The Petite Piranha

Kostanian made her first WPBA semifinal at the 2008 GenerationPool.com Championship.

And last year, the Armenian-born, New Mexican-raised Kostanian suddenly made the grand leap from an up-and-coming phenomenon to the real deal on the Women's Professional Billiards Association circuit, ranked as high a seventh after finishing in the top five in three major events: third in the GenerationPool.com Open Ladies Championship, fifth in the WPBA San Diego Classic, fifth in the WPBA Great Lakes Classic - while fearlessly knocking off the likes of Allison Fisher and Jeanette Lee along the way.

It immediately helped her graduate on the game's food chain from a measly shrimp to the ominous nickname of "Piranha," conjuring up the nasty image of a small fish with a sharp bite that devours everything in its path and right to the bone.

Kostanian absolutely loves the sound of it, the idea of it.

"It's pretty cool," she says with another giggle.

The second of two daughters, Kostanian was born in the capital and largest city of Armenia called Yerevan, but moved to Los Angeles when she was just a year old. When she was 10, her parents, Hrair and Alvard, moved yet again, this time to Albuquerque, N.M., where her father, a serious pool player himself, and relatives opened up a pool room together.

"My dad is very strong bar-table player, probably the best in Albuquerque, will offer people the last three, or four, or even five until he gets a (money) game," she says. "He started teaching me how to play when he saw I had some natural talent.

"What's amazing about my dad is, he has such a great stroke, uses a lot of English but still controls the cue ball so well. I mean, he can play five-rail shape on balls - it's crazy. And he pushed me to do the same thing, had me practice four-rail shape with a lot of English when I was little. But I didn't have the strength to hit it that hard and I'd get so frustrated. He'd have me shoot it 50 times until I finally said to him, 'Dad, I can't do it … I can't do it.' And he'd let me stop."

She admits that she's always been a Daddy's Girl, and like her dad - but totally unlike her mom and older sister Izolda - she's insanely, if not uncontrollably competitive.

"Not just at pool," she adds. "At bowling. At racquetball. At poker. At everything."

At 13, Kostanian was already the talk of the Hunter Classic Tour by placing seventh at one of the stops, and just two years later she won her first WPBA qualifier, before twice capturing the Junior Nationals.

"I always felt a little behind everybody else, until I won a couple of Hunter Tour stops in a row," she says. "Then I remember thinking to myself, 'Hmm, I think I can beat these girls.'"

And now, having toppled the likes of the Duchess of Doom and the Black Widow, she's beginning to feel the same about the pros, even the toughest of ones.

"She's not afraid to play the top players - that's for sure," says Gerda Hofstatter. "As sweet a girl as she is, no matter who she's playing, she definitely has an attitude - she's even a bit grumpy - when she's at the table."

Jeanette Lee, who's been on the receiving end of that I-don't-care-who-I'm-playing 'tude, says, "I've seen her strong game and it's very strong, and I've learned that if you give Anna the opportunity, she will rip your throat out. She plays an aggressive, smart game, like someone who's been around for a long time, and has so much composure for someone so young. A lot of these young girls stroke fast, rush around the table, have all these extra mannerisms, while Anna has a nice, calm confidence about her."

Jennifer Barretta remembers being utterly startled at the way Kostanian just "fired" at her the first time they played each other, went ahead 5-0 before Barretta realized what hit her. "Anna is so small that it was hard to believe that she could get the cue ball around the table the way she did," she recalls. "Despite her size, she has a lot of power in her stroke." Barretta remembers another WPBA event, in Peoria, Ill., when Kostanian stunningly closed out the set on her by never missing a ball the final four games. "She's so tough and determined, with no quit in her," Barretta says. "I could see a lot of myself in her - that intensity of where it's all about pool. She's not at these tournaments to make friends. She's not there to have a good time. She's there to win."

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