Another prestigious nine ball tournament is the Mosconi Cup. This always features one of the best ever players coming from Europe and the USA. It was founded after the name of the legendary pool player Willie Mosconi. This tournament was also always compared to the Ryder Cup. Competitions usually always run between the US teams and the Europeans. It started in 1994 and was held already in a variety of locations.

Their formal website features a lot of latest events and happenings about the tournament. Such includes rules and the format so that visitors and readers of the site will be well informed. There you can also get to know about the history of the tournament and its featured players.

It also has helpful links which can help a lot of people interact and share knowledge about the sport along with the sharing of other updates as well. Be heard and share your opinion at the Mosconi Cup site!

Photo via alltombiljard.nu

Held yearly, the US Open Nine Ball Championship is a tournament that started way back in 1976 in Virginia. It is a race to 11, with double elimination; on the other hand, the finals competition is a race up to 13. It is known to be the longest running pool tournament worldwide.

It is also considered one of the most popular nine ball tournament composed of 256 players trying out for the prize money. There are actually two divisions which are for the Men’s and Women’s.

If you want a little trivia about the tournament, here are the popular players who have won in it already:

Mike Lebron was the oldest player at 54 to have won a title in this event.

Mike Sigel at 21 was the youngest.

Efren Bata Reyes was the first Asian winner for a title.

Earl Strickland was the player who had the most winning with a total of 5 times.

Photo via tvali.ge

The  International Pool Tour is known to be the biggest professional pool tour in the entire history of Billiards. This was founded by Kevin Trudeau in year 2005. It also renders the largest amount of money in the Billiards history with about $8 million allotted for its initial year when it first operated in 2006.

Most of the players for the professional pool and snooker games have already participated in the tour with representations of 30 countries worldwide. It holds six primary professional pool tournaments and they also gather up qualifying tournament rounds in the pocket billiard category. This is meant to encourage the aspirants of the sport.

The IPT holds very strict rules for every player to strictly follow as well. It has already featured the following high prize money tournaments like the IPT Ultimate 8 Ball, the IPT World Open 8-Ball Championsip, the IPT World Open 8-Ball Championship and many more.

Photo via pro9.co.uk

The 9-Ball World Pool Championship is a yearly international event which is organized by the World Pool-Billiard Association. Both the Men’s and Women’s divisions are the most popular in the tournaments. For nine years, 1990 to 1999, the tournament was managed alone by the World Pool-Billiard Association or the WPA. In 1999, Matchroom Sports tried being involved in the tournament but failed to push through.

What Matchroom Sports did was to organize their own match which was called the World Professional Pool Championship, where The Magician Efren Bata Reyes emerged as the big winner of the competition. It was held in Cardiff, Wales but not sanctioned by the WPA.

When WPA the professionalism of the tournament that Matchroom Sport held, they decided to let it handle officially the WPA World Pool Championship in 2000. The tournament offers a total cash prize of $400,000 which also includes $100,000 for the receiving tournament champion.

Photo via insidepoolmag.com

CueSports International or the CSI of the billiard world truly lives up to their motto. They announced the coming BCAPL Southwest Regional Championships together with the Bad Boys Billiard Productions and Dr. Pool Promotions, Inc.
The event will transpire for 5 days from September 1 to 5, 2010 in Scottsdale Arizona at the Resort and Casino of Radisson Fort McDowell. The tournament will be offering $6,000 to all BCA Pool League Members who just joined or renewed their membership after June 1 last year; and also to non-league players with a Player Member status.

CueSports International is committed to opening more options for every player out there. It also serves as producer for various independent events like the US Bar Table Championship, the US Open 10-Ball Championship and the Jay Swanson Memorial.

You can get more information by visiting www.playbca.com for other details of the event along with the entry forms.

Photo via billiardsmagazines.com

It was clearly 3 years ago when Karl Boyes was just a regular semifinalist at the World Pool Championships. That competition was won by fellow countryman Daryl Peach. From that point in time, Boyes together with his fellow Brit cueists started bearing faith that they can truly shine in the international scene.

It was Darren Appleton who first won the World 10-Ball Championship two years ago followed by the UK team winning the World Team Championships just early this year. Add to this is Boyes’ recent winning over Dutch star Niels Feijen. This was Feijen’s comeback to claim the title in a hill-hill final of 13-12.

During the early part of the game, it was clear that Boyes was totally in control but Feijen was still able to crawl back into the game, breaking racks all over to reach 11-9. But it was Boyes’ ability to keep his nerves in check that made him win the title.

Photo via karlboyes.co.uk and pro9.co.uk

First, what is cowboy pool? Well, this hybrid pool game is simply called as the cowboy. It is a combination of English billiards and intermediary game thirty-eight but maybe you will agree with me that it is just like pocket billiards. So what can we expect from the cowboy pool? Don’t be surprised to see only four balls on the table during the game which consists of the cue ball and numbered balls 1, 3 and 5. However, this is still considered as an amateur game. The idea of the game is to reach 101 points to win. The scoring is different because it depends on the caromed and pocketed object balls. If a player made a foul during the game, he will lose all the score he had and the other player will have the control of the cue ball. The balls can also be repositioned to the starting position after being sunk. These are just few differences? Have you tried it?

pic via crestedbutteshopping.com

If you want to make a shot, you need to consider a lot of things that include gripping of a cue, appropriate posture, cue ball command, correct english and aim. But most importantly, you should not forget to consider your psychological capacity to play. Just like other aspects of life, mental attitude affects your action that needs to be synchronized to produce a desirable effect. You need to set your mind in focus to be able to concentrate on the game. If you compete in a tournament with a pre-occupied mind you won’t be able to maximize your full potential as a player. Relax and stay with a clear mind as a natural habit just like maintaining good coordination and good eyesight, and the proper mental position.

pic via harveybenge.blogspot.com

Being a pool player allows you to adjust numerous variables while shooting. These would include the setup of the balls including cue ball position, your aim when having a shot, the bridge height and distance, the speed of your stroke and even the elevation of your cue stick before you shoot. You can also alter the english or the spin that you need to apply on the cue ball. It could make your cue ball follow, draw or go to the left or right. Lastly, you can also change the extent of your follow through when you shoot. Before you make adjustments, you need to establish a repeatable stroke to be able to determine the effect of one variable to another as most of it is interdependent.

pic via adikus.com

After competing for the series of billiard championships last year, all the cue players have not bring to an end their passion for the craft and even prepare for the upcoming pool competitions ahead of time, it’s just at the top of their list. And now what awaits them has been set forth. The World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) is pleased to announce that the next World 9-Ball Championship will happen in Doha, Qatar starting June 25 until July 5, 2010. Invitations will be done according to WPA rankings and via the WPA members and should commence during the spring of 2010. Expect in the entourage the names of the top professional players like Efren Bata Reyes, Ralf Souquet, Mika Immonen, Django Bustamante, and the rest of the high profiled pool players. Qualifiers for this contest will compete from the 25^th to 27^th of June in Doha. All successful cue players will battle from June 28 for eliminations all the way to July 05 for the championship.  The prize fund for this initial appearance and in 2011 in Qatar is $250,000 and will increase to $300,000 for both 2012 and 2013.