 Stan Tourangeau |
On February 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, 2008, Alexander's Sports Bar in Phoenix, Arizona, held their 3rd Annual Arizona Desert Dust-Off 10-Ball tournament. This tournament was $5000.00 added and was sponsored by Chuck Bobbitt of Visual Impressions.
The field was limited to (96) players and drew (91) from many different states as well as Canada. The format called for a race to nine on the winner's side and a race to eight on the one-loss side. The tournament was double elimination and was played on seven Diamond 7' Smart tables. The entry fee was $100 per player and along with the entries, added money, and side pots, the payout kitty quickly grew to over $16,000. Any player that entered the tournament and participated in all the side pots looked at an astounding first place payout of $4,260.00. The total entry fee (with side pots) was only $170.00. Play started at 5pm on Friday.
The entire first round was played and completed by the end of Friday night with all players returning on Saturday at 9am. After play was complete on Saturday, the field had been reduced to twenty-four players. Returning on Sunday “in the cash”, and still on the winners side were, Jeff Pranke, Oscar Dominguez, Ron Allen, Gus Briseno, Jimmy Mendoza, Mike Pankoff, Freddy Boggs, Brandon Butler, Bernardo Chavez, Ernesto Dominguez, Nathan Smith, Ben Hrabina, Tres Kane, Stan Tourangeau, Tyson Cole, and Jeff Heath. Returning on the one loss side and also “in the cash”, were Bobby Emmons, Trick Sixty, Walter Glass, Chuck Evans, Nick Kruger, Rudy Alameda, Dennis Orender, and Carl Wilson.
As both sides of the bracket narrowed on the last day, the final eight in the tournament, and still alive for the big payday, were Gus Briseno, Fred Boggs, Stan Tourangeau, and Ben Hrabina on the winners side, and Oscar Dominquez, Jimmy Mendoza, Nick Kruger, and Carl Wilson on the one-loss side.
In the next round, Fred Boggs defeated Gus Briseno and Stan Tourangeau defeated Ben Hrabina. The winner's side was now down to two. Stan Tourangeau and Fred Boggs had positioned themselves to play for the hot seat.
Back over on the one-loss side, Oscar Dominguez and Nick Kruger both lost and had to settle for 7th/8th place. Mendoza and Wilson advanced leaving them both still in the hunt. The next one-loss side round pitted Mendoza against Hrabina and Briseno against Wilson. Mendoza and Briseno both won and advanced to play each other. Ben Hrabina and Carl Wilson tied for 5th/6th.
The next round was the hot seat match and the loser gets 4th match. In the loser gets fourth match, Briseno defeated Mendoza, hill/hill, leaving Mendoza with a fourth place finish. The hot seat match between Tourangeau and Boggs also went hill/hill, with Boggs earning the hot seat and a spot in the finals. Briseno and Tourangeau then played, with the winner advancing to the one set race to (13) finals against Boggs and, just like many of the others, this match also went hill/hill with Tourangeau winning the case game and a spot in the finals. Gus Briseno had to settle for third place.
In the finals, Boggs won the first game and Stan the next seven before Boggs stopped Stan's run with his second win. Stan then won the next game to take a commanding 8-2 lead. Boggs, however, came back, winning 9 of the next 13 games making the score 12-11 Tourangeau. The match and tournament then ended when Tourangeau won the next and final game. Congratulations to Stan Tourangeau. The 2008 Arizona Desert Dustoff Champion.
