Mcminn & Kibaroglu Take Music City Open

For the past 37 years, the legendary JOB Billiards Club in Madison, TN – a short hop from Nashville – has kicked off the new year with its annual Music City Open Nine Ball ChampionshipS. Owner Ricky Gamble and his general manager, Jeannie Casey-Hutto, and their staff rolled out the red carpet for all the players and fans.

This year’s iteration saw $7,000 added and featured five events. They included an open mini tournament, the open nine ball division, the ladies nine ball division and both open and ladies Midnight Madness divisions. All events were played on seven foot Diamonds using World BCAPL Nine Ball rules.

Presented by JOB Billiards Club and PoolActionTV.com, local sponsors included Lomax Custom Cues, Simonis, Aramith, Diamond Billiard Products, Inc., Hanshew Jump Cues, JB Cases, Bull Carbon, Durbin Custom Cues, Savage Billiards, the Action Palace of Dayton, OH and the Fort Worth Billiards Superstore of Fort Worth, TX.

Looking to add another title to their resumes were BCA Hall of Famers Kim Davenport and Johnny Archer. Four-time Music City Open champ Johnathan Pinegar (“Hennessee”) and 2023 Music City Open Ladies Champ Tina Malm aimed to repeat. The red hot Eylul Kibaroglu – winner of this year’s Skinny Bob’s Nine Ball Classic, the Scotty Townsend Memorial Ladies Nine Ball, the Texas Open Ladies Nine Ball and the Space City Open Ladies Nine Ball championships was there as well as former southeast regional champ Tracie Majors looking to shake off the rust. Other straight shooters such as Shane McMinn, Robb Saez, Devin Poteet, John Gabriel, Mitch Ellerman, Hunter White, Jamie Baraks and Mark Estiola joined the fray.

On Wednesday evening, the Mini Nine Ball was held. A full field of 64 players entered this single elimination tournament. The format was races to seven with winner breaks. The final two men standing were Scott Roberts and Mark Estiola – Scott took the win.

The following night, the main event – the $6,000 added Open Nine Ball – kicked off after the players auction, players meeting and draw. This double elimination event drew 115 players playing races to eleven and winner breaks.

Played down to the final eight on the winners side, Mark Estiola survived a squeaker over Ron Frank (11-10), Shane McMinn defeated Robb Saez (11-9), Mitch Ellerman beat Kim Davenport (11-6) and Hunter White notched a win over Lee Uhles (11-8).

Now playing to get into the hot seat match, Ellerman edged out White (11-10) and McMinn defeated Estiola (11-7).

The former junior champ Shane McMinn sent Mitch Ellerman west with a score of 11-6. Shane moved into the finals.

On a side note, Mitch is an electrician and might be one of the best players with a full-time profession!

On the one loss side, notables such as Archer, Davenport, Hennessee, Saez, Poteet, Estiola and Gabriel were fighting to survive. Saez dusted off Hennessee (11-4), Archer (11-8) and White (11-7) and Uhles defeated Davenport (11-8) only to be eliminated by Mark Estiola (11-4).

It was the end of the line, however, for Saez as he was thumped by Estiola (ll-3).

Robb finished in fourth place.

Ellerman was waiting patiently in the wings for a survivor. In a close match to see who would face McMinn in the finals, it was Estiola who took the win (11-9). Mitch would end up with a well-deserved third place finish.

As this was true double elimination, Mark would have to defeat Shane two sets to take the title. Shane shot out to a 5-0 lead with Mark taking the next three games to make it 5-3.

Shane then took the next two games – score 7-3. Always trailing, Mark had his work cut out for him. He won the next two games and closed the gap to 7-5.

Unbelievably, he scratched on the break again! Back at the table, Shane missed early and left Mark an off angle combination. He miscued on the shot and Shane returned to the table and ran out – now 8-5 and he won the following game to make it 9-5.

On the following break, Shane parked the cue ball in the center and got smacked into the side!

Mark got ball in hand and ran out the next three games to come within one – 9-8!

He broke the balls and left a long reverse cut on the one. He missed and scratched allowing Shane to run out and get to the hill – 10-8. Looking to close out the match, he broke the balls – and scratched again!

Mark ran out the rack to make it 10-9 and then broke tough in the following game. He attempted a bank/safety and left Shane a jump shot. He made the jump and ran out the remaining balls for the title!

On Saturday evening, both divisions of the Midnight Madness events were played. Eight ladies posted a $250 entry to play in this single elimination event. It came down to Eylul Kibaroglu and Lisa Porter with Eylul taking the win. Eight players paid a $500 entry in the open mini and they battled down to Matt Wiseley and Johnny Archer. Matt took the win.

While the Open Division was underway, the $1,000 added Ladies Division began with a players auction, meeting and draw.

By Saturday night, the field had been whittled down to four on the winners side. Predictably, it was Tina Malm and Eylul Kibaroglu who faced off in the upper portion of the bracket. Kibaroglu took the win (7-4) and moved into the hot seat match. In the lower portion of the bracket, it was Michelle Dunn who defeated Lisa Porter (7-4). Dunn took the other berth in the hot seat match.

The hot seat match was all Kibaroglu as she smoked Dunn (7-0) to secure her spot in the finals. Dunn moved to the one loss side to await an opponent.

Waiting for Malm was Tracie Majors and it was a close one! Malm earned the hard fought win (7-6) and then defeated Porter (7-2) to face Kibaroglu again in the finals. As mentioned previously, Tina would have to defeat Eylul twice to take the title. The finals, however, was over in one set as Eylul claimed another title with a 7-3 win over Tina.

Congratulations to Shane McMinn and Eylul Kibaroglu for becoming this year’s Music City Open champions!

We’d like to again thank Ray Gamble, General Manager Jeannie Casey-Hutto and their staff for making all the players and fans feel at home.

Thanks to Tournament Director Ian Jones for keeping the trains running on time in addition to Larry Schwartz and Ray Hansen for their excellent commentary.

We can’t wait until next year for the 38^th Annual Music City Open!

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