In spite of working to win 10 loss-side matches for the right to face hot seat occupant Nathan Rose at Stop # 8 on the Sunshine State Pro Am Tour, Jason Sheerman (and Rose) opted out of a final match and split the top two prizes, leaving Rose, as the event’s official winner. The $1,000-added event, held on Saturday, July 14, drew 64 entrants to Strokers Sports Bar & Grill in Palm Harbor, FL.
Nathan Rose navigated his way through the full field, downing Jack Remsen 7-3, and everybody else – Jason Richko, Angel Martinez, and Matt Menes – 7-2, to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Bobby Garza (ranked #2 on the tour). Chris Gentile, in the meantime, got by Chris Piper-Wang, Will Smith, Mike Delawder (double hill), and the event’s top female finisher, Stephanie Mitchell, to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal to face Sam Kantar.
Rose got by Garza 7-2, and in the hot seat match, faced Chris Gentile, who’d sent Kantar to the loss side 7-3. Rose played what proved to be his last match and claimed the hot seat 7-5 over Gentile.
On the loss side, it was Kantar who picked up Sheerman, seven matches in to his loss-side streak; a streak that began when he faced and shut out his wife, Julia. Sheerman had most recently eliminated Kim Dyer 7-4 and Matt Menes 7-5. Garza drew Dale Stanley, who’d been sent to the loss side, double hill, by Kantar in a winners’ side quarterfinal. Stanley defeated Alec Saputo 7-3 and shut out Stephanie Mitchell to reach Garza. Sheerman chalked up loss-side win #8, defeating Kantar 7-3, as the tour’s #3 player (Stanley) downed #2 (Garza) 7-3.
Sheerman, who, to date, has not been ranked on the 2018 tour, downed Stanley 7-4 in the quarterfinals, and then gave up only a single rack in defeating Gentile in the semifinals. Sheerman and Rose opted out of the final match, allowing Rose, as the official winner, to chalk up 150 tour ranking points and move up from 9th place to a 4th place tie with Tommy Kennedy. Sheerman jumped from tour obscurity to join 16 other players with 100 points and settle into the 56th through 71st slot on the tour rankings.
Tour directors Janene Phillips and Bobby Garza thanked Jose Del Rio and his staff at Stroker’s for their hospitality, as well as sponsors Play The Game Clothing Co., Jacksonville Roofing, USA Kamui Tips, AZBilliards and Alvin Nelson with Inside Pool TV. Stop #9 on the Sunshine State Pro Am Tour, scheduled for August 4-5, will be a double event, featuring a $175-added Amateur event and a $1,000-added Pro event. Both will be hosted by Park Avenue Billiards in Orange Park, FL.
Nick Applebee chalked up six wins to get into the hot seat of the April 28-29 stop on the Sunshine ProAm Tour. Qi Liu, his opponent in the finals, lost his opening match, and then won 10 on the loss side to meet and defeat him in those finals to claim the event title. The $500-added event drew a full field of 64 entrants to Corner Pocket Billiards in Largo, FL.
In races to 7, Applebee’s opponents in his six-match trip to the hot seat recorded an average of three racks against him. He got by Dominick Dunn (4), Sameer Mohamad (2), Bill Stroup (5), and the man who’d sent Liu to the loss side in the opening round, Thomas White (1), to draw Angel Martinez in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Robert Batson, in the meantime, defeated John Dandurand (5), Ed Peterson (3), George Saunders (5), and shut out Randy Ervin to draw Mitchell Keiser in the other winners’ side semifinal.
By identical 7-1 scores, Applebee and Batson advanced to the hot seat match over Martinez and Keiser. For only the second time, in what would prove to be his last match win of the weekend, Applebee allowed an opponent to score five racks against him and claimed the hot seat over Batson.
On the loss side, Liu had put five match wins behind him, before downing Randy Ervin 5-1 and surviving a double hill fight against Che Mrvos, to draw Martinez, coming over from the winners’ side semifinal. Keiser picked up George Saunders, who’d defeated co-tour director Bobby Garza, double hill, and then spoiled any thoughts Liu might have been entertaining about a re-match against White, by shutting White out.
Liu downEd Martinez 5-3 and in the quarterfinals, faced Keiser, who’d ended Saunders’ four-match, loss-side winning streak, double hill. Liu then ended Keiser’s weekend 5-3 in those quarterfinals, and punctuated his long, loss-side journey with a shutout over Batson in the semifinals.
If Applebee had any doubts that he was going to face a strong challenge in the finals, they were probably put to rest watching Liu down Batson, who’d put up an almost-double hill fight against him in the hot seat match. They were definitely put to rest when Liu ended his long, loss-side trip with a 9-6 win in the finals that gave him the event title.
Tour directors Janene Phillips and Bobby Garza thanked Stephanie Mitchell (owner of Corner Pocket Billiards, who competed and finished in the tie for 25th place) and her staff, as well as sponsors Play the Game Clothing Co., Kamui Tips, AZBilliards, and Jacksonville Roofing USA. The next stop on the Sunshine State ProAm Tour, scheduled for the weekend of June 2-3, will be hosted by CM’s Place in Seminole, FL.
Kyle Bova, who used to ply his trade on the Western New York Tour, and for the past three years or so, has switched his base of operations to Florida, came from deep on the loss side to win the August 5-6 stop (#5) on the Sunshine State Pro-Am Tour. He challenged Kenny Willis, aka Jimmy Neutron, in the finals and defeated him to claim the $400-added event that drew 45 entrants (nine women and 36 men) to Stephanie Mitchell's pool room, Corner Pocket in Largo, FL.
