Stefano Pelinga
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Stefano Pelinga (born May 1964) is an Italian professional pool (pocket billiards) player from
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. He is best known as a multi-year international artistic pool champion, as both an individual and team captain. He has also served as an officer for the '' Polizia di Stato'' (Italy's national police) for 27 years, retiring from police work in 2011, then moving to
Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
to play pool full-time. Pelinga has served as a board member of the International Artistic Poolplayers Association (IAPA). He was the featured player on the cover of the May 2010 issue of ''Billiards Digest'' magazine, which named him one of the world's best trick shot artists. He has been nicknamed "Mr. Trick Shots" and "''Il Maestro''" ("The Master"). Aside from competition, Pelinga performs
exhibitions An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery An art gallery is a roo ...
, organizes competitions and raises funds for a variety of charitable organizations with his personal appearances. He was invited to tour in the USA with Paul Gerni, Norway's Lars Riiber, and Japan's Yoshikazu Kimura, and nominated by Paul Gerni for a spot on ESPN's Trick Shot Magic, where he has been featured for over ten years. He won two Trick Shot Magic events, in 2005 and 2007, after a few second places. In addition to having won several international titles, Pelinga has also produced a series of instructional videos, and he was appointed on January 31, 2000, as official instructor of
cue sports Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions of ...
by the
Italian Federation of Billiard Sports Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
(FIBiS) and the
Italian National Olympic Committee The Italian National Olympic Committee ( it, Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano, CONI), founded in 1914 and a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), is responsible for the development and management of sports activity in Italy. ...
(CONI). He was also awarded the honorary title of Professor of Sport Games by the University of Kharkiv (Ukraine). Pelinga has a large repertoire of trick shots and is able to execute over 1,000 unique and "fancy" shots. He is recognized as one of the greatest trick shot champions in the history of the sport, and has earned a spot in ESPN's ''Trick Shot Magic'' Hall of Fame. In 2012, Pelinga was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame. Pelinga is represented by (and in turn represents, as co-founder and Western & International Executive Manager) the booking agent Billiards Superstars Promotions, who also represent
Paul Gerni Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...
, Allison Fisher,
Mike Massey Michael Massey (born April 9, 1947), professionally known as Mike Massey, is an American professional pool player From 1989 to 1991 he served as a contributing editor of ''The Snap Magazine''. Massey was born in Loudon, Tennessee, and for several ...
,
Ewa Laurance Ewa Laurance (formerly Ewa Mataya, February 26, 1964) is a Swedish professional pool player, most notably on the Women's Professional Billiard Association nine-ball tour, a sports writer, and more recently a sports commentator for ESPN. In 2004 ...
and other top pool pros.


Early life

Pelinga began to play pool at age 12, drawing inspiration from his favorite singer and actor,
Dean Martin Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor and comedian. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed "The King of Cool". M ...
, whom he emulates in various parts of his life. He has also stated and exhibited his Dean Martin memorabilia collection, which includes "every applicable book and record album, plus publicity photos, newspaper and magazine clippings, novelty statuettes, comic books, and even a copy of Dino's death certificate." He also cites
Paul Gerni Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...
,
Mike Massey Michael Massey (born April 9, 1947), professionally known as Mike Massey, is an American professional pool player From 1989 to 1991 he served as a contributing editor of ''The Snap Magazine''. Massey was born in Loudon, Tennessee, and for several ...
and Yoshikazu Kimura as influences. While he was a teenager, he "became a black belt in Kung Fu and then...switched to boxing...for several years." During his years in
university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
, he focused his studies on foreign languages, specifically English. Pelinga began serving as a police officer in the beginning of 1985. He became a member of the Polizia di Stato (Italian Federal Police) for the
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region after six months of police training. A part of the ''
Reparto volanti The Reparto volanti ("Mobile Division"), that dispatch the various Squadre Volanti (mobile squads or flying squad (lit.)), is a section of the ''Ufficio Prevenzione Generale e Soccorso Pubblico'' (Office of General Prevention and Public Aid) of ...
'' group, he continued to serve even while pursuing his billiards career until 2011, when he retired from police work with
pension A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...
.


