No surprise for P&B fans: Finnish-born Mika Immonen, who won his second consecutive U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship title, the world 10-ball crown and the International Challenge of Champions, was the unanimous choice for male Player of the Year in voting conducted by the United States Billiard Media Association, the USBMA announced. Immonen, 37, was named on all 21 ballots turned in by members of the media group.

Jasmin Ouschan, of Austria, who won half of the Women's Professional Billiard Association's six Classic Tour events, was the USBMA's choice for woman Player of the Year.

Immonen, who resides in New York City, enjoyed his best year ever as a pro, adding the Galveston World Classic 10-ball title and Qatar Open title to his 2009 haul. Overall, Immonen won five of the seven events that featured a top prize of more than $20,000. His 2009 winnings topped $230,000.

Meanwhile, Ouschan made her mark by winning the WPBA Great Lakes Classic, the WPBA Pacific Coast Classic and the WPBA Tour Championship. She also placed third in the women's world 10-ball event and second to Allison Fisher at the World Games. Despite finishing second to Korea's Ga Young Kim in the WPBA year-end points standings for 2009 (26,500 to 26,000), Ouschan picked up 12 votes for player of the year. Kim received four votes, while Karen Corr received two votes.

Efren "The Magician" Reyes, who amassed nearly $1.7 million in prize money, and Allison Fisher, who won 27 Women's Professional Billiard Association Classic Tour titles, were named Player of the Decade by the United States Billiard Media Association.

Reyes, the 55-year-old Filipino sensation, won more than 20 major men's professional pool titles during the decade, starting with his $30,000 Camel Pro 8-Ball Championship win in 2000. Of his 22 major victories, the versatile Reyes won four one-pocket crowns, four 8-ball titles and 14 9-ball titles. He also won the Derby City All-Around title three times. But it was during the short-lived International Pool Tour that Reyes scored his biggest wins. In three multi-million dollar events, Reyes won two titles (2005 IPT King of the Hill and 2006 IPT North American Open) and pocketed $765,000.

Fisher, meanwhile, continued her dominance over women's pool for a second straight decade. After winning 26 Classic Tour titles during the '90s, the former snooker champion added 27 more from 2000-2010. In addition to her WPBA Classic Tour titles, Fisher, 41, earned the gold medal at the 2009 World Games, was the 2000 BCA U.S. Open 14.1 champion and won the Tournament of Champions five times. She earned $637,000 over the 10-year span.

Additionally, both Reyes and Fisher were elected into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame during the decade, with Reyes being inducted in 2003 and Fisher in 2009. In Player of the Decade voting, Reyes out-pointed Johnny Archer, Mika Immonen and Ralf Souquet. Fisher was named woman player of the decade on all but two ballots, with Karen Corr and Jasmin Ouschan each receiving one vote.

With action constant in this year's Derby City Classic, it's all you can do to keep up with the continual matches and excitement. Hundreds of matches, thousands of dollars and tons of fun!

The big news so far: defending champion John Brumback has secured a second Banks title, defeating the ever-formidable Efren Reyes in the final! The One Pocket and 9-Ball events are now underway, sadly without the participation of some key American players, including newly crowned BCA Hall of Famer Johnny Archer, Corey Deuel and Shane Van Boening, all headed to Germany for the WPA World Team Championships.

Meanwhile, a shout out to P&B's Charlie Williams who has now secured his spot in the finals of the special 14.1 challenge event - we wish him all the best in the final bout! Stay tuned...

To enjoy ongoing round results, CLICK HERE!

January 30 - February 7 over 250 pool pros from more than 50 nations will converge in Hanover Germany, fighting for their share of $400,000 in purse money and the Harley Davidson Lottery.

At an official World Championship sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) the very best players from each nation are being sent from their countries to compete against each other.

Commitments have already been received from players including Ralf Souquet (GER - World Games winner), as well as the complete winning team of the MOSCONI CUP (USA - Johnny Archer, Shane Van Boening, Corey Deuel, Oscar Dominquez), Mika Immonen (FIN - World-10-Ball Champion) and many others.

The contests will consist of 8-Ball, 9-Ball and 10-ball matches in teams of four to six players. In exhibition hall 13, bleachers for around 4,000 spectators will be set up as well as 32 pool-billiard tables together with the cameras and microphones of the TVN Group, who will broadcast the competition via TV, radio and Internet.

Parallel to the championship, the biggest HARLEY DAVIDSON OLDTIMER COLLECTION "Myth Harley Davidson" where about 40 machines will be shown aside an exclusive Billiard Exhibition featuring the latest trends and innovations from the world of billiards for professional and hobby players alike.

Admission Tickets can be bought from EUR 9 under www.wtc-2010.com. These Tickets are valid for all events and guarantee automatically the participation on the HARLEY DAVIDSON LOTTERY!

For more info, visit www.wtc-2010.com

CueSports International (CSI), in partnership with promoter Mark Cantrill, has announced that Team CSI American Grand Masters is heading to the midwest for the first leg of the Team CSI Tour.

The team is comprised of: BCA Hall of Fame inductee and 5 time U.S. Open 9-Ball Champion Earl "The Pearl" Strickland, 2009 Texas Open winner Charlie "Hillbilly" Bryant, 2006 U.S. Open 9-Ball Champion and 2009 Derby City Classic One Pocket winner John "Mr. 400" Schmidt, and 2001 U.S. Open 9-Ball Champion Corey Deuel who has also served on the U.S. Mosconi Cup Team six times.  

