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BCAPL/CSI Move to the Rio Hotel Las Vegas in July

Posted on 06. Jan, 2013 by Mike Fieldhammer.

Here’s a lazy Sunday night blog post. Below is the information on the new dates for the CSI (BCAPL) events that have been in May at the Riviera for many years.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CSI Launches US Open 8-Ball Championship at the Rio in July 2013

CueSports International, Henderson, Nevada (January 4, 2013) – CueSports International (CSI) is expanding the roster of professional tournaments at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas in July 2013. CSI will introduce the inaugural US Open 8-Ball Championship on July 23-27, sponsored by the American Cuemakers Association.

The new event will follow the well established pro events produced by CSI – the 14^th US Open One Pocket Championship and the 5^th US Open 10-Ball Championship. As with the 10-Ball event, the US Open 8-Ball Championship will be $25,000 added and a 2013 Billiard Congress of America (BCA) Points Event. The two BCA Point Events will be held back to back under one roof, greatly assisting US players in their quest for pro points while keeping travel expenses lower.

The combination of CSI US Open events in July is truly unique. In the course of 10 days top US and international players will have the opportunity to play in three professional level tournaments in three separate disciplines with a combined total of $60,000 added. The US Open 8-Ball and US Open 10-Ball fields will be limited to 96 players and the US Open One Pocket will sport a 64 player field.

In 2010 CSI, which is also the parent company of the BCA Pool League (BCAPL) and USA Pool League (USAPL), launched the US Open 10-Ball Championship in conjunction with the BCAPL National Championships, known as “The Greatest Pool Tournament in the World!” CSI added HD live video streaming by TheActionReport.com (TAR) and free stream feeds to each of the host hotel rooms. In 2011, CSI added the US Open One Pocket Championship and the 14.1 High Run Challenge. For 2013, “The Greatest Pool Tournament in the World!” will present three new events: the US Open 8-Ball Championship by CSI, the 2013 WPA World Artistic Pool Championship, and the 25th Annual Junior National 9-Ball Championships, which is produced by the Billiard Education Foundation (BEF).

New also in 2013 – spectator general admission to all three CSI pro events, the world artistic pool and junior national competitions, and the 14.1 challenge will be FREE to the players competing in the BCAPL & USAPL National Championships (July 17-27, 2013) also being held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.

For more information about the 1^st US Open 8-Ball Championship, 5^th US Open 10-Ball Championship and 14^th US Open One Pocket Championship please visit www.playcsipool.com. For information about the 37^th BCAPL National Championships please visit www.playbca.com and for information about the 3^rd USAPL National Championships please visit www.playusapool.com. View pro and amateur pool action on the CSI YouTube page, http://www.youtube.com/user/CueSportsIntl

CueSports International is dedicated to creating more choices for all players. CSI supports the WPA/BCA structure to govern the sport and to promote an organized hierarchy for pool player advancement. In the past 8 years CSI has directly paid out $8,000,000 to players. CSI is the parent company of the BCA Pool League and the USA Pool League. CSI also produces independent events such as the US Bar Table Championships, the Jay Swanson Memorial, the US Open One Pocket Championship, the US Open 8-Ball Championship and the US Open 10-Ball Championship. Visit www.playcsipool.com, www.playbca.com, and www.playusapool.com for more information about CSI and its divisions.

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Media Contact:
Holly Dimmick
CueSports International
2041 Pabco Rd
Henderson, NV 89011
Phone (702) 719-7665
Fax (702) 307-1609

www.playcsipool.com
www.playbca.com
www.playusapool.com

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My Favorite Pool Tournament – Rugby North Dakota’s Northern Lights Shootout

Posted on 18. Nov, 2011 by Mike Fieldhammer.

This year is the 13th annual Northern Lights Shootout in Rugby, North Dakota. I’ve been to every one of them save the first. Robert Mattson brought me to my first one in 2000. This December 1-4 the Tournament Director will be yours truly. We’ll have a $50 entry 9-Ball warm up tournament that begins Thursday night at 7 pm and continue through the day Friday. There will be no cap on the number of entries in this event this year. We hope to pay out over $1,000 for first place! Not bad for a low entry preliminary event.

The 8-Ball main event will begin Friday night at 7 p.m. and entries must be paid by 6 p.m. that evening. Mail your entry to the Chamber of Commerce if you’d rather not stress about arriving by 6 o’clock. Weather and oil truck traffic are both unknowns in ND these days. If you absolutely can’t pay by mail and know you’ll be there in time to pay on site, please do me kindness and let me know to expect you.

This tournament, the town, and all the great people of Rugby and the players who attend are all very special to me. In particular, I’d like to thank my cue sponsor Samsara Cues. Perhaps one of the most underrated cue makers in the world, they’ve been in business 20 years! We’ll have some special shop tours and you’ll get to see the guts of cues ranging in price from $500 to $10,000.

