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Mike Lebrón
Miguel Benjamin Lebrón-Laboy (born March 31, 1934, Yabucoa, Puerto Rico), is a Puerto Rican professional pool player nicknamed "Spanish Mike". Lebrón currently lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and actively competes at various pocket billiards events. Professional career Lebrón is the winner of the thirteenth edition of the U.S. Open 9-ball Championship. Lebrón won the title against Nick Varner in 1988 and is the only Puerto Rican-born professional pool player to win a major title. He is also the oldest pool player to have ever won the US Open 9-Ball Championship at the age of 54 years old. In 1991, Lebrón won the International Challenge of Champions defeating Buddy Hall in the final match. Lebrón won $50,000, which was the largest first place prize in a pool tournament at the time. On February 19, 2006, in his hometown of Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, Lebrón was inducted into the Yabucoa Sports Hall of Fame (''Pabellón de la Fama del Deporte Yabucoeño''). The induction ce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
US Open Nine-ball Championship
The U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship is an annual professional men's nine-ball pool tournament that began in its current form in 1976. The U.S. Open is one of the most sought-after titles in nine-ball and in pool generally. Traditionally, winners of the U.S. Open are given a green blazer and are awarded free entry fees to all future U.S. Open tournaments. The Women's U.S. Open is a separate event, sanctioned by the Women's Professional Billiard Association (WPBA). History In its first official edition in 1976, the U.S. Open was contested by just 16 players. Over the years, the number of participants steadily increased, reaching its current level of 256 players. The tournament is an open to men, women and wheelchair users, making it a true "open" tournament, in that the only requirement to play in the event is the payment of the entry fee. The total purse for the tournament is $300,000, where the winner is awarded $50,000. The tournament's original venue was Q-Master Billiards ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yabucoa
Yabucoa () is a town and municipality in Puerto Rico located in the eastern region, north of Maunabo; south of San Lorenzo, Las Piedras and Humacao; and east of Patillas. Yabucoa is spread over 9 barrios and Yabucoa Pueblo (the downtown area and the administrative center of the city). It is part of the San Juan-Caguas-Guaynabo Metropolitan Statistical Area. Etymology and nicknames The name ''Yabucoa'' is said to come from the Taíno name ''Guaroca'', both a toponymic and personal name meaning "where water s found. However this is considered a folk etymology and other linguists suggest the name is most likely a Spanish interpretation of the Taíno word ''yaucoa'' (similar to the name Yauco) which means "cassava plantation". Some nicknames of the city are "Sugar City", after the numerous sugarcane plantations of the Yabucoa Valley, and ''Pueblo de Yuca'' ("Yuca Town") which references the Taíno origin of the name of the town. The locals are also known as the ''Bebe Leche ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated territories of the United States, unincorporated territory of the United States. It is located in the northeast Caribbean Sea, approximately southeast of Miami, Florida, between the Dominican Republic and the United States Virgin Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, and includes the eponymous main island and several smaller islands, such as Isla de Mona, Mona, Culebra, Puerto Rico, Culebra, and Vieques, Puerto Rico, Vieques. It has roughly 3.2 million residents, and its Capital city, capital and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, most populous city is San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan. Spanish language, Spanish and English language, English are the official languages of the executive branch of government, though Spanish predominates. Puerto Rico ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WPA World Nine-ball Championship
The WPA World Nine-ball Championship is an annual professional nine-ball pool tournament contested since 1990. The championship is sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) and principally sponsored and organised by Matchroom Sport, who provide the event's official website branded as World Pool Championship. The championship is divided into men's, women's and wheelchair divisions. History In the summer of 1989, the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) began plans for a world championship tournament. The group sent invitations, rules, sports regulations and by-laws. Reception was positive, and a provisional Board was created. In March 1990, the inaugural WPA World Nine-ball Championship was held in Bergheim, Germany. The playing field included 32 men and 16 women in separate divisions, and has since become an annual event. The event was organised solely by the WPA from this inauguration through 1999. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pocket Billiards
Pool is a classification of cue sports played on a table with six pockets along the , into which balls are deposited. "Pool billiards" is sometimes hyphenated and/or spelled with a singular "billiard". The WPA itself uses "pool-billiard" in its logo but "pool-billiards" in its legal notices. The organization compounds the words to result in an acronym of "WPA", "WPBA" having already been taken by the Women's Professional Billiards Association. Normal English grammar would not hyphenate here, and the term is actually a Germanism. A general rules booklet on pool games in general, including eight-ball, nine-ball and several others. Each specific pool game has its own name; some of the better-known include eight-ball, blackball, nine-ball, ten-ball, seven-ball, straight pool, one-pocket, and bank pool. The generic term pocket billiards is sometimes also used, and favored by some pool-industry bodies, but is technically a broader classification, including games such as snooker, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since 1854, the city has been coextensive with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the Delaware Valley, the nation's seventh-largest and one of world's largest metropolitan regions, with 6.245 million residents . The city's population at the 2020 census was 1,603,797, and over 56 million people live within of Philadelphia. Philadelphia was founded in 1682 by William Penn, an English Quaker. The city served as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony during the British colonial era and went on to play a historic and vital role as the central meeting place for the nation's founding fathers whose plans and actions in Philadelphia ultimately inspired the American Revolution and the nation's inde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pocket Billiards
