International Pool Tour event report # 1
I will be writing a series of tidbids from the IPT tournament that concluded yesterday in Las Vegas. Beginning with round 4, I felt like the break was going to be the determining factor. I examined many of the players’ breaks and will start the series with Corey Deuel. He was breaking the balls better than average. There is no doubt he is capable of running out almost any rack if he makes a ball on the break. In the photos you’ll notice he’s got his eyes shut. He did this every break I witnessed. This isn’t a fluke. I asked him after he was eliminated from the tournament if he was indeed breaking with his eyes closed. He said that he did break with his eyes closed and he felt that he was hitting the break better that way. Amazing. He did have his eyes open when he ran racks in this match. One of the toughest British players in attendance, Darren Appleton got ahead in the race to 8 by a 7-2 margin and then broke and didn’t pocket a ball. Corey ran that rack and then with his unusual breaking technique, broke and ran 4 racks to make it a 7-7 score. His last break made a couple of balls but the cueball scratched. After some thought, Darren chose to shoot a combination shot with 2 solids and looked in control. He had a wide open table with no real trouble and looked as though he’d win the set. However, on his last solid he needed to use the mechanical bridge and had an unusually bad roll and scratched in the side as shown in the diagram below. Understandably frustrated, Darren raked the balls and Genaro, the referee presiding over the match, called out forfeit and awarded the game and match to Corey Deuel.
I’ll put the diagram of Darren’s match ending scratch here shortly.
IPT action in Las Vegas
I’ll be posting some photos and observations on the IPT event happening at the Venetian in Las Vegas soon. The 5th round of 18 players has begun and aside from the usual suspects, I’m very impressed with Dave Matlock and Evgeny Stalev so far this round.
IPT Qualifier results from Shooters
Jon Kucharo and Garrett Schaar both earned entry into the IPT tournament that will take place in Reno, NV September 2-10, 2006.
Click on the chart for a larger image.
Jon Kucharo shooting in winner side finals against the very tough Josh Burbul.
Smilin’ Garrett Schaar. He had to beat a lot of great players.
-
Random Photo
