American Pool: 9-Ball Eurotour Germany

It's that time again and I can feel the excitement already building. When I wake up on the Monday morning of the week of a Eurotour event, I already start to get that same exciting feeling we used to get when we were kids on the night before Christmas. This event is going to be particular fun, as I'm planning to do a few interviews with top players and post them in our blog. It could be interesting to know what Tony Drago thinks of his mum's cooking, for example... or what Raj Hundal keeps hidden under his bandana... or how did Oliver Ortmann end up with such a strange cue action?

It's one of my favorite venues for a Eurotour in a pool club in Sindelfingen. The atmosphere there is always great because unlike a lot of the new Eurotour venues that are hotels, this event is still held in a pool club/bar and all the players hanging out waiting to play and watching are at the bar making for a much more exciting atmosphere.

Who's your money on for this event? Well... as always with 9-ball, it's anyone's guess, but you are usually safe to put a bob or two on the fact that players such as Ortmann, Souquet, Van den Berg, Peach, Chamat, Immonen, Homan and Engert... are all likely to play a part in the later stages.

Defending champion Harold Stolka will have it all to do to hold on to his 630 points from last year and avoid a large fall down the rankings. Ortmann finished 2nd last year so he will also be hoping for a good result to hang on to his top spot on the ranking list. With less than 400 points separating the top 8, it is gonna be exciting to see who the movers and shakers will be this year. Along with Ortmann, Feijen is also defending big points and failure to qualify for the last 32 by either of these two would open things right up.

Only 3 days to go now until it gets underway. Don't forget that the TV table will be shown live on bwin.com throughout the tournament and that the semi finals and final will be televised on Eurosport at a later date.