On the heels of his best recorded earnings year, to date (2018), Tim Larson opened his 2019 campaign with an undefeated run on the DFW 9-Ball Tour on the weekend of May 18-19. According to records here at AZBilliards, it is Larson’s first win on a regional tour since he first started cashing in tournaments about 10 years ago. A regular at the 8-ball and 9-ball BarBox Championship events in Reno, NV (5th in 9-ball in 2014), Larson finished in the money three times on the 2018 DFW 9-Ball Tour; 4th once and 7th twice. The $1,500-added event drew 62 entrants to Rusty Billiards in Fort Worth, TX.

 

Larson had to get by Walter Huenerfuerst twice in this one. Like Larson, Huenerfuerst was looking to chalk up his first major regional win, and as it turned out, his runner-up finish was his best showing, to date, in any tournament, dating back to his participation in events on the Omega Tour. It proved to be Huenerfuerst’s first cash win since 2016.

 

They met first in the hot seat match. Larson worked his way through four opponents, allowing each of them an average of two racks per match, to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against John Carlo Tuazon. Huenerfuerst, in the meantime, had a somewhat tougher route through his first four opponents, allowing each of them an average of five racks per match; to include his survival of a double hill match against TJ Davis in the third round. Huenerfuerst arrived at a winners’ side semifinal against Peter Villatorro.

 

Larson downed Tuazon 9-2, as Huenerfuerst sent Villatoro to the loss side 8-3. Larson claimed the hot seat 9-6 over Huenerfuerst and waited on his return.

 

On the loss side, Villatoro drew Donnie Gregory, who’d defeated TJ Davis 7-6 (Davis racing to 8) and Paul Guernsey, double hill (7-7) to reach him. Tuazon picked up Angelo Innes, who after a defeat at the hands of Davis, had gotten by Paul Villanueva 8-3 and Hector Guerrero 8-5.

 

It was Donnie Gregory advancing to the quarterfinals after a 7-5 victory over Villatoro. He was joined by Innes, who eliminated Tuazon 8-2. Innes was able to advance one more step, downing Gregory 8-3 in those quarterfinals, before having his loss-side streak stopped at four by Huenerfuerst, double hill, in the semifinals.

 

Larson completed his undefeated run with a second victory, 9-3, over Huenerfuerst in the finals.

 

Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Rusty Billiards for their hospitality, as well as sponsor Predator Cues. The next stop on the DFW 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for June 22-23, will be hosted by Click’s Billiards in Arlington, TX.

Daniel Herring has been at the Texas tables for about a decade now, chalking up his first recorded appearance on a payout list at a stop on the Fast Eddie’s Tour in January, 2008. He started appearing on the payout lists of Melinda Bailey’s Omega Tour a few years after that and in February, 2015, he broke through to win a stop on that tour; his first, and until this weekend (Sept. 8-9), his only recorded victory on a tour. At stop #9 on the DFW 9-Ball Tour (which grew out of the Omega Tour), he went undefeated through a field of 89 entrants, on-hand for the $1,500-added event, hosted by Clicks in Arlington, TX.

 

Herring started strong, giving up only two racks over his first 19 games, and seven over his next 23 (four of those to his eventual finals’ opponent, Juan Parra) to arrive at what proved to be his first double hill challenge in a winners’ side semifinal against Angelo Inness. Tony Top, in the meantime, who played an extra match in a preliminary round to get the field to a 32-match opening round, gave up 12 racks in the 52 games that it took him to reach the other winners’ side semifinal against Philip Palmer.

 

Herring survived the double hill battle over Inness and advanced to the hot seat match and a battle against Top, who’d sent Palmer to the loss side 8-5. Herring claimed the hot seat 8-6, and waited on the return of Parra.

 

On the loss side, Palmer picked up Parra, who, following his defeat at the hands of Herring, had eliminated Tommy Ulbik 7-3 and the tour’s #2-ranked competitor, CJ Wiley, double hill (in the absence at this event of the tour’s #1-ranked player, Chase Rudder, Wiley’s finish in the 7/8 slot moved him into the #1 ranking spot). Inness had the misfortune of running into Tim Larson, who, following a defeat in the event’s opening round (to Josh Keller) was in the midst of a nine-match, loss-side winning streak that would take him as far as the quarterfinals.

 

Parra and Palmer locked up in a double hill fight that eventually sent Parra to the quarterfinals. Larson chalked up what proved to be his last victory 8-4 over Inness and joined him. Parra ended Larson’s loss-side run 7-4 in those quarterfinals, and then, double hill, stopped Top’s short-lived, loss-side run in the semifinals.

