PoolRoom

The Big Time

It’s been 10 years since the International Pool Tour died. How will history judge the short-lived $13 million venture that showed the promise and peril of attempting to bring pool into the big time?

By Nick Leider

It almost seems like a fever dream, now that it’s been a decade since its death. The International Pool Tour, founded and funded by infomercial maven Kevin Trudeau, held four events in 14 months that awarded more than $6 million in prizes. Pool had not seen — and most likely will not see — anything like this in the history of the sport.

Efren Reyes, winner of two tournaments, pocketed $765,000. The matches were live broadcast across Europe in primetime. Players were told of guaranteed income in the six figures.

But now, 10 years after the IPT’s final event, the World Open, left players with little more than IOUs for $3 million, Billiards Digest revisits the IPT’s unbelievable rise and equally astonishing fall. While setting the record straight on what remains one of the most controversial eras in modern pool, one question begs for an answer:

Though short-lived, the IPT still showered pros like Thorsten Hohmann with briefcases full of cash.


What was the IPT’s lasting effect on the game we love?

The Facts

Before telling the story of the IPT, it’s imperative to present the facts that are often lost in the legend of the IPT.

First, every player who won money received what they were due. The $3 million in prizes from the World Open, the abbreviated tour’s last stop, were awarded, though it took 14 months and a series of installments to meet the tour’s obligations.

Second, players did lose $2,000 paid to play in qualifying events for a tournament that never happened. The IPT postponed and then cancelled its future events, leaving those who had ponied up that qualifier money without recourse.

“Some players received that money back and others did not,” said Deno Andrews, the IPT tour director who handled day-to-day operations. “I can’t remember how many ended up losing that money. It was not that many players — with that said, any [number] more than zero was too large.”

Finally, among the top players who competed on IPT, the consensus was that, despite the missteps, broken promises and eventual failure, it was a good thing while it lasted.

“My brothers on tour, we were all really happy about Trudeau and the IPT,” said Rodney Morris, who earned $150,000 with a runner-up finish at that maligned World Open. “We made some money and we had a great time. We were more than happy to be a part of it. We wished things would’ve worked out, but I have nothing against anyone.”

Thorsten Hohmann, who netted $350,000 by winning the North American Open, agrees.

Trudeau’s events were lavish affairs, brimming with pomp and circumstance, as showcased in the Battle of the Sexes match between Loree Jon Hasson and Mike Sigel.

“I really benefited from the tour. It was a great experience. … I don’t know what [Trudeau’s] motivation was, what his goal was, but I don’t think he had bad intentions,” he said. “He had to do that — to promise a lot and get the players motivated. If it didn’t work out, then he [would have] to deal with that. It might make him look bad, but he did a great job.”

Still, the IPT, coming on so strong and crashing so quickly, affected much more than players’ bank accounts. To see these impacts, it’s worth starting at the beginning.

The First Time
The World Championship Open (Aug. 20, 2005)

Trudeau’s entry into professional sports was a moment of serendipity for pool, a bit of luck for a sport that desperately needed it. The women’s game, buoyed largely by the WPBA Classic Tour, was in decent shape, with events regularly appearing on ESPN and top players able to support themselves with tournament winnings. The men’s side, though, had little as far as organization. The Professional Billiards Tour Association had collapsed in the decade prior. Outside of a few big world championship tilts and the annual U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship, organization was minimal and cooperation was almost nonexistent.

The seeds of the IPT, though, were planted a decade earlier in 1994. Trudeau was already a successful businessman, but he was not yet riding what would be a wave of commercial success based largely on his “Natural Cures” brand, including a New York Times bestselling book and ubiquitous late-night infomercials. Long a fan of pool, he caught a radio advertisement for an exhibition in the Chicago area featuring Hall of Famer Mike Sigel.

“Kevin got in touch with me saying he wanted personal lessons,” Sigel said. “We became friends and I would see him every few weeks. And then I got it in my mind. I said, ‘Hey, you got all this money and you love pool. Let’s do something for the game.’

“I nagged him for 10 years, saying we should do something together. Finally, one day when we were playing pool, he said, ‘Let’s do it.’”

The two scribbled down some notes about prize money. Sigel imagined top prizes around $100,000, with other top finishers pocketing proportionally big bucks. Trudeau, though, had bigger ideas from the start.

