A champion in the house

Mazin Shooni was born in Baghdad, Iraq, and came to Detroit with his family when he was five. By twelve he was tagging along with his dad to the local pool halls, watching Detroit's best players and soaking up every shot. His four older brothers all became doctors. Mazin chose the table.

He found three-cushion as a teenager, after watching legends George Ashby and Bob Ameen play, and he never looked back. He left Wayne State University to chase tournaments across the country, and in Chicago he learned from the great Sang Lee, the player he still calls his first inspiration.

In 2006 Mazin won the USBA National Three-Cushion Championship. He still holds the national tournament records for high run and best game. The next year he represented the United States at the World Championship, finishing 12th in the world. In 2011 he was inducted into the New England Billiard Hall of Fame, and in 2012 he won the Pan American team championship in Colombia. Over a four-decade career he has won more than 100 tournaments, including the 2021 Dennis Dieckman Memorial.

Mazin has given just as much back to the game. He served on the board of the United States Billiard Association for more than fifteen years, including three as its president, and was honored by the USBA in 2019 for growing three-cushion in America. He has been a McDermott Cue ambassador since 2017 and has helped bring new sponsors into the sport.

He built Amazin Billiards in Malden with his own tournament winnings, and it became one of the last true players' rooms in the Boston area, home to leagues, tournaments and the yearly Dieckman Memorial. In 2026 he brought it to Peabody: a bigger room, 18 Diamond pool tables, four carom tables and a pub, still built for people who love the game. Most days you'll find him on the floor, teaching a lesson or running a tournament.