Miguel Torres is the 2008 USBA National Champion!!!

Miguel Torres

In all, there were 42 of the best players in the country. They came from New York, California, Washington, Massachusetts, Texas and everywhere in-between. The groups were divided into 6 flights with 7 players in each flight. The top 2 finishers in each flight would advance to a 12 player round-robin finals. Each flight was seeded with a top finisher from last year's Nationals: Pedro Piedrabuena, Mazin Shooni, Hugo Patino, Miguel Torres, Michael Kang and Young Gull Lee.

Preliminaries:

Flight A: Yanni Antoniou wins the flight at 5-1. Felipe Razon comes in 2nd at 4-2. Seeded player Young Gull Lee finishes 3-3 and gets knocked out of the finals.

Flight B: Seeded player Michael Kang goes 6-0. Tom Rossman (Dr. Cue) finishes 2nd at 4-2.

Flight C: Seeded player Miguel Torres goes 5-1. Bill Johnson finishes 2nd, also 5-1.

Flight D: Seeded player Mazin Shooni(2006 National Champion) goes 6-0. Sonny Cho (2005 National Champion) goes 4-2.

Flight E: Seeded player Hugo Patino (2003 National Champion) goes 6-0. Gary Elias goes 4-2.

Flight F: Seeded player Pedro Piedrabuena (2007 National Champion) goes 6-0. Darrel Stutesman defeats Dan Kolacz in the final match to finish 4-2.

Flight A PDF
Flight B PDF
Flight C PDF
Flight D PDF
Flight E PDF
Flight F PDF

Rankings after Qualifications PDF

The Finals:

With 11 rounds of matches, there were no major upsets. The top 6 players battled each other and the bottom 6 players also battled each other. Pedro was the favorite, of course, going undefeated until round # 9, when he lost to Miguel Torres, who was also undefeated at that point. Sonny Cho and Mazin Shooni had 2 losses at that point.

In round # 10, Miguel Torres suffered his first defeat at the hands of Michael Kang, and Pedro won his match. This gave Miguel and Pedro one loss each, with Sonny Cho and Mazin Shooni having two losses each, with one round to go. Pedro was to play Mazin and Sonny was to play Miguel. It could get very interesting.

The final round:

Miguel Torres wins his match against Sonny Cho 40-21. The match between Pedro and Mazin would determine whether Miguel would be the new Champion, or if a playoff match would be played between Pedro and Miguel.

In the final match of the 12th round, Mazin Shooni was ahead of Pedro most of the game. But, of course, that would not be the end. Pedro came back, as usual.

Pedro reached 38 points and Mazin had 39. Pedro misses. Then Mazin tries to end the game, but he misses. Pedro gets back to the table, needing just 2 more points, and Mazin hangs his head, thinking that it might be all over. Pedro plays the shot but it just misses and Mazin jumps out of his chair and darts to the table.

He has a difficult position. Should he play a short-long-long shot (+2) and possibly sell out? Instead, he decides to play a 3-rail natural from the first ball which may result in a kiss. Sure enough, he gets the kiss. However, the path of his cue ball and the last ball seem to be on the same track after the kiss. The crowd follows the path of both balls in anticipation as both balls are running out of speed. At the very end, they meet. It is a point. Not so beautiful, but nevertheless, a point indeed. Mazin wins the game and 3rd place. Pedro loses his 2nd game and has to settle for 2nd place. Miguel Torres becomes the 2008 USBA National Champion for the first time.

Bravo Miguel!!!

Pedro Piedrabuena (2nd), Miguel Torres (1st), Mazin Shooni (3rd)

Finals in PDF

Prize Fund PDF

We wish to extend our thanks to the following:

Paul Frankel (Professor-Q-Ball): for organizing the entire 10 days of 3-cushion at the Executive Inn.

Charles Brown: for running the events tirelessly, self-lessly, and smoothly and making the programs.

Young Gull Lee: for helping with the cleaning of the tables and finding scorekeepers.

Juan Elizalde: for cleaning the balls for 10 days.

All the people who helped keep score of the matches.

Bruce Warner: for helping run the event, for the trophies, and the participation certificates.

Dennis Dieckman: For his tireless promotion of Women's and Juniors events.

Gabriels/Diamond Billiard Products: for supplying the 6 beautiful tables.

Schuler Cues: for their cue donation for the raffle.

Aramith: for the donation of the brand new Pro-Cup billiard balls for the events.

Longoni: for their donation of both a cue and a hard cue case for the raffle.

Tom Hofstedt: for his "Traveler" cue donation.

Tiger: for their donation of billiard products to the players.

Tweeten Fibre Company: for their chalk donation to the players.

Wes Burden, Gabriel's Master mechanic: for setting up 6 Gabriel Imperator tables at the Derby City Classic. Special thanks for doing a great job.

And especially to our monetary sponsors:

David Levine
Bob Jewett
Jim Shovak
Bruce Warner
Simonis

Thank you to all. You are helping to put three-cushion billiards back on the map!!!

Original Announcement:

The USBA is proud to announce the 2008 National 3-Cushion Championships to be held January 9-13, 2008 at the Executive Inn Hotel in Louisville, KY.