“He looked at all that, without even adding it up,” Sigel said, “and he said it’s got to be bigger. For him, from the start, it wasn’t a matter of doing something. It was a matter of how big it was going to be.”

Eventually, the plan was to hold a kickoff challenge match in August 2005 between Sigel and fellow Hall of Famer Loree Jon Jones in Las Vegas. Dubbed the World 8-Ball Championship, the battle of the sexes paid the winner $150,000 with a consolation prize of $75,000. Trudeau threw a lavish party the night before the event, replete with celebrities. On the day of the Sigel-Jones match, the celebrities (actors Paul Sorvino, Allison Janney and Anthony Anderson, rapper DMX and boxing legend Thomas Hearns among them) entered the arena in true red carpet style.

Deno Andrews was taken with Trudeau’s insistence on this being like nothing pool had seen before.

“Everything had to be big. We did nothing half-assed,” Andrews said. “What gets him going is entirely different than what gets the rest of us out of bed. He wanted it big and he wanted it immediately.”

By August, the IPT had crash-landed on the pool world.

With media maven Trudeau at the helm, “everything had to be big.”

“Just think,” Trudeau said, after Sigel won the best-of-three set match with ease, 9-2, 9-2. “Mike Sigel just earned the biggest single payday in the history of the sport, and it will be the smallest first prize in IPT events!”

If a guy wanted to get pool players’ attention, big money and bright lights aren’t the worst ways to do so.

The Best of Times
The King of the Hill 8-Ball Shootout (Nov. 30-Dec.4, 2005)
The North American 8-Ball Championship (July 22-30, 2006)

The IPT initially started with 150 players hand selected by Trudeau and the IPT brass. Potential tour members had to apply for a spot on this lucky list, which may be the first and only time pool players put together resumes en masse.

A group of players automatically qualified based on past performance. Think Johnny Archer, Efren Reyes, Rodney Morris and other world-class talents. A dozen living Billiard Congress of America Hall of Famers received automatic entry and a $30,000 bonus simply for being part of the tour. Other players had to apply to tour membership. Darren Appleton, then a professional English 8-ball player but largely unknown in the U.S., emailed his application to the tour hoping that his unmatched record in a slightly different discipline would earn him a spot. (It did.)

The King of the Hill event, however, would only see 42 players compete for the $1 million prize fund, with $200,000 going to the winner. Still, the IPT managed to get all 150 players to Orlando for the event, because a mandatory players meeting promised to detail just what the tour had in store for its first year.

“It was the greatest speech I’ve ever heard,” said Thorsten Hohmann, of Trudeau’s pitch to the players. “It was incredible. I wasn’t really too aware of everything until I got to Orlando and heard Kevin. That made me realize: Holy shit. This is something big.”

Appleton, whose involvement with the tour led to him ditching English 8-ball for the American variety, was equally blown away.

“That players meeting, [there] was amazing excitement. I felt like a professional sportsman,” he said. “This was the biggest thing to happen for pool.”

Reyes scored pool’s biggest ever prize.

Reyes outlasted Sigel, who was awarded an automatic spot in the final after his win in the challenge match with Jones, to take the top prize, while Sigel settled for $100,000. The IPT had held its first real tournament — and it ended with 42 players pocketing money unlike any event before.

Six months later, the North American Open brought 200 players to the Venetian in Las Vegas for a chance at the $2 million purse. The top prize was $350,000, the biggest single payday in the history of pool. EuroSport was broadcasting the event live in primetime. Deals were made with Outdoor Living Network to replay the matches for North American audiences. Before a ball was struck, this event was the most significant tournament in years.

The grueling round-robin, multi-round format had players playing four or five race-to-8 sets a day, often clocking more than 12 hours at the table. Hohmann eventually prevailed over Filipino snooker convert Marlon Manalo. But what happened on the table took a backseat to the event itself. The bright lights, the professional production, the class of such an event seemed to mark pool’s arrival as a legitimate sport.

But just two months later, at the IPT’s fourth event, the wheels fell off what everyone thought was pool’s gravy train.

The Worst of Times
The World 8-Ball Championship (Sept. 3-9, 2006)

The World 8-Ball Championship began with Trudeau announcing the cancellation of a scheduled event in London, which had some of the 200 players nervous about what was to come. Regardless, the $3 million prize fund went a long way to relieving any anxiety among the players.

