sad if they can prove that Burnett was cheating, and it will perhaps make it even harder for snooker and pool to maintain the good relationships with different betting sites.

Jean Balukas at age 6

2009-01-03T11:31:00.003+01:00

From YouTube:

In this 1966 episode, 6 1/2 year old Jean Balukas demonstrates her skills at pocket billiards, more commonly known as pool. She is later joined by her 5 year old sister Laura. Information on Jean's fascinating career can easily be found online. For example, from Wikipedia: "At just 9 years old she placed 5th in the 1969 U.S. Open straight pool championship, and placed 4th and 3rd respectively in the following two U.S. Opens. From that early start, Balukas completely dominated women's professional pool during the 1970s and 1980s." And there's much more.

Please read more about legendary American pool-player, now retired, Jean Balukas at this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Balukas

Eurotour schedule 2009

2009-01-03T05:06:00.010+01:00

The most prestigous 9-ball tour in Europe, the Eurotour, hosted by IBP and EPBF, is now running for the 17th year.

In 2009 the 100th Eurotour-tournament will be played. During the 95 tournaments played now, Ralf Souquet and Oliver Ortmann are the two most successful players with 15 and 13 wins each.

Only 5 times have players outside Europe managed to win an Eurotour, and that's Johnny Archer (2), Francisco Bustamante (2) and Ismael Paez.

Top 5 on the ranking, (total of 675 players in the 2008 season):

1. Ralf Souquet

2. Niels Feijen

3. Nick van den Berg

4. Tony Drago

5. Christian Reimering

Schedule for 2009:

11 - 14 Feb, 2009
Diamond Nine / Dynamic French Open
Paris, France

25 - 28 Mar, 2009
Diamond Nine / Dynamic Italy Open
Castel Volturno, Italy

20 - 23 May, 2009
Diamond Nine / Dynamic German Open
Sindelfingen, Germany

19 - 22 Aug, 2009
Diamond Nine / Dynamic Austrian Open
Rankweil, Austria

16 - 19 Sep, 2009
Diamond Nine / Dynamic Netherlands Open
Weert, Netherlands

14 - 17 Oct, 2009
Diamond Nine / Dynamic Swiss Open
Payerne, Switzerland

02 - 05 Dec, 2009
Diamond Nine / Dynamic Costa del Sol Open
Malaga, Spain

Please visit http://www.eurotour.nu/ for information about players, schedule, pricemoney, how to join, rankings, photo's etc.

Hall of Fame

Winners:

Ralf Souquet, 15 times

Oliver Ortmann, 13 times

Thomas Engert, 9 times

Tom Storm, 5 times

Nick van den Berg, 4 times

Niels Feijen, 4 times

Alex Lely, 3 times

Marcus Chamat, 3 times

Mika Immonen, 3 times

Imran Majid, 2 times

Christian Reimering, 2 times

Fabio Petroni, 2 times

Sandor Tot, 2 times

Nicklas Bergendorff, 2 times

Francisco Bustamante, 2 times

Johnny Archer, 2 times

Darren Appleton, Tony Drago, Bruno Muratore, Mark Gray, John Vassalos, Daryl Peach, Wojciech Trajdos, Jonni Fulcher, Harald Stolka, Markus Juva, Kaddur Samir, Thorsten Hohmann, Erik Weiselius, Vegar Kristiansen, Dimitri Jungo, Ralph Eckert, Ismael Paez, Evgeny Stalev, Herbert Friedemann, Samuel Clemann, Thomas Hasch, Bengt Pedersen and Bernd Jahnke all has 1 win each.

Most consecutive wins:

1994 - Oliver Ortmann 4 consecutive wins

2008 - Ralf Souquet 2 consecutive wins

1999 - Johnny Archer 2 consecutive wins

1996 - Ralf Souquet 2 consecutive wins

1993/1994 - Ralf Souquet 2 consecutive wins

1992 - Thomas Engert 2 consecutive wins

World Ten Ball, Chia Ching Wu and the WPA

2009-01-01T16:06:00.007+01:00

For the first time ever a WPA World Ten Ball Championship was going to be arranged, and the WPA had given Raya Sports in the Philippines the 5-year contract of hosting it.