Pro pool career

Pelinga won several national titles in Italy in
straight pool Straight pool, which is also called 14.1 continuous and 14.1 rack, is a cue sport in which two competing players attempt to as many billiard balls as possible without playing a . The game was the primary version of pool played in professional ...
and
nine-ball Nine-ball (sometimes written 9-ball) is a discipline of the cue sport pool. The game's origins are traceable to the 1920s in the United States. It is played on a rectangular billiard table with at each of the four corners and in the middle of e ...
throughout the late 1970s and 1980s and began traveling around Italy giving exhibitions under the sponsorship of Longoni Cues. In 1990, he asked Longoni if he would be allowed to meet Paul Gerni on his arrival at the airport in Rome, and that was their first meeting, Gerni's exhibition and TV documentary, and personal training from Gerni during that tour first got Pelinga interested in artistic pool, the formalized practice of trick shots. After speaking with Gerni and acting as his translator, Pelinga explained his interest in learning to become a professional trick shot artist. Gerni, in response, had Pelinga accompany him on a tour throughout the United States as a pseudo-apprenticeship. In 2003, he won the U.S. Open of Artistic Pool in New Bedford, Massachusetts, followed by another major title, the EPBF European Artistic Pool Championship in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2004. In 2005 and 2007, Pelinga won the prestigious ESPN Trick Shot Magic title. In 2006, he competed in the first annual trans-Atlantic World Cup of Trick Shots, as captain of Team Europe, who lost to Team USA that year; his team won in 2007. In 2008, Pelinga competed in the second annual Showdown in Seoul, playing against World Three-cushion Billiards Champion from Turkey,
Semih Saygıner Semih Saygıner (born on November 12, 1964), nicknamed Mr. Magic or The Turkish Prince, is a Turkish people, Turkish world champion professional carom billiards player specialized in three-cushion billiards, three-cushion event. Family life Se ...
in both artistic pool and
artistic billiards Artistic billiards, sometimes called fantasy billiards or fantaisie classique, is a carom billiards discipline in which players compete at performing 76 preset shots of varying difficulty. Each set shot has a maximum point value assigned for perfec ...
. On October 29, 2009, he was a part of the fourth World Cup of Trick Shots on Team Europe, in which he and his team lost to their American counterparts. His European team won again in 2010 and 2011. He organized a "''World Legends of Artistic Pool''" event" in
Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
in 2006 to showcase trick shots, with the participation of the greatest contemporary trick shot champions. On November 17, 2012, Pelinga was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame (NIASHF), based in Chicago, Illinois, becoming the second pool player in the history of the organization to be inducted, after Willie Mosconi. Soon after Pelinga launched on the market his successful invention, the "Cloth Shield," a thin layer of indestructible plastic that preserves the pool table cloth when players practice jump and masse shots. In April 2022, Stefano published an autobiographical/instructional book titled "Bringing the House Down."


Titles and achievements

* 2012 Inductee, National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame * 2011 ESPN World Cup of Trick Shots Champions, Team Europe (Captain) * 2010 ESPN World Cup of Trick Shots Champions, Team Europe (Captain) * 2009 ESPN World Cup of Trick Shots Runners-up, Team Europe (Captain) * 2007 ESPN World Cup of Trick Shots Champions, Team Europe (Captain) * 2007 ESPN Trick Shot Magic Champion * 2005 ESPN Trick Shot Magic Champion * 2004 European Artistic Pool Champion * 2003 U.S. Open Champion, Trick Shot Division * 2003 WPA World Artistic Pool Championship Runner-up * 2002 World Champion, Massé Shots * 2002 World Champion, Jump Shots * 2002 World Champion, Prop & Novelty Shots * 2002 ESPN Trick Shot Magic Runner-up * 2001 ESPN Trick Shot Magic Runner-up * 2001 European Artistic Pool Runner-up * 2000 ESPN Trick Shot Magic 3rd Place * 1984 of 179 balls in straight pool * 18 times National Trick Shot Champion, Italy (1991–2010)


Works

* ''The Magic of Trick Shots'', Instructional VHS Video, 1999 * ''Ultimate Trick Shots'', Instructional DVD, Volumes I & II, 2005 * ''Amazing Trick Shots Made Easy'', Instructional DVD, 2007 * ''More Amazing Trick Shots Made Easy'', Instructional DVD, 2007 * ''Even More Amazing Trick Shots Made Easy'', Instructional DVD, 2007 * ''Cloth Shield'', Felt Protector, 2015 * ''Bringing the House Down'', Autobiography/Instructional Book, 2022


References

* ''The Break'', April, 2006 * ''Corriere dello Sport'' (Italian daily newspaper), November 23, 2005 * ''Il Tempo'' (Italian daily newspaper), November 20, 2005 * ''Billiards Digest'', June, 2005 * ''La Voce: The Voice of Las Vegas'', Vol. 4, No. 1, 2004 * ''академия'' (Akademia - Ukrainian monthly magazine), November, 2003 * ''фАКТЬІ'' (Fakti - Ukrainian daily newspaper), July 21, 2003 * ''Billiard Info'' (Czech monthly magazine), September, 1999


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pelinga, Stefano Italian pool players Trick shot artists World champions in pool Cue sports executives Italian sports agents Italian police officers Living people 1964 births Sportspeople from Rome