The grueling tournament schedule, again having players compete nearly nonstop for days at a time, left Rodney Morris facing Efren Reyes for the $500,000 top prize. The on-table action ended with the Filipino legend pocketing the top prize while Morris “settled” for $150,000.

Or so it seemed.

All the players left the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nev., with nothing. Players walked away with promises of future payments, but concerns that were raised at the players meeting became very real for those with a stake in the game.

“That Sunday, Kevin came to me and said the money wasn’t in the bank,” Andrews said. “I’ll never defend him not paying the players. That was wrong and it will go down in history as wrong. But I told him, 100 percent, he needs to pay the players and he said he would.”

Rumors circulated about a proposed deal with Stanley Ho, a billionaire casino magnate based in Hong Kong, to buy the tour. The supposed windfall from this would have supported the tour’s future, Trudeau insisted. But an agreement never materialized. Also, on Oct. 13, 2006, President George W. Bush signed into law the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which outlawed wagering over the Internet for individuals in the U.S. This, according to the IPT, impacted the tour’s ability to market itself to potential buyers.

Over the course of 14 months, in nine installments of 11 percent, the payments arrived. All the while, no further tournaments were scheduled. The IPT staff, once more than 20 people, was slashed to a skeleton crew of five. Unable to produce profits through events, Andrews pivoted to reducing costs and raising what revenue he could through streaming recorded matches online, selling DVDs and collecting TV and product royalties.

The money wasn’t flooding in, but it was substantial enough to cover roughly half the amount owed to players, according to Andrews, with Trudeau covering the remainder.

“He could’ve filed for bankruptcy,” Andrews said. “He could’ve stiffed the players, but two months after that tournament, I did everything I could to persuade him to commit to paying the players.”

While the payments trickled out, the IPT held seven challenge matches, one-on-one events that were streamed online. The response was tepid and a steep decline from the glitz and glamor of the major tournaments that preceded them. The tour continued on in a sense, but it was evident to everyone within the sport that the IPT of 2007 was a far cry from what the tour had been just months before.

With the future of the IPT falling well short of expectations, Sigel took issue with players who quickly lost faith in the IPT.

“When players started knocking [Trudeau], I couldn’t believe it. That has to leave a bad taste in your mouth,” he said. “That’s when I thought, if it was me, I wouldn’t pay them and just go bankrupt. But he paid him. That’s the kind of guy he was.”

Andrews, however, puts blame on those around the game.

No expense was spared in the production of IPT events, including a sparkling arena to dazzle the masses.

“A lot of it is outside of the players — the people who think they are in the industry but are not.” he said. “They are armchair quarterbacks, people who think they are fans or people on the Internet, people who have not made an investment in the game. They’ve done nothing but bitch. Those are the people who are the loudest. I think they give a lot of players a bad reputation and they don’t speak for players.”

Regardless of where blame lies, those who had the most to gain from the IPT adventure felt a real sense of loss once it was clear things weren’t going to turn out as advertised.

“I had a chance to win $500,000 and then I had to go try to win $10,000?” Morris said. “I lost a lot of motivation. I did a lot of soul searching at that time. For about a year there, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I was depressed for a while.

“It was real hard. I didn’t want to play at all. For a year, I was in a coma. I could’ve been on the “Walking Dead” — just walking around without an idea.”

Hohmann, another player who had profited immensely from the IPT’s short run, expressed similar feelings.

“It wasn’t like the tour ended at once,” he said. “It was a bit of a slow death — them dragging it out with exhibition matches. Of course I fell into a slump … It took me a few years to recover from that. You have these high expectations and then you’re back to playing in tournaments where you’re walking away with $2,000. It was hard.”

The End of Times

Once the players had been paid in full, Andrews met with Trudeau to discuss the IPT. More than $13 million had been invested, including prize money, production costs and marketing. The operation, already stripped to its bare minimum, was barely paying for itself.

The IPT, as it had been packaged from the beginning, was all but dead and buried. At that point, pool’s golden goose decided to pull the plug.

The slow death, as Hohmann put it, had come. But now, in 2016 and a decade after the cash was stacked on the pool table at the first event, the question still remains: Was the IPT a net positive or negative for pool?

“It was good,” Sigel said. “To this day, I defend the IPT whenever I hear someone talk about it. Add up all the money in the years before and after and it won’t come close to the $13 million Kevin put into the game.”

