"Million Dollar Billiard": 3-Cushion Opening Break Shot

From the 2005 Sang Lee International Open:

I organized a Million Dollar Billiard television promotion for our sponsor (Jana bottled water) where we drew from a hat a member of the audience to attempt to precisely duplicate the opening break shot of Torbjorn Blomdahl for $1,000,000. The project was researched considerably - I spent weeks prior to the event studying the break shot, calculating the theoretical odds of certain leaves with various size targets, etc. The entire scenario was fully documented and the award legally was insured and audited by a third party.

Prior to the actual event, we gave Torbjorn Blomdahl the luxury of locking on to the table by giving him the opportunity to repeatedly practice on the equipment in order to try to produce his "ideal" break shot. I hovered over and behind him during his table tests. Over and over, he used the same stroke and took the same amount of ball with each test attempt - nearly producing the same result each time. He pushed the red ball 3-rails to the middle of the table, leaving it AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE to the cue ball after scoring the point - more often than not, he produced a position for another position shot. This is what many good players do when they have a full read on a table and they feel 100% secure that they will score - rather than placing the red ball 'big' at a distance away into the far corner, they leave the red close by which leaves more options open.

Paul Frankel (Professor Q-Ball), in the lab coat, was the laser technician - officially marking Blomdahl's ball positions and precisely placing the targets. Charles Ursitti was the official judge.

In this video, with the television cameras rolling, Blomdahl hits it nearly perfectly on his first attempt. His red ball stopped about 6 inches short of his ideal position.

The subject, Paul Rubino (a fine cue maker), using a sponsor's cue, had to duplicate the World Champion's ideal break - by making the shot AND landing all the three of his balls onto the same general positions from Blomdahl's attempt (marked with circular targets). Accomplishing this would have earned him the big prize.

Paul was extremely nervous, which is entirely understandable, given the built up anticipation, the cameras, (and the suspenseful sound effects the production was "sharking" him with), etc. Incidentally, he would have won the expensive billiard cue he shot it with if he only made the point.

The promotion was a success and offered a bit of additional interest, interaction and entertainment for the spectators. 3-cushion players can study this video to see exactly how Torbjorn Blomdahl makes the perfect opening break shot.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• sang lee
• million
• dollar
• billiard
• 3-cushion
• pool
• carom
• Torbjorn
• Blomdahl
• Charles
• Ursitti
• Paul
• Frankel
• Rubino
• Ira Lee
• Jana
• $1000000 billiard

[3cusion]

Nice hair cut~

[iralee3c]

@3cusion Thanks james.... its my new look ;)

[3cusion]

Ira, you're in the video!!!

Looking very ...GOOD!

ha ha ha

[iralee3c]

@3cusion Thanks :)

[relnejem]

This is really hard WTF

[trisnjok]

can you say where does Blomdahl contact the cue ball when playing the shot?