The 2008 World Snooker Championship is getting closer. Within a month, a new World Snooker Champion will be crowned. Judging by a random sample of online betting sites, Ronnie O’sullivan has the best odds of digging the third World Championship title in his career. His main obstacles on his way to the championship are last year’s runner up Mark Selby and 2005 champion Shaun Murphy. What do you think? Who’s gonna pot the last black at the Crucible? 

In the meantime, some mental practice:

And the original:

New World Snooker Tour

Snooker champion John Higgins is launching a new World Series of snooker tournaments. Consists of 4 tournaments, the tour will be hosted by different European cities including Moscow, Warsaw, Jersey and Amsterdam and will be expand to other parts of the continent for the next season.

Asian Billiards & Snooker Championships coming up

The preparations to the 7th Asian Billiards and 9th U-21 Asian Snooker Championships Asian Billiards and U-21 Asian Snooker Championships are at their peak. The notable snooker championships will feature 5 world championships and competitors from 16 different Asian countries China’s Hong Kong, India, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, are among them Vietnam. The hosting country, Myanmar is also sending five representatives to the competition including the country’s best billiards player Kyaw Oo. Both championships will be held at the Kandawgyi Palace Hotel on April 5-12, 2008.

Pakistan’s Junior National Snooker Championship - Results

Local snooker players Muhammad Afzal and Sindh’s Ahad Ali Khan has counted their 3^rd win in a row on the second day of Pakistan’s Junior National Snooker Championship, which took place last week at the Amir Bakhsh Billiards Hall in Karachi. Among the young snooker talents was son of former World Amateur Snooker Muhammad Yousuf, Azeem Yousuf who lost to Tahir Abbas 1-3. Top 2 players from each of the groups will move forward to the quarterfinals.

Shane Van Boening was named the 2007 Player of the Year by The United States Professional Poolplayers Association (UPA). The 2007 US Open 9-Ball champion was chosen for his "exceptional (billiards) skill/talent" and for his "vast determination for perfecting the game". 

23 years old resident of South Dakota has been regarded as one of America’s most promising pool players. After claiming the 2007 US Open 9-Ball Championship and the Predator World 10-Ball Championship, and finalizing in many prestigious pool tournaments including Enjoypool.com 9-Ball Championship, World Summit of Pool and Mosconi Cup Team Member, Van Boening had righteously earned the UPA 2007 Player of the Year. 

Grandson of a trick shot artist and a son of BCA national champion (as well as a grandson - both his mother and grandmother won BCA national championships), Shane Van Boening started playing pool when members of his age group where still learning to turn doorknobs. Not surprisingly, the 3-times Valley National Eightball Association (VNEA) 8-ball champion, has become one of the top pool players in the US at the early age of 22. 

Now, turning 24, Shane Van Boening is expected to reach higher peaks and to become the number one pool player in the US.

The World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) has finally released of the official rules of ten ball pool. In addition, the first WPA World Ten Ball Championship is currently in production. 

Ten Ball Pool Rules in Short

The pool game of ten ball commences with the opening break shot, in which the breaker plays with the cue ball behind the head string. To perform a legal opening break shot, the breaker must either pocket an object ball or cause at least four balls to hit the rail. If a player pockets the 10-ball on the break (without calling a shot), he wins the game.

After a legal break shot, the player may announce a push out. The players must call on every shot, except on the break shot. When a player pockets a ball legally, he/she may continue for the next shot. When a player fouls or fails to pocket a ball, his/her opponent plays from the position left on the table. When the 10-ball has been pocketed legally, the player wins the game.

The 10th annual Derby City Classic has finally come to its end with Francisco Bustamante claiming the all-around title. Bustamante who was a quarterfinalist in the 9-ball bank event, a semifinalist in the one pocket and a finalist in the 9-ball event, took home the $30,000 bonus prize. The finalist and semifinalist at the over-all competition are Gabe Owen, the winner of the one pocket event and Larry Nevel, respectively. The 9-ball division was won by Ralf Souquet, for the third time in his career.