 

Herring completed his undefeated run with an 8-4 victory over Parra in the finals to claim the event title.

 

Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Click’s for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Predator Cues, Ft. Worth Billiard Superstore, JB Custom Cue Cases, Solutions, Granite Guyz, BCAPL, CSI, Dallas 8-Ball, Accu-Rack and Fargo Rate. The next stop on the DFW 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for Oct. 20-21, will be a $1,500-added event, hosted by Billiard Den in Richardson, TX.

 

With a field of 16, West State Billiards and POVPool accomplished the second leg of their two-week-long West Coast Swing in a day, albeit a 14-or-so-hour day that started on Independence Day and ended in the early hours of July 5. The Swing moved south from San Francisco where the 5th Annual Cole Dickson Memorial Tournament (won by Dennis Orcollo) got things underway, to California Billiards in Fremont, CA, where Jayson Shaw went undefeated to claim the $2,500-added 10-Ball Pro Challenge.

 

With Orcollo in the line-up, defending this title, as well, a lot of eyes were more or less on him. He was defeated, though, in the opening round 7-5 by Santos Sambajon, and after a single, 7-4  loss-side win over the man he defeated in the finals of the Dickson Memorial (Mika Immonen), he was defeated, double hill by Chip Compton. With him out of the way, it was anyone's guess as to who would rise to the challenge that Jayson Shaw's very presence created. That challenge came eventually from the stick of 'The Lion,' Alex Pagulayan, who, after being defeated in a winners' side semifinal, mounted a three-match, loss-side streak that set him up versus Shaw in the finals.

 

It was Amar Kang who sent Pagulayan to the loss side 7-4 in one of the winners' side semifinals, while Shaw was busy downing Gus Briseño 7-3 in the other one. Shaw claimed the hot seat in an entertaining match that was tied at 5-5, before Shaw pulled ahead to win it by two.

 

Pagulayan opened his loss-side trek against Rodney Morris, who had survived a double hill fight against Angelo Inness, and then, 7-4, eliminated Compton, who'd just eliminated Orcollo. Briseño picked up Tony Chohan, who'd eliminated Sambajon 7-5 and rather handily brushed Francisco Bustamante aside 7-1.

 

The Lion downed Morris in a double hill nail-biter, and in the quarterfinals, faced Briseño, who'd rather surprisingly ended Chohan's bid 7-4. That quarterfinal match coincided with the hot seat match between Shaw and Kang, on tables that were side-by-side. The hot seat match was over before the quarterfinal match had reached a 2-2 tie. Briseño put up a fight, and as happened in the hot seat match 'next door,' reached a 5-5 tie, before Pagulayan pulled out in front to win it 7-5.

 

Hot seat opponents Shaw and  Kang both spent a good deal of time watching that quarterfinal match, and when it was over, Kang stepped up for his re-match against Pagulayan in the semifinals. Though hard to quantify, the wait for Kang appeared to take its toll, because Pagulayan gave up only two racks to earn a shot at Shaw in the hot seat.

 

The long wait had its effect on the finals, as well. Pagulayan jumped out to an early lead and was ahead by four, at 6-2, racing to 13. Shaw, though, to no one's surprise, came back, and in the early hours of July 5, completed a double hill win that earned him the Pro 10-Ball Challenge title.

 

The next stop on the West State Billiards/POVPool West Coast Swing, a $5,000-added One Pocket tournament with the Swing remaining at California Billiards in Fremont, CA, is already underway (July 5) and being streamed live by POVPool, accessible by visiting their Web site (www.povpool.com). It will be followed by the $10,000-added 9-Ball Challenge, scheduled to overlap the One Pocket event, beginning on July 7.

 

It looked good on paper.

 

In planning, well in advance, for a four-event weekend, the Western New York Tour's director, Nick Brucato, looked at potential dates and seeing very little happening elsewhere on the weekend of April 23-26, he made his decision. His event would follow the Super Billiards Expo in Pennsylvania and he calculated a decent turnout would spill over from that event. As it turned out, though, a variety of other events popped up on the pool calendar after he'd made his decision, and the turnout wasn't "anything like (he) expected."

 

A total of 68 players (with duplication) filled out four events that began on Thursday April 23 with a bar box 8-ball tournament (22) and concluded with a big table 9-ball tournament (16) on Sunday, April 26. In between, were a bar box 10-ball event (15) and a triple elimination bracket 8-ball event (15). By the time the final match in the 9-ball event was scheduled to begin, it was 6:30 a.m. on Monday morning, April 27. The competitors (Brucato and room owner, Sean Zen) opted out of a final match and split the top two prizes. The entire event was hosted by Eastridge Billiards in Rochester, NY.

