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Jae Hyung Cho wins the New Wave Billiards International Open

Former Korean Champion
Jae Hyung Cho

Thirty-Eight of the best 3-cushion players around the country as well as some South American countries came to Miami, Florida to compete for a first-place prize of $ 6,500.00 at the Eighth Stop of the 2007 USBA Tour.

The tournament was an open tournament, meaning that anyone could play and everyone played even-up, no handicaps or classes of players. A total of over $ 10,000.00 was added to this event. $ 3,000.00 by the USBA, $ 3,000.00 by the room owner, Hernando Pineres, $ 2,000.00 by Budweiser and $ 3,000.00 by David Levine.

The event was broken down into 4 flights. Two flights had 10 players and two flights had nine players. The top 3 finishers in each flight would advance to the finals. A lottery was held where the winner would also play in the finals making it a 13-man round-robin final.

The 4th, 5th and 6th place finishers in each flight would then play in a “B” final which was a single elimination tournament with the 4th place finishers in each flight earning a “bye” in the first round.

Here is a summary of the flights. Click on the flight name to see PDF chart of flight:

Flight A: Current US Champion Pedro Piedrabuena dominated the flight with an 8-0 record, averaging 1.550. Michael Kang finished 2nd, going 7-1 with a .955 average. Carlos Hallon finished in 3rd, going 5-3 with a .982 average. Sid Banner missed out on the “A” final by just 3 points, going 5-3 with a .548 average. Sid qualified into the “B” finals and received a ”bye” in the first round of the B finals. Joaquin Salinas finished 5th, going 4-4 with a .642 average and Mercedes Gonzalez finished 6th, going 3-5 with a .750 average. Also in the flight was Jim Bishop, Tony Cardona and Andrew Janquitto.

Highlights: Mercedes Gonzalez averages a whopping .750, but can only manage 3 victories and just barely makes it into the B finals.

Flight B: Jae Hyung Cho, a Korean champion who resides in Colorado, wins the flight going 8-0 with a 1.389 average. Luis Avila finishes 2nd, going 7-1 with a 1.333 average. Young Gull Lee finishes in 3rd place with a 5-3 record and a .854 average. Roberto Arana, who was not feeling very well, had to forfeit his last match which put him in 4th place. Arana finished 5-3 with a .860 average. Roger Ortega was 5th, 4-4 and a .663 average. Robert Raiford finished 6th, going 4-4 with a .682 average. Also in the flight was Jake Zymeck, Tom Harwood and Jim Shovak.

Highlights: Young Gull Lee lucks his way into the A finals because Arana doesn’t feel well. Shovak averages .687 for the tournament, but doesn’t win a game, including a 1.214 game against Avila.

Flight C: By far and away the most difficult flight. Luis Aveiga finished 9-0 with a 1.293 average. Miguel Torres finishes 2nd, going 7-2 with a 1.076 average. John Francisco Taylor finishes 3rd, going 7-2 with a 1.171 average. 2006 US Champion Mazin Shooni settles for 4th place with a 6-3 record and a .983 average. Don Sperber finishes 5th, going 4-5 with a .566 average. Felipe Razon finishes 6th, going 3-6 with a .776 average. Also in the flight was Bob Page, Aaron Steinberg, Umberto Quadra and Bill Johnson.

Highlight: John Francisco Taylor defeats Mazin Shooni at the end putting himself in the A finals and sending Shooni to the B finals.

Flight D: Javier Teran finishes 9-0 with a 1.203 average. Dionisio Cid finishes 2nd, going 7-2 with a .827 average. Pierre Cornelissen finishes 3rd, going 6-3 with a .637 average. Germy Rivera finishes in 4th, going 5-4 with a .663 average. Oliver Mayoral finishes 5th, going 5-4 with a .631 average. 2007 Junior Champion Edwar Gomez finishes 6th, going 4-5 with a .625 average. Also in the flight was Dang-Khoa Nguyen, William Higgins (Wimpy), Dennis Dieckman and George Theobald.

Highlight: William Higgins defeats Oliver Mayoral in the last match, putting Pierre Cornelissen in the A finals and knocking Mayoral into the B finals.

A lottery was held after the preliminaries for the 13th spot in the A finals. Tickets were sold at $ 40.00 per ticket. Edwar Gomez won the lottery and he allowed Mazin Shooni to play as the 13th finalist. As it turned out, Pierre Cornelissen was not able to play in the finals, so it turned out to be a 12-man round robin instead. Because Mazin Shooni finished in 4th place, that allowed Bob Page, the 7th place finisher in his flight, to enter the B finals.

