SVB extracts $5,000 from Strickland

South Dakota Kid wins 9-ball Challenge Match

After losing to Earl Strickland earlier this year in 10-ball, Shane Van Boening took his revenge with a 75-67 victory over the mercurial Hall of Famer in  a Las Vegas challenge match on Sunday.

Both players put up $5,000 in the winner-take-all event sponsored by theactionreport.com. Play began on Friday and continued throughout the weekend.

Van Boening mostly led throughout, although the tight Diamond table installed in The Action Report's Las Vegas studio seemed to flummox both players. Van Boening was up by only 50-48 at the end of Saturday’s play

Van Boening continued to lead Sunday, methodically stringing together racks despite his opponent's almost constant griping. The length of time it took Van Boening to rack the balls and Van Boening's softer-than-usual break seemed to particularly irk the older player. “Look at that – he’s got an eight-minute rack, and a two-mile-per-hour break,” Strickland complained at one point.

Briefly it appeared that Strickland, Hulk-like, actually was becoming stronger as he became angrier. After falling behind 63-58, The Pearl suddenly won six in a row, complaining and glowering with every sunk nine-ball.

But that rush Sunday would be Strickland's last. After a miscue and few other unforced errors, The Pearl allowed the always dangerous Van Boening to quietly trot to victory. Strickland continued to complain afterwards. "I'm willing to say that I'm a f***ing  a**hole, but there's a lot of a**holes," he acknowledged shortly before the recording ended.

Strickland beat Van Boening in a similar winner-take-all 10-ball event conducted last March in Youngstown. Both players put up $10,000 for that event.

 

-- R.A. Dyer

Van Boening wins $20K Challenge Match

SVB outshoots Pagulayan 30-17 on Final Night

During the early going, American 10-ball hero Shane Van Boening seemed stuck in low gear. Facing Alex "The Lion" Pagulayan in a three-day race-to-100 marathon last weekend, the wiry pool shark from Rapid City, South Dakota would put together two racks in succession here, three racks there. And the misses were aplenty.

SVB outscored Pagulayan on Friday thanks only to dramatic 7-pack at the very end of the night. On Saturday SBV won one game fewer than Pagulayan.

"He's weak. He's broken down," commentator Billy Incardona noted of the South Dakota Kid's early performance.

But all that changed Sunday, the last day of the much anticipated Action Report challenge match, when the man many believe to be America's greatest 10-ball player suddenly found his groove. Van Boening buried opponent Pagulayan beneath a torrent of pocketed balls on his way to what suddenly became an easy victory.

Final score after three days: Shane Van Boening: 100. Alex Pagulayan 84.

For his effort in the two-man ActionReport.com tournament, Shane Van Boening goes home with $20,000. Pagulayan goes home empty-handed. Both players put up a $10,000 entry fee. The event was streamed over the Internet from Las Vegas.

What had began as a trickle ended in a flood.

Pagulayan, a former U.S. Open nine-ball champion, Canadian snooker champion and World Pool Masters champion, is a dangerous opponent who beat Van Boening during an earlier Action Report challenge match. The first two nights of the rivals' latest confrontation where characterized by exchanges of safeties. Bothh players also appeared flummoxed by the extra-tight table pockets.

Van Boening, also a former U.S. nine-ball champion, committed several unforced errors during those first nights, and maintained a slim lead thanks only to his thunderous break and a big 7-pack on Friday. But he immediately won the first half dozen games Sunday, and then never let up. Pagulayan was stuck in his chair for most of the night.

In all, SVB outscored Pagulayan 30-17 during the final night of the event.  He played quick, and played aggressive. His famous break smashed open the balls so thoroughly that those that weren't pocketed immediately ended up spaced on the table as if he had positioned them by hand.

"He blew him out tonight," Justin Collett, the event promoter, said of SVB's performance Sunday night.

The Action Report has sponsored similar challenge matches over the last several years, including those pitting Van Boening against 9-ball legend Earl Strickland and Van Boening against two-time U.S. Open champion Mika Immonen.

The outcome Sunday corresponded closely with fan predictions at the poolhistory.com Facebook page. By an 8-1 margin, fans predicted Van Boening would come out on top. The average margin of victory for Van Boening, among those predicting he would ultimately prevail, was 17.24 games. The actual margin of victory was 16 games.

-- R.A. Dyer

Van Boening retains razor thin lead

After 10 hours, Pagulayan picks up a single game

After running neck and neck with opponent Alex Pagulayan, American Shane Van Boening regained a razor thin lead in the The Action Report's winner-take-all challenge match underway this weekend in Las Vegas.

