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Clark goes undefeated to win first regional tour event at a stop on Garden State Pool Tour

Timothy Clark, who, according to our records, had never received any level of cash prize for playing pool before, did so this past weekend (Sun., July 17) on the Garden State Pool Tour. He went through a short field, undefeated, to not only earn himself a cash payout, but to win the event, his first (recorded) anywhere. The same could be said for his opponent in the hot seat match and finals, Giancarlo Delgado, who recorded his first cash payout by being the runner-up. The C/D -Ball event drew 16 entrants to Black Diamond Billiards in Union, NJ.

Clark opened what turned out to be his first winning campaign with two 6-3 victories over Kervin Santamaria and Benjamin Zimmerman to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Jay Pass. Delgado opened up with a 5-2 win over Tom Paylou and followed up with a 6-1 win over John Egeln to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal against Alex Vangelov.

Clark and Pass battled to double hill, before Clark finished it to advance to the hot seat match. He was joined by Delgado, who’d sent Vangelov west 5-2. Clark claimed his first hot seat with a 5-2 win over Delgado. 

On the loss side, Pass picked up Sung Lee, who’d lost his opening match to Zimmerman and was working on a three-match winning streak that had recently eliminated Gary Johnson 6-4 and Nicole Adams 7-1. Vangelov drew Paylou, who’d also lost his opening match (to Delgado) and was working on his own three-match winning streak in which he had given up a total of only three racks over 21 games, including none at all to Luigi Damion and one to Jorge Cappillo.

Pass and Lee battled to double hill before Lee prevailed, advancing to the quarterfinals. He was joined by Vangelov, who’d defeated Paylou 5-3. Vangelov ended Lee’s loss-side run in those quarterfinals 6-3. 

The semifinal rematch between Vangelov and Delgado went double hill, before Delgado finished it for a second shot at Clark, waiting for him in the hot seat. The momentum of winning a double hill semifinal didn’t seem to help Delgado much, as that second shot turned in to a second victory for Clark, who gave up one less rack in the final than he had given up battling for the hot seat. He claimed the event title 5-1.

The next stop on the Garden State Pool Tour, scheduled for this weekend, Saturday, July 23, will be an A/B/C/D Women’s Amateur event, hosted by Shooter’s Family Billiards in Wayne, NJ.

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Busanich chalks up first win in eight years, going undefeated on Garden State Pool Tour

Alex Vangelov, Dinko Busanich and Jay Pass

The first time that Dinko Busanich won a (recorded) event in the New York City Tri-State area was eight years ago, when he and Frank Sieczka split the top two prizes at a stop on the Tri-State Tour back in December of 2014. As the undefeated occupant of the hot seat at the time, Busanich became the official event winner. The next and last time Busanich won a recorded event was this past weekend, Saturday, July 10, when he went undefeated to win a stop on the Garden State Pool Tour. The $250-added event drew 20 entrants to Side Pocket Billiards in Howell, NJ.

Busanich faced Alex Vangelov twice in this one; hot seat and finals. Busanich was awarded a bye, before downing Rob Wetherhold, double hill and drawing Mike Johnson in a winners’ side semifinal. Vangelov, in the meantime, playing one more match to get to the same place, defeated Luigi Ramos 6-4 and Giancarlo Delgado 6-3 to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal against Kevin Rushing.

Busanich sent Johnson to the loss side 7-3, as Vangelo was busy doing likewise to Rushing 6-1. Busanich claimed the hot seat 9-5 and waited for Vangelov to get back from the semifinals.

On the loss side, Jay Pass, who’d lost her opening round match, made it all the way to the semifinals to challenge Vangelov. She’d defeated Stephen Persaud 6-4 in the quarterfinals to get to him. Vangelov stopped Pass’s run 6-3 in those semifinals for a second chance shot at Busanich.

In the extended-race-to-11 finals, Busanich could have ended it by winning 9 racks first and at 7-7, that was still possible. Vangelov, though, took the next two racks, which extended the race to 11. Dinko came back to win two, knotting the score at 9-9. Vangelov won rack #19 to reach the hill first, but when he hung the 9-ball in the next game, Busanich took advantage and forced the 21st game of the final. Things went back and forth in that final rack, but in the end, Busanich dropped the event’s last 9-ball to claim his (first ‘no final match’) event title.

Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Side Pocket Billiards for their hospitality, as well as Billiards Engineering, Kamui, J-Flowers Custom Cues & Cases, AZBilliards and John Bender Custom Cues. The next stop on the Garden State Pool Tour, scheduled for this weekend (Sunday, July 17), will be a C/D Class 9-Ball event, hosted by Black Diamond Billiards in Union, New Jersey. And it will be a C-D Class 9-Ball event.

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Hogue goes undefeated to claim 2022 Sandcastle Open in Edison, NJ

Greg Hogue and Danny Olson

Conflict between expectations and event reality stirs controversy 

Greg Hogue of Tulsa, OK, has had two good (recorded) earning years at the tables. They stand as bookends to a 15-year pool career that began in 2006, which remains on record with us here at AZBilliards as his best earnings year. It continues with what is now his second-best earnings year, this one, thanks in large measure to his undefeated performance at the 2022 Sandcastle Open last weekend (June 4-5). The $2,500-added event drew 32 entrants to Sandcastle Billiards in Edison, NJ.

Hogue had to face South Dakota’s Danny Olson twice in this event. Olson, as it happens, is in the midst of his best recorded earnings year since he first showed up in our player database back in 2011. At the end of the Sandcastle Open, while Hogue had moved up to a career-high spot on our AZB Money Leaderboard (#100), Olson moved up to his career-high spot on the board to #72.

They met first in the winners’ side second round. As Hogue was working on an opening round, 7-4 victory over Alex Vangelov, Olson had his hands full with a double hill fight against one of the top players in the world, Jayson Shaw. Olson won that battle, only to be sent west by Hogue 7-4. Hogue advanced to win his third straight 7-4 victory, over Levie Lampaan and pick up Jonathan Pinegar (aka Hennessee from Tennessee) in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Meanwhile, Oscar Dominguez from the West Coast had been busy downing his young protege Adrian Prasad, Alex Osipov and Josh Thiele to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal battle against Raymond Linares.

Dominguez added another 7-4 win to the batch of them, downing Linares to earn his spot in the hot seat match. Hogue joined him after sending Pinegar to the loss side 7-5. Hogue sent Dominguez to the semifinals, claiming the hot seat 7-5.

On the loss side, Pinegar picked up Danny Olson, four matches into the seven-match, loss-side streak that would end in the finals against Hogue. He’d recently eliminated Mhet Vergara 7-2 and Shane Wolford 7-3. Linares drew Derek Daya, who was working on a six-match, loss-side streak that included victories over Lampaan 7-5 and knocked Jayson Shaw out of the tournament 7-4.

Daya chalked up his sixth in a row against Linares 7-5, while Olson was defeating Pinegar 7-3. Olson then stopped Daya’s run 7-3 in the subsequent quarterfinals.

Olson punched his ticket to the finals with a 7-5 win over Dominguez in the semifinals. Though Olson would chalk up one more rack than he’d managed against Hogue in the second round, Hogue claimed the Sandcastle Open title 7-5.

Old story, new day . . .

The 32-entrant field, which resulted in the promotional, expected figure of ‘$5,000-added’ being reduced to the reality of ‘$2,500-added,’ didn’t sit well with the players who showed up. Sandcastle Billiards owner, Ed Liddawi, wasn’t too happy about it either. Prior to the event, 55 players had registered to compete. By the time the event started, that number had dwindled to 32, with only two of the 23 players who did not compete, providing reasonable explanations regarding their inability to attend.  The flyer promoting the event made it clear that the ‘$5,000-added’ figure was contingent upon a field of 64 entrants and in the end, Liddawi returned the entry fees to all of the players who had submitted an entrance fee, to include some who reached out to him, in less than reasonable ways, while he was in the middle of conducting the event they had failed to attend.

In comments that surfaced on our own AZBilliards Forums, some players made the point (in a variety of ways) that financial considerations dictate whether or not someone is going to sign on to compete (entry fees, green fees, calculated travel and living expenses, weighed against the potential for winning enough cash to offset those expenses and hopefully, more). Thus, plans to compete are often contingent on there being sufficient money at stake to make attendance worthwhile. A subsequent and substantial reduction in the amount of prize money available has a way of altering the cost/benefit analysis to the point where not only might a player have to face the reality of not making any money, he/she might end up losing money.