Yen Makabenta, Billiards Digest "Man of the Year" in 2006 after successfully bringing the World 9-ball Championship "home" where it belongs, in Manila, Philippines, was the organiser and promoter of the World Ten Ball Championship.

The World 9-ball Championship in 2006 and 2007 was major success, atleast for the regular fans and players, and it brought lots of spectators from around the world, broadcasted live in Asia and Europe, lots of attention in the national media and commercials on national tv months before the tournaments.

A couple of weeks prior the World Ten Ball Championship, many people, myself included, started to ask questions on poolforums about why there was no sponsors listed on the official website, and why there were absolutely no press releases or articles in the local newspapers about this upcoming happening, the biggest tournament in 2008. In fact, the organizer had no posters around in Manila, and there were no information about how to buy tickets for this event and no commercials about it all, less than 2 weeks before the first match was set to start.

It ended with WPA publishing an official statement, "WPA quells rumours", saying that players and fans had nothing to worry about, the pricemoney was no problem, not only would there be 400 000 $ in pricemoney as stated, perhaps the sponsors would add a bonus also.

The tournament started as planned, with 128 of the very best players in the world, except the best Filipinos, who decided not to join this event because disputes with Yen Makabenta and his Raya Sports. No surprise, the event was not a popular event in the pool-loving country Philippines, because of lack of advertising and the missing top-players, and the attendance was very low.

The tournament ended, and after 2 weeks no players were paid a dime. The Filipino-surprise D. Pulpul, who finished 4th, was then told by Raya that he would be paid the 24th of October, 3 weeks after the tournament. Nothing happened, and no communication from Raya (or the WPA) was made to either players or federations about why no payment was still made.

Darren Appleton, who won the tournament and was owed 100 000 $, was very frustrated about the situation, and "everyone" asked him about what's going on, day after day. This clearly affected his focus and concentration, and after playing some of his best pool ever when winning the tournament he had a poor show in the US Open.

During the US Open Raya Sports finally communicated with some/all of the players, saying that they would get paid the 30th/31st of October.

All the American players got paid that date, and Raya quickly sent a press-release saying that now all Americans was paid. Some American billiardsites published this information, and the regular fans now thought everything was ok.

It was clearly not, and the European players was paid first sometimes during the middle of November, and everyone now thought that all players got paid. The reasons Raya used for the late payment were Filipino-law regarding bank-transfers, saying that they could only pay a certain amount to few persons every day...

It has been very quiet about World Ten Ball and Yen Makabenta the last month, but all of a sudden I have been told that Chia Ching Wu, runner-up in the World Ten Ball, is still owed his 40 000 $, and that some of the other Taiwanese players first got paid 87 days after the tournament ended.

It is now 3 months since the tournament ended, we are in 2009, and the runner-up is still unpaid.

WPA sent an official statement telling players and federations that THERE WAS NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT.

Well, what do WPA has to say about this situation now? What will WPA do to protect the players in the future, and how can the players trust future statements from the WPA?

I thought WPA's main purpose was to protect the players, not the promoters. What will WPA do if Chia Ching Wu will NOT get paid. Will they pay him? After all, the tournament is sanctioned by WPA, and they said there was nothing to worry about, didn't they?

WPA wanted the IPT to put their pricemoney in escrow, to secure the players. Why didn't they demand that from Raya Sports?

Why did WPA say that there might be an added bonus from the sponsors of the event, when they didn't even know if there was enough money to pay the players?

I am now hoping that Chia Ching Wu will get paid very quickly, and with interest, and I hope that WPA will start to focus more on the players.

I first saw Chia Ching Wu live when watching him play a moneygame against Lee Van Corteza in Manila, Philippines, in July, 2008. They played 9-ball at Pool Fusion in Mabini Street, Malate, and I sat at the bar sweating this match.

It was a pleasure watching him play, and one of the shots he performed, a very high-risk long shot demanding lots of follow and spin on a very tight table with slow cloth, was executed so perfectly. The about 30 "railbirds" sweating the match went from being a noisy crowd to not say a word. You could hear a pin drop when he ran out that rack. It was a moment where the railbirds didn't believe what they saw, and in lack of words everyone just stood there watching.

I am very happy that I got a chance to see him in action, live. Wish Wu would travel around the world more, he is without a doubt one of the very, very best players in the world right now, and more fans deserve to see him play.

