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Davis undefeated on Action Pool Tour’s ‘Back to the Beach’ 10-Ball event

(l to r): Mike Davis & Chris Bruner

While it conjures images of pool tables lined up along a sandy beach somewhere, with players in bathing suits, the Action Pool Tour’s 5th stop on the 2019 tour referenced the town’s name, not the beaches that are admittedly nearby. The tour stop, held on the weekend of May 18-19, drew 31 entrants to Q Master Billiards in Virginia Beach, VA. Mike Davis, making his first appearance on the 2019 tour, went undefeated to claim the title, but not before being challenged in the finals by Chris Bruner, who’d been sent to the loss side in the second round of play and won seven in a row for the right to face Davis.
 
As the event progressed from its opening rounds, Davis’ opponents kept getting closer and closer. Davis opened with an 8-1 victory over Anthony Vigliotti, an 8-3 win over Jimmy Bird, and an 8-5 win over Scott Haas to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Bernard Andico. Nilbert Lim, in the meantime, got by Ron Zampko 8-3, Keith Bennett 8-5 and survived a double hill match against Mark Lacson to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal match against Kelly Farrar. Farrar, on her way to the matchup against Lim, was responsible for sending Chris Bruner to the loss side, and had also defeated the tour’s #3-ranked player, Steve Fleming.
 
Lim sent Farrar to the loss side and an immediate rematch against Bruner with an 8-3 win, as Davis sent Andico over 8-5. In the battle for the hot seat, Lim was able to chalk up more racks against him than any of his previous opponents, Davis prevailed to claim the hot seat 8-6.
 
On the loss side, Farrar ran into Bruner, four matches into his seven-match, loss-side streak, which had most recently resulted in the elimination of JR Avery 7-3 and Scott Haas 7-5. Andico picked up the tour’s #2-ranked competitor RJ Carmona, who, like Bruner had been defeated in the second round of play (by Scott Haas) and was in the midst of his own five-match, loss-side winning streak. Bruner and Carmona were about to meet in the quarterfinals.
 
Carmona got there with a 7-2 win over Andico and was joined by Bruner, who’d ended Farrar’s weekend 7-4. Bruner then ended Carmona’s loss-side streak 7-5 in that quarterfinal match.
 
Bruner completed his loss-side run with a 7-3 win over Lim in the semifinals. Davis completed his undefeated run with a 10-5 victory over Bruner in the finals.
 
A Second Chance drew eight entrants. It was won by Kelly Cox, who defeated Steve Fleming in the finals 7-5.
 
Tour directors Kris Wylie and Tiger Baker thanked the ownership and staff at Q Master Billiards, as well as sponsors Predator Cues, Viking Cues, Simonis, Aramith, Kamui, Diamond Billiard Products, Cue Sports International (CSI), Chix Cabinets Direct, Grant Wylie (professional photographer), Brown’s Mechanical, LLC, and George Hammerbacher Advanced Pool Instructor. The next stop on the APT, scheduled for the weekend of June 15-16, will be the Brown’s Mechanical 9-Ball Open, hosted by Diamond Billiards in Midlothian, VA.

Aranas goes undefeated to defend his title at the 3rd Annual Barry Behrman Memorial

(l to r): James Aranas

As he did last year, the Philippines’ Zoren “James” Aranas took advantage of some geography to compete in a pair of events that he’s won over the past couple of weeks. Last year, he followed up on his victory at the Super Billiards Expo’s ProAm Bar Box Championships to compete and win the 2nd Annual Barry Behrman Memorial, downing its inaugural champion Brandon Shuff twice. This year, Aranas won the Super Billiards Expos’ Diamond Open 10-Ball Pro Players’ Championship on the last weekend in March, and this past weekend (April 6-7), went undefeated to defend his Barry Behrman Memorial title, downing separate opponents in the hot seat and finals. Already over halfway to earning what he made in 2018, his best earnings year to date, he’s on track to make 2019 another good year.
 
Aranas’ opponent in the finals, Reymart Lim, stepped to the tables at Q Master Billiards in Virginia Beach, VA for the $1,500-added 3rd Annual Barry Behrman Memorial having already won two of the three events on the 2019 Action Pool Tour (APT). Lim lost his opening match (to Shaun Wilkie 9-7) in a preliminary round, designed to put 32 of the 37 registered players into a double elimination bracket. He then won nine on the loss side to meet Aranas in the finals. He didn’t get to meet Wilkie a second time, because as he was facing Tuan Chau in the first money round (9th/12th), the Behrman Memorial’s inaugural champion, Brandon Shuff, was busy meeting and defeating Wilkie 9-7.
 
Aranas’ path went through Liz Taylor 9-3, Shuff 9-6 and Chris Futrell 9-3 to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against RJ Carmona. His future hot seat opponent, JT Ringgold, winner of the APT’s Season Finale, got by Gage Turner 9-4, Bruce Reed 9-3 and Wilkie 9-4 to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal matchup against Nilbert Lim (no relation, but a close friend of Reymart Lim).
 
Aranas downed Carmona 9-2, while Ringgold and Lim locked up in a double hill fight that eventually allowed Ringgold to join Aranas for the hot seat match. Aranas claimed the hot seat 9-3 over Ringgold and waited on what turned out to be the return of Reymart Lim.
 
Meanwhile, over on the loss side, Reymart Lim was hard at work, advancing to a meetup with Nilbert Lim. Reymart opened his loss-side campaign with a 9-3 win over Rob Wilkins and followed it with victories over Paul Swinson 9-4, Gary Ornoff 9-6, Dave White, 9-1, Tuan Chau 9-3 and Chris Futrell 9-5 to draw Nilbert Lim. Carmona, in the meantime, picked up Brandon Shuff, who, following his defeat at the hands of Aranas, had shut out Mark Lacson and eliminated Alvin Thomas 9-2, Wilkie 9-7 and Greg Sabins 9-3.
 