 

In addition to prize money awarded to each of the winners in four events (three players; Dave Dreidel won two), there was a $250-added Master of the Table award, won by Dreidel. The award was based on a combination of participation and performance, with each player assigned 100 points at the outset, three points per match played, and assigned points for place finish; from 10 for a win, down to 2 for a 10th place finish. This encouraged participation in all four events; a top player who opted out of any of the events would, in effect, be down 100 points, which would be hard to make up, thereby incentivizing players to participate in all four. Dreidel, Brucato, Melissa Spade and Sean Zen picked up the top four cash prize awards in this Master of the Table competition.

 

Dreidel got things rolling on Thursday with an undefeated win in the first of two 8-ball events, a short race (to 2) standard, double elimination tournament. The event's final four matches were shutouts. Dreidel got by Bruce Prince, Jr. 2-0 in the hot seat match. On the loss side, it was Luis Recio emerging to shut out both Junie Gelako in the quarterfinal match and Prince in the semifinal. Dreidel sealed the deal with a shutout over Recio in the finals. Melissa Spade picked up $40 as the event's top female finisher.

 

Dreidel went undefeated in the 10-ball event, as well. He got by Angelo Inness twice; once for the hot seat 7-4 and again (7-5) in the finals. The loss-side contender in this one was Tito Ortiz, who downed Bob Simmons 6-4 in the quarterfinals, only to be stopped by Inness 6-2 in the semifinals. Mindy Hagar picked up $20 as the top female finisher.

 

Dreidel played in the triple elimination 8-ball tournament, too, making it as far as a winners' side semifinal against room owner Sean Zen, who defeated him, double hill and then went on to win the event. Zen defeated Chris Bassett 3-1 to claim the hot seat, and downed Jerry Sullivan by the same score in the finals. Sullivan had emerged from a mind-boggling, triple elimination scenario to defeat Basset in the quarterfinals, and Melissa Spade in the semifinals. Normally, the loser of the hot seat match (Bassett, in this case) is guaranteed at least a third place finish, but a third two-loss bracket affords players the opportunity to emerge and challenge one-loss players. Spade was the final player out of that two-loss bracket, before being eliminated, with a third defeat, by Sullivan. Women were awarded a game on the wire for all matches in this event.

 

Nick Brucato and room owner Sean Zen split the top two prizes in the weekend's final event, a 'big table,' double elimination 9-ball tournament, and given the sheer volume of effort they put forth, along with Brucato's assistants, Bruce Prince, Sr. and Bob Simmons, they certainly earned it. Brucato defeated Bassett 9-3 to claim the hot seat. As with the triple elimination 8-ball event, women were awarded a game on the wire, which worked to Melissa Spade's advantage, though not for long enough. She was defeated by Sean Zen 7-4 in the quarterfinals. Zen moved on to defeat Bassett 7-3 in the semifinals, before, at 6:30 a.m., he and Brucato opted out of playing a final match. As the undefeated hot seat occupant, Brucato was declared the official winner.

 

In addition to profuse thanks to his assistants, Bob Simmons and Bruce Prince, Sr., Brucato thanked room owner Sean Zen, as well as sponsors Ozone Billiards, Kamui Tips, McGinny's Pub, and Mooney's Mac and Cheese of Leroy, NY (donors of the $250 added to the Master of the Table awards). In addition, he thanked Premier Sunroom Solutions of Rochester, NY, for their donation of a patio set, valued at $800, that was raffled off and won by Pamela Goodfriend.

It was the second time in a row on the Western New York Tour that Dave Grau found himself in the hot seat. On Saturday, November 22, at Eastridge Billiards in Rochester, NY, tour director Nick Brucato won 11 on the loss side to meet and defeat him in the finals of a triple-elimination format tournament called the 8-Ball Grind. On Saturday, December 20, at the final 2014 stop on the tour, dubbed The Jingle Grind, again at Eastridge Billiards, Grau did it again, working his way through a field of 52. This time, though, he defeated his challenger in the finals, Angelo Inness, and claimed the event title.

 

The rarely-seen triple elimination format creates a third bracket, into which players who've chalked up a loss on the normal losers' side bracket are sent. Those players play a single game and the winners are eventually woven back into the final stages of the normal losers' side bracket. The format creates some puzzling, late-stage information; like (in this most recent event) Louis Recio, who won a loss-side match, competing for the 9/12 finish, moved to the third bracket, won a match and then finished in that 9/12 slot, when he lost a match to Dylan Stuck.