Sigel, who first hatched the concept of the IPT, agrees with Andrews, who was involved in the execution of that idea.

“Ultimately, it was good,” Andrews said. “If you remember what it was like before the IPT, it was very similar to what it is now. It was exactly like it is today … We created an entirely alternate universe for pool. It happened in a vacuum and ultimately I don’t think it had much of an effect on pool. It didn’t impact the actual state of the sport today.”

“He invested an amazing amount of money and it was great,” Appleton said. “I started playing American pool because of the IPT. I have that time to thank for my career and everything I’ve achieved since then.”

“Pool players can be some of the most loyal, trusting and straightforward people,” Andrews said, who continued to work with Trudeau until 2013. “Really the promoters are goofier than the players. The players show up, they pay their expenses, they pay the entry fees, they practice. They do all this stuff, and it’s such a basic thing: Pay them on time.

“I still hear about this. The money isn’t there or the added money was different than what was published … We were as guilty as anybody, but the players were overwhelmingly supportive.”

Big Changes at IPT: Tour to Be Sold, London Event Cancelled

The future of the fledgling, multimillion-dollar International Pool Tour was cast in a new light on Saturday by the surprising news that tour founder Kevin Trudeau had entered into an agreement to sell the tour, and that the IPT Players 8-Ball Championship, scheduled for Oct. 22-29, had been cancelled.

Both announcements came during the players’ meeting Saturday for the IPT’s World 8-Ball Open Championship, set for Sept. 3-10 at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nev.

According to an IPT release, the IPT has agreed to a purchase by Ho Interactive, a new company started by casino owner billionaire Stanley Ho, who also owns online gambling site www.hocasino.com. IPT founder Trudeau told the crowd of 200 players that Ho Interactive will be taken public on the London exchange at some point in the near future.

The 84-year-old Ho is worth $6.5 billion, according to Forbes magazine’s 2006 list of the richest people in the world. The Hong Kong-based Ho controls virtually all casinos and gaming in Macau, a small Chinese territory off China’s southern coast.

Little was immediately known about the sale, or how it will affect the IPT’s plans for a 2007 season. BD will release new information as it becomes available.

The players also were informed that the London-based Players Championship was cancelled, due to problems in negotiations with The Excel, the intended host facility.

IPT Director Deno Andrews had told BD in the days leading up to the World 8-Ball Open event that cancellation of the event was a possibility, due to several reasons. They included the fear among some players of a terrorist attack, sparked by recent terrorist arrests in the U.K.; the trouble several international players were encountering obtaining visas for the U.K.; and conflicts in the programming schedule of EuroSport, the broadcast network that had planned to air some of the IPT matches live.

“At every juncture, we’ve had a problem with the London tournament,” Andrews told BD on Aug. 25.

Three more events are set on the IPT’s 2006 schedule: the Masters 8-Ball Championship, Nov. 26-Dec. 3 in Chicago; the King of the Hill Invitational 8-Ball Shootout, Dec. 12-17 in Las Vegas; and a simultaneous 2007 qualifying event, also set for Dec. 12-17 in Las Vegas.

At the players’ meeting, IPT members were promised a minimum of $13,000 for the 2006 season for every player who played in all the 2006 tournaments. Those whose total winnings were short of the figure would be written a check for the difference.

IPT World Open Preview: Talented Tots Wu and Ouschan to Debut

The big news in the first round of the International Pool Tour’s latest multi-million dollar 8-ball tournament will be the debuts of young superstars Chia-Ching Wu of Taiwan and Jasmin Ouschan of Austria, both looking for a big piece of the record-setting $3 million purse.

The eight-day 8-ball event — with a precedent-setting $500,000 first-place prize — kicks off Sunday, Sept. 3, at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nev.

Both 17-year-old Wu and 20-year-old Ouschan earned entry into the tournament through the IPT’s rugged qualifier process, and they’re expected to go deep. The precocious Wu is the current WPA world 9-ball and 8-ball champion, and Ouschan topped the star-studded field at the EnjoyPool.com 9-Ball Championship in May.

Otherwise, it looks like smooth sailing for most of the favorites in the first round of the International Pool Tour’s World 8-Ball Open Championship, as the just-released groupings reveal predominantly balanced matchups for the first two days of the event. Top-ranked players were seeded in the field.