Defending National Champion -- Pedro Piedrabuena
2007 Runner-up -- Mazin Shooni

The Executive Inn Hotel
978 Phillips Lane
Louisville, KY 40209
502-367-6161
$ 75.00 per night-single or double
Mention the "Derby City Classic Billiard Events"

The field will be limited to 42 players. Qualifier tournaments are being organized now.

The top 4 finishers from 2007 are automatically given first priority, leaving 38 available spots.

These spots will be filled by winners of qualifying tournaments first, and then will be made available to the membership in the following order of priority:

1) Players who have played in a Qualifier ($ 300.00 entry fee) on a first paid/first served basis.

2) Members who have played in a USBA Tournament in 2007 ($ 500.00 entry fee) on a first paid/first served basis.

3) All other members ($ 500.00 entry fee) on a first paid/first served basis.

All players who qualify through their Regional Qualifier will receive $ 200.00 expense money when they arrive to play at the National Championship Tournament.

Entry fees are now being accepted. Payment will put your name on the waiting list. You will be notified shortly after November 1, 2007 on availability.

All questions and entry fees should be sent to the USBA Secretary. All checks and money orders should be made out to “USBA”.

Mail to: Jim Shovak/USBA Secretary
58 Hawthorne Avenue
East Islip, NY 11730
516-238-6193
Email: Click Here

For room owners: USBA National Championship Qualifiers

This is a formal announcement to all room owners and tournament directors regarding qualifiers for the USBA National Championship in January of 2008.

If you desire to hold a qualifier, you will need to obtain permission/approval from the secretary. If you wish your qualifier to be advertised in the Professor-Q-Ball publication, the deadline to notify us is September 20, 2007. All qualifiers must be finished by December 16th, 2007, since the Nationals will begin 3 weeks afterwards.

Benefits of holding a qualifier: If you wish to change your billiard table cloth, Simonis will provide a significant discount. In addition the USBA will reimburse you half the cost of the cloth, providing that there are 6 players for each table at the qualifier. In other words, if you have 6 players at the qualifier, the USBA will reimburse you half the cost of one cloth. If you have 12 players and at least 2 newly recovered tables, the USBA will reimburse you half the cost of 2 cloths. If you have 10 newly recovered tables and 60 players in the qualifier, you get half the cost of 10 cloths.

Conditions for reimbursement: After your qualifier is finished, you will need to send several items to the secretary for approval.

#1) Qualifier Summary Form (I will provide this to you)
#2) Receipt of cloth purchase from Simonis
#3) $ 500.00 per Qualifying player from the qualifying tournament
#4) $ 5.00 USBA sanction fee for each player who entered the qualifier
#5) 2007 Dues from each player who did not yet pay their 2007 dues
#6) USBA Membership Application from each player (I will provide this to you)

I will also provide a list of all players who have already paid their 2007 dues.

These items must be received by the secretary within 2 weeks of the finish of your qualifier. If these items are not received within that time frame, the tournament will not be sanctioned by the USBA, and the players who “qualified” will no longer be qualified into the National Championship event. In addition, the USBA will not reimburse you for cloth. Please follow-through and collect monies from all who owe and forward it to the secretary in a timely manner to avoid problems.

How many players can you send to the Nationals?

The minimum number of players for a qualifier is 6. One person out of the 6 can be sent to the Nationals. The USBA needs to receive $ 500.00 for the qualifying player along with
$ 5.00 sanction fee for each of the 6 players, plus appropriate 2007 dues, if necessary.

If you have 10 players, you can send 2 to the Nationals. With 15 players, you can send 3 to the Nationals. With 20 players, you can send 4. With every additional 5 players, you can send one more. All of this must be approved beforehand by the secretary, to ensure that we have enough room for your players in the Nationals.

A typical entry fee to a qualifier is $ 105.00, but you can make it whatever you wish. For instance, if you have 10 players each paying $ 105.00 entry fee, there will be $ 1,000.00 available to be sent to the USBA to cover the entry fee for 2 players. If you wish to send fewer players to the Nationals and have more players in the qualifier, you can always lower the entry fee. If you are not sure how to run a qualifier, the USBA will provide assistance for organizing and promoting it. My advice to all is to eliminate prize money altogether. The winners go to the Nationals, that is all. If someone cannot make it, the next-place finisher goes instead. There seems to be a lot of controversy regarding prize money if the first place finisher cannot go to the Nationals. I would avoid prize money altogether if possible. All players need to realize that if they cannot go to the Nationals, then they are not owed anything whatsoever. The prize is to play in the Nationals, it is not prize money. If you cannot play in the Nationals, then please do not expect prize money if you win.

Collection of 2007 dues: Any player who has ever been a USBA member is required to pay their 2007 dues of $ 36.00 before participating in a USBA event. If the person is brand new, and has never been a previous USBA member, then their dues for 2007 are only
$ 18.00 (after July 1, 2007).

I advise all tournament directors to collect dues and sanction fees before starting the tournament. I also advise adding the $ 5.00 sanction fee to the entry fee. Instead of the entry fee being, let’s say $ 100.00, charge $ 105.00. It makes life a lot easier.

Please contact me with questions or tournament date possibilities.

The deadline to make arrangements with me is November 1, 2007.

Thanks.

Jim Shovak