A diversified, skill-level talent pool completes Day One at the SBE

Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz

Featuring a range of Fargo Rates from 495 (Eric Martin) to 841 (Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz), the 30th Annual 2024 Diamond Open at the Super Billiards Expo in Oaks, PA got underway yesterday (Thurs., April 11). Of the 118 competitors, who (literally) got the ball(s) rolling on Thursday morning, 29 of them entered the event without a (reported) Fargo Rate, leaving 89 competitors with an average Fargo rate of just under 700. The ‘700’ range had the most players (49), with unrated (29), ‘600’ (25), ‘500’ (8) ‘800’ (4) and a lone ‘400.’ 

It made for a diversified field that blended upper-tier, regional tour players with some of the best in the world, like Sanchez-Ruiz, Jayson Shaw, David Alcaide, Thorsten Hohmann and Wiktor Zielinski (to name just a few). Though there weren’t a lot of surprises in the opening two rounds on the winners’ side of the bracket, there were a few compelling matches.

Earl Strickland (772) got by his first opponent, Gary Serrano (618) readily enough 11-5 in the opening round, but had a local competitor, Kevin Clark (716), who’d shut out his first opponent, throw him a double-hill scare in the second round. Joss Tour veteran and winner of the 2023 New England Pool & Billiards Hall of Fame 9-Ball Open, Jeremy Sossei, sent this year’s US 8-Ball Open and McDermott Classic Champion, Poland’s Wiktor Zielinski to the loss side 11-8.

US Open 9-Ball Champion (1992), Tommy Kennedy brought his (Corrected) 735  Fargo Rate to the table and defeated two ‘698’s in a row; Jimmy Rivera and Matt Krah. In a marquee match-up promoted on the SBE Web site, Darren “Dynamite” Appleton defeated Johnny “The Scorpion” Archer 11-8 in the opening round. Jeffrey DeLuna gave up just a single rack in his first two matches. Jason Shaw, who played his first match at 11:30 p.m. last night (Thursday), had his opponent open by dropping the 9-ball on the break, but recovered nicely to win 11-6.

Thorsten Hohmann, Jeremy Seaman fight representative battle for winners’ side advancement

Arguably, most indicative of the skill-level(s) caliber of play at this year’s Diamond Open, and the relative unpredictability of any handicapping system in the world of pool was a second round match between a journeyman competitor from Battle Creek, MI – Jeremy Seaman (762), who’s been cashing in events all over the US map since 2003, though, as far we know, has never won an event – and World Champion Thorsten Hohmann (789), whose career started two years earlier than Seaman’s.

Hohmann opened the race to 11 with a win off Seaman’s break and broke and ran his own rack for a quick 2-0 lead; ‘off to the races,’ you’d think, but not so fast. Seaman won a rack and Hohmann added two to make 4-1. Seaman won two to pull within one and Hohmann chalked up another to make it 5-3. At that point, Seaman stepped to the table and chalked up three in a row to tie and then take a lead at 6-5. It proved to be the longest run of racks in the match. The two traded racks, back and forth, to a 7-7 tie when, off his own break, Seaman ran to the 8-ball, which stubbornly rattled in a corner pocket and did not fall. Hohmann took the 8-7 lead.

Hohmann dropped two on his break in Rack 16, but scratched. Seaman ran the table to tie it up again and broke Rack 17. He did not, however, win it. Hohmann, at a critical juncture, took the lead 9-8 and on his break, reached the hill, ahead by two. Seaman came back to win the 19th rack, setting up the fateful last rack of the match at which Hohmann broke dry. They chased the 1-ball for what seemed like ages before Seaman broke through, advancing to the 6-ball, at which point he made a critical unforced error that cost him the game and the match, as Hohmann closed it out. 

And in so doing, provided a generalized answer to the question “Which of the upcoming matches should I watch, either in person, or via digitalpool streaming?” Answer: Any of them.    

All of the Diamond Open matches on Opening Day were winners’ side matches, allowing that side of the bracket to get through two rounds. As a result, the winners from yesterday will not be competing until this evening (Friday), beginning at around 9:15 p.m. 

The winners’ side 9:15 matches are:

Earl Strickland/Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz                     David Alcaide/Hunter Lombardo
Darren Appleton/Alex Osipov                                     Shane Wolford/Shaun Wilkie
Jonas Souto Comino/Eric Roberts                               Ralf Souquet/Brandon Shuff
Michael Feliciano/Dylan Spohr                                   Konrad Juszczyszyn/Mika Immonen
Rodney Morris/Moritz Neuhausen                              John Morra/Nicholas DeLeon
Thorsten Hohmann/Lukas Fracasso-Verner                Tyler Styer/Francesco Candela
Pijas Labutis/Jeffrey DeLuna                                       BJ Ussery, Jr./Sam Henderson
Jeremy Sossei/Jake Sollman                                        Jayson Shaw/Tommy Kennedy

Notable competitors currently on the loss side: Johnny Archer, Danny Olson, Jonathan Pinegar, Wiktor Zielinski, Robb Saez, Bucky Souvanthong, Donny Mills, Nathan Childress, Ray Linares, Oscar Dominguez.

Dependent on the timely advance of both sides of the bracket, there may be 11:30, winners’ side matches or they may just bring the 16 competitors looking to advance to single elimination back on Saturday.

If you have interest in streaming SBE’s Diamond Open 9-Ball Tournament, go to https://superbilliardsexpo.com/watch/ and to follow along with the online brackets, head to https://digitalpool.com/tournaments/2024-diamond-open-at-super-billiards-expo/viewer/stage-1.

Go to discussion...

3 comments

  1. They originally had him on the brackets with a 540 Fargo. I thought they maybe had a different Tommy Kennedy in their database. I saw that they had it fixed a couple of hours later and corrected the main story on the site, but forgot to change this one.
  2. They originally had him on the brackets with a 540 Fargo. I thought they maybe had a different Tommy Kennedy in their database. I saw that they had it fixed a couple of hours later and corrected the main story on the site, but forgot to change this one.
    OK got it. Most of those 29 players not showing a rating actually have one. We do an independent matching to records in our database, so games will go to the right records. Thanks for keeping us updated with your reporting!

Leave a comment

Please log in to comment