8-Ball
By Jerry Forsyth
Shane Van Boening has won the US Open 8-Ball Title by defeating Carlo Biado 13-11 in the finals at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Van Boening arrived in the finals unscathed, never having been defeated on his trip through the charts. Carlo Biado had been on a roll of his own, defeating two-time World Champion Jia-Qing Wu 8-6. but he ran into another hot hand in the form of Jayson Shaw and very quickly found himself nearly snowballed at 8-.1. The drama for Biado had only begun to unfold. His first opponent on the one-loss side was none other than his friend and respected elder player Francisco Bustamante. The two countrymen fought it out to a squeaker with Biado sliding through 8-7. Biado then had to get past both Sean Cheng and Warren Kiamco to progress. He dispatched them both with the identical scores of 8-6. All of that work just to have to face the man who had sent him left again as he had to take on Jayson Shaw as Shaw had lost to Walter Cheng 8-2. Shaw, who had so dominated the first meeting of the two, never had a chance to breathe. Biado got his revenge in style with an 8-2 thrashing. He then had to face Walter Cheng to see who would get the final shot at Shane Van Boening. Many westerners are not familiar with Cheng. He is a former Taiwanese 9-Ball and 10-Ball National Champion. All week he had been making any ball he could see. As we had seen throughout the tournament the break would play a huge role in the outcome of the match. Successful break shots lead to run outs. When Cheng broke dry in the fourth rack Biado turned on all the burners and soon led 3-1. Biado then broke and ran the next rack to lead by three at 4-1. Cheng scratched on the next break. Biado cashed again; 5-1. But hope was not lost for Cheng. Biado was on his way out in rack seven when he blew his shape and gave up ball in hand to Cheng. Cheng took that rack and then broke and ran the next to bring us to 5-3 for Biado.