As a start, the organiser of tournaments could pay him his winnings when he is travelling abroad and honoring the tournament with his presence and performances.

Review 2008

2008-12-30T21:54:00.009+01:00

It’s almost New Year’s Eve, so it’s about time to make a summary of the year we are about to finish. 2008 will definitely be remembered here in Europe, since Europeans have been in the finals, and most of the time winning, in the majority of the biggest events.

In January, Derby City Classic was organised in Louisville, Kentucky (USA) for the 10th time, and with more than 400 players in each of the three divisions bank-pool, one-pocket and 9-ball, it once again proved that DCC is a tournament where you just need to be atleast once in your life. Gabe Owen won the one-pocket tournament, and for the first time Efren Reyes didn’t win the one-pocket division like he did the 5 other times he entered DCC. This year he “only” finished 4th… Ralf Souquet did like he has done 2 of the previous 9 years, and won the 9-ball division, and managed to keep the 9-ball title in Europe, after Niels Feijen’s win in 2007. Francisco Bustamante won the "Master of the Table", which means he had the best average score in all three diciplines.

The World 8-ball Championship was held in Dubai (UAE), and the final was a rematch from the World 9-ball Championship in 2006, with Ronato Alcano and Ralf Souquet battling it out for the title. Ralf Souquet was a hair better (not literally) than Ronato Alcano, and after 12 years Ralf Souquet could finally add another World Championship title to his already impressive resume. Ralf later said that he knew he was going to succeed in 8-ball sooner or later, because less than 2 years ago he ran 27 consecutive racks in 8-ball when preparing for an IPT tournament!

The prestigious and annual BCA Open, a 64 man invitational tournament, was surprisingly (atleast for me) won by American Jeremy Jones, beating Johnny Archer in the final. Unfortunately the rumour is that the BCA is struggling with their finances, and Jeremy Jones is perhaps the last BCA Champion for quite some time. Let’s hope not!

The Predator International 10-ball Championships, hosted by Dragon Promotions in Las Vegas (USA), consisted of a field of 92 of the worlds best players. The tournament was broadcasted live on the internet by Kozoom Production, a French company that had hosted European Championships and Eurotour’s for years, till they cancelled their agreement with EPBF/IBP (Eurotour-promotors) in the middle of an event this year. Marcus Chamat from Sweden was finally one of the last men standing in a major tournament again, but he couldn’t snap it off and lost in the semifinal against Tony Drago, the ex-snooker player from Malta who went on to win the final against Filipino Francisco Bustamante in his first ever 10-ball tournament.

Matchroom Sport hosted the World Pool Masters for the 16th year, and for the first time it was held outside Europe. 16 of the very best players from around the World were as usual invited to this event, and it looked like the 2001 World 9-ball Champion Mika Immonen (FIN) was going to cruise into victory in the final against Filipino, and fellow World Champion, Alex Pagulayan, with a 5 racks lead in the race to 8 final, but Alex fought back and won in the end.

Just minutes after the match Alex had a “date” with the new, young American top-player Shane Van Boening, reigning US Open Champion. They had agreed to play a gambling-match, race to 100 in 10-ball for 10 000 $. The Action Report (TAR) hosted the challengematch, and broadcasted it live pay-per-view on their website. After 2 days Shane had a very comfortable lead of 22 racks, but once again Alex fought his way back, and when he managed to equal the score on 92-92 it was the point of no return. Alex was the new TAR-champion, with one of the most impressive comebacks in the history of pool.

Dominic Jentsch, this unknown 16-year old kid from Germany was out of nowhere suddenly a well-known name after his 150 and out in a 14-1 tournament for men in New York, followed up by a win in a 10-ball tournament for youth players.

As usual Dragon Promotions hosted the World 14-1 Championship during the summer, and most of the worlds best 14-1 players were represented in the field, including the legendary Mike Sigel. As the previous years it was once again held in the New York area. The big surprise, for most people, was 22-year woman-pro from Austria, Jasmin Ouschan, who beat champion after champion, before finishing 3rd, losing to Francisco Bustamante. “Django’s” opponent in the final was one of the world’s best 14-1 players, 4 times European 14-1 Champion the last 6 years, Niels Feijen from the Netherlands. Niels played nearly perfect, and Francisco was able to pocket his first ball at the score 196-0 to Niels, in this race to 200 match, but it was too late for a comeback, and Niels finally achieved his major goal, of winning a World Championship. This tournament was once again a proof that Europe now is the dominating force in 14-1, with Thorsten Hohmann, Oliver Ortmann and Niels Feijen as the 3 last champions, with many more finishing in the top 8 all three years.