 

No bracket confusion for Grau, though. It was a straight shot to the hot seat, which went through Seth Tamavoughn among the winners' side final four. Daryl Stuck (father of the two Stucks in the tournament) squared off against Inness in the other winners' side semifinal. Two 3-1 scores put Grau and Stuck in the hot seat match, where a third 3-1 score sent Stuck to the semifinals.

 

On the loss side, Tamavoughn met up, first, with the son in the Stuck clan, Dylan, and after defeating him 2-1, faced Jason Hunt, who'd defeated Al McGuin 2-1. Inness drew Jeff Montgomery, who came from the third bracket to meet him. Tamavoughn defeated Hunt 1-0, as Inness ended Montgomery's day 2-1. In another peculiarity of the triple elimination format, the quarterfinals were between Daryl Stuck, fresh off his defeat at the hands of Grau in the hot seat, and Tamavoughn. A single game decided the quarterfinal, and the elder Stuck moved on to face Inness in the semifinals.

 

Inness defeated Stuck 2-1, and got a shot at Grau in the hot seat. Perhaps, with the sting of his runner-up performance a month earlier still in his head, Grau completed his undefeated run with a 3-1 victory over Inness in the finals.

Kyle Bova dropped the opening set of a true double elimination final to Ryan McCreesh, who'd won seven on the loss side for the right to face him, but came back to win a second set and claim the Saturday, August 10 event title at a stop on the Western New York Tour. The event drew 28 entrants to Camelot Billiards in Rochester, NY.

 

It was Bova who'd sent McCreesh west, in the second round of play, and with McCreesh at work on the loss side, Bova advanced among the winners' side final four for a match against Jerry Sullivan. Tour director Nick Brucato and T. Tamovan squared off in the other winners' side semifinal. Bova downed Sullivan, double hill, as Tamovan was sending Brucato to the loss side 7-5. Bova took the hot seat match 7-5 over Tamovan and waited on the return of McCreesh.

 

Brucato moved to the loss side and picked up Jose Mirabelle, who'd defeated Dan Miosi 6-4 and Mark Creamer 6-2 to reach him. Sullivan drew McCreesh, who'd survived a double hill match against Angelo Inness and defeated Brian Dickinson 8-3. McCreesh and Mirabelle handed Sullivan and Brucato their second straight losses; McCreesh surviving a second double hill battle, over Sullivan, while Mirabelle eliminated Brucato 7-5.

 

McCreesh took the quarterfinal match against Mirabelle 8-5 and then downed Tamovan in the semifinals by the same score. With momentum on his side, and vengeance on his mind, McCreesh took the opening set of the true double elimination final 8-4 over Bova. Bova, though, came back to win the second set 8-2 to claim  the event title. 

 

Innes took the direct route through the field of 44 other players and was sitting in the hot-seat undefeated after a close 9-7 win over Chance Chin in the winners side finals.

Chin then dropped a 9-5 match to Jeremy Sossei on the one loss side, and was forced to settle for third place.

Sossei had been sent to the left side on Saturday by tour director Mike Zuglan, and had battled back all day Sunday to earn his place in the finals against Innes. On paper, Sossei may have been the match favorite, and he did reach the hill first in the first set of the finals. Innes quickly joined Sossei on the hill at 8-8 and broke the rack for the case game. In what could have been a perfect Hollywood ending, Innes made a ball and saw a 1-9 carom line up for him. One shot later, Innes had earned his first Joss tour victory.

Innes took home $1000 for first, while Sossei pocketed $730 for second.

The second chance event on Sunday drew 22 players fighting it out for $940 in prize money.

That event saw Paul Rozonewski take the hot-seat with a 3-1 win over Bill Cote. 

Cote then came back strong and scored a 3-0 win over Bud Robideau to earn another shot at Rozonewski in the finals.

Cote kept his strong play going and defeated Rozonewski 3-0 in the first set of the finals, but fell short as Rozonewski won the final set 3-1.

Rozonewski earned $340 for first and Cote settled for $220 in second place prize money.

The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will take the rest of April and May off and be back in action June 9th-10th at Snookers in Providence, RI. After that event, the tour will head to Verona New York for the Turning Stone Classic XIX. Mike Zuglan still urges all players to get their entries for the Turning Stone event as it is filling fast. Players can call Zuglan at 518-356-7163.

Main Event Payouts | Second Chance Payouts