Michael Butler and Kerry Beland
The four competitors who finished at the top of this past weekend’s (Feb. 8-9) Jersey Girl Billiards’ Music City Split Bracket event at the J.O.B. Billiard Club in Madison, TN had a combined total of only four entries in their four AZBilliards’ player profiles. William Butler (who split the top two prizes with Kerry Beland) had three of those four, two of them recorded after finishing ‘in the money,’ twice, at last month’s Derby City Classic and another from a 13th place finish in a Midwest Open 10-Ball event in 2022. Robert Bernander’s had the other one, recorded in July of 2021, when he finished 13th at a stop on the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour. Neither Kerry Beland nor Michael “Whitey” Scheehl recorded their first know cash payout, anywhere and at any time, this past weekend. Kerry Beland’s wife, Brittany, ended up entering our database for the first time as well, by winning the concurrently-run Natural Born Women’s event over the weekend.
We’ve never claimed omnipotence when it comes to recording cash payouts into individual player databases. We don’t, as a random example, record the cash payouts awarded to winners of the annual tournaments run by the APA, BCA, VNEA (and other assorted amateur pool leagues) that involve cash prizes at the national level. Nor do we record the cash payouts of those who’ve won thousands of regularly scheduled bar room billiards tournaments held on any given weekend (all 52 of them) from Seattle to Florida/Bangor, ME to San Diego. Still, in a field of 192 competitors, 24 of whom split a total cash payout of $14,860, one would have thought that there’d be more than two of the top four who’d had some previous success at cash-award tournaments somewhere along the line.
Of course, we welcome them, all of them, to our database and fully expect to hear more from them in the future, as will any number of tournament competitors seeking information about players they face in any upcoming tournaments. In the future, Kerry Beland (not to mention his wife, Brittany), William Butler, Michael “Whitey” Scheehl, and Robert Bernander will almost certainly be able to add to their combined total of eight cash payouts and we look forward to recording them.
Initially split up into High Side and Low Side brackets, the two remained separate right up until there was a hot-seat-match winner in both – Michael “Whitey” Scheehl from the High Side and Kerry Beland from the Low Side. The two competitors that were defeated in those two matches, William Butler from the High Side and Robbie Hall, Jr. from the Low Side, played in their respective semifinals. From there, the event reverted to a Final Four bracket that determined the overall event winner.
Scheel defeated William Butler in the High Side hot seat match 6-2, while Kerry Beland downed Robbie Hall, Jr. in the Low Side hot seat match 3-3 (Hall racing to 5). Butler moved west to face Tab Pranee in the High Side bracket’s semifinal, defeating him 6-1. Hall moved over to the Low Side semifinal, where Robert Bernander completed a five-match loss-side winning streak, with the last two, against Mike Barnick and Hall, going double hill.
This created the event’s Final Four bracket, with Beland and Scheehl squaring off elandon the winners’ side, while Butler and Bernander faced off in what was, in effect, the overall event’s quarterfinal match.
Beland used three ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 6 to down Scheehl 3-2. Butler, in the meantime, eliminated Bernarder 6-1 and advanced to meet Scheehl in the event semifinal. Butler won that, as well, 6-2 and got a shot (and to win, would need two of them) against Beland.
Beland was slated to start the double-elimination final with three ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 6 against Butler. The two battled to double hill in the opening set before Butler prevailed to win 6-2. The second set never happened as Beland and Butler agreed to a split of the top two prizes.
Amber Jordan
Among the 24 entrants who received a cash prize at this event was Amber Jordan, who, in addition to collecting $100 for finishing in the eight-way tie for 17th place, was awarded an additional $500 for being the Last Woman Standing in the Split Bracket event.
“This girl has worked so hard on her game,” said Jersey Girl Billiards’ Chrissy Perlowski in a Facebook post announcing the award, “and has played in this event many times.”
“She is proof,” Perlowski added, “that handicap pool and the love of the game can truly drive some to work to get better. A well-deserved win.”
Perlowski thanked the ownership and staff at the J.O.B. Billiard Club for their hospitality, as well as all of the players who have competed before, at the past weekend’s event and into the future.
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