Fuller family splits top prizes on Q City 9-Ball Tour stop in Cary, NC

Christian Fuller

It can go either way. When family members find themselves scheduled to compete against each other in a tournament, one will sometimes, often actually, defer to the other, allowing one to advance and the other to either move on to the loss side or be eliminated. Sometimes they’ll take pride in the fact of facing each other in tournament competition and battle it out. In our unscientifically-calculated experience here at AZ (exhaustive, though not totally comprehensive), the deference choice wins out about 80% of the time. This past weekend (June 28-29), at a $500-added stop on the Q City 9-Ball Tour that drew  38 entrants to Break Time Billiards in Cary, NC, a father (Mike Fuller)  and 20-year-old son (Christian) were to have faced each other in the event final and instead, opted out of the father/son match to split the top two prizes. The son was the undefeated occupant of the hot seat at the time, so he took the ‘official’ title.

It should be noted that while the son’s career at the tables is continuing to just get started, his Dad was (is) a well-known, Mid-Atlantic competitor. Mike Fuller was among the region’s top competitors ‘back in the day,’ roughly between ’03 to ’12. The elder Fuller won 16 (recorded) events in those 10 years, many of them on a combination of the Jacoby Custom Cues Carolina and Viking Tours. He competed in the US Open in each of his active 10 years, finishing 5th in his last (’12). In his best recorded earnings year, Fuller cashed in 18 events, winning three, runner-up in two and finishing 5th in that year’s Derby City Classic.

They could have been afforded the opportunity to defer twice. They began the event on the same side of the 64-player bracket and would have met in a winners’ side semifinal, which would almost certainly have resulted in the first ‘opt out’ decision, with Dad moving to the loss side. But Dad lost his winners’ side quarterfinal and the event moved on until the scheduled last match before the second decision was made; each advancing as far as they could on either side of the bracket. Had either or both of their potential matches come to pass, Christian would have begun the matches with four ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 8.

Christian was picking up ‘beads’ in every one of his five matches to the title. Awarded a bye in the opening round, he advanced with a single ‘bead’ to defeat Benny Butts 4-2, Jason Figueroa (single ‘bead’) 4-1 and in one of the winners’ side quarterfinals, Justin Mawyin 4-5 (Mawyin racing to 7). He drew the competitor who’d just sent his Dad to the loss side (William Roach) in one of the winners’ side semifinals.

From the other end of the bracket, it was Wilson Dorsey who set out for and eventually joined Christian in the battle for the hot seat. Dorsey, who was awarding ‘beads’ to all three of the opponents he faced getting to a winners’ side semifinal, opened with an 8-1 victory over Ricky Dickson (racing to 5), and followed with victories over Karen Figueroa 8-2 (Figueroa racing to 4) and Ray Daniels, 8-4 (Daniels racing to 5). Dorsey drew a straight-up race to 8 against Jason Rogers in the other winners’ side semifinal.

Christian had a single ‘bead on the wire’ that he didn’t need as he downed Roach 4-2. Dorsey defeated Rogers 8-5 and joined him. As he would have, had he and his Dad competed, Christian began the hot seat match with four ‘beads’ in a race to 8. He claimed the hot seat over Dorsey 4-5.

So Dad had moved over to the loss side, survived a double-hill battle versus Ketan Patel 8-4 (Patel racing to 5), eliminated Mawyin 8-3 (Mawyin racing 7) and picked up Rogers. Roach drew a rematch against Steve Page, whom he’d sent to the loss side in the second round. Page had won four in a row to reach him, recently surviving a double-hill bout against Ray Daniels and an 8-3 win over Jim Faircloth.

Both of the players who’d just joined the loss-side ‘gang’ walked right into their second straight loss. Page won the rematch, downing Roach 8-2 and advancing to the quarterfinal. Mike joined him after eliminating Rogers 8-6. 

In two straight-up races to 8, Dad downed both Page in the quarterfinal and Dorsey in the semifinal, both 8-5. The foregone conclusion of the decision to split were they to be slated to meet in the final was verified. Father and son split the top two cash prizes (we don’t know how and didn’t ask). Christian now has a second ‘official’ tour win (no final match) to his credit in his AZBilliards profile, adding to the one he’d been a part of back in November of ’23. While to date, those two ‘official’ wins are the only entries in his database, it does make him one of a select few whose recorded (with us) career at the tables consists of two ‘official’ wins, two years apart.

Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Breaktime in Cary, along with sponsors BarPoolTables.net, BreakTime Billiards (Clemmons, NC), TKO Custom Cues, Realty Group One Results, CHC Underground, Digitalpool.com, Dirty South Grind Apparel, Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division and AZBilliards.

This coming July 4th weekend, the Q City 9-Ball Tour will ‘switch hats’ to become the TOP (The Open Player) Tour and operate the $3,000-added ($5k with 96 entrants), 13th Annual NC State 9-Ball Open, scheduled for this weekend (July 5-6) and hosted by the ‘other’ Breaktime Billiards in Clemmons, NC. As of the time this report is being written, there are already 80 competitors signed on to compete, including Gregorio Sanchez, Mike Davis, Jr., Tommy Kennedy, Josh Roberts and B.J. Ussery, Jr., to name just a few, along with far too many equally ‘known’ competitors to list here. Registration is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Saturday, with a projected start time of noon. There are spots left (16, which would match the threshold for an added $2k), calling to mind the ‘snooze, you lose’ warning for any and all who might be interested.

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