Bova was awarded an opening round bye, and downEd Martin Mora 7-2, before being sent to the loss side by Justin McNulty 7-3. McNulty followed him over in the next round, when he was defeated by Dale Stanley 7-2. Stanley advanced to face Mike Delawder in one of the winners' side semifinals. Neutron, in the meantime, following victories over Todd Moir, Nikki Cuellar, and a double hill win over Michael DeStefano, faced George Saunders in the other winners' side semifinal.
Neutron sent Saunders to the loss side 7-3, and in the hot seat match faced Stanley, who'd defeated Delawder 7-5. Neutron claimed the hot seat 7-4 over Stanley and waited for what turned out to be the return of Bova.
Over on the loss side, Bova opened his campaign with three straight 6-3 wins, over Kelly Cavanaugh, Mark Wathan, and DeStefano, before downing Angel Martinez 6-4 and drawing Delawder. Saunders picked up Mubarak Sulaiman, who'd defeated Ron Hollifield 5-3 and denied Bova a second shot at McNulty by defeating him 5-2.
Bova shut Delawder out and in the quarterfinal match, faced Saunders, who'd eliminated Sulaiman 5-3. Bova chalked up his fourth 6-3 win against Saunders, and then, his fifth 6-3 win against Stanley in the semifinals.
Bova's five 6-3 wins on the loss side seemed to indicate a preference for winning 66% of the games he played. That dropped a little in the longer-race-to-11 final against Neutron, when he chalked up only 61% of the 18 games played, for an 11-7 final that earned Bova the event title.
Tour directors Janene Phillips and Frank Garza thanked Corner Pocket owner Stephanie Mitchell (who, along with Kaylee McIntosh, shared $40 in a tie for the top-finishing female) and her staff for their hospitality, as well as sponsors JQ Images Cues, Billiard Buzz, and AZBilliards. The next stop on the Sunshine State Pro Am Tour, scheduled for Aug. 26-27, will be hosted by Brewlands Bar & Billiards in Tampa.
(Administrative note: Though Kenny Willis has been consistent with his usage of 'Jimmy Neutron' as his preferred pool name, and we're willing to go along with references to him as 'Jimmy Neutron' in reports of his appearances on tours, we will be equally consistent in using his real name (Kenny Willis) when assigning information about him in our database. He does bear a passing resemblance to the cartoon Neutron character, minus the hairdo, which on that cartoon character looks like the tip of a chocolate ice cream cone from Dairy Queen, but opening the database door to the usage of 'fake names' would inevitably lead to the inclusion of no-doubt creative names, as pool players looked to cement their reputation with suggestive name alternatives like 'Run 'em Out Ron, Pool Stud Pat, or who knows what else. We'll use "The Scorpion" nickname in a story, too, and include that nickname in his page on the site, but he goes into our database as 'Johnny Archer.'
The nineteenth stop on the 2013-2014 Pure X Cues All American Tour stop – presented by the AmericanCueSports Alliance (ACS) – was showcased in the Valentine Day Massacre 8-Ball #5- at Q’s Sports Bar & Girl in Port Charlotte, FL – on Saturday, February 15. The $500-added, handicapped [Masters racing to 6/ Open racing to 4/Women racing to 3] 8-ball tourney on 7-foot Valley bar boxes drew 37 players from all over southwest Florida.
The winners-side quarter finals found Steve Knoll [6] (North Port, FL) pitted against Bill Eisenberg [4] of Sarasota, FL. Eisenberg sent Master Knoll to the one-loss side with a 4-4 victory. Jerry Johnson [4] of Fort Myers, FL was sent to the one loss-side by Master Nathan Rose [6] of Tampa, FL, 6-2.
The one loss side found Knoll against Angel Martinez [6] of Sarasota, FL. Both master players pounded one another with Knoll sending Martinez back north with a 6-4 win. Tim Barron [4] of Sarasota, FL, laid in wait for Jerry Johnson and handled the match with a 4-0 win. This resulted in Barron and Master Steve Knoll fighting for the third place. Barron sent Knoll north to North Port with a tough hill match win of 4-5.
Back on the winners-side finals, Bill Eisenberg was barely overcome by Master Nathan Rose, who won the Rocking Chair position with a 6-3 victory! The one-loss side pitted Barron and Eisenberg who came south from Sarasota together, concluding with a 4-2 win for Eisenberg. The finals had undefeated Master Nathan Rose against Bill Eisenberg in the late night battle. Rose demonstrated why he was the Master with a 6-2 finish for the tournament win! The Purex Cue raffled was won by "Mac”.
By virtue of Nathan Rose also being the highest-finishing ACS member in the event, he qualified for a free 8-Ball singles entry into the 2014 Universal Cues ACS Nationals at the Tropicana Las Vegas – courtesy of the ACS. The Pure X Cue and Nick Varner case were won by James Hamilton of Port Charlotte, FL. The ACS wishes to thank sponsors Pure X Cues, Championship Billiard Fabric and Nick Varner Signature Cases for their support in donating “Value-In-Kind” product for this and all stops on the Pure X All American Tour. Sponsorship opportunities and tour stop openings are still available for the 2013/2014 All American Tour by contacting the ACS.
The Tour moves west to Langley OK on the weekend of February 22-23 for a $300-added 8-Ball stop at Rigg’s Saloon (contact Rigg’s at 918-782-2775). Further information, entry details and schedules for the 2013/2014 Pure X Cues All American Tour are available at www.americancuesports.org.