The score now stands at 70-67, Van Boening's favor. The competitors finished up the second night's set at about 3:30 a.m. Central Standard Time, after more than 10 hours of grueling play. The 10-ball marathon concludes tonight, with victory going to the first player to notch 100 victories.

But getting to 100 will be tough.  Van Boening appears almost equally matched with Pagulayan, with the lead see-sawing back and forth Saturday night and into Sunday morning. Van Boening began the night four games ahead, and ended it only three games ahead. The score was completely tied on several occasions Saturday.

Pagulayan's greatest barrage came late in the session, and concluded with a long-rail combo that opened a 66-61 lead, the largest margin of the evening. But Van Boening grinded back, eventually tied the score and then finishing out the evening on top. It appeared that Van Boening made more unforced errors throughout the evening, but was carried through by the power of his thunderous break.

Play resumes tonight at 6:30 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, with the winner pocketing $20,000 and second place going home broke. Both players paid a $10,000 "entry fee" to compete in the two-man tournament.

The pay-per-view event is sponsored by The Action Report, which earlier streamed similar challenge matches featuring Earl Strickland and Mika Immonen. Participants of an informal poll on the poolhistory.com Facebook page picked Van Boening as the heavy favorite to win the event. You can also pick a winner at the separate poll, listed on the right-hand panel of this page.

-- R.A. Dyer

Van Boening takes lead in Challenge Match

But "The Lion" Pagulayan led during much of the first night action

After struggling for much of the night, American pool star Shane Van Boening dramatically ran seven racks straight to take a 35-31 lead during the first night of his challenge match with Alex "The Lion" Paguluyan in Las Vegas.

Van Boening -- or SVB as he's known to many fans -- continues the winner-take-all 10-ball contest with Pagulayan tonight. Both players have put up $10,000. The winner goes home with $20,000. The loser goes home busted.

Van Boening looked off his game for much of the night, missing several shots and making position errors on others. On several occasions he failed to run out with just a ball or two left.

For a long stretch Van Boening trailed the steady-playing Pagulayan by about five games, and he seemed utterly incapable of closing the gap.  "He's weak. He's broken down. The (tight) pockets are stopping his barrages," commentator Billy Incardona noted about halfway through the grueling 7 hours of play Friday night.

But then Van Boening, trailing 31-28, came roaring back, stringing together a 7-pack to finish out the set. "Damdest thing I ever saw," said event promoter Justin Collett.

Play resumes tonight at 6:30 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, and ends when one of the competitors wins 70 games. The race-to-100 event finishes Sunday. The pay-per-view event is sponsored by The Action Report, which earlier streamed similar challenge matches featuring Earl Strickland and Mika Immonen. You can find out more here.

Participants of an informal poll on the poolhistory.com Facebook page picked Van Boening as the heavy favorite to win the event. You can also pick a winner at the separate poll, listed on the right-hand panel of this page.


-- R.A. Dyer

Readers favor Van Boening over Pagulayan in 100-game winner-take-all match

The race-to-100 challenge match between Shane Van Boening and Alex Pagulayan gets underway this weekend in Las Vegas. Each of the players has put up $10,000. First place pays $20,000. Second place pays zilch.

An informal poll I conducted today on the Pool History Facebook Page finds Shane favored by a more than 8 to 1 margin, or by nearly 90 percent of all respondents. One bold pool fan even predicted Shane wins by 37 games.  The average margin of victory for Shane, among those predicting he ultimately prevails, was 17.24 games. The average margin of victory for Alex, among those calling the three-day challenge for him, was 10.33 games.

I think that folks may be taking Alex too lightly. The young Filipino has won just about everything there is to win. He is a dangerous competitor. Shane also was beaten rather soundly at 10-ball by Earl Strickland, in a similar challenge match last March.

That said, I did watch Shane beat Alex during three consecutive nights in the Derby City action room, back in 2008. Shane also rolled over Mika Immonen in a separate challenge match held last year in New York.

These great challenge matches are sponsored by Justin Collett and theactionreport.com.

-- R.A. Dyer

Eccentric Pearl Beats Young Gun

Strickland stuns fans, beats SVB in Challenge Match

Wearing ear muffs and arm weights, Earl "The Pearl" Strickland stunned pool fans this week with an underdog victory over Shane Van Boening, the young gun from South Dakota considered by many as America's greatest 10-ball player.

The two pool giants met in a 100-game winner-take-all challenge match held Friday through Sunday in Youngstown, Ohio. The game was Boening's specialty, but it was conducted across a massive 10-foot converted snooker table.  The format appeared to have favored Strickland, who took an 11-game lead the first night and then never relinquished it. Strickland ended up winning 100-83, a 17-game difference.

