Buruk Hashas Dominates 3 Cushion USAs Grand Slam Event

Buruk Hashas

3 Cushion USA was back at the Quechan Casino & Resort in Yuma, Arizona over the week of May 18th – 24th with $10,000 in added prize money. While the field included most of the regular 3 Cushion USA players, it was a new competitor from Turkey who was drawing all of the attention. 

Nineteen year old Buruk Hashas dominated the events Open Division and then teamed up with John Guldali to win the Scotch Doubles event. 

Hashas came out of Group A in the Open Division with a group record of 4-1, having only dropped a match to Javier Teran (30-26) in 20 innings. That was enough to make Hashas the top player from his group. Joining him as other Group top seeds were Pedro Piedrabuena, Hugo Patino and Jesus Campas.

Teran eliminated Patino in the quarterfinals 35-13, but then lost to Hashas in the semis with a score of 35-20. The other semi-final match saw Vicki Pineda defeat Piedrabuena 35-17. The final match was another 35-20 victory for Hashas for first place. 

Handicap Division WinnerHarry Pena

The B Championship and Handicapped division both had similar stories for the winners. 

Antonio Maldonado came out of his B Championship group with a 4-3 record, earning him the #10 seed overall. When the event switched to single elimination, Maldonado turned up his level of play and defeated the #2 (Javier Garcia), #3 (Ricardo Hernandez) and #7 seeds (Bernie Pettipiece) in his way to the finals, where he defeated #9 seed Gustavo Leal. 

The Handicapped division saw Harry Pena emerge from his Group with a 4-3 record, making him the #20 seed in the final twenty four players. Notable single elimination wins for Pena included #1 seed (Young Ha Choi), #4 seed (Raymundo Munoz), #5 seed (Hashas) and #13 seed (Pettipiece) in his way to the finals. 

Joining Pena in the finals was #23 seed Jimmy Semerci, who would settle for second place with Pena winning the event. 

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