Ouschan Defeats Immonen to Advance to Final Eight

Action at the Predator Straight Pool Championships in East Brunswick, NJ, moved into the final round of eight early Friday evening with Oliver Ortmann, Francisco Bustamante, Huidji See, Niels Feijen, John Schmidt, Thorsten Hohmann, Nick Van Den Berg, and a surprise Jasmine Ouschan advancing out of the single-elimination round of 16.

Ortmann, who ousted Thomas Engert 200-42, was set to square off against Ouschan in Friday’s final session, leading to Saturday’s final four. Ouschan, who overcame some adversity in the round robin sessions of the tournament, reached the final eight by defeating frontrunner Mika Immonen 200-174.

Earlier in the day, Huidji See concluded Corey Deuel’s tournament run 200-96 and turned to face Francisco Bustamante, who’d advanced with a 200-137 defeat of Harriman. Niels Feijen defeated Ignacio Chavez 200-128 and earned a spot battling John “Mr. 403” Schmidt, who eliminated Mike Dechaine with a 200-144 victory.

The final pairing was to pit Thorsten Hohmann against Nick Van Den Berg. Hohmann had eliminated Ralf Souquet from further action with a 200-144 victory, as Van den Berg was concluding Dominic Jentsch’s day 200-38.

World Straight Pool Final Sixteen

Phase two is complete at the Predator World Straight Pool Championship and the field has now been narrowed to just sixteen players.

The rest of the event is single elimination and all prior losses have been forgiven.

At the time of this writing, Oliver Ortmann had already defeated Thomas Engert 200-42 and was comfortably awaiting the winner between Mika Immonen and Jasmin Ouschan.

Other matches for today are Huidji See vs Corey Deuel, Danny Harriman vs Francisco Bustamante, Ignacio Chavez vs Niels Feijen, John Schmidt vs Mike Dechaine, Ralf Souquet vs Thorsten Hohmann and Nick Van Den Berg vs Dominic Jentsch.

World Straight Pool Stage 2; Immonen, Hohmann and Deuel advance

We apologize for our incorrect reporting of the format for the second phase of the Predator World Straight Pool Championship.

We reported that the top four players from each group advanced into a single elimination thirty two player board. The correct progression is for the top four from each group to advance into a double elimination thirty two player board and the final sixteen players from that group will advance into a sixteen player single elimination board.

The thirty two player board will be complete by Thursday evening and Mika Immonen, Thorsten Hohmann and Corey Deuel have already advanced into the final sixteen. Marquee matches underway on the winners side at the time of this report included Dominic Jentsch vs Thomas Engert, Danny Harriman vs Francisco Bustamante and Oliver Ortmann vs Mike Dechaine.

Top players with their hopes still alive on the one loss side include Jasmin Ouschan, Danny Barouty, Mike Sigel, Ralf Souquet, Allen Hopkins and John Schmidt.

World 14.1 Enters Knock-Out Phase

Finishing off round-robin play in dominating fashion, Mika Immonen earned the top seed in the knock-out stage of the Predator World 14.1 Championship — held through Saturday at the Hilton Hotel in East Brunswick, N.J.

Going 7-0 in the group stage, Immonen ended with a combined score of 700-210 — averaging an astounding 70-point margin of victory.

Three other players also went unbeaten through the first three days of play. Nick Van den Berg of the Netherlands secured the second seed in the 32-player bracket, while countryman Niels Feijen took the No. 3 spot. Johnny Archer finished fourth overall among the 64 players by going undefeated in his group.

Straight-pool legend Mike Sigel survived what turned out to be the "group of death." Five players tied with 5-2 records in Group 2, including Thorsten Hohmann and Charlie Williams. Jonathan Fulcher was the unlucky man out, eliminated by virtue of a tiebreaker based on total points.

The World Championship will now be single-elimination until a winner is crowned on Saturday evening.

Interesting matchups in the round of 32 include Mika Immonen against Jasmin Ouschan, who advanced despite struggling to a 3-4 record in group play; rising star Mike Dechaine facing Bobby Hunter, the last American to win the world title in 1990; and Hohmann taking on Williams, who has had a number of top finishes in recent months.

Mika Immonen wins Raxx Blaze Stop

The Blaze 9 Ball Tour made its way to Raxx Bar & Grill in New York on Aug 9th and 10th with a strong field of 41 players coming out to play.

Leading the top half of the bracket was Eddie Abraham with wins over Mike Ettl 9-3, Liz Ford 9-4, John Alicia 9-6, and Alejandro Calderon 9-4. Leading the bottom half of the bracket was Mika Immonen with wins over Bobby Blackmore 9-3, Gregg McAndrews 9-2, Vinnie Leone 9-2, and Manny Chau 9-6.

