Jose Costa and Chris Kim win the “B” and “C” Tournaments at Carom Café:
Jose Costa
"B" Division Winner
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Chris Kim
"C" Division Winner
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In all, there were 53 players who showed up at Carom Café in Flushing, New York for the 2nd Stop of the 2008 USBA Tour. The “B” tournament was full with 32 players and a waiting list and the “C” tournament had 21 players. Both tournaments were played simultaneously on Carom Café’s 10 Verhoeven 3-cushion tables.
The USBA signed up 15 brand-new members and 6 more players renewed their membership at the event. The “B” tournament was divided up into 4 groups of 8 players each. Each group of 8 players played each other (round-robin) for a total of 7 matches per player to 20 points. The top 3 players in each group advanced to the semi-finals. Also, the best two 4th place finishers, a lottery winner and an auction winner advanced to the semi-finals for a total of 16 players. In the semi-finals, the players were divided into 4 groups of 4 players each, round-robin, for a total of 3 matches per player. The first place finishers of each group would then play each other in the finals, based on ranking, for 1st place through 4th place in the tournament. It was a little bit complicated. From the first place finishers of each of the four groups, the player ranked first at the time would play the player ranked 4th. The player ranked 2nd would play the 3rd ranked player. The 2 winners of those matches would then play each other for 1st and 2nd place in the tournament and the two losers of the matches would play each other for 3rd and 4th place. The same was true for the four 2nd place finishers of each group in the semi-finals. They would play each other for 5th through 8th place in the tournament, and so on.
The “C” tournament was divided into 3 groups of 7 players each, round robin. The top 3 players from each group advanced to the semi-finals along with a lottery winner totaling 10 players. The semi-finals had 2 flights of 5 players each. The two 1st place finishers of each flight would then play each other for 1st and 2nd place in the tournament. The two 2nd place finishers in the semi-finals would play each other for 3rd and 4th place in the tournament, and so on.
“C” Tournament Prelims (Groups E, F and G):
Group E: Jerry Geist wins the flight with a 5-1 record. Chan (Chris) Kim finishes 2nd, going 4-2 and Tommy Park comes in 3rd, also going 4-2.
Group F: Jae Hyuk Lee wins the flight going 6-0. Chris O’Brian goes 4-2 and Herman Nie also goes 4-2. Herman Nie has a best game of .882.
Group G: Mike Tang wins the flight going 5-1. Alex Gomez comes in 2nd, also 5-1. Sung Youn Seo goes 4-2. Ron Coll from New Jersey has an .882 game. Billy Kim wins the lottery to enter the semi-finals.
Semi-Finals (Groups E and F): Chan (Chris) Kim wins the E flight going 3-1 with a .734 average and a 1.250 best game. Mike Tang wins the F group going 3-1.
Click "C" Semi-Finals Chart to see all semi-finals games.
"C" Finalists: Sung Youn Seo, Tommy Park, Herman Nie, Chris O'Brian, Jae Hyuk Lee, Jerry Geist, John A. Gomez, Mike Tang, Chris Kim. Not pictured: Billy Kim.
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Finals: Chan (Chris) Kim defeats Mike Tang 20-11 to win the “C” tournament.
Click "C" Finals to see all finals games.
Please click the “C” Final Rankings Chart to see finalists rankings.
Click "C" Averages to see all finalists grand averages in both prelims and finals.
Mike Tang (2nd Place), Chris Kim
(1st Place) and John A.Gomez (3rd Place)
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All "C" Players: Top Row: Tommy Park, Mike Tang, Chris Sturge, Nguyen Ducmanh, Jae Hyuk Lee, Sung Youn Seo(way back), Billy Kim, Lew Hutter, Chris O'Brian(way back), Alberto Gonzalez, Ron Coll, Eric Hughes, Ronny Silva, John A. Gomez, Edgar Piedrahita. Crouching: Herman Nie. Not pictured: Jorge Meza, Peter Hull, Seung Sil Park, Chris Kim, Jerry Geist.
“B” Tournament Prelims (Groups A, B, C and D): Group A: Jose Costa goes 6-1 to win the flight. Robert Raiford comes in 2nd, going 5-2. Do Hyung Yim, also 5-2 comes in 3rd. Sang Jin Lee advances to the semi-finals with one of the two best 4th place records. Jose Costa has a 2.000 best game and Robert Raiford has a 1.429 game.
