We're back! After a short hiatus last year, Planet Pool, the promoters that brought you The Tiger Pool Tour are back in the game with a new look and a new format that is sure to be a crowd pleaser. When asked about the hiatus Tour Owner Cecilia Strain commented "The rooms were struggling through the recession, the players weren't making back enough money to offset their costs for coming to events and the sponsors had seen a decline in sales. Taking the year off was the responsible thing to do, and it gave us the opportunity to re-group and put together what we think will truly be a winning combination for everyone involved."

Planet Pool has been successfully providing pool tournaments to the Maryland, DC, and Virginia area for over ten years, so what's new for this year? The tour is combining its efforts with a new title sponsor, Allen Hopkins and his new cue line Triniti Cues. The marketing and design efforts of Allen Hopkins Jr., also of Triniti Cues, Run-Out Sportswear and Fluid Designs, in collaboration make the new tour a winning trio. The tour will be hosting an array of events, beginning with the Triniti Turbo 9-ball events. The new format for the Triniti Turbo event is a run-off from the warm-up event that was held at Allen Hopkins Super Billiards Expo. It's very similar to the style of a survivor format poker tournament. One out of every eight players cashes in the event, if you win three matches you win cash. The turbo events are fast, economical, and allow for a larger field size. Each event will be a one day event with a $45 entry fee (no additional membership fees), one in eight players leave the same day with $320 in cash. Once the field is down to the final bracket, a second chance event will begin with a $35 entry fee. One out of eight players from the second chance event walks away with $240. The turbo events will also no longer have a straight race to nine format, pulling from many other sports and the Super Billiards Expo events, the turbo events format will be best of three sets, with each set being a race to three, with an alternating break.

Cecilia Strain went on to comment about this exciting change in format for Planet Pool by saying, "I've worked with Allen at the Super Billiards Expo for the last couple of years. He came to me before the Expo with the idea for this new format and asked that I direct the event as a warm-up event. It was a phenomenal idea. Even though we only expected a small field for this first time event, we ended up with 296 players. It seemed like the perfect solution to so many issues. With the players' reaction to this new format being greater than expected, it sparked something in me. Allen has always strived to do more for the billiards industry, and with this concept and my tour he could achieve that. Several conversations later the idea just took off."

The tour won't be completely leaving the original two-day double elimination format. Aside from the Triniti Turbo events, approximately every two to three months the tour will be holding what is to be known as "Super Triniti" events. The first of which will be a 64 player $10,000 guaranteed prize pool event. Players who are participating in any of the turbo events will have the opportunity to sign up for the larger 64 player double elimination event. When asked about the collaborative effort, Allen Hopkins replied "The poker world has seen a huge success with the survivor format, and it's just clear to me that the pool world can take a few lessons from their playbook. This is the kind of event that will allow players to win money week to week instead of just barely breaking even. Ceci has always been extremely professional and is appreciated by the players for her directing capabilities. We're both big fans of pool and poker, it just seems like a perfect opportunity for billiards."

"The unsung hero here is Allen Hopkins Jr., he created the fantastic new logo and has put in so much effort with the branding and marketing of the new tour. I really couldn't have done it without him. As the designer for Triniti Cues, Allen was able to come up with a hot new look that really speaks to the new format and design of the tour." added Cecilia.

The first two tour events will be hosted on June 12th and June 13th at Orange Ball Billiards in Rockville, MD. The first Super Triniti event will also be hosted at Orange Ball Billiards in late September.

We've been busy! We'll be working on this website during the next month. Stay tuned!
The Triniti Tour is coming...

Michael Ricciardella along with RE/MAX Pros-Carl Stein, KH Funding-Bob Harris, Orange Ball Billiards, Tiger Billiard Tour & Planet Pool is doing the Annual Children's Hospital Billiards Fund Raiser on October 24-25 at Orange Ball Billiards in Rockville. This year we are raising money for Children's Hospital in D.C. and for Rockville Fire and Rockville City Police Dept.

This is an opportunity to see some of the best billiard players in the U.S. play. This is the weekend after the Billiard U.S. Open in VA Beach so we usually have 10-15 top men pro players and 3-4 top lady players in the tournament. There will be an Open Event for Pro/Am to play, a ladies event and a Free Entry Kids Event.

There are sponsor opportunities available for you or your business. Call Michael for opportunities at 301 928-4191.

Scott Tollefson

The 2009 season is underway as the year opener took place Apr 18th/19th at Orange Ball Billiards in Rockville, MD. A strong field of 83 players signed up for the $1000 added event made possible by Orange Ball, Tiger Products and the tour sponsors.

There were plenty of new faces joining the tour regulars for this event. Scott Tollefson joined the tour last year and immediately established himself by winning his first event. This year he started out with an uneventful Saturday advancing easily with wins over Saif Muhsen 9-4, Mark Andrews 9-1 and Rocky Guell 9-6. Newcomer to the tour, Bobby Chamberlain lost a first round match with Shane Jackson. Tour regular Daniel Madden finished his Saturday with a thrilling 9-8 win over Jackson. Joining Tollefson and Madden in the final 8 winner side were Manuel Orino, Jeff Adams, Roger Riley, Chuck Curro, Richard Nace Jr and Ryan McCreesh. 8 players remained in the one-loss bracket.

On Sunday, Madden and Tollefson advanced to the hot seat match with little trouble. Tollefson remained undefeated with a 9-6 win over Madden. The elimination bracket held a little more interest with loads of previous tour event champions battling it out. Tour founder Danny Green took out 2007 Player of the Year Shaun Wilkie but then fell soon afterwards to Manuel Chau.

Assistant tournament director Andy Lincoln defeated Matt Clatterbuck 7-6 and Jeff Adams 7-3 before meeting up with Bobby Chamberlain. Chamberlain had been on a tear after losing his first match on Saturday rolling off 7 uncontested victories. A quick 7-1 win over Lincoln and a close 7-6 win with Ryan McCreesh put Chamberlain and Chau into a fan favorite match. Chamberlain escaped with a 7-6 win placing Chau into the 4th spot. A 7-2 win over Madden put Chamberlain into the single set race to 11 finals with Tollefson.

The undefeated Tollefson had been keeping loose all afternoon waiting for an opponent. He took an early lead and kept the score on his side most of the match. Chamberlain fought back to take a 9-8 lead. When Tollefson returned to the table, he made the most of it closing out the match 11-9. 1st paid $1150 with $750 for 2nd.