Fewer than 40 percent of respondents to a poolhistory.com poll predicted that the aging Strickland would win the match.  He also was the underdog on various pool forums. One fan predicted that Van Boening would take such a commanding lead that Strickland would quit him early.

But it was not to be. Wearing absurd green ear muffs and bulky arm weights for reasons that remain somewhat unclear, Strickland plowed through rack after rack. He beat Van Boening soundly the first night, played him about even the second, and then ran over him again on Sunday.

Van Boening closed to within 7 games on that final night of play but then abruptly faded. His game and confidence seemed to have completely abandoned him by the end with unexpected misses, loose safeties and unforced scratches.

Stickland, by contrast, appears to be mounting a major career comeback. His game was top notch, his position play sharp. He nearly lost his cool after a few missed shots, but the notoriously volatile player never become so unhinged as to derail his overall game. The victory builds upon a second place finish in the Derby City One-Pocket division in January and last year's victory at the U.S. Bar Table 8-Ball championships.

Strickland does, however, appear to have become a bit more quirky with age. Besides donning the green ear muffs, Strickland also was wont to examine the racked balls with a small magnifying glass. He'd gesture to fans with it between games, proclaiming "that's a good rack!"  Strickland also made use of massively long cue that looked more appropriate for pole vaulting than 10-ball. "It looks like a javelin," quipped one commentator for theactionreport.com, which sponsored the pay-per-view event.

But Strickland's victory was no laughing matter. The colorful Hall of Fame player is the only man alive to have won the prestigious U.S. Open Nine-Ball Championship on five separate occasions. Is there a sixth in the offing?


-- R.A. Dyer

Eccentric Strickland defying Predictions

Crowd pleasing star so far beating Van Boening

In defiance of the predictions, Shane Ban Boening so far is getting his clock cleaned in the 100-game shoot-out with the very much older, very much more volatile Earl Strickland.

The 100-ball challenge match, held in Youngstown, Ohio, has now finished its second day. Strickland leads 70 games to 60. At one time Strickland held a 16-game lead. The match resumes tonight and can be viewed online at theactionreport.com.

Shane Van Boening, considered by many as America's greatest player, nonetheless appeared somewhat flummoxed by the larger scale of the 10-foot table used in the $20,000 winner-take-all event.  The South Dakota Kid remained relatively impassive for the entirety of the evening, although a painful grimace would creep across his face after his failed shots, of which there were several.

Strickland, meanwhile, seemed mostly in command, if not exactly at ease. Wearing large green ear muffs to stifle out the crowd noise, and with weights on his shooting arm, the increasingly eccentric Hall of Famer would captain the cueball around the table clutter like a schooner in a busy harbor. Between games he would produce a magnifying glass to examine the racked balls, earning him the nickname "Earl-lock Holmes" by some of his snarkier fans. He also wagged his finger on occasion at a distracting crowd member -- and even complained about theactionreport camera operator. But through it all he never lost his cool, despite predictions by some that his famous volatility would be his undoing during the long event.

In fact, Strickland continues to defy predictions. An informal poolhistory.com poll had fans favoring Van Boening over Strickland by 25 percentage points. In a separate contest sponsored by poolhistory.com, Van Boening is nearly a 2-1 favorite. Fans calling the match for Van Boening predicted he would win by about 15 games (see the chart at right). The younger player did manage to close to as few as 5 games before Strickland again opened up a sizable lead. On balance, Van Boening picked up one game from the previous night's outing.

The evening's competition was characterized by plenty of safety play in which both players made use of the long table to force tough shots. Frequently, either Van Boening or Strickland would find themselves confronted with tough shots in which the cue ball was parked at the center on one end rail, and the object ball parked on the other.  The night's competition ended with a Van Boening scratch on the three-ball, just as he was reaching across the table using the bridge. The score then stood at 60-69, but Strickland followed up the error with a quick run-out, bringing the score to 60-70.

This means that in order to win the 100-game challenge, Van Boening now needs 40 games but Strickland only needs 30. The third and final set of the pay-per-view event can be viewed live tonight at TheActionReport.com.

-- R.A. Dyer

Fan Predictions: Van Boening vs Strickland

The first round of predictions are in.  Most readers forecast a win by Shane Van Boening in his upcoming 10-ball shoot-out with Earl Strickland. The 100-game challenge match will be held March 18-20 in Youngstown, Ohio. SVB and The Pearl will be meeting across a 10-foot table. It's a $20,000  winner-take-all contest.

