Gerda Hofstatter defeated Shu-Han Chang of Chinese Taipie to win the 14th annual WPBA San Diego Classic 9-Ball Championship, held this weekend at the Viejas Casino in Alpine, CA.

This was Gerda's first major tour stop win since the BCA Open 9-Ball Championships in 2000. She defeated newcomer Chang 7-3 in the final, taped for later broadcast on ESPN, and won $12,700 for the victory.

On her way to this momentous win, Gerda defeated Angelina Paglia and Kyoto Sone to make the final sixteen, then took down Monica Webb 9-3 in the first round of the single elimination portion of the event. Next up was #1 ranked Ga Young Kim and Gerda made short work of her too, 9-4.

In the televised semi-final she bested former #1 Karen Corr 7-4.

Chang defeated Pool & Billiard Magazine 2009 Player of the Year Jasmin Ouschan, Jeanette Lee and China's Xiaoting Pan in the other televised semifinal 7-5.

In the final bout, Chang took the lead 2-1, but Gerda came back to lead 4-3 and never looked back, winning 7-3.

Gerda made history as the WPBA Classic Tour's first-ever event winner in San Francisco in 1993 and proves today that she's still a player to beat!

Congratulations, G-Force!

A special one day qualifier for the 2010 U.S. Open 10-Ball was held Saturday, March 20 at Butera's Billiards in Moorpark, California. The unique single elimination qualifier was highly competitive as it attracted several top players traveling from the Southern California region towards Reno, Nevada for the U.S. Bar Table Championships.

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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!

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!

Billiardwarehouse.com announced its sponsorship of former US Open champion Kelly "KwikFire" Fisher for the Tournament of Champions just in time! Kelly won the event and the $20,000 purse to go with it. The Tournament of Champions, produced by Matt Braun's Billiards International, was held at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, CT, and included top players Kelly Fisher, Allison Fisher, Monica Webb and China's Xiaoting Pan. Kelly Fisher bested Monica Webb and Xiaoting Pan for the title.

Greg Savoie, owner of North Carolina based BilliardWarehouse.com said "I've known Kelly personally for a few years and carry Kelly's KwikFire cue line, it's an honor to sponsor Kelly for this event." BilliardWarehouse.com joined Tip Pik and Kelly's other North Carolina based sponsor, Charlotte Metro APA for the invitational event.

Imagine losing in the second round of the US Open when you're the defending champion. You're looking at a virtual wall of the world's top players between you and the title. Nearly impossible, right?

Wrong. Mika Immonen successfully defended his title despite an 11-9 second round loss to Chris Bartram. From there he won thirteen (yes, thirteen!) straight matches from the one-loss side to face undefeated Ralf Souquet in the finals. Along the way, Mika defeated Thorsten Hohmann, Steve Moore, Rodney Morris, Lee Van Corteza and Donnie Mills. But his job wasn't finished yet, and let's face it, a $40,000 purse is a pretty good motivator...

Formidable opponent Ralf Souquet took a quicker route to the finals with wins over Huidje See, Stevie Moore, Bartram, Corteza, and Donnie Mills, but the final was a well-matched display of awesome 9-Ball action. Mika took an early 4-2 lead in the race to thirteen, but Ralf stayed on his heels, then passed up his opponent, leading 7-4.

But fans knew not to count Immonen out, not yet. The worm turned, and it was Mika on top again, leading 10-7. Ralf fought back to 10-10, but that would be his last hurrah. Mika Immonen pulled away 12-10, then won the game, match and title with an impressive 1-9 carom!

On hand to see the battle was the U.S. Open's only other repeat champion, BCA Hall of Famer Nick Varner, who was on hand for the BCA Hall of Fame banquet earlier in the week that saw Allison Fisher and Johnny Archer enter the esteemed Hall of history.

Runner-up Ralf Souquet took home $15,000 for his runner-up finish. Donnie Mills and Lee Van Corteza rounded out the top four finishers. This marked the 34th running of the U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships, pool's longest running professional event. Congrats to promoter Barry Behrman and his ace staff for putting another one in the record books!

Action has been fast and furious at the 34th running of the U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships. With sixteen tables in constant play from the best men players in the world, the fans have been enjoying the best 9-Ball in the world!

Alive on the one loss side are victims of single losses so far, including greats Johnny Archer, Earl Strickland, Charlie Williams, Corey Deuel, Darren Appleton, and defending champ Mika Immonen! Knocked out earlier this evening was one of the pre-event favorites, Thorsten Hohmann, who went down to Immonen. Other early knockouts include former US Open champ John Schmidt, Ronnie Alcano, Gabe Owen, Shawn Putnam and Jeremy Jones.

Still undefeated players include (though a few matches are ongoing at this printing):
Jose Parica
Karl Boyes
Demetrius Jelatis
Donnie Mills
Rodney Morris
Kim Davenport
Scott Higgins
Imran Majid
Lee Van Corteza
Chris Bartrum
Jeremy Sossei

For full ongoing results with brackets and real time scoring, CLICK HERE!