Of course, a few players had cause for muttering under their breaths when the groups were announced early Friday. Of the best-known players, Hall-of-Famers and best buddies Ewa Laurance and Loree Jon Jones appear to have their work cut out for them. For that matter, the groupings did no favors for Ouschan, the only female player to have won a spot in an IPT field through the qualifier process.

Expect some surprises. As the players learned in the IPT’s first event of the 2006 season — the North American Open 8-Ball Championship in July — there are dozens of unheralded 8-ball whizzes out there waiting for their big shot, and the 200-player World field features 50 qualifiers who have already proved their mettle.

Look for surprising runs from several Asian qualifiers who now have their feet in the IPT’s door, including Wu from Taiwan (who was seeded 16th in the absence of Filipino Rodolfo Luat), and his countryman Hui-Kai Hsia, a two-time world juniors champion.

The first round will feature 40 groups of five players each. After round-robin play, the top three finishers in each group will proceed to the second round. Eliminated players from the first round will each receive a whopping $5,000.

The complete list of groupings is available at the IPT Web site: www.internationalpooltour.com.

Here are some of the more intriguing brackets from the first round:

Bracket 23 — BD Bloodbath Special: Spectators looking for an exciting bracket to follow should check out this group. No superstars, just tough and hungry veterans: Ivica Putnik (Croatia), Thomas Engert (Germany), Tony Chohan (USA), Tony Drago (Malta), and Zlatko Jakulj (Croatia)

Bracket 1: German sensation Thorsten Hohmann received the top seed by virtue of his $350,000 win at the North American Open, joined here by talented American Steve Moore, Filipino toughie Warren Kiamco, and Americans Jim Raney and Loree Jon Jones. Jones, who survived the first round at the North American Open, will have to bring her “A” game here.

Bracket 26: Austria’s Jasmin Ouschan must contend with Hall-of-Famer Earl Strickland, Swedish veteran Tom Storm, Aruba national champion Roland Acosta and American Pete Fusco. Ouschan regularly hones her skills against the best male players in Europe, so don’t expect her to be intimidated by Strickland, or anyone else in the field, for that matter,

Bracket 18: Hall-of-Famer Ewa Laurance will have her hands full with Australia’s Quinten Hann, the snooker bad boy who finished a surprising 18th at the North American Open; snooker ace Ronnie O’Sullivan from the U.K.; and Jeremy Jones (USA) and Jose Parica (Philippines), both experienced champions who met untimely exits at the North American Open. This bracket will be a dog fight.

Bracket 35: Future Hall-of-Famer Allison Fisher, who was undefeated in the first round of the North American Open, once again has a clean look at the second round. But watch out for qualifier Hui-Kai Hsia of Taiwan and surprising Frenchman Yannick Beaufils. Tough Americans Teddy Garrahan and John Ditoro round out the group, and neither will play patsy.

Bracket 10: Once again, 13-year-old Austin Murphy has a good shot at leaving the first round, this time sharing a bracket with 10th-ranked Darren Appleton (U.K.), Paul Potier (Canada), George San Souci (USA) and Ouahbi Amine (Morocco). Murphy missed the second round at the North American Open by a single rack, losing an 8-7 nailbiter to Danny Basavich. Let’s go, Austin.

Hall-of-Famers Hall, Rempe Opt Out of IPT Again

Hall of Fame Members Jim Rempe and Buddy Hall have withdrawn from the IPT World Open 8-Ball Championship set to take place Sept. 2-10 in Reno, Nev. Both cited “personal reasons” that are keeping them from being able to perform under the grueling tournament format and conditions.

These two spots are now up for grabs and the IPT will fill them based on the qualification tournaments for the World Open. Players who have taken third place in World Open qualification tournaments more than once will be considered first. Then, players who took third place once will be considered. If there are ties, the IPT will consider the total number of qualification tournaments the players have played in. There are still five remaining qualification tournament in which to compete.

Qualification tournaments this weekend are being played in Florida, Chicago, Tokyo, London, and Pasadena. Entry fee deadline is TODAY (Aug. 24) at 4 p.m. CST.

Oushan Qualifies for Upcoming IPT Event

Jasmin Ouschan, the winner of the fierce, international field at the BCA Enjoypool.com 9-Ball Challenge held in May, will now be in the running for a piece of the $3-million payout at the International Pool Tour’s World Open in Reno next month.