I received about 20 votes in just a few hours. The average of predictions for those who pick Shane is 100 games for Shane, and 84.8 games for Strickland. (See the chart above). Of those who pick Strickland, the average outcome is 100 games for  the veteran and 87.4 games for Shane. (See the chart below). However, Shane so far is preferred by an almost two-to-one margin.

There's still plenty of time to make your prediction. To the reader who comes closest I'll send a free book. We're getting so many entries I might even send out several books.  To submit your prediction, just go to the Pool History Facebook page at this link. You can also comment at the bottom of this post. Please post your name, then Strickland's score first, then Van Boening's. That way I won't go blind reading all the entries.

Good luck!

-- R.A. Dyer

Win a Free Book

Strickland vs Van Boening: Call The Winner
The details have all been ironed out for another high-profile shoot-out, this time featuring two of America's greatest players. Veteran Earl Strickland, the five-time
winner of the U.S. Open, meets Shane Van Boening, considered by many as today's top player. The contest: a race-to-100 10-ball match. Strickland and the young hotshot meet March 18-20 in Youngstown, Ohio. To make the game even more interesting, the contest will be held on a 5 by 10 table. The $20,000 winner-take-all match is sponsored by The Action Report, which recently webcast Van Boening's 100-game shoot-out with Mika Immomen.

Free Book and Pool History Poll
I'll send out a free book to whomever most closely predicts the final score. Just sign up on the Pool & Billiard History Facebook Page and post your prediction there. Here's the link. I've also posted up a poll at the upper right. You can predict the winner and then check back later to see the ongoing tally. I'll keep the poll open until midnight March 17, the night before the shoot-out begins.

A bit more background? Earl "The Pearl" Strickland won the U.S. Open in 1984, 1987, 1993, 1997 and 2000. He's also been a decisive part of the U.S. Team for The Mosconi Cup. With Earl, the Americans amassed a record of nine wins, three losses and one tie. Without Earl, the Americans' record was a piddling 2-2. Strickland has been off his game for much of the last decade, but then began making a serious comeback last year. Strickland placed second to Van Boening in the One-Pocket division at this year's Derby City Classic, won the Jacoby Custom Cue tour stop in January and won both the U.S. Bar Table 8-ball Championship and the Steve Mizerak Championship in 2010.

Van Boening, by contrast, has won just about everything there is to win. He took Derby City's Master of the Table award this year and won both the U.S. Bar Table 10-ball and 9-ball championships last year. He also is a past U.S. Open winner and currently is the highest ranked American on the Billiards Digest Power Index.

-- R.A. Dyer

Rule 16: Do Not Ask to Play Dippy Dave Even

Dippy Dave, also known as David Peat, was awarded the Louie Roberts Action and Entertainment Award at this year's Derby City Classic.  I watched him in high-stakes action against Sylver Ochoa, of Houston, in The Action Report room. It was very late on the last Friday of the tournament. Sylver was giving Dave a giant spot -- 16-4 as I recall. The game was one-pocket. Dave lost.

But the Louie Roberts Award is not awarded for winning in the action room. It's awarded for entertaining in the action room. And on this score, Dave was without peer. He's funny, he demands ludicrous spots, and he's got heart. He can't play like the top pros, not even close. But he's willing to challenge them for humongous stakes. Dippy Dave won the Louie Roberts award in a landslide.

Rule No. 16: Do Not Ask To Play Dippy Dave Even.

Dave hails from the world of professional poker, and, according to his online bio, has tallied up more than $270,000 in tournament earnings playing Texas Hold 'Em. He started playing in high-dollar pool matches last year, mostly one-pocket. Although he lost a small fortune early on, Action Report founder Justin Collett tells me that Dave lately has booked some winners -- including sticking one of the great Filipino players not long ago for $80,000 and a former U.S. Open winner for $40,000.

"Dippy is a stone hustler," Collett said. "If he's playing a couple a hundred a game, he don't give a ****. He would rather have a good time, and make everybody laugh. When he was playing Sylver at the Derby, they were playing cheap, a couple of thousand, and I know that Dippy was not going to win those games."

"But Dippy has a tremendous amount of knowledge about the game. I've seen him win games against Alex (Pagulayan) or Gabe (Owen) when it got down to two balls on the table. Or even just one ball. Getting that sort of weight, he's not supposed to have a prayer."

That's a video of Dippy Dave, above, playing Scott Frost. It was shot prior to Derby City. I found it on YouTube. Last year's Louie Roberts Award went to Jeanette Lee.