Villard Cup is one of the tours in Philippines, which is now split in half in two competing organisations, BMPAP and BSCP. In July I went to Philippines and got an invitation to play in Villard Cup Cebu, with all the best players from the Philippines competing. At the same weekend BSCP hosted a 10-ball tournament in Palawan, with Chia Ching Wu (TPE), Ralf Souquet, Thorsten Hohmann and lots of local Filipinos attending. Chia Ching Wu won the 10-ball tournament in Palawan, while Gandy Valle won the Villard Cup Cebu. I finished 33rd in this tournament, after being handed a “donut” (0-9) by Jharome Pena, and then losing for an unknown player. Other players in the Villard Cup were Efren Reyes, Ronato Alcano (Picture, together with Efren and Alcano's son, Jeffren, named after Alcano's hero Efren) J. Bustamante and Francisco Bustamante, Dennis Orcullo, Alex Pagulayan, Roberto Gomez and many more, and with 1 000 spectators for all matches it was very exciting to be able to compete in this tournament. A priceless experience, even though I wish that I could have performed better.

In the Middle East pool seems to be more and more popular and the Qatar World 9-ball Open with $50 000 first price, was a big attraction for the top players around the world. Dennis Orcullo and Niels Feijen were ranked #1 and #2 before this tournament, and they proved to the world why by finishing 1st and 2nd.

BSCP and Raya Sports were hosting the first World Ten Ball Championship in October, in Manila. Just a couple of weeks prior to the tournament lots of people, myself included, started to worry about lack of sponsors, no advertising, no information about tickets etc., and it ended with the WPA publishing a statement confirming that there was nothing to worry about. Without advertising, and since most of the Filipino top players such deciding not to join the event, the number of spectators were probably the worst ever for such a big tournament. Despite the statement from WPA it took the players about 6 weeks after the final before any of them got paid, and in my opinion Raya and WPA has a lot to improve if they are ever going to host such a tournament again.

The amount of time before payment and the lack of communication from the organiser Raya/BSCP and WPA created lots of unnecessary headache’s for many players, including the new World Ten Ball Champion Darren Appleton (UK), who beat Chia Ching Wu in the final. Darren claimed, and rightfully so, that he couldn’t focus properly in the US Open because everyone kept asking him about the payment, and he really didn’t know if he would be paid his 100 000 $ or not. This affected his game, of course, and Darren couldn’t secure himself a high finish in this prestigious tournament.

Ronato Alcano didn’t compete in the World Ten Ball Championship, and had no lack of payment to worry about. He seemed like a man on a mission in the US Open, and just like in 2007, he went unbeaten through the field to the final. His opponent was Mika Immonen, who had lost 11-0 seven years earlier, against Corey Deuel (USA). Mika had a goal with this tournament, and that was to win it to secure himself a spot in the Mosconi Cup, a team tournament between USA and Europe. He had played 11 consecutive years in the Mosconi, but after he missed an easy ball to win the title in 2006, he was left out of the team in 2007. He wanted that last spot on the team, and he could only get that by winning the US Open. He rushed into a quick 10-2 lead, in this race to 13 final, but Alcano climbed back to make it 7-10 before he fouled. Mika kept his head calm, and finished the match off with a 13-7 score, and got rid of one of many “monkeys” on his shoulders.

Former US Open Champion Alex Pagulayan, and the worlds # 1, Dennis Orcullo, were 2 of 11 Asian players that didn’t join this event because of the Guinness Grand Master Final. I have to say I find it real sad that the governing bodies in pool can’t find a way to organize tournaments without doing them on the same dates. It is especially sad and irritating when they collide with a major event that is being organised for the 33rd consecutive year.

