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Mazon chalks up a second undefeated win on the Action Pool Tour; the VA State 8-Ball Championships

Jundel Mazon and Brandon Shuff

Whitman comes from the loss side to capture Women's title

 

Jundel Mazon of the Philippines has been among the top 10 finishers in 10 events this year, including a stop on the Q City 9-Ball Tour (2nd), the NC State 8-Ball Championships (3rd), the Gotham City Classic (7th), the US Open 9-Ball Championships, the 4th Annual Steinway Classic, the Houston Open and 42nd Annual Texas Open (all 9th), but he has only won twice, both times on the Action Pool Tour. In September, he defeated Brandon Shuff in the finals to take the APT's seventh tour stop. On the weekend of November 14-15, he defeated Shuff a second time in the finals to take the tour's ninth stop and become the second player to win the VA State 8-Ball Championships, which drew 36 entrants to Diamond Billiards in Midlothian, VA.

 
In a concurrently-run Women's event, Kim Whitman won three on the loss side to meet and defeat Barbara Yeager in the finals to become the second VA State 8-Ball Women's champion. The Women's event drew nine entrants. 
 
Mazon's path through the 36-entrant field avoided a confrontation versus the event's defending champion, Mike Davis, who was sent to the loss side by Danny Green in the third round, and eliminated by Nilbert Lim in the matches that determined the tie for seventh. Following a bye and a second round shutout over Luther Pickerall, Mazon did have to face the APT's top-ranked player, Shaun Wilkie (runner-up to Davis in 2013) in a match that went double hill, before advancing Mazon to a match versus Green. He defeated Green to face Larry Kressel in a winners' side semifinal. Shuff, in the meantime (third in 2013), faced Reymart Lim.
 
Mazon downed Kressel 7-5, as Shuff was sending Lim over 7-3. In their first of two, Mazon defeated Shuff 7-2 and sat in the hot seat, waiting for him to get back.
 
On the loss side, Kressel picked up Nilbert Lim, who'd just eliminated Cary Dunn and Davis, both 6-4. Reymart Lim ran into Danny Green, who'd defeated Brian Dietzenbach and Shannon Fitch, also both 6-4. Lim battled to double hill before being ousted by Green, who, in the quarterfinals, met Kressel, who'd shut Lim out. Green and Kressel battled to double hill before Green advanced for a shot against Shuff in the semifinals. 
 
Shuff took the semifinal match versus Green 6-2 and got a second shot at Mazon in the hot seat. To no avail, as Mazon took the extended, single race 9-2 to capture the VA State 8-Ball Championships title.
 
In the Women's event, unattended by the 2013 winner and runner-up (Cheryl Pritchard and Jackie Rivera) Kim Whitman and Barbara Yeager battled twice for the title; once in a winners' side semifinal and again, in the finals, in two very different kinds of matches. The small field dictated that a single match put both of them into the winners' side semifinals; Whitman had defeated Sierra Reams 6-4 and Yeager had shut out Soo Emmett. Sheri Bruner and Jacki Duggan, in the meantime, squared off in the other winners' side semifinal.
 
Duggan advanced to the hot seat match with a 6-2 victory over Bruner, and was met by Yeager, who'd shut Whitman out. Yeager claimed the hot seat 6-3 over Duggan and waited for what turned out to be the fateful, and quite different second match against Whitman.
 
On the loss side, Bruner picked up Reams, who'd defeated Emmett 5-2. Whitman drew Nicole Fleming, who'd eliminated Tina Scott 5-3. Bruner and Whitman advanced to quarterfinals; Bruner 5-2 over Reams and Whitman 5-3 over Fleming. Whitman gave up only a single rack to Bruner in the quarterfinals, and completely shut out Duggan in the semifinals. In sharp contrast to their meeting in the hot seat match, Yeager and Whitman fought to double hill before Whitman prevailed to take the Women's title.
 

Wilkie comes back from semifinals to down Krah in finals of Labor Day 9-Ball Shootout

Shaun Wilkie

The last time Shaun Wilkie and Matt Krah met in the finals of an event was back in February during the VA State 10-Ball Championships, held under the auspices of the Action Pool Tour (APT). They had met, as well, in the hot seat match of that tournament. Wilkie shut Krah out to grab the hot seat, and survived a double hill battle in the finals to complete his sixth straight win on the APT. At the 4th Annual Labor Weekend 9-Ball Shootout in Cambridge, MD, the two clashed in the hot seat match and finals again. This time, though, Krah survived a double hill hot seat match, only to have Wilkie come back from the semifinals to defeat him in the finals. The $500-added event drew 58 entrants to Great Slates Billiard Cafe in Cambridge.
 