The Derby City Classic action was so hot on Thursday eve that two fire squads had to stop the 9-ball and one pocket tournaments from proceeding while clearing off the audience from the area. The entire break took less than an hour before the action was back at the tournament room at the Executive West Hotel, which hosts the 10th annual Derby City Classic for over a week. 

Thursday’s night fire alarm and evacuation postponed the last round in the one pocket tournaments in a day. By then, last year’s one pocket champ, Efren Reyes dropped off the competition along with Shannon Daulton and Darren Appleton. The 7th round (out of eight) ended with Ralf Souquet triumph over Ron Casanzio. 

Final round of Derby City Classic one pocket tournament was completed with Cliff Joyner defeat to Gabe Owen, who, earlier this week, has amazed the audience by pocketing 60 balls out of 75 at the one pocket challenge. Owen aka "The Babe" is the only player besides Larry Nevel who hasn’t lost in any of the matches in the Louisville pool event.

Derby City Classic is still in progress. The 9-ball bank part of the event ended with Larry Price’s victory, his second Derby City Classic bank championship since 2002. But last year’s All-Round winner Filipino magician Efren Reyes, kissed his title goodbye as he was wiped out of the bank pool competition on Sunday, during a match against Tony Fergeson. Reyes still got a chance to recover his credit during the one pocket competitions, due to start today.

The 10th Derby City Classic started out on Friday, January 4 at the Executive West Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. Throughout the 9 days of the pool tournament the 2008 Derby City Classic will include contests in almost every various field of billiards including 9-ball, one pocket, straight pool, 10-ball, and artistic billiards.

Coming up are the one pocket events followed by the 9-ball tournament which will close the 10th annual Derby City Classic. The player who will make it to the 9th day of the event with the highest score, will be named The Masters of The Table and will be awarded with a $30,000 prize. This year, the All-Round Division includes 5 additional titles: to the bank, one pocket or 9-ball player with the highest score under 16, under 21, over 62, over 70 and a female player of any age.

Mosconi Cup 2007 ended yesterday with the 11-8 victory of the European team over America’s billiards team.
Mosconi Cup 3rd day ended up with the surprising 9-6 lead of the European team, nevertheless the final results of the exciting 9-ball event were unpredictable yet. 

Mosconi Cup last day consisted of 4 single matches. The day started with Russian Konstantin Stepanov loss to South Dakota man Shane Van Boening 6-4. On the next match, young Tony Drago took advantage of Johnny Archer foul on the 5 and brought Europe the first victory of the day. Next, Mosconi Cup veteran Earl Stickland won European Daryl Peach 6-3.

Things changed on the 4th match whereby Rodney Morris competed against Ralph Souquet. On the start of the match it looked as if Morris would be kissing the Cup on behalf of the American team, with Morris 4-2 lead. Later on, aloof Souquet made two easy combination shots, a crossbank into the opposite corner to play the 6-ball, Europe victory was one shot away.

The last 9-pool match of the 14th Mosconi Cup resulted 6-4 to German Souquet. The race to 11 was done with Europe triumph 11-8. It was Europe third Mosconi Cup win and the first one in the last 5 years.

The European team to the Mosconi Cup 2007 leads 9-6 after beating the American team in four out of five matches. The last remaining six single matches can still change the final result of the exciting 9-ball pool event, which started out on Thursday, December 13 at the MGM Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and will end today.

Up to the last day, Europe team, which featured world champion Daryl Peach among others, has been doing great. After the opening match of the third day between American duo Johnny Archer and Corey Deuel and their European colleagues Niels Feijen and Konstantin Stepanov, which resulted in the latter victory 4-1, Europe is leading 9-6.

Currently, Feijen holds the tournament’s highest record of victories with four wins, followed by his team members Tony Drago and Ralf Souquet with three winnings each. Mosconi Cup veteran Earl Stickland, along with Rodney Morris hold the American record with two wins each.