My wish for 2009/2010 is that the WPA will force the continental events like Guinness Tour and Eurotour to be played on the same weekends! In Scandinavia Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland will organize their national championships (8-ball, 9-ball, 14-1, snooker and carom) on the same weekends in 2010, making it a lot easier to start a Nordic Tour in 2010, since the most important national tournaments are on the same weekends.

Anyway, with Mika Immonen becoming the 4th non-American to win the US Open, he got rewarded with the last European spot in the Mosconi Cup, this team competition with 5 players on each team. Team Europe consisted of Mark Gray (#1 on the Eurotour-ranking), Ralf Souquet (World 8-ball Champion), Niels Feijen (World 14-1 Champion), Tony Drago (Most valuable player in Mosconi 2007, Predator 10-ball Champion) and Mika Immonen (US Open Champion).

One man’s bread is another mans dead, and the new World Ten Ball Champion Darren Appleton was in tears by not making the team. The Mosconi Cup was his dream, and he, along with many others, couldn’t believe that winning the biggest tournament in the world was not enough to secure him a spot in the team. I believe that Darren will definitely be on the team next year. He has played so well all year, and I know that this will only make him more determined on achieving his goal of representing Europe in this Cup.

In November the WPBA hosted their annual National tournament, the last tournament of the women’s pro league, and for the first time a WPBA tournament was broadcasted live on the internet, by TAR, and not only in delayed cut-version on ESPN. I am not quite sure, but I do believe Monica Webb won this tournament, as the first American in a long time. One thing I do remember from this tournament, is that Jasmin Ouschan got the news that she will be banned for two coming WPBA tournaments, starting in 2009, since she chose to compete in the World Ten Ball Championship instead of a WPBA tournament. For some reason she also decided to not play the WPBA National, and I know that I was not the only one who boycotted the PPV on this tournament because of the ban.

The Mosconi Cup was played in Malta, Europe, and when 2 World Champions were left out of the team (Darren and Daryl Peach, reigning World 9-ball Champion) Europe was the favourite. But against Team USA, with Earl Strickland, Johnny Archer, Shane Van Boening, Rodney Morris and Jeremy Jones, it was impossible to say they were big favourites.

As usual Earl Strickland was on everyone’s lips after the tournament. Not because he played awesome in his comeback against the worlds fastest player Tony Drago, where he was down 4-1 after 14 minutes (including commercials), but because of this 5-0 defeat against Mika Immonen. After this match, live on Sky Sports, Earl gave the finger to the crowd.

Mika Immonen, the “man to blame” for Europe not winning the Mosconi in 2006, was able to get rid of another monkey on his shoulder, as he pocketed the last ball in this years Cup to win it for Europe with an impressive score of 11-5.

At the end of the year Ralf Souquet is now ranked #1 in the world, and I am looking forward to read the next Billiards Digest, to see if they will choose Ralf Souquet or Mika Immonen as the “Player of the Year”. In my opinion, it can’t be anyone else than one of these two, who both have had a fantastic year.

One of the biggest dissapointments for me is that neither of my personal favourites, Line Kjorsvik or Roberto Gomez, managed to make waves on the international scene this year. Line was close when she finished 3rd in one of the WPBA tournaments, and I expect her to do well next year. She finished pretty high in the break&run stats during the season, and now that she has finished her comeback-season I believe the best is yet to come. (Picture of Line "Rockstar" Kjorsvik when performing "Me and Bobby McGee". Her karaoke-version is better than any other version!)

Roberto Gomez is still struggling getting travel visa to go to for example the United States, and can't compete in major tournaments like US Open and DCC. He won one of the prestigous Villards Cup in Philippines, but it's a shame that the rest of the world can't see his talents in person around the world. Hopefully in 2009!

There are probably a lot more tournaments and happenings that should be mentioned, but these are what I remember the most from 2008. I could have written more about the European Championships, Eurotour, Guinness Tour or the WPBA tournaments, but I thought the article was long enough already!

Please share your thoughts and favourite moments by responding to this blog-article :) (I have written this article based on memory only, so if there is any mistakes please let me know)

What to practise, week 1, January 09

2008-12-28T23:01:00.001+01:00

I will try to upload either a drill or other things to work on to improve your poolgame, hopefully as often as once a week.