Group B: Gary Elias wins the flight going 5-2. Nayiv Ramirez finishes 2nd, also 5-2. Bill Walsh, also 5-2 comes in 3rd. Laureano Gomez advances with one of the two best 4th place records.
Group C: Juan Elizalde from Dallas wins the flight going 6-1. Jim Watson comes in 2nd at 5-2. Christian Portilla, a newcomer to the scene finishes 3rd at 4-3. Jose Restrepo has a 1.250 game.
Group D: Jamil Isreal wins the flight going 5-2 with an .815 average. John Kim goes 4-3 and has a 1.333 game. Bassel Elshaar comes in 3rd with a 4-3 record. Mike Chen wins the lottery and Jim Shovak wins the auction to advance to the semi-finals.
Semi-Finals (Groups A, B, C and D): Jose Costa wins group A going 3-0. Jim Watson wins group B going 2-1. Christian Portilla wins the C flight going 3-0. Jamil Isreal wins the D group going 2-1 with a 1.017 average.
Click "B" Semi-Finals Chart to see all semi-finals games.
"B" Finalists: Juan Elizalde, Bassel Elshaar, Robert Raiford, Jim Shovak, John Kim, Gary Elias, Jim Watson, Jamil Isreal, Christian Portilla, Jose Costa and room owner Mike Kang.
Not pictured: Mike Chen and Nayiv Ramirez.
Finals: Jose Costa defeats Jim Watson 25-18 averaging 1.000. Christian Portilla defeats Jamil Isreal 25-12 averaging 1.087.
Jamil Isreal defeats Jim Watson 25-15 averaging 1.087. Jamil finishes in 3rd place and Jim Watson finishes in 4th place.
Jose Costa defeats Christian Portilla 25-19 averaging 1.136. Jose Costa wins the “B” tournament and Christian Portilla comes in 2nd place.
To see all "B" Finals matches, click the following:
1st-4th Place finals
5th-8th place finals
9th-12th place finals
Please refer to the “B” Final Rankings Chart to see finalists' rankings.
Click "B" Averages to see all finalists' grand averages throughout whole tournament.
Jamil Isreal(3rd), Jose Costa(1st) and Christian Portilla(2nd).
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All "B" Players: Javier Garcia, Do Hyung Yim, Jung Sub Kim, Bill Walsh, Jason Ferencz, Bassel Elshaar, Robert Raiford(way back), Rudy Legler, Nayiv Ramirez, John Kim, Sang Jin Lee, Jake Zymeck, George Theobald, Jimmy Dimatrakopoulos, Eddie Pantoja, Mercedes Gonzalez, Christian Portilla, Jim Shovak, Jose Restrepo, Jamil Isreal, Armando Wong, Andres Ceballos, Juan Elizalde, Jose Costa, Gary Elias, Laureano Gomez, Bill Johnson, Francisco Loaiza and Jim Watson. Not Pictured: Frank Keratos, Mike Chen, Sang Kyun Yim. |
To see all charts for the preliminary matches for both the B players (Flights A, B, C and D) and the C players (Flights E, F and G), click here.
This was a great tournament because we had the chance to let the “C” players compete against each other for the first time in a while. It was nice to see a lot of new faces as well. Players came from everywhere. Jose Costa and Chris O’Brian came from Boston. George Theobald came from Chicago. Jamil Isreal, Bassel Elshaar, Gary Elias and Bill Johnson came from Detroit. Robert Raiford, Armando Wong, Mercedes Gonzalez and Jake Zymeck came from Florida. Juan Elizalde came from Dallas. Eric Hughes came from DC. Peter Hull came from Ohio. Alberto Gonzalez came from Philadelphia and Ron Coll came from New Jersey. Thanks to all who participated.
Special thanks to our sponsors: Schuler cues for the donated cue for the raffle. Our financial sponsors: Carom Café, David Levine, Bob Jewett, Paul Frankel, Bob Byrne, Andrew Janquitto and Jim Shovak.
Also we would like to give much praise and appreciation to Charles Brown and Min Jae Pak for running the tournament very smoothly and efficiently as usual. Thanks, guys!
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