The 20-year-old Austrian qualified to compete in the single event at The Elbow Room in Oslo, Norway this past weekend, along with Ben Davies. Other players who qualified over the weekend were Antonio Lining and Lee Huewagen in Las Vegas, Ben Nunan and Goh Takami in Victoria, Australia, Teddy Garrahan and Jeff Beckley in Chelmsford, Mass., and
Davide Pascasi and David Alcoberro in Madrid, Spain.

The IPT World Open 8-Ball Championship will take place Sept. 2-10 at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nev. The first-place finisher will walk away with $500,000, the largest payout in the history of pool. Check out www.internationapooltour.com for ticket information.

Archer is the Champion of Champions

In the final of this year’s winner-take-all $50,000 International Challenge of the Champions, the 2 ball created cartoon-like hijinks, running and hiding from competitors Thorsten Hohmann and Johnny Archer.

Archer eventually put that 2 ball in its place: the pocket, in the single-game tiebreaker, and ran out for the valuable victory.

Archer started the day on Thursday with a match against Marlon Manalo. Manalo took the first set, 5-3, but Archer fought back and won the second set, 5-1, to force a single-game tiebreaker. Archer had been in this same position on Wednesday when he won the lag and proceeded to break and run the tie-breaker rack to eliminate Alex Lely. Once again, Archer won the lag and went on to break and run the single rack to eliminate Manalo and earn Archer a spot in the finals.

Archer’s opponent in the finals was IPT North American Open 8-Ball Champion Hohmann. Hohmann defeated defending champion Fong Pang Chao, 5-1 and 5-3, to earn his spot in the finals.

Hohmann came out strong in the finals against Archer and won the first set, 5-2. The next set was all-Archer as he came back and won the set, 5-1, to force yet another single game tie-breaker to determine the final winner.

Once again, Archer won the lag and made the 1 ball on the break, but the 2 ball began its hide-and-seek game. Archer could only see part of it, so he opted to push and Hohmann played him safe on the 2. Archer took an intentional foul on the, knowing that it was not playable even with ball in hand and Hohmann played another safe on the 2. Archer took on a tough shot that had him elevating his cue and trying to bank the 2 ball into a ball that was near a pocket but was not successful. Fortunately for him, Hohmann found himself dead hooked on the 2 after the balls stopped rolling. Hohmann failed to contact the 2 ball and Archer maneuvered his way through the final rack for the tournament win and $50,000 in prize money.

By Day’s End, One Champion Will Remain at the International Challenge

Day one of the 2006 International Challenge of Champions is complete and the field of eight players has been sliced in half.

Among the elite, international players, every game in the best-of-three matches carried great importance. In the first match of the day, Johnny Archer defeated Alex Lely in a one-game tie breaker to advance.

The second match saw IPT North American 8-Ball Champion Thorsten Hohmann defeat Santos Sambajon, 5-2 and 5-3, to earn his spot in the next round.

The third match of the day featured another single game tie-breaker, as Marlon Manalo came back from a 5-2 loss in the first set and won the second set, 5-2, and then won the tie breaker to eliminate Niels Feijen.

The final match of the day saw defending champion Fong Pang Chao defeat German Ralf Souquet, 5-1 and 5-4, to advance to today’s play.

The match-ups for today should make for an intense climate in the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn. The first match will feature Archer vs. Manalo at 5 p.m. EST and Hohmann vs. Chao at 6:30 p.m. EST. The winners of those two matches will face each other in the finals at 8 p.m. EST where the winner will pocket $50,000 in this winner-take-all event.

Thorsten Wants 2 Chat With U

Thorsten Hohmann, half man, half machine, and almost half-a-million dollars richer, has agreed to hold a chat on Monday, August 14 at 9 p.m. EST on AZBilliards.com.

The chat will inaugurate a new chatroom on the popular AZBilliards forum, and provide users a chance to ask Thorsten about his experience winning the recent IPT North American Open, and $350,000.

To participated, log into the AzBilliards’ forums and click on the “chat” button at the top to enter the chat room. Registration in the forums is required in order to join the chat.

Make sure you log in early on the 14th to get your question posted for Thorsten to answer.

Corr Pulls Ahead of the Pack

Karen Corr is on a roll. Last month at the Florida Classic, she knocked off Allison Fisher in the final, and this month, at the Midwest Classic, she defeated the other Fisher, Kelly, in a final that tested the bladder control of many an audience member. With three titles so far in the 2006 season, Corr has left both Fishers, who have a title apiece, in the dust for the Player of the Year race.

