Pool Cue News and Review

You know why I love the WPBA.  Sure, I have mad crushes on a bunch of the players, but that’s not the real reason.  The real reason I dig the WPBA is because they do things like the Pro-Am pictured above taken by the adorable Anne Craig.  Right in the middle of a tournament, they take the time to hang with fans, play pool and have fun.  When was the last time you saw a top men’s player kickin’ it with some bangers like how Ga Young Kim is doing?

Anyway, enough of that… on to the results.  A few surprises, but first I’m going over my favorites.  Liz Ford got dropped to the one loss side by WPBA vet Dawn Hopkins.  Meanwhile, little Sarah Rousey is rolling, beating Yu Ram Cha, who of course bounced Jasmin Ouschan in the first round.  Next up for Sarah though is the steamroller otherwise known as Ga Young Kim.

Lots of other well known names are still on the winner’s side.  Allison (of course), Karen Corr, Brit-Brit, Kelly Fisher and defending champ Xiaoting Pan.  One of the more interesting surprises is to see J-Thug playing well as she trounced Kim White 9-3.

A couple of very interesting matches coming up today.  Xiaoting Pan goes up against Monica Webb which could go either way.  The one I’m interested in though is FLA chica Debbie Schjodt going up against Kelly Fisher.  Debbie’s been showing some nice improvement in her game but still needs that breakthrough win.

More later since there are a ton of matches on the one loss side going off this morning/afternoon.

Jasmin Ouschan gets kicked to the losers bracket in the first round by Yu Ram Cha.  Not to take anything away from Yu Ram Cha’s hill/hill victory, but damn.  Jasmin’s game has really taken a couple steps backwards this season.

No other upsets so far, but two of my favorite WPBA hotties are moving to the second round.  Sarah Rousey who skipped the GP event, rolled to a 9-3 win over for Michelle Monk and Liz Ford scraped out a 9-8 win over Liz Taylor.  Other than the Jasmin loss, everyone you’d expect to move to the second round did.

The ladies of the WPBA are pretty busy it seems.  Fresh off the Generation Pool event, the WPBA rolls into Indiana for the Great Lakes Classic.  You can never really tell much from the initial draws, as it is a double elimination event, but as always there are some interesting first round matches.

Britt-Anna vs. Megan Minerich
Haven’t seen Megan in a while since she blew off the GP event, and because she’s buried at the bottom of the rankings, she pulls everyone’s favorite gum snapping, sweats wearing teen - Anna Kostanian.  In reality this shouldn’t be much of a match as Anna is playing really strong as of late, but they’re both pretty cute, so it should make for some decent eye candy as Anna rolls Megan.

Xiaoting Pan vs. Line Kjoersvik
This could be a fun one to watch.  Both are playing solid pool and Line seems really determined to earn her WPBA card back, blasting through every WPBA qualifier she plays in.

Jasmin Ouschan vs. Yu Ram Cha
Another potentially strong match.  Jasmin’s game has been so streaky as of late and Yu Ram Cha is showing some decent chops at the table which could lead to an early upset.

Tiffany Nelson vs. Angel Paglia
Seriously, damn!  I don’t know how good the pool is actually going to be, but in my opinion this is definitely the hottest first round matchup.  Both Angel and Tiffany are unbelievably foxy and Angel is just the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.  It probably won’t devolve into a pillow fight or a round of foxy boxing, but hey… a guy can dream, right?

Almost forgot to mention… once again, Jennifer “pea shooter” Barretta is skipping a tournament.  Should we even consider her to be a pro pool player anymore?  Seriously, how many skipped matches will it take before the WPBA strips her of her touring card?

Yes, I know her name isn’t pronounced that way, but I couldn’t resist creating a stupid punny title. Anyway, it seems that Florida is the place to be, as there were quite a few big names at the Ladies Spirit Tour event in Holday, Florida. In addition to Kjoersvik, Jasmin Ouschan, Debbie Schjodt and Tracie Hines were on hand for this tour stop.

As you might expect, the Top 3 were all WPBAers, with Line grabbing 1st place and a fistful of hundreds, followed by runner-up Jasmin Ouschan and 3rd place finisher Debbie Schjodt.

While Line was the winner, one of the more intersting stories to come out of this event was the play of Debbie Schjodt. She took down Jasmin 7-5, then lost to Line 7-5 before getting taken down by Jasmin the second time around on the one loss side. This follows on the heels of a very decent showing at the GenerationPool.com event.

The northeast better watch themselves, because it looks like Florida is becoming the new hot spot for pool.  Considering the talent that is showing up for events in the FLA along with tournaments like the recently announced Lucasi/Ozone Invitational event, players seem more and more willing to go to places like J’ville and Ft. Liquordale to shoot some stick.

So I wake up this morning, grabbed some coffee, flicked on the computer (yes, I am so sad that I hop on the computer every morning when I wake up) and saw that George Carlin died from heart failure last night.  The dude lived hard and made his mark as one of America’s truly great and original comics.  The cat was my comedic hero and was an absolute icon.  He was best known for the “Seven Words” comedy bit, but also showed up in a ton of great flicks including Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure which happens to be one of the absolute genius flicks to come out of the 80s.  If you’ve never heard the “Seven Words” bit, feel free to check out the YouTube clip below.  There are a number of different riffs he does on the bit over the years, but this one is probably one of the more famous versions.