That said, room owners, tour directors and event promoters, like Ed Liddawi, are conducting the same sort of cost/benefit analysis built on the financial burdens they have to assume when considering the creation and promotion of a given event. When, through no fault of their own, some of the math is thrown off track, then they, too, have to face the reality that instead of an event, that as planned, was designed to benefit their own financial expectations, as well as the  expectations of the players, they have to make hard decisions that inevitably impact both sides of the financial equations. Just like the players, they can end up losing money, too. 

Not an ideal set of situations for anybody. 

The debate, articulated in the Forums and in some cases, personally to us here at AZBilliards is not new and in a polarizing way, familiar to anyone who follows politics these days. It’s not enough apparently to just state a given case, it becomes necessary to demonize one’s opponents; to call a room owner/event promoter ‘greedy,’ or complain, in general, about how much ‘these people’ work toward making a player’s life miserable by ‘stealing’ from them with no regard as to what they, the players have to deal with, or, conversely, that players ‘don’t understand or care’ about what it takes to organize and ultimately run an event and are ‘only interested in themselves.’

Those are NOT quotes from any particular individuals, merely examples of the sort of close-minded debate that contributes little or nothing to the solution of a central problem that has plagued pool longer than AZBilliards has been around. Part of the problem is, of course, that there have been in the past and continue to be room owners/event promoters who are greedy, cheat players out of money and act in bad faith, caring little about the fate of the players they’re hosting at a given event. But there are also players who act out of bad faith, too, assume they’re being cheated and start with that as a premise when they engage in any sort of discussion about a specific controversy.

The specifics of this decades-old controversy, to include actual quotes from players and room owners can be found in our Forums, stretching back over the years, with a great deal of regularity. Complaining falls under the umbrella of individual and “inalienable rights,” afforded to greedy room owners/event promoters and self-centered, whining pool players alike. But you can’t paint all room owners/event promoters and players with the same brush. It should be noted, as well, that many room owners are players themselves at varied levels of proficiency (Jayson Shaw and Oscar Dominguez, who attended this event, as two examples, and Ed Liddawi, who put it on). Responsible, reasonable room owners/event promoters and responsible, reasonable players do not tend to join the acrimonious debate, especially when it devolves into senseless name-calling and baseless accusations. It is not anyone’s intent to censor the commentary or the Forum community, but it should be incumbent on individuals in both ‘camps’ to seek reasonable solution(s) to the varied and apparently intractable problems represented in the debates themselves.   

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Scalzitti goes undefeated to win NJ Garden State Pool Tour’s 4th Annual Fall Brawl

Kevin Scalzitti, Patrick Langley and Jay Pass

Kevin Scalzitti kept getting tougher and tougher to beat as he and 20 New Jersey area players competed in the Garden State Pool Tour’s 4th Annual Fall Brawl on the weekend of September 12-13. And then, came the finals and Patrick Langley, who’d won seven on the loss side for the right to face him. The two fought to double hill before Scalzitti could chalk up the win. The event drew 21 entrants to Players Billiards in Eatontown, NJ.

As it happened, Scalzitti, who was the Tri-State Tour’s best B player in their 2015-2016 season, started and ended the tournament with a double hill win. He opened with one against Mike Johnson before he began tightening up against oncoming competition, downing Chris Schmidt 7-4 and running into Justin Pelech in a winners’ side semifinal. It was Pelech who’d sent Patrick Langley to the loss side in a double hill fight.

Scalzitti downed Pelech 7-3 and then, 7-2, defeated Jay Pass to claim the hot seat. He waited on what turned out to be the return of Langley.

Langley opened his loss-side campaign with a 5-2 victory over TJ Casper. He followed up with victories over Ed Wolley 5-1, Chris Schmidt 5-2 and Tony Ignomirello 5-1 to move into the first money rounds and draw a re-match against Pelech. Langley returned the double-hill-defeat favor and then downed Alex Vangelov 5-1 in the quarterfinals. Langley won his seventh loss-side match defeating Pass in the semifinals by the same 5-1 score.

Scalzitti and Langley fought to double hill, and it was Langley who was at the table with only the 8-ball and 9-ball left in the final rack. Langley dropped the 8-ball, but his attempt at position on the 9-ball failed. Scalzitti came back to the table, finished his undefeated run and claimed the event title.

The next stop on the Garden State Pool Tour, scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 27, will be a B/C/D Class 9-Ball event, hosted by Side Pocket Billiards in Howell, NJ.