Wilkie ended up playing 10 more games than Krah, 83 to Krah's 73, and prior to the finals, Krah had the better winning percentage – 72.4% over Wilkie's 70.5%. When it was over, those percentages had shifted (obviously). The addition of six game losses dropped Wilkie's percentage down by two points to 68.6%, but with the addition of nine losses, Krah's dropped by about seven points, down to 65.7%. Together, they recorded a total of five shutouts in 15 matches; two by Wilkie and three by Krah.
 
Wins over Will Johnson, Coen Bell, Steve Cahal, Jr. and Joe Stem put Wilkie in a winners' side semifinal against Kevin West. Krah had defeated Rick Winpigler, Brandon Welch, John Moody, Sr. (back-to-back shutouts), and Jason Kochenour to meet up with Josh Brothers in the other winners' side semifinal. Wilkie sent West west 7-4, while Krah was sending Brothers over 7-5. The hot seat battle went double hill, eventually sending Wilkie to the semifinals.
 
Over on the loss side, Joe Wright, having been sent there by Brothers in a winners' side quarterfinal, was working his way back to a re-match in the event quarterfinals. Wright got by  , TJ Moore and Kochenour, both 7-4, and picked up West. Brothers drew Rick Winpigler, who'd defeated Joe Stem and Danny Greene, both 7-5. Wright and Brothers advanced to their re-match; Wright 7-5 over West, and Brothers in a shutout over Greene.
 
Brothers downed Wright a second time in the quarterfinals, by the same score he'd chalked up on the winners' side 7-5. By that same score, Wilkie stopped Brothers' run in the semifinals. Wilkie then claimed the event title with the single race 9-6 victory in the finals.

Shuff, from the loss side, wins 8th Annual Maryland State 9-Ball Bar Table Championship

Brandon Shuff and Danny Green

Brandon Shuff followed up two straight recent wins on the Action Pool Tour with a come-from-the-loss-side victory in the 8th Annual Maryland State 9-Ball Bar Table Championships. Though it was Danny Green advancing to the hot seat and being defeated by Shuff in the finals, the event featured two matches between the Action Pool Tour’s prime competitors, Shuff and Shaun Wilkie. The $1,000-added 9-ball, bar table event drew 82 entrants to Great Slates in Cambridge, MD.

Shuff and Wilkie had locked up in the finals of the last two Action Pool Tour (APT) events. In the first – Stop # 3 on the tour in March – Shuff had put an end to an unprecedented six-event winning streak by Wilkie, dating back to the 2014 season. A month later, Stop #4 on the APT tour, Shuff did it again.
They met for the first time in this most recent event in a winners’ side semifinal, as Green squared off against Darryl Riley. In their first of two, Shuff was on the hill at 6-1, before Wilkie battled back to tie and then win it. Green sent Riley to the loss side 7-1, and then, in the hot seat match, sent Wilkie to a second meeting versus Shuff with a double hill fight that left him in the hot seat.
On the loss side, Shuff ran into Jeff Crawford, who’d defeated John Moody 7-5 and Evan Ford 7-3 to reach him. Riley ran into another perennial favorite on the Action Pool Tour, Mike Davis, who’d gotten by Pat Carosi 7-2 and Joe Wright 7-1 (Wilkie, Davis and Shuff, respectively, are currently ranked #1, #3 and #4 on the APT). Shuff downed Crawford 7-3, and in the quarterfinal match, hooked up with Davis, who’d sent Riley packing 7-1.
Shuff downed Davis 7-1 and got a much-anticipated second shot at Wilkie in the semifinals. He took advantage. The match came within a game of being a second double hill contest, but Shuff pulled ahead, to win by two at 7-5. Shuff and Green battled to double hill in the finals, before Shuff completed his loss-side run to claim the event title.

Dominguez comes from the West to win 1st East Coast 9-Ball Championship

Oscar Dominguez

It was no surprise that the 1st East Coast 9-Ball Championships, held on the weekend of December 7-8 at Diamond Billiards in Midlothian, VA,  featured a well-known list of Mid-Atlantic pool players, like Brett Stottlemyer, Ozzy Reynolds, Danny Green, Mike Davis and Brian Deska (to name just a few). It was also no surprise that Deska, sent to the loss side in the third round of play clawed his way back through seven matches against a variety of the Mid-Atlantic's best players, to reach the finals. It was a bit of surprise that this East coast event was won by Oscar Dominguez from California. He went undefeated through seven opponents to lay claim to the first East Coast 9-Ball Championship.
 
