The USBA was not prepared for what happened at the tournament at Eight Ball Billiards in Maywood, CA. A whopping 68 players showed up on a Friday morning with cash in hand, ready to play in the USBA Tour event. The matches were scheduled to start at 11:00am on Friday, October 26, 2007, but didn’t get rolling until almost 2:00pm!!!

Tournament Directors Jim Shovak, George Aronek and Pedro Piedrabuena came up with a format that would allow sufficient play for the players, and also allow everyone to get home before Christmas.

In all, 46 players played in the B tournament and 22 players played in the A tournament. The total prize fund was $ 11,500.00 including $ 2,500.00 added by the USBA and
$ 1,500.00 added by room owner Jose Cerda.

The B tournament consisted of 6 flights: Flights A, B, C, D, E and F. Four of the flights had 8 players each and two flights had 7 players each.

The A tournament consisted of 3 flights: Flights G, H and I. Two of the flights had 7 players each and one flight had 8 players.

In every flight, the top 2 finishers advanced to the finals. The final A group would consist of the top 6 players competing in a round robin format to determine the champion. The final B group consisted of 12 players which were divided even further into 2 flights of 6 players each. The winner of each flight would play each other for first and second place. The 2nd place finishers in each flight would play each other for 3rd and 4th place, and so on.

The tournament was a “split” format, with players who averaged over .750 (A Players) playing each other, and B players playing each other (under .750 average). The A tournament also had a handicap, based on the players level of play.

The handicaps for the A Tournament was as follows:

International Master = 1.200 average or higher: 30 points.
Master = .900-1.199: 28 points
A Player = .750-.899: 26 points
Strong B Player = .650-.749: 25 points
B Player = below .650: 24 points

The B Tournament was played with no handicap.

Pedro Piedrabuena, 3-time US National Champion, put on a dazzling display for the crowd at Eight Ball Billiards. Not only was he undefeated throughout the entire A tournament, he averaged over 1.500 in the finals, and made one of the greatest comebacks I have ever seen in a very important match. We’ll get to that part shortly.

Summary of each flight:

B Tournament: Click on Flight Name to see PDF Chart:

Flight A: Isidro Palacios finishes 6-1 with a .523 grand average. Roberto Almazo finishes 5-2 with a .541 average.

Flight B: Benjamin Flores finishes 5-2 with a .539 average and Domingo Morales goes 5-2 with a .447 average.

Flight C: Clemente Mariscal goes 6-1 with a .565 average and Emmanuel Herrera goes 5-2 with a .618 average.

Flight D: Luis Vasquez goes 6-1 with a .439 average and Tino Rangel goes 6-1 with a .520 average.

Flight E: Jose Lizarraga goes 5-1 with a .674 average and Mario Bernabe goes 5-1 with a .553 average.

Flight F: Salvador Chavez goes 5-1 with a .529 average and Juan Ramirez goes 4-2 with a .559 average.

A Tournament: (Player handicaps in parentheses and also on the left side of the Tournament Charts in PDF format)

Flight G: Bilal Khalifa (28 points) goes 7-0 with a .868 average. With the handicap, the average is actually lower since Bilal got 2 points on the wire each game. The same is true of all players in the A tournament except International Masters (30 points). Javier Pulido (26 points) goes 6-1 with a .819 handicapped average.

Flight H: Pedro (30) goes 6-0 with a 1.385 average and John Lee (28) goes 5-1 with a .886 average.

Flight I: Salvador Diaz (28) and Vicky Pineda (28) are the clear favorites. However, Jim Shovak (25) defeats Salvador Diaz in 28 innings to bring his record to 4-0. Vicky Pineda suffers an early upset defeat to Rafael Figueroa (25). After a defeat to Martin Magana (26), Shovak needs to beat Vicky Pineda to finish first in the flight. Instead, Pineda wins and Shovak (4-2) has to settle for 3rd place as Salvador Diaz (5-1) and Magana (4-2) advance to the finals. Vicky Pineda settles for 4th place.

Bilal Khalifa, Salvador Diaz, Pedro Piedrabuena, Martin Magana, John Lee, Javier Pulido

A Finals: Early on, it’s Pedro (of course), Salvador Diaz and John Lee. Martin Magana upsets Diaz and also John Lee, putting the pressure on Diaz and Lee to not lose again.
Third round of the A finals: Pedro versus Bilal Khalifa. You are not going to believe this. After 10 innings of play, Pedro keeps missing by a hair and Khalifa runs an 8 and a 7 along with a 4. The score after 10 innings: Khalifa 23, Pedro 0.

When was the last time anyone was ahead of Pedro by a score of 23-0?

The final score: Pedro 30, Khalifa 29!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I couldn’t believe it!

Is it any wonder why Pedro Piedrabuena is a 3-time US National Champion?

If you have any doubts, put them to rest.

In the final match, Salvador Diaz had a chance if he could beat Pedro, but Pedro went out in grand fashion, scoring 30 points in just 12 innings for a 2.500 average!

Final Results:

Pedro Piedrabuena (30), 6-0, 1.515 average, $ 1,300.00 prize money.
Martin Magana (26), 3-2, .865 average, $ 1,200.00.
Salvador Diaz (28), 3-2, 1.042 average, $ 1,100.00.
Bilal Khalifa (28), 2-3, .782 average, $ 1,000.00.
John Lee (28), 2-3, .752 average, $ 900.00.
Javier Pulido (26), 0-5, .753 average, $ 800.00.

Salvador Diaz (3rd), Pedro (1st) and Martin Magana (2nd)

The 12 B finalists split all the prize money ($ 5,200.00). Therefore, officially, there was no winner.

Eight Ball Billiards and owner Jose Cerda

Thanks again to our sponsors: Schuler Cues, Simonis and Aramith along with room owner Jose Cerda.

It is very exciting to see more and more players joining the USBA tournaments. Hopefully we will keep running into the problem of having too many players!!!!!!!!

Thanks again to all.