Pool is a classification of cue sports played on a table with six pockets along the , into which balls are deposited. "Pool billiards" is sometimes hyphenated and/or spelled with a singular "billiard". The WPA itself uses "pool-billiard" in its logo but "pool-billiards" in its legal notices. The organization compounds the words to result in an acronym of "WPA", "WPBA" having already been taken by the Women's Professional Billiards Association. Normal English grammar would not hyphenate here, and the term is actually a Germanism. A general rules booklet on pool games in general, including eight-ball, nine-ball and several others. Each specific pool game has its own name; some of the better-known include eight-ball, blackball, nine-ball, ten-ball, seven-ball, straight pool, one-pocket, and bank pool. The generic term pocket billiards is sometimes also used, and favored by some pool-industry bodies, but is technically a broader classification, including games such as snooker, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nick Varner
Nick Varner (born May 15, 1948, in Owensboro, Kentucky) is an American pool player who was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame in 1992. Varner is a world champion and has won back to back U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships, in addition to winning the 1999 WPA World Nine-ball Championship at 51 years old. Career Nick D. Varner graduated from Tell City High School in Tell City, Indiana in 1966. Varner learned to play pool in his father's (Nick Varner) pool hall in Grandview, Indiana. After graduating from high school, Varner gained notoriety on the professional pool scene after he won two ACU-I Intercollegiate Championships while attending Purdue University and playing "money games" at an on campus pool room called "The Hole". A cliché given to Varner was "Speak softly and carry a big stick" because of the way he conducted himself as well as his competitive endeavors. In 1989, Varner became only the second man to Mike Sigel, to earn over $100,000 in prize winn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Challenge Of Champions
The International Challenge of Champions is an annual nine-ball pool tournament held at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut. It has always been broadcast on ESPN and is sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association. As of 2009, four invited notable players compete in this single-elimination event. Different from other pool tournaments, this is a winner-take-all event: The winner earns the entire purse of the division (men's or women's); in 2009, the men's-division pot was US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...25,000. Winners of either division earn the title "Champion of Champions". Format Promoters describe the geared-for-television event as "international champions ... battling in short, sudden-death shootouts with pressure-cooker formats". Each mat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddy Hall
Cecil P. "Buddy" Hall (born May 29, 1945, in Metropolis, Illinois) has been an American professional pool player for four decades and is considered one of the best nine-ball players of all time. The International Pool Tour heralds Hall as a "living pool legend." He is nicknamed "The Rifleman" for his accuracy and had been a consistent top 5 ranking player on the professional pro tour from the 1970s for almost two decades. Many players and pundits consider him to be one of the most fundamentally solid 9-Ball players of all time. Hall has the unique ability to shoot pool both left-handed and right-handed. An article written that was originally in "The Snap Magazine" issued that: "I remember when Luther Lassiter was considered the best pool player in the world, and I talked to him once about Buddy. He said that even as good as he (Luther) played 9-ball, he'd never play Buddy straight up." Hall has been credited for creating the "clock system" which is a technique for where to hit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Pool Tour
The International Pool Tour was a professional sports tour created in 2005 by Kevin Trudeau and hosted by Rebecca Grant. It aimed to elevate pool to the level of other modern sports. Closely modeled on the PGA Tour, the IPT offered the largest prize funds in pool history in its first year. The tour attracted the top pool players in the world. It differed from the many nine-ball tournaments, as all IPT events were eight-ball matches. The company was based in Hinsdale, Illinois. Many pool enthusiasts were initially skeptical, but the first event was successful, and at the time was the biggest tournament in billiards history. However, by the end of 2006, the tour was in serious financial trouble, and was forced to stop staging major tournaments. Events *The first IPT event was held at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was an exhibition match between Mike Sigel and LoreeJon Jones in 2005. For their participation, Sigel (winner) won $150,000 and Jones (loser) won $75,000. The p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earl Strickland
Earl Strickland (born June 8, 1961) is an American professional pool player who is considered one of the best nine-ball players of all time. He has won over 100 championship titles and three world titles. In 2006 he was inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame. He is also known as one of the sport's most controversial players for his outspoken views and his sometimes volatile behavior at tournaments. Career Strickland started playing pool at the age of 8. After intensive practice, he entered his first professional tournament aged 16. Strickland rose to national prominence in 1983 with a victory in Caesars Tahoe Pro Billiard Classic defeating Steve Mizerak in the finals and winning $25,000. This was followed in 1984 by winning the McDermott Masters 9-Ball Championship. According to sources, Strickland played "like a polished gem." He was beginning to be a dominant force on the tournament trail and recognized as a future world champion. He had the "skill, e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
