Interpool Open

Ok, it's been more or less two weeks since my last blog, embarrassing. My apologies.

Anyways, here I am and I'm about to play the Interpool Open here in the city of Gavle, Sweden.

One of the owners of Interpool Bar&Billiard is my good friend, Marcus Chamat. It's definitely one
of the nicest rooms I have ever been to. Great ambience, nice bar, good location in the
heart of the city. The city itself is a quick 1 hour train ride from Stockholm's Arlanda
airport. Oh, I forgot to mention, the food at Interpool is amazing!

The tournament itself is the Swedish version of the Blackpool Open that I reported about
in my last blog. Over a hundred players have signed up, and among them are also some
Pro's like me, Marcus, Niels Feijen and Raj Hundal. I expect the best players from Sweden
will show up as well as some from Norway and Finland, as they are the neighboring countries.

After this I will head back to USA, namely the west coast. The Las Vegas pool extravaganza is
just around the corner.

I hope you all had a nice spring time, it's about time we get some nice weather in!


ICEMAN

I hope this doesn't get old for you... but I just won another tournament!!!

Hehee... Well it was about time. meaning I finally beat Niels Feijen after God knows how many times?

Last year in this exact tournament he bageled me 7-0. Now I beat him 7-3. I think I am scaring the crap out
of all the ghosts if there was any left. It is nice to settle some old scores, eh?

Ok, so here is the dirty details:

Name of the Tournament: HCP Blackpool Open

Where: Jarvenpaa, FInland. a suburb of Helsinki about 45 min away by car. Train take s half hour.

Format: Handicapped (from 0 up to 4) races to 7 all the way.

This time we were 2-3 players shy of a 100.

Naturally all the best players in Finland showed up. International flavor was added by Niels and Marcus Chamat.

The final 32 route was following: Marcus Chamat, Marko Makkonen, Markus juva, Marko Lohtander, Niels Feijen.

I gotta say... I didn't play that great preliminary rounds but towards the end I shaped up. By the time it was finals, I was in dead punch.

I know it sounds kocky, but it is what it is. Well its a bit biased, you know.


Anyways, thats it for now. I got lazy, At least I am honest.


PS. don't be surprised if I wake up and read this and make some editions. I think I need a second opinion, but must sleep on it first. lol ( hate saying lol too but what the heck, sometimes it works)


ICEMAN

I won the Joss tournament at Raxx

Holden Chin hosted this event at his room, the Raxx in Long Island.

I had tough matches earlier including Tom McGonagle (9-8) 4th round
and Joey Korsiak (9-7) for the "hot seat".

In the finals I faced Dave Grau who had just eliminated Dennis Hatch
and Joey Korsiak.

I ran out the first rack, and after winning the safety battle in the
second rack I broke and ran 4 more. So it was 6-0 very quickly.

I was pretty smooth all the way in the finals with 0 unforced errors.

Final score: 9-3

by the way, check out www.mezzusa.com for more news about Mezz cues. Join the winners circle and get a mezz:

mezzusa.com press release:

Mezz cues are showing their strength-

While Mika snapped off yet another Joss Tour victory, Joey Testa on the other hand has not dropped a set after starting to to use the Mezz ACE series. Testa snapped off the second consecutive Blaze win over Sunday. Combined with a PowerBreak cue with “DI” shaft Both Mika and Joey went undefeated to claim their respective titles.

Valley Forge + Joey Testa wins first tournament with Mezz Cue

Valley Forge was a bit of disappointment for me personally, I didn't do as great in the 10-ball tournament
as anticipated.

On a another level, We did great with the Mezz booth. Certainly We caught a lot of attention.

Sarah Rousey, the #3 ranked player in the womens along with my business partner and touring pro
Caroline Pao were there working the booth. Thanks to their efforts it was possible. Also our friends Jay and Linda
Offered a big helping hand.

Everybody loved the product. Hopefully next time we'll get a bigger table, so you can really let your stroke "loose".

Some of the notable visitors was Jennifer Barretta. (www.jenniferbarretta.com)
We actually ended up signing with her for a year contract. Happy to have her.

Another one was Joey Testa who ended up a happy camper with brand new tools.
Joey went ahead and won the Blaze tour the following weekend with Mezz cues, the very first tournament
he ever played with the cue. (I remember doing the same when I got my Mezz)

So things are looking up on many levels.


I will be heading to Finland for a couple of weeks and then to Sweden to play Marcus Chamats Poolroom
Tournament "Interpool open 10-ball". After that heading back to USA first week of May. Las Vegas, baby!

I hope you are having a great Spring.


ICEMAN