Nine of the tour’s top players competed in the International Pool Tour’s North American Open just days before the Midwest Classic commenced at the Par-a-dice Hotel and Casino in Peoria, Ill. Sarah Ellerby went the farthest in the 8-ball event, and had to fly overnight from Vegas to make it in time for her first match in the Midwest.

While an exhausted Ellerby was knocked out early, the rest of the IPT members didn’t seem affected by the transition from 8-ball to 9-ball. After three rounds, eight players remained undefeated: Corr, Monica Webb, Kim White, Kelly Fisher, Allison Fisher, Jeanette Lee, Xiao-Ting Pan, and Belinda Calhoun.

The remaining players battled it out in the one-loss side to reach the top 16. The bottom eight were Sarah Rousey, Val Finnie, Julie Kelly, Ga-Young Kim, Ewa Laurance, Megan Minerich, Gerda Hofstatter and Pam Treadway.

In the single-elimination matches to determine the semifinalists, Allison Fisher was knocked out by Chinese up-and-comer Xiao-Ting Pan. She, along with Webb, Corr, and Kelly Fisher advanced.

Both semifinal matches were decided by crucial plays at 4-4. Kelly Fisher outplayed Pan in the semifinal, 7-4, after the tiny 24-year-old fouled on a jump shot. Fisher said that revenge was sweet, as Pan had knocked her out in San Diego. Corr also won 7-4, pulling ahead against Webb after an untimely scratch.

In the final between Fisher and Corr, the game of 9-ball had never so resembled ping-pong. The former snooker players battled back and forth, going 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, and 5-5 after Corr jarred an easy 9 ball. With a race-to-2 determing a difference in payouts of $5,000, Corr ran out to reach the hill. Fisher broke in the case game, and executed a safety. Corr mulled over the shot, and ended up scratching. Fisher sank the 2 and played safe on the 3, which Corr pocketed with a surprising two-rail bank shot, which proved to be the winning shot. She ran out the rest of the rack for the $13,000, and her third title of the season.

Check out www.wpba.com for the full bracket and photo highlights.

Hohmann Hits Jackpot: $350,000 Prize at IPT Open and Spot on SportsCenter

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – In a dream finale for the IPT’s first regular season event, Thorsten Hohmann of Germany gutted out an 8-7 victory over Filipino Marlon Manalo on Sunday to pocket the $350,000 top prize at the North American 8-Ball Open.

Hohmann’s feat ranked No. 9 among the Top 10 Plays of the Day on ESPN’s SportsCenter Sunday night, a rare occurrence for a pool event and one befitting the higher profile that the $8.5 million tour seeks to create for cue sports.

Two key misses by Hohmann allowed Manalo to recover from a 4-2 deficit in the final to reach the hill first, 7-6. With Manalo effortlessly piloting the cue ball as if with a GPS device, it seemed that all he needed to do was sink a ball on his break to claim the title. But, as the 200 players in the IPT’s first event of 2006 learned over the grueling eight-day tournament, getting a second shot on the table was anything but guaranteed.

Manalo failed to sink a ball on the break for the fourth time in the match, leaving a table full of hangers. The 27-year-old Hohmann carefully cleared the slate to tie the match, and then faced the most important break shot of his young career. He shattered the rack and then watched the 9 ball stroll into a corner pocket. His eyes lit up.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is the easiest runout I’ve ever had. If I can’t run this out …’” Hohmann recalled after the match.

With the same expert touch and steely concentration the German exhibited over the past week of round-robin play, Hohmann picked through the rack and nailed the $350,000 shot without hesitation.

His winnings broke the previous record of $200,000 for first place in a pool event, set at the IPT’s King of the Hill event in December. On Sunday, Manalo pocketed a none-too-shabby $99,000 for second place.

Never one to show much emotion, Hohmann remained calm and collected through his eloquent winner’s speech, broadcast throughout Europe live on the EuroSport networks. He made a point of thanking IPT founder Kevin Trudeau, giving the millionaire infomercial maven and self-help guru a deep bow.

The stakes will be even higher at the IPT’s World Open 8-Ball Championship, set for Sept. 2-10 at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno, Nev. The $3 million purse will feature a $500,000 prize for first place.