-- R.A. Dyer

Van Boening beats Immonen in Shoot-Out

Sledgehammer break makes the difference

Van Boening

The break. That was the story of this week's three-day shoot-out between Shane Van Boening and Mika Immonen. As predicted, Shane's powerhouse 10-ball break shot served him well during the 100-game challenge match. The $10,000 buy-in event concluded last night at New York's Amsterdam Billiard Club with Shane on top, 100-79.

The lanky Van Boening rarely failed to make a ball off his ear-splitting opening shot, and typically would sink two or three. This was too much of an advantage to overcome, especially considering that Immonen's break appeared to have completely abandoned him for long stretches.

Van Boening had a 10-game advantage after the first day, kept that advantage for the second, and then went up by as much as 25 on the last day. The final margin was 21 games.  Both players appeared to be playing somewhat more loosely by the end, especially after the outcome was no longer in doubt. On several occasions Van Boening passed up obvious safeties in favor of difficult but makeable shots.

Immonen

But there was no trophy for his troubles. Instead, The Action Report founder Justin Collett quietly handed the Dakota Kid an envelope stuffed with cash, his reward for the grueling winner-take-all event.

Both players arrived Tuesday after placing well in separate events. Van Boening had flown in from Central America, where he had won the Nicaraguan Open 10-ball event. Immonen, meanwhile, finished second to Oliver Ortmann in the World straight-pool event held a few days earlier in New Jersey. Both now head to Chesapeake, Virginia for the U.S. Open 9-ball event, which begins Sunday.

For pool fans, the much anticipated competition between Van Boening and Immonen had the feel of a major prize fight.   The two are considered among the best in the world, both having been named players of the year by Billiards Digest. Between them, Van Boening and Immonen have won the last three U.S. Opens in a row.

Fans polled on this site gave a slight advantage to Immonen and some predicted a blow-out for The Iceman.   "Mika is coming back after a long race," said one, after watching the Finnish player go down by double digits on the first day.

The winner of a poolhistory.com contest to name the final score was New Jersey resident Thomas Kozloski, who predicted a 100-86 margin in Van Boening's favor. Nobody predicted a wider margin in the American's favor, although he had plenty of fans.

"Hell yeah, go Shane," one said late Thursday. Another was even more succinct. Upon learning that the Dakota Kid had pulled ahead by 18 games and was only 12 from victory, Helene Zhu commented on the Pool History Facebook Page with just one word: "Wow."

You can read more about the fan predictions in earlier posts on the Pool History blog, which you can find here and here.

-- R.A. Dyer

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

Fans Give Very Slight Edge to Immonen

But predictions split for big shoot-out with Van Boening

So far, slightly more fans pick Mika in Oct. 12-14 shoot-out.

So far, fans are almost evenly divided as to who they predict will win the big shoot-out Oct. 12-14 between Mika Immonen and Shane Van Boening. I threw the question out yesterday, with the promise of a free book to the person who most closely predicted the final outcome. The contest is 10-ball, race to 100. Both players have put up $10,000. Winner takes all.

Of the 23 people who immediately made predictions, 12 picked Mika and 11 picked Shane. Interestingly, however, a few said Mika would win in a blow out. One fan predicted Mika at 100 and Shane at 61 -- a 39 game difference. Averaging out the predictions of games won, I find that fans predicted that Mika would win 96.0 games and Shane would win 90.2. The larger spread in this category is attributable to those who picked Mika in a blow-out.

There's still time to enter the contest for the free book. Here's the rules: I'll send a copy of the Hustler & The Champ or Hustler Days to the person who most accurately predicts the final score. Only one prediction per person. I'll give away more than one book -- up to five, at random -- if more than one person predicts the right outcome.  To vote, simply comment at the bottom of this post with your prediction. It's easier for me if you list Mika first, his score, and then Shane, with his score. That way I won't go blind looking at all the numbers.

You can also slide over to the linked Facebook page and make your predictions there. The contest closes at 4 p.m. central time on Oct. 12, before the opening day break.  I've also created a separate online poll, at the right. The poll has nothing to do with the book contest. It's just an easy way to keep up with all the fan predictions.

A bit of background about both players: Between them Van Boening and Immonen have won the last three U.S. Opens in a row.  Many consider Van Boening America's finest player. Many consider Immonen (a native of Finland now living in New York) the greatest from Europe. Maybe the world. Both have been named Billiards Digest players of the year.

The three-day pay-per-view event is sponsored by The Action Report, AZ Billiards, CueSports International and others. I have nothing to do with this event, am not sponsoring it, nor have I been paid a dime to endorse it. However, I hope this event is successful. With the dearth of quality pool of TV, it's heartening to see creative events like this one live streamed on the web.

For more information, check out The Action Report website at theactionreport.com.

-- R.A. Dyer