Kristina Tkach has been a busy young woman. Since March, she’s chalked up three major titles, commencing with her win at the 2019 Super Billiards Expo’s Women’s 9-Ball Championship, followed by a May victory in a European tour event and just last week (Aug. 8-11), a WPBA victory at the Sondheim Diamond Invitational in Iowa. She had no sooner made it back home to Virginia (Roy’s Basement), when she signed on to the August 17-18 stop on the Action Pool Tour, where she went undefeated to claim that event title. The event drew 41 entrants to Champion Billiards Sports Bar in Frederick, MD.
Not only did Tkach work through a field dominated by men (36 of the 41), she defeated the top-ranked player in the Action Pool Tour’s standings and winner of the last two stops on the tour, Chris Bruner. Twice.
Tkach embarked on her trip to the winners’ circle with an 8-1 victory over Skylar Hess and then, defeated the 2018 runner-up in the tour’s rankings, Jason Trigo 8-3 (this was only Trigo’s third appearance on the 2019 tour). Tkach then defeated Elva Abernathy 8-4 to draw Brian Bryant in one of the winners’ side semifinals.
Bruner got into the hot seat match with an 8-2 victory over Wilkie. Tkach joined him after defeating Bryant 8-4. Tkach then claimed her first of two over Bruner 8-6 and waited in the hot seat for him to get back from the semifinals.
On the loss side, Wilkie picked up Scott Roberts, who’d been sent to the loss side by Brian Bryant (8-5) and then defeated Scott Haas, double hill, and then, Thomas Haas 7-1. Bryant drew Matt Krah, who’d been sent to the loss side by Wilkie, shut out Chuck Sampson and defeated Chris Funk 7-5.
Wilkie and Krah advanced to the quarterfinals, both 7-4, over Roberts and Bryant. Wilkie gave up only a single rack to Krah in those quarterfinals to earn his rematch against Bruner.
Bruner and Wilkie battled to within a game of double hill, but Bruner edged out in front near the end to win it 7-5. With the intangible of momentum presumably on his side, Bruner turned his attention to the young woman waiting for him in the hot seat (and how many times, one wonders, has that happened?)
Tkach and Bruner did battle it out to a 19th and deciding game in the finals. Tkach, though, had the last ‘word,’ as it were, and dropped the final 9-Ball to claim the event title.
A Second Chance event drew eight entrants. Don Steele and Alavaro Valle battled twice (hot seat and finals) for it. Steele took them both, taking home $100 after a 5-2 win in the hot seat and shutting Valle out in the finals. Valle took home the $75 second-place prize.
Tour directors Kris Wylie and Tiger Baker thanked the ownership and staff at Champion Billiards Sports Bar, as well as sponsors CSI, Viking Cues, Predator Cues, Diamond Billiard Products, Ozone Billiards, Simonis Cloth, Aramith Balls, Kamui, Chix Cabinets, and George Hammerbacher (Advanced Pool Instructor). The next stop on the Action Pool Tour (#9), scheduled for the weekend of Sept. 14-15, will be a Double Points event, hosted by Breakers Sky Lounge in Herndon, VA.
Jundel Mazon, from the Philippines, who was in Round Rock, TX over the Labor Day weekend, and was eventually ousted from the 128-entrant Texas Open by Justin Bergman, traveled east on the weekend of September 12-13 to try his hand at the Action Pool Tour. He went undefeated through a field of 64 to capture his first title, since (as far as we've been able to determine) his victory at the Guinness World Series of Pool in Jakarta in 2010; a tournament that saw Darren Appleton finish third, and Shane Van Boening finish in the eight-way tie for 17th. This time out, at the event hosted by Breakers Sky Lounge in Herndon, VA, Mazon left a few familiar names in the dust; like current tour rankings leader Shaun Wilkie (who he did not actually play), and # 2 in those rankings, Brandon Shuff, who he did play, twice, including the finals.
After opening his run with an 8-3 victory over Kevin Bailey, Mazon faced Karen Corr, who hasn't been defeated on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women's Tour in 18 months. He defeated Corr 8-4 and went on to defeat Daniel Jarquin, and Matt Krah (# 5 on ATP rankings), which set him up for his first go-round with Shuff, who had just sent Wilkie to the loss side. Joe Wright and Dan Madden met up in the other winners' side semifinal. Mazon sent Shuff to the loss side 8-5, and in the hot seat match, met up with Madden, who'd dispatched Wright 8-4. Mazon claimed the hot seat 8-3, and waited on Shuff's return.
Shuff had moved over to meet Steve Fleming, who was in the midst of a seven-match, loss-side winning streak that included recent victories over Jordan Scanlan and Jimmy Varias, both 6-1. Wright drew Matt Krah, who, after being sent over by Mazon, had defeated Rafael Reyes 6-2, and Greg Sabins 6-3. To reach Krah, Sabins had eliminated, in order, Corr and Wilkie.
Krah downed Wright 6-4, while Shuff was beating up on Fleming 6-1. He did the same thing, same score, to Krah in the quarterfinals. Madden slowed Shuff down a little in the semifinals, but Shuff emerged on the winners' side of their double hill semifinal match.
Mazon completed his undefeated run through the field with a 10-2 win in the finals. The win still left Wilkie at the top of the APT rankings, with Shuff right on his heels. Fleming, Varias, and Krah round out the tour's current top five players.
On the weekend of July 13-14, sitting atop the leader board on the Action Pool Tour, Brett Stottlemyer was looking to solidify that position with his second victory on the (thus far) 11-stop season, dating back to October. Though there are others on the tour who've won more events (Mike Davis and Brandon Shuff, for example), Stottlemyer has participated in all 11 events, and it's his 'Participation Points' and relatively high finishes in each of those stops that has him at the top of the rankings, just ahead of tour director, Ozzy Reynolds, who has, for obvious reasons, also been in attendance at all 11 stops. Stottlemyer's search for a second victory was derailed by Chris Bruner, who entered the tournament at # 36 in the tour rankings, on the basis of attendance at five of the events. Bruner took two out of three matches against Stottlemyer to claim title to Event # 11, which drew 60 entrants to Breakers Sky Lounge, in Herndon, VA.
They met first among the winners' side final eight. Bruner sent Stottlemyer west 7-4 and advanced among the winners' side final four for a match against Rafael Reyes. Danny Mastermaker, in the meantime, who'd won Stop # 8 in April and from his # 11 spot, was looking to step inside the Top 10 in rankings, met up with Dan Madden. Mastermaker dominated his match against Madden, winning 7-1 and advancing to the hot seat match against Bruner, who'd downed Reyes 7-4. Bruner then survived a double hill match against Mastermaker to claim the hot seat.
Stottlemyer, in the meantime, began his work on the loss side with a 6-1 victory over Danny Mastermaker's brother, Joey, and then defeated the #2-ranked Ozzie Reynolds 6-2, to meet up with Madden. Reyes drew Shaun Wilkie, who'd gotten by Daniel Jarquin 6-1 and #3-ranked Dominic Noe. It was Stottlemyer and Wilkie, advancing to the quarterfinals; Stottlemyer 6-2 over Madden and Wilkie 6-3 over Reyes.
Stottlemyer and Wilkie battled to double hill in those quarterfinals, with Stottlemyer prevailing to pick up Danny Mastermaker. Stottlemyer earned a second shot against Bruner with a 6-3 victory over Mastermaker in the semifinals, and then, took the opening set of the finals 7-3. Bruner, though, rallied to take the second set 6-4 and claim the event title. Though denied the event victory, Stottlemyer's second place finish did, in fact, solidify his top spot in the tour rankings, still ahead of Reynolds and Noe.