Playing for the hot seat it was Eddie Abraham vs Mika Immonen. This was a great match with Mika Immonen pulling away mid-match to win 9-5. This sent Eddie Abraham to the one loss side. On the one loss side it was Manny Chau waiting for Eddie Abraham. This too, was a great match with Manny Chau pulling it off at the end with a 9-7 win to get to the finals.

In the finals it Mika Immonen vs Manny Chau in one race to 13th and it was all Mika Immonen running away with the match winning easily 13-7.

Mika Immonen 3rd at Blaze Billiard Tour

Francisco Bustamante stole the show at the Blaze 9-Ball Tour’s Annual NYC Championships August 24. Hosted by Skyline Billiards in Brooklyn, NY, this event attracted a field of 61 pool stars from all over the world.

With the field peppered with players such as Johnny Archer, Manny Chau, Mike Davis, Shaun Wilkie, and Alan Rolan, it was difficult to pick a champion, but last event’s winner, Mika Immonen, blazed through the top half of the bracket with wins over Alex Gilvarg 9-1, Ray Lee 9-0, Mhet Vergara 9-2, Bustamante 9-7, and Davis 9-7.  Chau, last event’s runner-up, led the bottom half, notching victories over Ariel Rivera 9-1, Kevin Coyle 9-3, Mike Fingers 9-1, Mike Dechaine 9-5, and Chavez 9-3.
In a replay of the August 11 event’s final match, Immonen and Chau met to play for the hot seat. However, in a different outcome, Chau easily won the match 9-5 to send Immonen to the semifinal match. There he met Bustamante, whom he had earlier defeated. A motivated Bustamante stormed through Immonen 7-1 to reach the finals. In the single race-to-9 finals, Bustamante held on to his momentum and handily defeated Chau 9-4.

Results:
1st Francisco Bustamante
2nd Manny Chau
3rd Mika Immonen
4th Mike Davis
5th Chavez
Mike Dechaine
7th Alan Rolan
Eddie Abraham
9th Wali Mahammad
Adam Kielar
Mhet Vergara
Marc Vidal

Bustamante, Immonen, and Archer Win Opening 14.1 Rounds

Three days of preliminary round robin play launched the $25,000-added, 2008 Predator Straight Pool Championships in East Brunswick, NJ, August 25. Eight groups of eight players, featuring competitors from all over the world, squared off to play two or three opening rounds of play (depending on match progress within the groups) at the Hilton Hotel.

The Philippines’ Francisco Bustamante started his tournament bid with a 100-79 victory over Carmen Lombardo and then handed Tony “The Silent Assassin” Robles his first defeat of the tournament 100-39. Germany’s Ralf Souquet (#12), in that same group, defeated Austria’s Martin Kempter (#5) 100-64 in his opening match.

Finland’s Mika Immonen (#7) started off in grand style, allowing two opponents to sink only 39 balls between them. He defeated USA’s Bobby Hunter 100-9 in a match that saw Immonen sink 86 in a row, and then defeated Mark Ritter 100-30. 

Fresh off his Turning Stone Classic win, Johnny Archer started his tournament off with two victories, as well, defeating Austria’s Jasmin Ouschan 100-36 and then Netherland’s Mohammed Hakim 100-68. Though Thorsten Hohmann (#2) defeated tournament founder Charlie Williams 100-68 to start his tournament off on a positive note, Williams rebounded to win his next two against Jonathan Fulcher 100-66 and Devon Cataldi 100-31.

Recent Hall of Fame inductee Allen Hopkins, seeded #16, handed defending champion Oliver Ortmann an early defeat 100-60 and followed it with an even stronger showing versus fellow American, Bernie Pettipiece 100-18. Within that same grouping, USA’s Mike Dechaine defeated Korea’s Yu Ram Cha 100-35 and followed it with a 100-41 victory over countryman Bill Maropolous.

High run of the day honors went to USA’s Corey Deuel in a 100-54 victory over Earl Herring. Deuel had been defeated by Nick Van Den Berg 100-30 in the opening round of play and watched as Herring broke and ran 54 balls in the opening moments of their match. Deuel stepped to the table and ran 100 balls to win the match.

Other double winners in the opening rounds of play included the Netherlands’ Niels Feijen (#13), who ran 91 balls in a 100-41 victory over USA’s Danny Harriman (#4), and followed that with a 100-33 victory over Bob Maidhof. Shaun Wilkie defeated Dominic Jentsch 100-76 and turned in a commanding 100-8 performance against Dan Heidrich. Germany’s Thomas Engert (#6) opened his tournament bid with a 100-52 victory over Raj Hundal (#11). The Netherlands’ Huidji See (#3) fell to USA’s John Schmidt 100-85 before rebounding to defeat John Rousseau 100-19.