Each of the four members of Team CSI still actively compete in both U.S. and international events, thus two members of the team travel together for each leg of the tour. The Midwest Tour, which is scheduled January 8-17, will feature Earl Strickland and John Schmidt.  

"I have always enjoyed teaching and passing on knowledge in person. I also enjoy meeting new people and so this is going to be a great experience and I can't wait," said John Schmidt.  

Strickland and Schmidt will perform a series of exciting exhibitions and hold pool schools throughout Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska and Iowa. The pool school is 4 hours in length with a maximum of 12 students per school. Each student will have an opportunity for individual instruction with both Strickland and Schmidt addressing the student's personal needs to progress in their respective games. The total cost to attend the pool school is $200 per student.  

The Midwest Tour dates and locations include:

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LiquidWick Pool Cues announced today that it will be featured along with world billiard star Jeanette Lee "The Black Widow" on the TLC TV Show "American Chopper," which features the custom motorcycle shop, Orange County Choppers.  

Earlier this year, LiquidWick commissioned mega motorcycle brand Orange County Choppers to build a Jeanette Lee "The Black Widow" bike.  LiquidWick partners, Rich Gustin and Dan Shields, accompanied Jeanette Lee on a visit to Orange County Choppers on September 25th 2009 where she was filmed playing "American Chopper" star Paul Teutul Sr. in pool and was then interviewed for the episode.  OCC then went on to build the bike as part of the tv show.  The chopper unveil was filmed at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on November 11th 2009.  

"The bike is awesome and currently in our possession in Albuquerque," said Rich Gustin, LiquidWick partner.  "We plan to share it with the fans of both Jeanette Lee and OCC."

"It was great fun playing Paul Sr. in pool and hanging with all the guys at OCC," said Jeanette Lee.  "The bike is beautiful and I can't wait to watch the episode."   

The American Chopper episode featuring the Jeanette Lee "The Black Widow" bike will air on TLC on Thursday, December 17th 2009 at 9pm ET/PT. For exact times in your area please check your local listings. The "American Chopper" program has aired in over 160 countries and been translated into over 35 languages.   

"This bike is the hottest motorcycle ever created for the billiards industry," said Dan Shields, LiquidWick Partner.  "OCC bikes can be huge draws and we plan to use this incredible new chopper, along with appearances by Jeanette Lee, for marketing and promotional events to support our retail partners." 

Team USA has won the PartyPoker.net Mosconi Cup for the first time since 2005 as they took the required two points on Sunday to defeat defending champions Europe by a four point margin.

A win for Dennis Hatch, who took 'Most Valuable Player' honors as the winning team's biggest point scorer, took the team to the hill and then Shane Van Boening snatched the trophy clincher as he defeated Ralf Souquet. It was a proud moment for American captain Nick Varner after last year's disastrous trip to Malta; "This has been the best five days of my life and they all just played so well and I'm so proud of them," he said...

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Europe 1 - 4 USA

TEAM USA enjoyed a magnificent first day at the 2009 PartyPoker.net Mosconi Cup as they won four of the five matches to leave the star-studded European team reeling and needing it all to do on Friday.

The team spirit that had driven the Europeans to successive wins in '07 and '08 seemed to be lacking and captain Alex Lely will have a job to do to ready his troops for action tomorrow...

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Might Mika is simply unbelievable! From a win at the U.S. Open, to a win at the Tournament of Champions, and now victory in the World 10-Ball Championships! These wins push him over the $200,000 mark for the year in purse winnings alone and cement his place firmly in pool history.

Immonen entered the final day as one of four players left out of the 128 who started the week. His first victim for the day was Antonio Lining of the Philippines whom he beat 9-7. Just after this win the other semi-final between Lee Van Corteza of the Philippines and David Alcaide of Spain ended with Corteza earning the right to face Immonen 9-7. Corteza began the final with a hot hand and led 2-0 after the first two racks. But from there Immonen found his game and slowly pulled away to take the title 11-6 in a convincing victory.

Congratulations go out to Raya Sports for their production of this year's championship and the Republic of the Philippines for being such gracious hosts. Next up, the Mosconi Cup in Las Vegas, where the USA will try to regain its hold on the Cup from Europe!

The World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) is ready with their partners to stage the final two championships for this year, the World 9-Ball Championship for women, and the World Ten Ball Championship for men

The women's championship is being played in Shenyang, China and qualifying rounds commence on Monday November 16th. There are eight slots available for those trying to qualify, with the main event commencing on Thursday the 19th. The final will be played on Sunday the 22nd.

The field this year is 64 players, representing 23 countries, and features all of the world's leading players including defending champion Lin Yuan-Chun of Chinese Taipei. Other players include Karen Corr, Kelly Fisher, Jasmin Ouschan, Kim Ga Young, China's top player and 2007 world champion, Pan Xiaoting, and World Games gold medallist, Allison Fisher.

The following week will find the best male players from all over the globe descending on Manila to compete for the title of World Ten Ball Champion. England's Darren Appleton will be back in Manila to defend the title that he won last year. Appleton will face strong opposition with all the top men players competing and anxious to win this prestigious championship. Players from more than 40 countries will compete, including world number one, Ralf Souquet of Germany, Mika Immonen of Finland, home-town favourites like Ronnie Alcano, Lee Van Corteza, and Dennis Orculo and recent Hall of Fame inductee Johnny Archer. 128 players will be in competition at the World Trade Centre in Manila, November 25-30.

Stay tuned for news on your next world champs!