Shuff and Reymart Lim advanced to the quarterfinals; Shuff 9-7 over Carmona and Reymart Lim 9-3 over Nilbert Lim. Reymart ended Shuff’s loss-side winning streak at five with a 9-7 victory in the quarterfinals and then ended JT Ringgold’s bid for a second shot at Aranas with a 9-2 win in the semifinals.
 
As it turned out, Reymart Lim got as close (in game count) to defeating Aranas as any of his previous opponents. Lim and Brandon Shuff both got as close as three games. Aranas completed his undefeated run 11-8 against Lim to capture his second straight Barry Behrman Memorial title.
 
In a Second Chance Tournament that drew eight entrants, Bernard Andico downed Jared Pitts twice 5-4 (hot seat) and 6-3 (finals). Graham Swinson finished third.

Aranas downs defending champ Shuff twice to win 2nd Annual Barry Behrman Memorial at Q Master

It’s shaping up to be a pretty good year for the Philippines’ Zoren James Aranas. He’s already recorded stronger earnings in 2018, than he did in all of 2017. After winning the Music City Classic’s 2018 Open Division in January, he had something of a below-par outing at the Derby City Classic (20th in 9-Ball, 34th in 9-Ball Banks), before bouncing back to win the Scotty Townsend Memorial in Los Angeles, and, less than a week and 3,000 miles later, both the Bob Stocks Memorial Tournament on the Action Pool Tour (APT), and days after that, the Pro Am Bar Box Championships at the Super Billiards Expo. On the weekend of April 21-22, still in the relative vicinity of the SBE locale, he signed on to the $1,500-added, 2nd Annual Barry Behrman Memorial Tournament, hosted by Behrman’s pool hall, Q-Master Billiards in Virginia Beach, VA. Aranas went undefeated through the field of 35, downing a small set of Mid-Atlantic veterans, in the process, including this event’s defending champion, Brandon Shuff, twice.
 
Aranas opened his winning bid with a 9-7 victory over Mike Davis, Jr. and then downed Ty Laha, Sr. 9-1 to draw Shuff for the first time in a winners’ side quarterfinal. He defeated Shuff 9-3 and moved into a winners’ side semifinal against Eric Moore, the APT’s 2016 Champion, and currently, #4 on its 2018 rankings list. In the meantime, Tim Colvin, who finished 3rd in the inaugural Barry Behrman Memorial, behind Shuff and Davis, squared off against Bernard Andico.
 
Aranas and Moore locked up in a double hill fight that eventually moved Aranas into the hot seat match. He was joined by Colvin, who’d sent Andico to the loss side 9-5. Aranas sent Colvin to the semifinals 9-2 and waited on the return of Shuff.
 
Shuff had opened his five-match, loss-side trek with 9-7 wins over JT Ringgold and Davis, which set him up to challenge Andico. Moore drew Nilbert Lim, who, following a defeat at the hands of Andico in a winners’ side quarterfinal, had eliminated Steve Fleming (the APT’s current points leader) 9-6 and Kelly Farrar 9-4.
 
Shuff and Lim advanced to the quarterfinals; Shuff 9-7 over Andico and Lim, by the same score, over Moore. Shuff ended Lim’s short, three-match run on the loss side 9-3 in those quarterfinals, and then denied Colvin a second shot at Aranas with a 9-7 win in the semifinals.
 
Shuff’s hoped-for defense of his 2017 Barry Behrman Memorial title was at stake in the finals, but he fared no better than Colvin had in the hot seat match. Like Colvin, Shuff managed to chalk up only two racks against him (one less than he’d managed in their winners’ side quarterfinal matchup), and Aranas claimed the event title 9-2. 

Cuneo and Hancock split top prizes at Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball stop in Virginia Beach

Chuck Cuneo

There was reportedly some Mid-Atlantic area competition with tournaments over the weekend of March 17-18, and it had an impact on entrants who signed on to the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour stop at Q Master Billiards in Virginia Beach, VA on that weekend. Chuck Cuneo and Mike Hancock joined the ranks of 22 players who did compete in the $250-added event, and in the end, with Cuneo in the hot seat, and Hancock coming back from the semifinals, they opted to split the top two prizes.  
 
Cuneo advanced through two matches to reach a winners’ side semifinal match against Bernard Andico, while Hancock faced Brian Lane in the other one. Cuneo got into the hot seat match with a 6-6 win over Andico, who was racing to 8. Cuneo was joined by Hancock, who’d sent Lane west 7-1. Cuneo downEd Hancock 6-5 (Hancock to 7) to claim the hot seat.
 
On the loss side, in the first money round, Andico picked up Dwight Cherry, who’d defeated Ken Miller 9-5 and Mike Hughes 9-6 to reach him. Lane drew Jim Bird, who’d gotten by Brandon Fitchett 8-2 and Lance Luke 8-4.
 
Lane advanced to the quarterfinals 7-6 over Bird (racing to 8), and was joined by Cherry, who’d eliminated Andico 9-7. Lane and Cherry locked up in a double hill fight for advancement to the semifinals, which Lane won (7-8).
 
Lane got into his second straight double hill match, this one in a straight-up race to 7, against Hancock in the semifinals. It proved to be the last match of the weekend, with Hancock advancing to the finals, and then, by mutual agreement, splitting the top two prizes with hot-seat occupant Cuneo.
 
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Cue Time, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Delta 13 Racks, AZBilliards and Professor Q Ball. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for March 24-25, will be hosted by Brown’s Billiards in Raleigh, NC.