Thanks Billiards Digest!

I was checking my blog traffic yesterday and noticed a few hits from a URL which contained the characters ‘…billiardsdigest…’ Curious, I decided to click the link to see what I would find.  Guess what?  Billiards Digest picked my blog as the best pool blog of 2011!  Yipeeee!  They also cited a friend and fellow PoolSynergy blogger Melinda Bailey’s blog as the runner-up pool blog for 2011!  Congratulations Melinda!!!!

I took a screen shot of part of the article and included the excerpt below (not sure if I’m violating any copywrite laws here, if so, let me know!)  You can read the full story at the Billiards Digest website.  Both of our blogs will be featured in the August 2011 magazine edition of Billiards Digest.  I want to say “Thanks!” to all the folks at Billiards Digest for the recognition and kind words.  This was completely unexpected.  I really do appreciate it!

U.S. Amateur Championship Qualifier Results

John Johnson and I fought a three hour battle from midnight until 3:00 am this morning to determine the winner of the Northern California qualifier of the U.S. Amateur Championship.  The championship match was a race to 11.  John won the lag and chose to break.  I chose to start with 8 ball.  We played eight games of 8 ball, and I built a 5-3 lead.  Then we switched to 9 ball, and John caught a hot streak, winning four unanswered games for a 5-7 lead.  We traded games back and forth until the score was 8-9, then John won the last two for an 8-11 finish.  Congrats John on your victory, and best wishes at the nationals in November!

Here are the final standings from last night.
1.  John Johnson from Stanford, CA
2. Michael Reddick from San Jose, CA
3. Eric Harada from San Jose, CA
4. Clint Palaci from San Diego, CA