This is a drill that I will work a lot with now the first week of the year. The first time I saw this drill, it was executed perfectly by Jasmin Ouschan. I had the pleasure of watching her do many different drills, because she arrived a couple of days before the Norwegian 9-ball Challenge in June, 2006. This tournament which I promoted and organized, Jasmin finished 5th, with Mika Immonen beating Oliver Ortmann 9-4 in the final, for the 8 500 $ first price.

Ok, back to the drill. I got reminded of this drill while checking other blogs and pool-related websites, and thought it could be fun to try it this coming week. I will do it a minimum of 30 times, and as always, I will keep record of how I do.

By keeping record of your attempts, and how many times you are successful etc, it will add some extra pressure during the drills, will help you increase your focus and most important; after you've done a dozen of different drills you can quickly figure out what aspects of your game that needs improvement.

The rules are very easy:
Start with cue ball in hand.
Shoot balls in any order.
Cue ball cannot move other balls during each shot.
Missing a shot ends the drill.

I normally practise on many different things during the week, but this is what I decided to publish as my first "Drill of the week".

If you decide to give it a try - good luck, and please let me know what you thought about the drill, and your score.

One Pocket tournament in Norway

2008-12-28T22:59:00.001+01:00

The Norwegian Masters (last tournament of the season) was scheduled for the 29th and 30th of November 2008, in 8-ball, in Oslo.

I managed to get some days off from work, and travelled a couple of days earlier to play money games and get lots of practise. Another reason was that I had talked the organizer to also host a One Pocket tournament on the evening of Friday 28th.

The tournament was single elimination, 8 players, race to 3 and first price of $ 300. There were a couple of players that knows some of the moves and strategies of One Pocket, but also some players that had almost never played it before. The field was strong, with 4 100-ball runners in 14-1, and 4 Norwegian Champions in other diciplines.

(Picture of Efren Reyes, the worlds best One Pocket player, in action during the Derby City Classic. Picture from onepocket.org)

I fell in love with the game of One Pocket for about 2 - 2,5 years ago, but I am unable to play it much since there is very few who plays that game here in Norway. I have studied the game by reading books, watching dvd's and playing some of the best players in the world. I still feel like a beginner in this game, but compared to the rest of the field I felt that I had a good chance of performing well in this 8-man tournament, and aimed to win.

During Thursday I played some cheap moneygames in One Pocket with one of the players in the tournament, and he beat me like 12-6. But we went even on the money, though, since I won when we raised the bet. What I learnt from playing him that night was that this player was ultra-attacking, and went for crazy combinations in the pack etc. Most of the time he succeeded, and 6 of the 12 games he won was 8 and out!! :o I felt I played better One-Pocket strategy than him, but that night it did me no good!

When the draw was made for the tournament I drew this player in the first match. Since I knew that he was capable of running out from everywhere, we decided to split the winnings 225-75 if one of us won the tournament, even though I probably had the advantage because of my knowledge about moves and strategies.

I ended up winning this match 3-0 in less than 15 minutes, because of smart play and a couple of lucky rolls.

In my next match I ended up playing a guy that beat me heavily in one-pocket 1,5 year ago, and I knew I had to play real tight. My tactic succeeded, and I won 3-0 in about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

In the final I met a player that I knew enjoys the game of One Pocket, but I had never played him before. I was a little nervous, wondering how well he knew the strategies and moves. He sure knew his way around the table, and as a former Norwegian Champion I could not give him any openings.

After 1,5 hours and many enjoyable safetybattles I ended up as winner, with a 3-1 score. I felt real good, because I had played very good one-pocket in all three of my matches.

More people have said that they would like to play One Pocket if there will be another, bigger, tournament next year. I will do what I can to make that happen! Nothing would please me more if One Pocket were played often in Norway.

To read more about One Pocket, visit OnePocket.org. Here you will find the complete rules, strategies, great shots etc.

My goal and how to reach it

2008-12-28T22:24:00.001+01:00

Last year, the 13th of July in 2007, I was invited to some friends office to play in their annual "Office Invitational". They have placed a beautiful Brunswick Super Gold Crown IV in their office, with green Simonis 860.

The owners of the office owns many bars in the Oslo-area, so the drinks were on the house that evening, and the purpose of the tournament was to have a lot of fun.

We were 10 players invited, if my memory serves me correct, and we ended up playing scotch doubles 9-ball in a round robin format. I ended up playing with multiple Norwegian Champion (And #1 in Norway 2008) Ronny Oldervik. We entered the final, but lost.

