Immonen Favored by Slim Margin

But Nearly Half Predict Van Boening to Win in NYC

Fans are almost equally divided as to who will win the big shoot-out that begins tonight between champions Mika Immonen and Shane Van Boening. According to an informal survey conducted by the Pool History Blog, fewer than 52 percent called it for Immonen and slightly more than 48 percent called it for Van Boening. 

The 10-ball event, which begins at 6:30 p.m. Eastern, will continue over three days at New York City's Amsterdam Billiards. Victory goes to the first player to win 100 games. Both players have put up $10,000. The event is being webcast as a pay-per-view event by The Action Report.

"Both are consistent and awesome pool players, but I'll have to go with Shane for sure," said one reader, who predicted Van Boening would come out on top 100-91. "I know Mika is an awesome player and anything can happen, but I'll still pick Shane in a close one."

"I give Mika the edge only because he has more experience and in a long race like this, I think a few situations will come up where experience will make the difference," said another, who predicted Immonen would win 100-94. 

Readers were also asked to predict the final game tally for each player. Those predictions were then averaged. Again, Immonen held a slight lead in this category. (See the graph at the top of this post.) Fans predicted that Van Boening would win 90.79 games and Immonen would win 95.93 games. Although the challenge match is to 100 games, neither player is predicted to win 100 because of the effect of averaging. 

Both Van Boening and Immonen have been named Billiards Digest players of the year. Between them, they've also won the last three U.S. Opens in a row.

The Pool History blog will send a free book to the fan who most closely predicts the final outcome.

-- R.A. Dyer