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Gomez & Malm Take Music City

Jeffrey De Luna and Roberto Gomez

The legendary JOB Billiards Club in Madison, TN – a suburb of Nashville – presented the $7,000 added 35th Annual Music City Open this past week. Featuring multiple minis as well as the Open and Ladies Nine Ball events, there was action galore!

Joining JOB’s owner Ricky Gamble in special sponsorship was PoolActionTV.com as well as Aramith, Simonis and Diamond Billiard Products.

Looking to shake off the rust was BCA Hall of Famer Kim Davenport and Shane Wolford looking to defend his title. Notables spotted around the room were Jesus Atencio, Josh Roberts, Robb Saez, Shannon Murphy, Johnathan (“Hennessee”) Pinegar, Chuck Raulston, Jason Foutch, April Larson, Tina Malm, Liz Lovely, Kelly Isaac, Tam Trinh, Janeen Lee and WPBA veteran Suzie Quall. Filipinos Jeffrey de Luna and Bogies (Houston, TX) House Pro Roberto Gomez as well as Denmark’s Mickey Krause and Indonesia’s Alvin Angito also joined the fray.

All events were played on seven foot Diamonds and play kicked off with on Wednesday evening with a single elimination race to seven nine ball mini tournament. The field was whittled down to Jesus Atencio & Mickey Krause – they split the pot. There was another mini tournament on Saturday night – these two split the pot again!

Players were back on Thursday night for the players auction, meeting & draw. A full field of 128 players entered this race to eleven winner breaks tournament. 

Roberto Gomez began his march to the hot seat match after defeating Matt Moore (11-4), Jaime Mitchell (11-3), Rich McDonald (11-1), Johnathan (“Hennessee”) Pinegar (11-9), Jeffrey de Luna (11-9) and Billy Young (11-10).

Mason Koch also advanced to the hot seat match after wins over Ryan Williams (11-4), TJ Hammond (11-1), Jason Bacon (11-5), Jerry Clayman (11-10), Mickey Krause (11-9) and Trey Frank (11-5).

The hot seat match was close but it was Gomez who locked up his seat in the finals 11-7. Mason would have to await an opponent on the one loss side.

Jeffrey de Luna edged out Mickey Krause (11-10) and then faced Koch to see who would advance to the finals. Jeff defeated Mason 11-4 and moved on to the finals. Mason finished in third place.

Since this was true double elimination, de Luna would have to defeat Gomez twice to win the tournament. However, it was not to be as Roberto won 11-9 to add the Music City Open title to his resume! Congratulations, Roberto! Good event, Jeff!

April Larson and Tina Malm

The Ladies Nine Ball division began on Friday night with 49 players playing in this race to seven winner breaks tournament. 

Tina Malm advanced to the hot seat with wins over Casey Baldridge (7-4), Elizabeth Shilliam (7-2), Amanda Wilder (7-0), the always tough April Larson (7-5) and Janeen Lee (7-1).

Joining Tina in the hot seat match was Liz Lovely. She defeated Allison Hardwick (7-1), Chelsea Hoyt (7-2), Beverly Cook 7-1, Melissa Young (7-4) and Heather Middleton (7-3).

The hot seat match was close but Malm closed it out with a 7-5 victory over Lovely. Liz headed west to await an opponent.

After losing a nailbiter to Heather Middleton in the fourth round 7-6, Kelly Isaac then edged out Amy Theriault (7-6) and beat Melissa Young (7-2) and Janeen Lee (7-0) until she was eliminated by April Larson (7-2). Kelly finished in fourth place.

Larson then defeated Lovely (7-4) to move into the finals. Liz finished in third place.

Again, since this was true double elimination, April had to defeat Tina twice to take the title. April won the first set 7-4 but Tina took the decider and the title with a 7- 4 win! Congratulations, Tina! Great effort, April!

PoolActionTV.com would like to thank Ricky Gamble and his staff for their exemplary efforts in taking care of all the players and fans.  

We’d also like to thank Tournament Director Jason Hill for doing an excellent job in running all the different events.

In addition, kudos to Larry Schwartz, Mary Kenniston, Josh Roberts and Ray Hansen for their excellent commentary.

PoolActionTV.com would also like to thank our sponsors and fans. Our sponsors include JB Cases, Hanshew Jump Cues, Simonis, Aramith, Lomax Custom Cues, Diamond Billiard Products, Durbin Custom Cues, Savage Billiards, the Action Palace of Dayton, OH and the Fort Worth Superstore of Fort Worth, TX. 

And on to the Derby City Classic! Be sure to stop by our Aramith Action Room! The dates are January 20th-28th! Hope to see you there!

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Hoyt goes undefeated in her debut and Midwest Ladies Regional Tour’s season finale

Chelsea Hoyt and Kathy Thomas

It was a small field that gathered for the season finale of the Midwest Ladies Regional Tour (MLRT) and in some ways, that turned out to be a bit of blessing for Chelsea Hoyt, who took advantage of the small field to win four straight matches and claim her first title in her debut appearance on the tour. The $500-added event drew seven entrants to Cushions Billiards & Lounge in Westerville, OH on Saturday, October 26.
 
Hoyt had to get by Kathy Thomas twice to claim the event title. They met first in the hot seat match, after Hoyt had defeated Ashley McKee 7-3 and in a winners’ side semifinal, Kim Wiehl 7-4. Thomas had gotten by Chelsea Hoyt’s sister, Jessica 7-5 and in her winners’ side semifinal match, survived a double hill encounter versus MLRT director Angela Williams. Hoyt and Thomas battled to double hill, as well, with Hoyt eventually prevailing to sit in the hot seat.
 
On the loss side, Williams picked up McKee and Wiehl drew Heather Winter, who’d recently shutout Jessica Hoyt. It created the unlikely and hard to duplicate circumstance of a tournament that was going to end with two sisters finishing in first and last place. 
 
Winter eliminated Wiehl 6-4 and was joined in the quarterfinal match by Williams, who’d shut out McKee. Winter and Williams fought to double hill in those quarterfinals before Williams advanced to face Thomas in the semifinals.
 
Another double hill match ensued, and was eventually won by Thomas, who got a second shot at Hoyt in the hot seat. Hoyt completed her short, undefeated run with a 7-2 victory in the finals. 
 
Tour director Williams thanked the ownership and staff at Cushions Billiards & Lounge, as well as sponsors Railbirds Productions, McDermott Cues and AZ Billiards. The MLRT will return with a season opener in March or April of 2020.