The B Finals: The B finals was a 12-man Single Elimination tournament, 20 point games. The 4th place finishers in each flight had a “bye” in the first round, meaning that the 5th and 6th place finishers in each flight competed first, according to their rank.

In the B Finals, Round 1, Arana, Sperber, Rivera and Banner had a “bye”. Oliver Mayoral defeated Bob Page 20-17. Mercedes Gonzalez defeated Roger Ortega 20-15. Jauquin Salinas defeated Edwar Gomez 20-8 and Felipe Razon defeated Robert Raiford 20-19.

In the B Finals, Round 2, Felipe Razon defeated Roberto Arana 20-10. Don Sperber defeated Oliver Mayoral 20-7. Mercedes Gonzalez defeated Germy Rivera 20-17 and Jauquin Salinas defeated Sid Banner 20-19.

In the B Finals, Round 3, Felipe Razon defeated Don Sperber 20-14 and Mercedes Gonzalez defeated Jauquin Salinas 20-18.

In the B Finals, Round 4, the final match, Mercedes Gonzalez rose to the occasion and beat Felipe Razon 20-9, averaging .833 and winning the B finals.

The A Finals: Pedro Piedrabuena runs 11 points has the best game average of 2.917, scoring 35 points in just 12 innings. Pedro suffers a devastating 35-34 loss to Young Gull Lee. Pedro suffers a 2nd loss to Luis Aveiga, 35-33. Jae Hyung Cho suffers a loss to John Francisco Taylor, 35-33. Luis Aveiga runs a 12, and finishes with the tournament best average of 1.481. Luis Avila runs an 11. Miguel Torres runs a tournament high 14 against Aveiga, winning a crucial match. Young Gull Lee wins a few crucial matches, beating Pedro 35-34, Michael Kang 35-34, Carlos Hallon 35-27 and Mazin Shooni 35-26.

Before the final round, it was Jae Hyung Cho with a 9-1 record and Pedro with an 8-2 record competing for the title. If Cho won the game, it was all over. If Pedro won, there would be a 20-point playoff to determine the Champion.

In the beginning, it was all Pedro. Pedro was ahead 14-4 in the 35 point match. I heard one person say that it was all over, out of the woods. I strongly disagreed. When the level of play it so high, you can never count on anything. I was right. Cho worked his way back into game, running a 2,1,7,4,1,1,3 and 1 in consecutive innings, making it 25-23 in Cho’s favor. Pedro runs a 4 putting him back in the lead, 27-25. Then it’s 28-26, Pedro. Cho runs a 4, making it 30-29, Cho. Pedro runs 2, 31-30 Pedro. Then it’s 32-32. Then it’s 33-33. Pedro scores a point and then misses number 35. Cho steps up and makes the last 2 points. It’s all over.

Jae Hyung Cho, the past Korean Champion, wins the New Wave Open with a final record of 10-1 and a 1.235 grand average. Pedro, with his 3rd loss, finishes in 3rd place, going 8-3 with a 1.422 grand average. His three losses were 35-34, 35-34 and 35-33. Miguel Torres squeezes into 2nd place with a 9-2 record. Luis Aveiga, 8-3, finishes 4th with a 1.481 average. Luis Avila finishes 5th, going 7-4 with a 1.153 average and Young Gull Lee finishes 6th, going 5-6 with a .883 average. Javier Teran finishes 7th, going 5-6 with a .948 average. Mazin Shooni finishes 8th, going 4-7 with a 1.049 average. John Francisco Taylor finishes 9th, going 4-7 with a .871 average. Michael Kang finishes 10th, going 3-8 with a .985 average, Carlos Hallon finishes 11th, going 3-8 with a .836 average and Dionicio Cid finishes 12th, going 0-11 with a .599 average.

Hernando Pineres, New Wave Billiards owner for his generous contribution of $ 3,000.00 to the event. The USBA, for it’s donation of $ 3,000.00 to the event. Budweiser for its donation of $ 2,000.00 to the event. David Levine, for his generous donation of $ 3,000.00 to the event. Schuler and Dieckman Cues for their generous cue donations for the raffle. Simonis cloth and Aramith balls for their sponsorship of the event as well.