Souquet, Basavich Confirmed For Planet Pool Pre-US Open Warm-Up

With less than a week to go, the 64-player field for the 10th annual "official" pre-U.S. Open warm-up tournament has been filled. This two-day event, held September 4-5, the weekend immediately preceding the U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships in Chesapeake, VA, is being hosted by John Moody at his beautiful new room, Great Slates, in Cambridge, MD, for the second year running (it was previously held at his old room, Action Billiards/Breaktime Sports Bar & Grill in Salisbury). This prestigious tournament always manages to draw some of the top names in pool. Players see it as a great way to get in stroke en route to the Open.

Last year, such notables as Francisco Bustamante, Johnny Archer, and Nick Varner graced it with their presence. Mika Immonen played in it the year he won the U.S. Open. Karen Corr beat him there two years later. This year will be no different as far as player caliber is concerned. Earl Strickland, Ralf Souquet, Allen Hopkins, Danny "Kid Delicious" Basavich, Young Hwa Jeong, and Frankie Hernandez are among the players who will fight it out for the $7,300 prize fund.

The 64-player limited field was filled with two weeks to go, which is always a near-impossible task to accomplish for pool tournaments. Formerly co-hosted by the National Nine Ball Tour and the Joss Northeast Tour (2003), this event is being presented by the Planet Pool 9-Ball Tour this year. Planet Pool stepped in after the disappointing 46-player showing the previous year.

"We are proud to be finally hosting this event again. We have been working hard to get sixty-four pre-paid entries so that we can start early o­n Saturday in order to get the tournament done so that players can get to Chesapeake o­n Sunday," commented Nick Prinsloo, executive director of the Planet Pool Tour. Getting it wrapped up in time for U.S. Open players to get to the players' meeting o­n Sunday evening is quite a challenge, since the tournament is played o­n 10 tables and Chesapeake is about 2 1/2 hours away.

The Planet Pool 9-Ball Tour is in their fifth year as the major regional pro-am tour in the Washington, DC, metro and surrounding areas. Arguably the most successful tour of its kind, it has sported several fields in excess of 100 players this year, including an amazing 147 at their year-opener. Their most recent event in Rockville, MD, drew 104 players, and that in the middle of summer when participation is normally at its lowest. More than 380 players have played o­n the tour so far this year.

For more information regarding the Planet Pool 9-Ball Tour and the pre-U.S. Open warm-up event, go to http://www.planet-pool.com.

For information about Great Slates, go to http://www.greatslates.com.

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