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IPT North American 8 Ball Open
Venetian Hotel
3355 Las Vegas Blvd
South Las Vegas
Nevada 89109
USA
www.internationalpooltour.com
IPT NA Open Statistics
EuroSport TV Schedule

25 July 2006

Days One and Two, which make up the first official round of the International Pool Tour North American Open, are now in the history books.

The IPT has sent home 80 of the original 200 players who showed up for its North American 8-Ball Open Championship, with only 120 returning for Tuesday's matches. Monday began with 100 of the world's finest players, but 40 were eliminated through the grueling round-robin, race-to-8 format. With five rounds throughout the day, players had to play four matches to determine whether or not they would advance. Every player in the tournament so far has played a minimum of eight hours on their day of play; many players played ten or more hours.

Click on "Read More..." for the details.

The historic $2,000,000+ tournament with its unprecedented first place prize of $350,000 has seen great play, controversy, and difficulties overcoming the grueling tournament format and tough playing conditions. Here is a slight recap of the goings on at the tournament. For full coverage, visit www.internationalpooltour.com. There you can follow all the action including scoring, pictures, stories, and more.

At the beginning of day one, everyone was smiling and having a great time. By the end of day two, there was happiness on the faces of many, and devastation facing the 80 who have been eliminated from the tournament, including some favorites to do very well and maybe even win the tournament. To see a list of the players who are still playing, and those who have been eliminated, visit www.internationalpooltour.com!

The equipment is generating plenty of controversy, with many American players disparaging the custom cloth and the European and snooker players thankful for it. However, the most common complaint so far is the general inability of the players to pocket balls on the break. Players like Corey Deuel, Johnny Archer, Jimmy White, Shannon Daulton-all known for their excellent breaking abilities-have all made comments to the effect that they are encountering severe difficulties with their breaks.

The IPT tables made by Diamond have the tightest possible pockets, in order to meet IPT code. The pockets are cut to 4 1/2 inches. However, taking into consideration the thickness of the cloth, the corner pockets are really 4 1/4" - 4 3/8" which make pocketing balls very challenging. The IPT has purposely made the playing conditions so difficult so that only the best players can win. However, being the best in this tournament format requires not only precision skills at billiards, it also requires mental and physical tenacity. The slow nap cloth made by Gorina has proven to be a challenge to American players who don't have much experience playing on this sort of cloth. Many players have tried rolling the ball on safety shots and never reaching a rail. More fouls have been called at this tournament for this very reason than at any other tournament explained one of the official referees. Players do however like the Sardo M-5000 Tight Rack because it eliminates any potential problems caused by a bad rack. Using the M-5000 guarantees a consistent rack every time. To learn about official IPT equipment, visit www.internationalpooltour.com.

One major story line is how the ladies will fare at on the IPT. So far, the ladies seemed to have trouble keeping up with the rest of the pack, with the exception of Allison Fisher and Sarah Ellerby-both Brits-will advance to Tuesday's play. Loree Jon Jones also played well and advanced to the second round with two wins and two losses. Former World Champion Gerda Hofstatter slid into round two in a three way tie for third place in her bracket. She was tied in wins with Jim Weast and Hall of Famer Ed Kelly. However, Gerda had the best winning percentage and prevailed by only a 1.1% margin over Weast. Many women never won a single match.

The Hall of Famers exhibited similar troubles remaining competitive today. Earl Strickland, Efren Reyes, and Mike Sigel had no worries, but the majority of the HOF members held less than a 50% games-won average.

Needless to say, when exhaustion sets in with the players, tempers flare, and controversy enter the game. There were a few disputes during Round 1. David Alcaide, who was one of the IPT qualification event winners in Veert, The Netherlands, was found to be using a phenolic tip on his break cue. He was penalized one game by the referee and not allowed to use the cue again. Also, in the match between Grady Mathews and Jeff Abernathy, both players were warned for their unsportsman-like conduct. At one point in the match, a referee made a call that Mathews found questionable, causing "The Professor" to go off the air, resulting in a penalty against him dished out by the referee. In his match against Philip Harrison of the U.K., Mike Sigel complained to the referee that Harrison had taken a bathroom break without his express permission. The referee penalized Harrison a game; however, the game was reinstated by Charles Ursitti when Harrison's corner man explained to him that Sigel had never said Harrison was not allowed to take a break. The rule is clear that if a player wants to take a break, he must do so on his inning, or have permission from the opponent. Harrison told Sigel that he needed to go to the bathroom. Sigel said nothing and Harrison took that as acknowledgement of his request. Sigel tried to make a big deal out of it, but by not saying no, it was construed as giving him permission to do so. To read the rules, visit www.internationalpooltour.com. Some of these disputes were caught by IPT photographers and are in the photo gallery, visit www.internationalpooltour.com to see them.

