The illustrious list of winners of the title of 3-cushion billiards world champion has been enriched by a completely new name. Phuong Vinh Bao, until recently a totally unknown billiard player from Vietnam, grabbed the 2023 world three cushion billiard title at the tournament held in Ankara, Turkey.
In a demonstration of skill and class, Tayfun Tasdemir has won the 2022 UMB 3-cushion world title. In Donghae City, South-Korea, he defeated Ruben Legazpi in a one-sided final: 50-14 in 15/14 innings. For Turkiye, it had been a nineteen-year wait since Semih Sayginer was world champion in 2003.
Pedro Piedrabuena defeated long-time rival and former champion Miguel Torres to win his 11th USBA 3-Cushion National Championship title.
His play throughout the event was nearly perfect and included an incredible come-from-behind victory against Kang Lee in the penultimate Semi-final round.
In France, Korea’s Kim Haeng-jik fell just short of a world championship
Even though he just missed in the finals of the 2016 UMB World Championship, Haeng-Jik Kim (or Kim Haeng-Jik as is preferred in the Asian press) is still recognized as the leading player from Korea. Here is a wonderful article that appeared in the online news site Korea JoongAng Daily about his life and his future in billiards.
Every room has this guy, the player who habitually scores the inadvertent shot. Usually a banger, sometimes a beginner, this guy specializes in the kiss, the double kiss, the long back up, the wrong rail that somehow turns out right. He plays a shot one way that misses and scores coming back. He plays a two-way shot that misses both ways and someway scores a third way. At West End Arcade and Billiards in Elizabeth, New Jersey, a room that is now closed, that guy was Mike D’Martino. And after years of torment, the 3-C players named a lucky shot after him, a “Mikey D.,” they would say. As in, “We were hill-hill, and then he made a Mikey D.”
Wayman Crow McCreery (June 14, 1851 – ??? 1901) a prominent citizen of St. Louis, was highly regarded as one of the foremost billiard amateurs in the late 1800's. McCreery is credited with the invention and development of three-cushion billiards as a separate and distinct discipline for tournament and competitive match-play.