Pagakis wins All American Tour Stop 17

The seventeenth stop of the 50-stop 2008/2009 Pechauer All American Tour (produced by the American CueSports Alliance – ACS) was hosted at Rockford Billiard Cafe in Rockford, IL, on Saturday, December 6.  The $500 added event featured thirty-four players in a double-elimination 8-ball format on 7-foot bar boxes.  Promoters Angie and Tyler Voorhees added an extra twist to their event to insure fairness.  They placed “Open” skilled players in one bracket of twenty-five players and “Master” skilled players in a separate bracket of nine players.  The event finals pitted the top two in each bracket in a handicapped “bracket of 4”.  Just prior to the finals bracket action, in the Open bracket quarterfinals, Jack Wu (Chicago, IL) eliminated Tony Loper (Rockford, IL) at 7th place in the event by a 4-2 margin.  In turn, Wu was ousted at 5th place by Chicago's Tony Gong 4-1.  In the “Open” bracket finals, Dirk Pagakis (Sheridan, IL) remained undefeated by outpointing Tony Gong 4-2.
 
The preliminary “Masters” bracket ended with Duane Tuula (Rockford, IL) ousting Marlon Angeles (Chicago, IL) at 7th place in the overall standings; Ike Runnels (Hopkins Park, IL) knocking Tuula into 5th place; and Dave Coles (Beloit, WI) taking the Masters hot seat with a 4-1 win over Runnels.
 
This set the stage for the finals bracket of Open finalists Dirk Pagakis (undefeated) and Tony Gong (one-loss) pitted against and receiving one-game spots from the Master finalists Dave Coles (undefeated) and Ike Runnels (one-loss).  In round 1, Runnels was eliminated at 4th place by Gong 3-1, while Pagakis handed Coles his first loss 3-3 thanks to the one-game spot.  Gong was then eliminated at 3rd place courtesy of a 4-1 result versus Dave Coles. The tourney finals only needed one set, as Dirk Pagakis did not need the spot to upend Dave Coles 3-1 for the title!
 
By virtue of Tony Gong being the highest-finishing ACS member in the event, he qualified for a free singles entry into the 2009 ACS Nationals in Las Vegas – courtesy of the ACS.  The ACS wishes to thank sponsors J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Championship Billiard Fabric, Nick Varner Signature Cases and oZone Billiards for their support in donating “Value-In-Kind” product for this and all stops on the Pechauer All American Tour. Sponsorship opportunities are still available for the 2008/2009 All American Tour by contacting the ACS.