It was 3:30 in the morning when Tommy Kennedy, sitting in the hot seat, and Anthony Meglino opted out of a final match during the $500-added, November 30 stop on Kennedy's Tiger Southeast Open 9-Ball Tour, which drew 41 entrants to Cunningham's in Vero Beach, FL. As far as Kennedy was concerned, the default event title worked out just as well for him, because Meglino, he noted, coming off a nine-match, loss-side winning streak was shooting lights out as he got closer.
"He was shooting really well," said Kennedy, "so it did kind of work out for the best for me."
Kennedy had sent Meglino west in the second round, and Kennedy moved on, advancing, eventually to the winners' side final four, where he met up with Carlos Torres. Jim Sandaler, in the meantime, locked cues with Chris Gentile. A 7-4 win for Kennedy and a double hill win for Sandaler, put them into the hot seat match, where Kennedy prevailed 7-2.
With four matches behind him, Meglino defeated Devin Brown 6-1 and shut out Prescott Buckwold to draw Gentile, coming over from the winners' side semifinals. Torres drew Chris Daly, who'd gotten by Justin Hall 6-3 and Billy Burke 6-2.
Torres got successfully back on the winning track with a 6-4 victory over Daly, but Meglino handed Gentile his second straight loss, defeating him 6-1. Meglino advanced to the semifinals without lifting his cue, as Torres forfeited the quarterfinal match.
Meglino then eliminated Sandaler in the semifinals 6-3, which gave Kennedy, looking on, a glimpse of what he might be facing. They opted out of the final match, declaring Kennedy, in the hot seat, the event winner.
Kennedy thanked Chris Devila, owner of Cunningham's and his staff for their hospitality, as well as sponsors Tiger Products, J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Mueller Recreational Products, Chris Nitti Custom Cues, Chris Hightower of Cue Man Billiards, Daivd Adams of Byron, GA and Simonis Cloth.
Last month (April), Trevor Moore won a stop on the Poison Tour (Amateur) by winning a single-rack shootout, necessitated when his loss-side opponent in the finals (Jason Richko) won their first meeting in those finals. On the weekend of May 18-19, Moore did it again, this time against Raymond Linares. The $1,000-added Amateur event, run in conjunction with an Open/Pro event (on-going as this report was being filed) drew 62 entrants to Cunningham Pool & Darts in Vero Beach, FL.
From among the winners' side final four, with Linares at work on the six-game, loss-side winning streak that would take him to the finals, Moore met up with Sam Kantar, who'd sent Linares over. Carlos Torres and Cal McGann squared off in the other winners' side semifinal. Moore downed Kantar 6-1, and Torres sent McGann west 6-4. Moore got into the hot seat with a 6-1 victory over Torres and waited on the return of Linares.
In the meantime, Linares was working on his streak. He got by Chip Dickerson 5-3 and shut out Chris Gentile to pick up McGann. Kantar drew Felix Luna, who'd survived a double hill match against Jason Sheerman and defeated Marcus Shenandoah 5-3.
Linares earned his quarterfinal rematch against Kantar with a double hill win over McGann, as Kantar was busy ending Luna's day 5-3. Linares took advantage of that re-match, defeating Kantar 5-1, and moving on to defeat Torres in the semifinals, 5-1.
Linares chalked up his third double hill win in the opener of the finals against Moore. Moore, though, for the second time in a little over a month, took the single rack shootout to claim the event title.
Stroker’s Billiards Palm Harbor, Fl hosted the latest Poison Cues tour event. 30 players showed up for the$1000 Added Amateur one day event which was held Fathers day weekend, 6,16,2012.
Carlos Torres would prove to be the man to beat, as he made his way to the hotseat with strong wins over Lee Holland 7-4, Tim Baron 7-3, Jake Nauman 7-5, Trey Jankowski 7-3 which he followed up with a hard fought 7-4 win over Brett Lykins to take the Hotseat.
While all this was going on Jose Ybarra was running riot on the one loss side, after taking a 7-4 loss to Nathan Rose, Ybarra would go onto defeat Marty Linzy 5-2, Dave Ross 5-1, Paul Mullins 5-4, Jake Jacobson 5-2, Trey Jankowski 5-4, Lee Holland 5-1 and then another strong win over Brett Lykins 5-4 to set up a final match with Torres.
Carlos Torres looked like he was going to cruise his way to the win as he stormed out to a 6-2 lead, Ybarra had other ideas as he grinded his way back into the match rack by rack and eventually tying it up at 6-6, unfortunately for Ybarra a scratch in the last game would give Torres the chance he had been waiting for as he calmly ran the last few balls to take down his first Title on the Poison Tour.
We would like to thank Stroker’s Billiards for hosting another great event and all the players that showed up. Also our title Sponsors Poison Cues for supply some of the best hitting cues on the market.
The Poison tour will be at Cuephoria Billiards Café in Orlando July 28th-29th Orlando always draws a big crowd so this should be another great weekend of pool. If you would like to see some of the matches from this and past events visit www.poisonpooltour.com for more info you can also sign up to receive emails with the latest news.
