Mitch Ellerman and Mike Bates
The first stop of the 2011 Desert Classic Tour kicked off on January 8, 2011, at Bullshooter’s in Phoenix, Arizona. This stop would be bar table 10 ball and would see many familiar faces, along with many new faces on the tour. On Saturday, the tourney started with 28 players.
By the start of Sunday morning, the tourney was down to the final 8 players. The winner’s side pitted Ken Gouso against Pete Lhotka. Pete would advance with a 8/4 win. The other winner ‘s side match saw two familiar faces in Mitch Ellerman against Nick DeLeon. Mitch would move on with an 8/6 victory.
On the B side, Ben Sutherland would escape with a win over Bret Huth by a 7/4 score. Ben had defeated Bret in the first round on Saturday; however, Bret was able to reel off 4 wins to get back to Sunday. George Teyechea would continue his sharp shooting to narrowly defeat Mike Sandoval in a hill/hill match.
Two of the early favorites, Nick DeLeon and George Teyechea would fall to Ben Sutherland and Ken Gouso in the final six. Ben and Ken, two B rated players on the DCT, were set to duel it out next. Both were bound and determined to be the first B players to win an open DCT event and one would advance to the final 3. Ken had defeated Ben earlier in the tourney and proceeded to do so again with his meticulous play. Ken would advance with a 7/2 score, leaving Ben to settle for 4th place.
Ken was looking to redeem his earlier loss against Pete and he did just that. With a thrilling hill/hill victory, Pete would settle for 3rd place. Ken moved onto the finals to face Mitch “The Kid” Ellerman. Knowing Mitch was no stranger to the DCT finals, Ken didn’t allow him into the first set. He kept Mitch on the defensive and dominated the first set of the finals by a score of 7/3. The Kid, however, would not be denied the first DCT Stop of 2011.
In the 2nd set of the finals, Mitch found his form and reversed the roles. He began letting his stroke out and kept the Ken “The Goose” from getting loose. Mitch rolled on with a dominating 10/3 victory to take the 1st stop of the 2011 DCT. Congratulations to both players for their outstanding performance.
The next stop will be bar table 8 ball at Stinger’s on March 19-20, 2011. Please come out and join us at this establishment.
The DCT would like to thank Mike Bates and the entire Bulllshooter’s staff for another outstanding tourney, as well as the 2011 DCT Sponsors: On Q Cases, Billiard and Dart News, Azpoolscene.com, Jeff Pranke leather wraps, G-Cue Billiards Store, and Ozone Billiards for their continued support.
