JOEY KONG WINS THE PRO-AM QUARTERLY DEBUT AT COMET BILLIARDS

On February 16, 2008, SDA Productions, ran its 1st quarterly straight pool tournament called "The North Jersey 14.1 Straight Pool Pro/Am Quarterly". The event, to be held four times a year, is open to all skill levels of experienced straight pool players. The tournament is being held at Comet Billiards, located in Parsippany, NJ. In order to participate, players must be certified at one of six Skill Levels with the highest level being Skill Level 1, the lowest being Skill Level 6. Skill Level 1 has a match point of 150 balls and Skill Level 6 has a match point of 50 balls. There is a 20-ball difference between each consecutive Skill Level. Skill Levels are roughly determined based on a player's average record of high ball runs over a period of one year. In addition to being certified at a particular Skill Level, to discourage player's from playing at a lower Skill Level then what they should be playing at, Penalty Points are added to a player's score, which equals to 10% of their match points, for each time they run balls beyond their designated Skill Level category. To further reinforce the handicapped system, first round of play is a draw round among same Skill Level players, whereby sixes play against other sixes, fives against other fives, and so on. When there is an odd number of Players in any particular Skill Level, the sole player or last position draw of that Skill Level plays against the first position draw of the next lower Skill Level. In an odd number field of players, the only "bye" in the first round gravitates down to the lowest Skill Level player who draws the lowest position. For the second round of play there is a redrawing of all Skill Levels for both winner side players and loser side players. The Tournament then continues on in a typical double elimination manner. Specially designed Rack by Rack score sheets were developed for the Tournament so that ball runs and fouls could be easily recorded with the scoring. The Tournament gathered a lot of interest among the local pool players with nearly 30 players registering, and eventually yielding a full field of 16 players. The Tournament, which started at 11:30 am, ran just over one day with the final double elimination round between Joey Kong and Jason Michas being played on the following day. Other notables who played in the Tournament were Pat Fleming, playing at Skill Level 2, the highest Skill Level in the field and the only 2 in the Tournament, and Bill Horne, playing at Skill Level 3, who won the Tournament High Ball Run prize with a 53 ball run. Joey Kong playing at Skill Level 3, went undefeated winning the Tournament. Jason Michas, playing at Skill Level 4, took second place. Third place was won by Tom Little also playing at Skill Level 4, while Bob Riley, playing at Skill Level 5, took fourth place. Full Tournament results and payouts can be seen on the attached Tournament Flow Chart. Any pool player who is interested in participating in future tournaments can register with Scott D. Abramowitz at 973-736-3435 or can email enquiries to sdabramo@comcast.net. A tentative date for the second quarterly tournament has been set for May 10th and 11th if a second day is required. Click here to view tournament chart.