Pool Cue News and Review

The Round of 16 is set and there really aren’t any big surprises to speak of.  Anna Kostanian is in, but given how she played in San Diego, you can’t consider this showing a surprise.  If you’re looking for surprises, the biggest would likely be the two veterans Jeanette Lee and Dawn Hopkins making it through on the one loss side to play each other.  As much as I crack on Jeanette, I take my proverbial hat off to her this time.  She’s showing a ton of sack by making it this far considering she just had surgery a few weeks ago.  Melissa Herndon has also been making a strong showing, rolling through Kim White, Liz Ford and Sarah Ellerby to make it to the round of 16.  At any rate, here are your match-ups:

Winner’s Side
Allison Fisher
Helena Thornfeldt

Anna Kostanian
Karen Corr

Kelly Fisher
Gerda Hofstatter

Xiaoting Pan
Ga-Young Kim

One Loss Side
Joanne Ashton
Shin-Mei Liu

Melissa Herndon
Vivian Villarreal

Jennifer Chen
Jasmin Ouschan

Jeanette Lee
Dawn Hopkins

Best match of the round should be Xiaoting Pan going up against Ga-Young Kim.  As for me, I’m rooting for Anna Kostanian.  I’d love to see her break into the TV round this time after missing it in San Diego.  I’ll try to get an update in tomorrow, but chances are I’ll be out in Charlotte drinkin’ my balls off.  If you see me post tomorrow night… new levels of pathetic on my part.

I’m not sure how I missed this woman, because she is downright wicked! Emily Duddy, a regular on the Ladies Spirit Tour, is all kinds of foxy and has earned the dubious honor of being named the PCN Pool Hottie for June 2008.

According to her Spirit profile, she rocks a Predator cue (natch) and does the bartending thing to pay the bills since there’s probably only a handful of women that can make playing pool a full time paying gig. Did I mention the lady’s got a brain in that celestial cranium too? She earned the old BA in Psych from UC Santa Cruz (go Fightin’ Banana Slugs!) which also probably explains her diggin’ on poker.

So let’s check the final score here: Pool player? Check. Smoldering eyes? Check. Brains? Check. Athletic? Check. More curves and a more spectacular view than the PCH? Check. Oh did I mention that she’s clearly into the whole Bettie Page/Suicide Girls thing too? Yeah, I’ll admit it. I’m crushing big time on the unbelievably sexy Ms. Emily Duddy. Looking forward to eventually seeing you on the WPBA tour Emily!