Why should you come to the Northern Lights Shootout? I know pool tournaments have been dieing out and the number of players dwindling, but this event must be kept alive. Please pass the word and make an effort to attend. I’ve got a discussion thread in the Billiard Coach Forums that has a list of players that are coming. Add your name to the list and comment on some of your favorite things about this tournament. I’m writing a special piece in this year’s program to thank Mark Hamilton and all the local volunteers for getting this small town event a big time reputation in a dozen years. Here’s to another dozen successful tournaments!

Please contact me to register or to answer any questions about the event.

Thank you,

Mike Fieldhammer

Please pass the word on about this great tournament.

13th Annual Northern Lights Shootout

$5,000 Added

Rugby Armory — Rugby, North Dakota

9-Ball: December 1-2, 2011

Sign-up Deadline Thursday at 6pm

$50 Entry

Matches begin at 7 pm

8-Ball: December 2-4, 2011

Sign-up Deadline Friday at 6pm

Matches begin at 7 pm

Men’s Division $70 Entry

Race to 5 Alternate Break

Final 32: Calcutta, Redraw and Race to 6

Women’s Division $40 Entry

Race to 4 Double Elimination

Send Money Orders to:

Rugby Chamber of Commerce

Attn: Sharon Pfeifer

224 Highway 2 SW

Rugby, ND 58368

Hotel Rooms

Northern Lights Inn

701.776.5776

For more information please contact:

Mike Fieldhammer

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Thirty-One Tips: 27. Tell Tournament Directors Your Opinion

Posted on 27. Jan, 2011 by Mike Fieldhammer.

To help improve pool tournaments, politely express your opinions to those in charge.

This tip is a little bit local, but the idea could be useful anywhere that players would like to see bigger and better tournaments. I’ve put on pool tournaments in the past. There is no doubt promoting, organizing, and running a pool tournament is a lot of work. It is much more difficult than most players realize. Typically a TD hears complaints and criticisms all day. I’m a player know how easy it is to be irritable while exhausted at an event or bitter after a tough defeat. TD’s understand this, but it is really appreciated when a player pats a TD on the back and gives a compliment. Like I said, running a tournament is a huge job and thankful players should let the management know of their appreciation.

After an honest compliment, offer a polite suggestion of what you’d like to see to make the event even better. The people who put on a tournament are usually interested in making their events the best that they can be. Players are their customers and a heartfelt opinion or an idea that could be an improvement shouldn’t fall on deaf ears. Thank the tournament director again and mention you look forward to playing in their next event. You know, kind of a compliment sandwich.

You want an example? Okay.

Wayne Herron, I think you’re doing a great job handling the MOMA tournament. I mean you’ve got over 500 singles entries in six divisions. I know that can be an enormous task and you’ve got the team tournament on top of that! One thing I’d like to see though, is the singles event on a weekend rather than beginning on a Thursday morning. After all, it is the Minnesota State Singles Championship and I’m sure there are many players that just can’t take two days off work to make it to the event. It is a prestigious tournament and I’m sorry I couldn’t play this year, but I am really looking forward to playing in next year’s 32nd Annual MOMA event. Thanks again Wayne.

Here’s the real local part of the story. My predictions for the singles tournament.

So I can’t play at MOMA and skipped the Derby City Classic to play in Fargo last weekend and MOMA this weekend, so I’m looking for some action. I’ll stop in at the River Centre a few times this weekend including this afternoon. Before I head out, I thought I’d hold the envelope to my forehead and make some predictions. The team predictions are much easier than the singles, but I still bet I’ll do pretty well on the singles picks. No offense to anyone, I just quickly scanned through the list and jotted down the names that stuck out a bit. So, drum roll please….

The winners will be...

Men’s Masters Division(24 Players):

My picks as potential winners-

Tim Tonjum- Played great at Seco’s and has been on fire lately.

Dustin Morris- Teammate and phenominal run outs, but will Valley’s hurt his game?

Jamie Pluta- Wildly talented! Might snap it off or go two and out. Will he show up to play?

Tony Hilla- Super solid. Back from Derby City Classic, can he make the adjustment quickly to bar box?

My pick- Marc Oelslager. Played a great tournament in Fargo last weekend and his experience on Valley tables will get him to the finals.

Men’s/ AA(73 Players):

Contenders: Anyone from St. Cloud, or maybe Jeff Maurer or Kris Kalli. My pick- Matt Sherman.

Mixed Open A Singles(Includes the Women’s Masters)(138 Players):

I would love to see Jessica Frideres, Beth Fondell, or one of the other women win the event, but they will have to make it through a tough field of 138 players and plenty of sleepers. Look out for Jesse Bastyr, Brandon Bright, and Nate Steen. But the winner will be either Gary Sunde or Mike VanGrinsven.

Men’s/Mixed A (198 Players)

This is too short a race and too large a field to make an accurate prediction, but I’m guessing Zach Engstrom, Ed Haag, Darren Randt, or Bill Frisby will hoist the trophy.

Ladies AA Singles(32 Players):

Tough to decide. Sam Matuska and Stacy Lamers could do it, but I’m picking Loni Bolz.

Ladies A Singles(59 Players):

The toughest division to pick for me. Molly Nistler or Tesse Winjum. Why? I don’t know.

Good luck to everybody and if you see me in the building, please stop me to say hello!