Robert Clark, Billy Rogers and Gus Briseno
You just never know with pool. High-level competition at all skill levels usually yields results compatible with what one knows about the players involved. You put Shane Van Boening into an APA setting against a 4 and you can usually ‘bet the house’ on SVB coming out on top. In Dallas, TX, you put up the likes of Gus Briseno, Jon Rawlins, Tony Ignomirello or Clint Palaci (to name just a few) against a newcomer to the tour, competing in his first, not-associated-with-amateur-league tournament and you’d likely figure the same way and ‘bet the (same) house’ on the tour vets, even with handicaps granting the ‘newbie’ a certain number of ‘beads on the wire’ in a given match.
And along comes a competitor, testing his skills in his first regional tour competition (as far as anyone knows), and while he didn’t face three of the four Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour veterans noted above, he did face and defeat Gus Briseno, twice, to go undefeated and claim this past weekend’s (June 28-29) $1,000-added, Stop #6, which drew 46 entrants to Outlaws Saloon in Terrell, TX. Newcomer Billy Rogers became the exception that proves the rule – you just never know with pool.
According to tour representatives, Rogers was competing on the tour for the first time and all they knew of the man was that he had only recently become involved with amateur leagues. Their FargoRate matchup (720 vs. 533) gave Rogers only a 22% chance of winning either of the two matches they played, and he won them both; the hot seat match came within a game of double hill, while the final actually got there.
Congratulations, Mr. Rogers and welcome to the AZBilliards database. Your profile, noting your first cash payout and major win, is up as you read this. While the ‘beads on the wire’ likely afforded you the opportunity to take advantage of any number of unexpected circumstances which tend to figure heavily in such lopsided handicap matches, magnifying mistakes (a few good rolls, a dry break from Briseno, etc.), you are commended for the performance. It comes with a ‘heads up’ that the second one is likely not going to come easy.
The Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour has gotten into the habit lately of splitting their brackets, which puts lower-skilled competitors in the lower of two brackets that make up the larger bracket, creating a situation in which lower-skilled competitors will not meet up with their higher-skilled colleagues until near the end of the tournament. Loss-side matchups can make these high/low matchups a bit of ‘crap shoot,’ but on the winners’ side, the two skill levels don’t knock heads until the hot seat match.
Rogers, whose 533 FargoRate has a degree of ‘robustness’ that defines his rating as ‘established,’ played his first five matches against FargoRated peers, all but one of whom were rated in the ‘400’ Fargo range. In a straight-up race to 6 in his opening match, he defeated Dan Stewart 6-1. He raced to 7 in his second match against Jack Shouse (racing to 5) and shut him out. In his third match, racing to 6, he defeated Tony Mojica, who was racing to 5. He played a straight-up race to 6 versus Russell Demeyere in a winners’ side quarterfinal, defeated him 6-4 and drew Scott Ramirez (straight-up race to 6) in one of the winners’ side semifinals.
From the other end of the bracket, where Briseno raced to 7 in four of his five matches to the winners’ side semifinal, he downed Robert Clark (4), Daniel Intong (5), Jon Rawlins (3) and Juan Parra (4) to draw Tony Mathew (against whom Briseno would, for the first time, be racing to 8) in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Mathew battled Briseno to double hill, before Briseno prevailed and moved into the hot seat match. Rogers, in a straight-up race to 6, defeated Ramirez 6-3. Now, suddenly, in the hot seat match with the 187-point FargoRate differential between them (720/533), Briseno was again racing to 8, while Rogers was racing to 4. Rogers claimed the hot seat 4-8.
Robert Clark, who, following his opening-round loss (4-7) to Briseno, was tossed into the mixed (FargoRate) bag on the loss side and was awarding ‘beads on the wire’ to his opponents (up to 6 in one match) from the minute he showed up. He caught a break with a forfeit in his first, loss-side match and then won five straight. He drew Tony Mathew, coming over from the winners’ side semifinal, after surviving a double-hill battle versus Tony Ignomirello 10-3 (the match in which Ignomirello was playing with six ‘beads on the wire’) and an 8-1 victory over Payton Bernard.
Ramirez picked up Easton Rogers (no relation to Billy Rogers), who, like Clark, had lost his first-round match (also 4-7) and gone on a six-match winning streak. Also like Clark, Rogers was giving up ‘beads on the wire’ from the start, awarding six of them in his opening, loss-side match against Joshlyn Merchant, who didn’t add a single rack to the six at the start. Rogers path forward was almost derailed in his second loss-side match versus Jay White, who got five of the six racks he needed before Rogers chalked up his seventh and moved on. In the last two before he met up with Ramirez, straight-up races to 7, Rogers downed Pasini Taloa (3) and Juan Parra (2).
Rogers and Ramirez battled to double hill (Ramirez starting with a single ‘bead on the wire’ in their race to 7), eventually sending Rogers to the quarterfinals. Clark handed Mathew his second straight loss 8-2 and joined him.
Clark wasn’t done. Awarding Rogers a single ‘bead’ in that race-to-7 quarterfinal, he eliminated Rogers 7-4. An eight-match, loss-side grind that had begun at around 5:30 p.m. on Saturday and took an overnight break, was closing in, one way or another, on its finish, a little less than 24 hours later. Briseo’s Sunday had started just after midday, when he moved to the loss side just ahead of 4 p.m. when Billy Rogers claimed the hot seat. Just after 4 p.m., he and Clark began a two-hour, double-hill rematch that would determine which of them would get a shot at Rogers, waiting for one of them in the hot seat. Briseno won the battle and turned to a second rematch.
The wait for Billy Rogers was about two and half hours (3:43 p.m to 6:12 p.m.). The set-up for the final hadn’t changed from their first match, battling for the hot seat; a race to 10, with six racks to Rogers at the start. Conventional wisdom would tend to give Briseno ‘points’ for momentum, while six ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 10 for someone looking to lock up their first regional tour victory may have added a dose of adrenaline to Rogers’ ‘bag of tricks.’ But with pool, of course, you just never know.
To the surprise of no one, they battled back and forth to a 9-3 score that led to a 13th game of their double-hill match. Rogers won that 13th game to claim the event title.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff Outlaws Saloon for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Cuetec Cues, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore, Rasson Billiards and DFW Pool TV. The next stop on the tour, scheduled for the weekend of July 19-20, will be hosted by Stixx & Stones in Lewisville, TX.