During this evening I made a bet with one of the other players that I would become Norwegian Champion within 3 years, in either 2007, 2008 or 2009. I bet 1 000 kr (about $150), and will get 50 000 kr (about $7150) if I manage to reach my goal.

Before this evening I had been involved in pool for about 5-6 years total. I say involved, because most of the time I spent within organizations, promoting, organizing and running tournaments, run a poolhall. I didn't practise properly, and was mainly just banging balls around for fun.

The day after the bet was made I immidately set up a program for improvement, which included a lot of drills, reading mental books, recording all matches and tournaments in an excel-file +++ (part of the ecxelfile attached as picture). My highest finish before the bet was 4 times finishing 17th in the Norwegian Championships. I am no longer involved in the board in any pool organizatins, I sold my shares in the poolhall and I don't promote or organize tournaments. Most of my time related to pool has now one, and only one, purpose - to become as good as possible.

Now, 1,5 years later, after hundreds of hours practising, thousands of pocketed balls, about 350 matches registered in my excel-file, I have a 5th place as my best result. I achieved that in the Norwegian 9-ball Championship 2008. On the first day of the event, after a couple of matches, I had to play the eventual winner of the event, Tommy Wolff. I won 9-7, and sent him to the one-loss side, but on Sunday, after I beat two of the best Norwegian players both 9-8, I was in the Quarter final. My opponent was once again Tommy Wolff, and he demolished me 9-1, after being up 8-0. He played perfect, and I didn't have much chance in that particular match. But when looking back at the tournament I lost only to the winner, and I was the only player out of 92 that managed to beat him that weekend.

In 2008 I also finished 3rd in the Team Championship, but since my bet is for individual tournaments, I do not count that as my highest finish, even though it was great to achieve that, especially since I had the highest win % in our team. Also in this tournament it was the winner of the event who beat our team. Our team was Team 147, wiht me, Knut Kvaal Pedersen (2 times Norwegian Snooker Champion), and multiple European Champion, and WPBA-pro, Line Kjorsvik. The winning team, Team Trondheim, consisted of Vegar Kristiansen, Ronny Oldervik and Roger Lysholm. All three are experienced players with good results in previous World 9-ball Championships, with Vegar's 3rd in the 1999 as the best result. This was the 7th year in a row their team won this event...

I have only 4 more Championships left to play before the bet is either won or lost, 8-ball, 9-ball, 10-ball and 14-1, and I have to admit that it doesn't look too good to achieve the goal. I know it is possible, but I have to work even harder than before.

More practise and drills, eat healthier, run more to get in better shape, watch more videos of the pros, videotape some of my matches or practise-sessions to find, and hopefully get rid of, bad habits.

The goal is also the mainreason for creating this blog. I hope this will help motivate me to keep practising. Another reason for creating the blog is that I think it will be fun keeping a diary from tournaments that I enter in Norway and around the world.

Anyway, no matter if I reach the goal or not, it has made pool more fun for me. I am now practising and not just banging balls, and I threat pool as a sport, not just another game.

"When you aim for the stars, you are sure to not end up with mud in your mouth"

Videos - testing

2008-12-28T20:59:00.000+01:00

Just testing if I can manage to add videos to the blog.

Here's a video of me "banging" some 9-ball on my table for the first time. It's on an old Soren Sogaard table, with Z9 cloth. I had got wrong "buckets" for the sidepockets, so there are only some boxes under to prevent the balls from hiting the floor when they drop into the side-pockets :)

I tried to upload a video of me practising against the 10-ball ghost, but I failed to make it appear in this blog-article, even though I did the same as with the youtube-video. If anyone knows how to add a google-video in the blog, please help me :o

When going to tournaments etc I will bring my videocamera, and I have found it easier to upload videos to Google Video than YouTube, so would be great if someone can help me.

D'Fish

2008-12-28T20:58:00.005+01:00

Why Roy D'Fish?

I have got a couple of nicknames during the few years I have been playing pool, but Roy D'Fish is what they call me in Manila, Philippines. I think it is funny, even though it isn't meant as a positive one :p Here's why:

First time I visited Philippines was in February, 2007. I went there to see if Manila really was the "Mecca" of the poolworld, as so many different poolplayers had told me. This vacation was just a few days after the 8-ball Battle of Scandinavia, won by Niels Feijen.

