The players appear to like the new format for the Diamond Pool Tour, as a field of 54 players made their way to Pockets Pool and Pub in Tucson, Arizona for stop #2 on the tour. Even with that size of a field, it was still local Tucson players dominating the final stages of the event.
As is always the case, Saturday held it’s fair share of early upsets with Ruben Silva dropping matches to Brian McIntyre and Hugo Villanueva for a “two and out” finish. Another early round upset saw Derek Kawamura drop matches to Terri Adams and Carl Stewart for an early exit.
Saturday play on the winner’s side saw Tucson’s AJ Jones (sans headphones) scoring wins over Marcus Teufel, Brian Long and Ed Scott to remain undefeated. Jones would be joined by Kevin Nguyen, Max Maurer, and Tim Daniel as the final four undefeated players.
The final eight on the one loss side included a handful of lower rated players with Vincent Sbelgio, Steve Adams and Tony Whiting all guaranteed cash finishes. McIntyre and Ricky Teyechea finished one spot out of the money on Saturday night.
Winner’s side action on Sunday saw Jones and Daniel scoring lopsided wins over Nguyen and Maurer to find themselves in the hot-seat match. That match would be a real battle with Jones coming out on top of a hill-hill match.
The story on the one loss side was (Fargo 444 rated) Steve Adams. Adams had remained undefeated almost all day Saturday, finally dropping an 8-1 match to Kevin Nguyen in his final match on Saturday. Adams picked up on Sunday where he left off on Saturday, with wins over Tony Whiting, Ed Scott and Max Maurer. Adams next faced off against Nguyen again, and apparently Nguyen is the only one who knows Adams’ weakness as he defeated Adams 8-0 in the rematch. Adams was so happy with his 4th place finish that he promptly stepped up to become a tour sponsor with his business, Discount Mattress Barn in Tucson.
Nguyen then dropped the semi-final match to Tim Daniel 10-4, setting up a Daniel/Jones rematch in the finals. The players traded racks on the other’s breaks early in the match until AJ Jones finally won rack seven on his own break for a 4-3 lead. That was all the momentum that Jones needed, as he then ran out to a 7-3 lead. Jones would reach the hill first at 9-4 and finally win the match 10-5 for first place.
The Diamond Pool Tour will brave the cold at Freezer’s Ice House on June 9th – 10th for the third stop of the season.
The G Cue Billiard Store Diamond Pool Tour held their second stop of the season at Skip & Jan’s in Gilbert on June 17th – 18th, where they once again crowned a new winner in the amateur division, and a returning champion in the open division.
The amateur division kicked off on Saturday with 36 players and a new group of favorites at the top of the list. With tour stop one winner Max Maurer over the 625 Fargo limit, early favorites in this event included Rick Armbrust (619), Lee Brown (619), Ken Laney (618) and Mike Hamman (616). As a testament to the handicapped format of the event, only Armbrust would finish in the money.
Saturday play whittled the field down to the final eight players in the money, with Bob Mizer set to face Scott Vogelsburg (looking for his second big win in as many weeks) and Rick Armbrust set to face Nick Cipiti. The one loss side came down to Steve Stowers vs Wes Sowers and Randy Reid vs Jesse Johnson.
As play began on Sunday, Vogelsberg beat Mizer 8-2 in an even 8-8 race, and Armbrust beat Cipiti 9-6 in a 9-8 race.
On the left side of the board, Steve Stowers eliminated Wes Sowers 8-5 in an 8-7 race, while Randy Reid upset Jesse Johnson 6-2 in a 6-8 race. Stowers would then eliminate Mizer in a hill-hill match 8-6, and Cipiti bounced back from his earlier loss to send Reid to the seats with an 8-2 scoreline. Cipiti would soon be joining Reid in the seats, as Stowers scored a hill-hill win to eliminate Cipiti in 4th place. Due to the Father’s Day holiday, Vogelsberg forfeited his semi-final match against Stowers and the race to 9 final match was underway.
The final match came down to hill-hill, before Armbrust dropped the final 9-ball for the 9-8 win and first place.
On one side of the winner’s bracket, Foldes was on a tear. He defeated Carl Stewart, Ben Hrabina and Brian Long by a combined score of 30-2. On the other side of the winner’s bracket, it was Bobby Emmons making noise. Emmons defeated Tracie Hamman, Eric Young and then Mitch Ellerman in a hill-hill match.
Ellerman took the trip to the one loss side, where he then dropped a hill-hill match to Eric Young to finish in 4th place.
Back on the winner’s side, Emmons was playing like he didn’t have a care in the world and sent Foldes to the one loss side 7-3 (in a 7-10 match).
Foldes was ready for round two with Emmons though, as he then eliminated Young in a hill-hill 10-4 match.
Just to prove that the first time was no fluke, Emmons defeated Foldes in the first set of the finals by the same 7-3 scoreline.
The tour will next head out to Tucson on the 15th and 16th of July for two events on the 9’ tables at Pockets.
The G Cue Billiard Store Diamond Pool Tour is proudly sponsored by…