This recap barely scratched the surface of all that went on. Visit www.internationalpooltour.com for the whole story, including in depth stories, photos, statistics, and the list of players who advanced to Round 2. You will be surprised by many of the players who failed to advance. Matches start at 10am (Pacific). Every player tomorrow will play five straight matches.

IPT North American Open 8-Ball Championship
Round 2 Groups
Group 41 Kirkwood, Jason Heuwagen, Lee Ellerby, Sarah Harper, Corey Basavich, Daniel Garrahan, Theodore	Group 42 Bennett, Keith Pagulayan, Alex Monday, Sam Orme, Chris Frost, Scott Varner, Nick	Group 43 Ginn, Anthony Strickland, Earl Paez, Ismael Pinegar, Jonathan Walden, James Hofstatter, Gerda
Group 44 Hundal, Raj Diks, Rico Owen, Gabe Koukiadakis, Andreas Broxson, David Broumpton, Richard	Group 45 Reyes, Efren Bustamante, Francisco Harrison, Philip Adkins, Dee Macias, Jonathan Klasovic, Andreja	Group 46 Sigel, Mike Manalo, Marlon Jones, Loree Jon Lohtander, Marko Catledge, Wayne Hann, Quinten
Group 47 Boyes, Karl Fisher, Allison Abood, Gary Putnik, Ivica Barger, Floyd Beckley, Jeff	Group 48 Orcollo, Dennis Alcano, Ronato San Souci, George Deuel, Corey Wims, John Valle, Gandy	Group 49 Archer, Johnny Daulton, Shannon McKenna, Robert Immonen, Mika O'Sullivan, Ronnie Storm, Tom
Group 50 Hohmann, Thorsten Ortmann, Oliver Tot, Sandor Peach, Daryl Tademy, Mark Calderon, Jerry	Group 51 Hatch, Dennis Schmidt, John Breedlove, George Fu, Jianbo McCready, Keith Jones, Sammy	Group 52 Souquet, Ralf Butera, Sal Joyner, Cliff Stalev, Evgeny Wetch, Jimmy Majid, Imran
Group 53 Zimmerman, Michael Lining, Antonio Luat, Rodolfo Vickery, Howard Putnam, Shawn Groce, Brian	Group 54 Foldes, Vilmos Eckert, Ralph Watson, Gerry Younger, Joel Mekari, Tomoki Potier, Paul	Group 55 Marquez, Marco Martinez, Rafael Morris, Rodney Davenport, Kim Beaufils, Yannick Hopkins, Allen
Group 56 Raybone, Neil Moore, Steve Nevel, Larry Okumura, Takeshi Juva, Markus Jahnke, Bernard	Group 57 Petroni, Fabio Appleton, Darren Montal, Edwin Jones, Jeremy Hunter, Bobby Sambajon, Santos	Group 58 Chamat, Marcus Morris, Carl Frank, Troy Williams, Charlie Bartram, Christopher Townsend, Scotty
Group 59 Chohan, Tony Hill, Michael Schmidt, Michael Gay, Leil Lely, Alex Feijen, Niels	Group 60 Salvas, Luc Van den Berg, Nick Kucharo, Jon Hogue, Greg Matlock, David Mladenovic, Goran	.

Eliminated European Players
Player	Rank	Prize Money
David Alcaide	121/200	$2,000
Lee Chenman	121/200	$2,000
Karen Corr	121/200	$2,000
Tony Crosby	121/200	$2,000
Vincent Facquet	121/200	$2,000
Kelly Fisher	121/200	$2,000
Eric Hjorleifson	121/200	$2,000
Patrick Holtz	121/200	$2,000
Zlatko Jakulj	121/200	$2,000
Brian Saleh	121/200	$2,000
Helena Thornfeldt	121/200	$2,000
Jimmy White	121/200	$2,000

IPT North American Open Prize Money Breakdown
Total Prize Fund	$2,050,000
1st Place	$350,000
2nd Place	$99,000
3rd Place	$80,000
4th Place	$65,000
5th Place	$50,000
6th Place	$40,000
7th - 18th Place	$30,000 each
19th - 36th Place	$17,000 each
37th - 60th Place	$10,000 each
61st - 120th Place	$5,000 each
121st - 200th Place	$2,000 each
All prize money is regardless of number of players

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