Two filipinos, Roberto Gomez (picture, won the 9-ball event during the tournament) and Jharome Pena, joined this tournament. I remember it was a lot of work needed from me and Verna Mariano in Bugsy Promotion, trying to get them travel visa from Philippines to Norway so they could join this event, and we managed to get this at the very last minute. During the tournament we became friends, and they both picked us up at the airport in Manila the following week.

It was real nice having local pros as guides to the many different poolhalls in Manila, and the first night they took us to a place called Side Pocket, located in Quezon City just outside Manila. It is probably the worst poolhall I have ever been to, but still I loved every minute of it because of the atmosphere. Here you could watch top players like Ronato Alcano, Dennis Orcullo, Jeffrey De Luna, Jharome Pena, Roberto Gomez etc in action, with lots of spectators making side-bets on the different matches being played.

When we entered this place we immidiately got surrounded by the local players. Everyone in the room turned their heads to look at us, and they all smiled. Why? They saw 3 white unknown poolplayers, and for the Filipinos this means money and food on the table. There were atleast 150 people in the room, probably more, and "everyone" wanted to play us and offered wild handicaps. I ended up playing a guy (and losing) in 9-ball, getting 4 games on the wire to 11, but then win in one-pocket playing even.

After we played I went outside to get some fresh air, and when walking in again I ran into Efren Reyes (picture copied from www.onepocket.org) who had been playing chess in another room. I asked him right away if he wanted to play some one-pocket. Even though it was 4 in the morning, he smiled and said yes, and walked with me through the poolhall to the cornertable I had been playing on.

About 50 people came closer to the table, to watch Efren "the Magician" Reyes in action. I had played some one-pocket with Roberto Gomez in Oslo the week before, and he negotiated the handicaps on behalf of both us, and we ended up playing 10-5. (10-5 means that Efren needed to pocket 10 balls in his pocket to win, while I needed 5).

The first match I lost 3-2, after being up 2-0. The second match I again went 2-0 up, and this time I managed to win 3-2. The last set Efren won 3-1, and then he wanted to play more. Now it was 8 in the morning, and I had travelled half the world the day before, so I had to pass. But we agreed on playing some more in another poolhall, One Side, one of the next days.

In total, during my 3 visits to Manila the last 2 years, I have been playing Efren Reyes, the greatest player in the world, for minimum 25 hours of one-pocket. We gambled all the time, but in total I only lost about $ 200.

The local Filipinos then decided to call me Roy D'Fish, since I always wanted to play Efren. People who play Efren are almost guaranteed to lose their money, and they looked at it as Efren was fishing for my money, which he did :D

Personally I considered it a 25 hour practise session with the greatest player in the world, for only $ 200. To compare it with rates other pros take for their lessons, Allison Fisher charges $ 75 for one hour, while another of my favourite players Ralf Souquet charges about $ 150 for one hour :) To play so much against Efren Reyes have been my best pool-experience ever, by far!

I played many other players during my stays in Manila, and ended up losing to almost all of them, which just made the nickname fit even more. But who wouldn't lose most of the time when playing Jharome Pena, Roberto Gomez, Jeffrey De Luna, Efren Reyes, Carlo Biado and other top Filipinos, even with handicap?

I can live with that nicname. Sometimes I am a fish, no doubt about it, but sometimes the fish have to eat other fish to survive :)

To end this article I would like to encourage people to go to Manila, and experience the high level of players there by yourself. You will be shocked by the hundreds of talented players. The Filipinos would ruin the interest for pool in the world, if all of them were alloved travel visas and would be able to compete in tournaments all over the world... As an example, Roberto Gomez, who finished 2nd in the World Championship in 2007 in Manila, is still struggling getting travel visa to the United States, and can't yet compete in prestigous tournaments as US Open or Derby City Classic. Dennis Orcullo was denied travel visa three times to the States. When he finally went over there to play I think he won 4 out of 5 tournaments he entered. (IPT-qualififer, 2 Bar Championships++)

A good quote when it comes to gambling and Filipinos is:

"Don't ever bet against a Filipino"