Erik Hjorleifson Wins Canadian 30K Tour Season Opener

Erik Hjorleifson and Willie Hermoza

The summer is gone and pool season is here again, the Canadian 30K had its debut at Pool Paradise in Waterloo Ontario, where 50 players gathered to grab the first stop with everything that comes with it.

It was a good strong field with the likes of Jeff White, Erik Hjorleifson, D J McGuinley, Jerry Phillips, Shawn Miller, Sam Siolas, Dan Doerner, Craig Cochrane, Scott McDonald, Jason Holdaway, Rob Brandenburg, Al Lougheed, George Cornelius and our 20K Champion Brian McDougall there to get the brass ring.

Eight players would come back to cash on Sunday, hill-hill matches galore, and some upsets as well highlighted the play on day one. It seems that Saturday has a feel altogether different than Sunday and some players find it difficult to adjust.

Saturday was a special day because the Power Girls stopped by Pool Paradise to commemorate the Woman's stop at the nearby Dooly's Billiards where Jasmin Ouschan conquered the stop and won the spot to the WPBA.

The A side top bracket had DJ McGuinley (9+) vs. Tyler Nearing (6) and Tyler hit a Mac Truck, suffering the 10-0 loss.

The bottom A side had Erik Hjorleifson (9+) vs. Mike Leigh (7) and the score was 10-4 Erik.

The "Hot Seat" match was between DJ McGuinley (9+) vs. Erik Hjorleifson (9+) and DJ failed to secure the seat by the score of 4-9.

The one loss top side featured Darcy McGuinley (6+) vs. Jeff Robson (5). Darcy prevailed with the score of 7-0. This match also featured the youngest player in the 30K Tour at 13 years old "Jeff Robson".

Bottom bracket had Sam Siolas (8) vs. Jeff White (9+) and Sam bested Jeff with an 8-6 score.

Tyler Nearing (6) vs. Darcy McGuinley (6+) and Tyler took a leap of faith at double hill after he was snookered on the 8 ball and went for the paced kick bank and got shape to the 9 ball winning with style. Congratulations Tyler.

Sam Siolas (8) vs. Mike Leigh (7) and is hill-hill again with Sam Siolas the winner again.

Next it was Tyler Nearing (6) vs. Sam Siolas (8) and Tyler again prevails with the score of 6-7 (hill-hill).

Tyler Nearing (6) vs. DJ McGuinley (9+) and this time Tyler gets 4 games in before D J runs out the last game.

DJ went on to face the same guy that sent him to the B side and inflicted a loss to Erik on a hill-hill epic game.

DJ felt good knowing he only had to inflict one more wound in Erik to conquer the stop, but Erik had a different idea and puts the meds required to heal and dishes out the same score that sent D J away the first time of 9-4. That made it official and Erik Hjorleifson is our first 30K Champion of 2006/ 2007 season. Congratulations Erik on a well deserved win, played like a Champ, won like a Champ.

Complete Payouts:
1st Erik Hjorleifson $1800.00 w/ calcutta
2nd DJ McGuinley $1000 w/ calcutta
3rd Tyler Nearing $700 w/calcutta
4th Sam Siolas $380 w/calcutta
5th/6th Mike Leigh, Darcy McGuinley $120
7th/8th Jeff White, Jeff Robson $60<

The next event is at Bigwigs in Newmarket, Ontario.