The event was more than a single, isolated pool tournament, offering a somewhat standard range of cash prizes. These championships were the culmination of months of work and something of a dream come true for Ozzy Reynolds, tour director of the Action Pool Tour. Reynolds conceived the event and launched a series of 64 qualifiers to create the field of players. In his opinion, articulated in a September press release, "the current format for large-scale pool tournaments (in this country) is broken." And he set out to do something about it. He created something of a feeder system; a relatively 'low fee' series of 64 qualifiers that was designed to raise $32,000 in prize money for the championship event.
 
"My model was based on the assumption that we'd average 14 players per qualifier," he said the day after the conclusion of the East Coast 9-Ball Championship. "We ended up averaging around six and a half players per qualifier."
 
This knocked the total prize fund down to $14,000, but even at that, the payouts were still above normal for a 64-entrant field at most 'major' tournaments. The top prize winner in such tournaments will generally pocket around $1,000, whereas this East Coast Championship allowed Oscar Dominguez to go home with $4,000, while runner-up Brian Deska cashed in at $2,500. It's the reason, in fact, that Oscar Dominguez took the time to seek out a qualifying tournament, and then fly in from California to (as it turned out) win it.
 
"Oscar's win brought a level of credibility to it," said Reynolds. "He told me personally that he thought this was the only way to get good payouts to a tournament, and that's why he took the time to qualify for it."
 
The event ran into two problems. One, according to Reynolds, was the fact that the concept "over-fished a small pond," leading to less 'fish' than he'd anticipated. The other problem was a little thornier, and involved what some other tours perceived as territory encroachment. Reynolds had originally planned on holding qualifiers from Maine to Florida, but when he sought out rooms in the Northeast, he was met with resistance. 
 
"The jury is still out," said Reynolds about a 2nd Annual East Coast Championship, "but I'm leaning toward doing it again, and not making the same mistakes."
 
"In my mind," he added, "this model was proved successful, and just needs some refinement."
 
Oscar Dominguez' path to the winners' circle went right through some of the best that the Mid-Atlantic region had to offer, including Mike Davis (3rd round), Danny Green (4th round), and among the winners' side final four, Steve Fleming. In the other winners' side semifinal, Shaun Wilkie squared off against Chris Futrell. Dominguez downed Fleming 9-2, and in the hot seat match, met Wilkie, who'd defeated Futrell 9-6. Dominguez chalked up his second-to-last win, 9-5, over Wilkie and waited on what turned out to be the return of Brian Deska, one of the top-ranked players on the Action Pool Tour.
 
Futrell moved over to pick up Green, who'd gotten by Matt Krah 7-5 and FrEd Scott 7-4. Fleming drew Deska, four matches into his seven-match, loss-side winning streak that saw him down Larry Nevel, Ozzy Reynolds, Larry Kressel (double hill), and Danny Mastermaker. Both recent arrivals from the winners' side – Futrell and Fleming – were eliminated; Futrell, 7-4, by Green and Fleming, 7-5 by Deska.
 
Deska moved on and dropped Green 7-4 in the quarterfinals and then, Wilkie 7-2 in the semifinals. Dominguez, though, pulled the plug on Deska's loss-side juggernaut, winning the final 9-5 to claim the first East Coast 9-Ball Championship title.

Reynolds, Shuff, and Stottlemyer take top prizes in season-ending Action Pool Tour stops

Brandon Shuff

The Action Pool Tour's Lambros Cues Round Robin Tournament is an annual invitation-only event for the tour's top 10 players to compete for a $2,000 Lambros Cue. In conjunction with this annual event, tour director Ozzy Reynolds conducts an Open 9-Ball Tournament and an awards ceremony, highlighting the season's best performances.
 
This year's event, held on the weekend of September 28-29 at First Break Cafe in Sterling, VA, recognized Brett Stottlemyer as the tour's 2012-2013 #1-ranked player, earning him free entry to October's US Open 9-Ball Championship. Reynolds took first place in the Round Robin tournament, while Brandon Shuff took home the top prize in the Open 9-Ball tournament that drew 32 entrants. 
 
Reynolds changed things up a bit in the Round Robin Tournament this year. Previously, the 10 invited players would compete in a series of matches, culminating in a winner, based on the best overall performance (Brian Deska won this last year). This,  however, led to circumstances in which players who were statistically out of the running for the top, Lambros Cue prize, would stop playing. This year, Reynolds created a four-player, single elimination set of matches (semifinals and finals), based on the Round Robin's top four players at the end of the matches.
 
"It worked really well," said Reynolds, "and added some intensity to the event."
 
The round robin matches, nine of them, used three different games. In short races to three, the first two games played were 9-ball, the second two were 10-ball games, while a double hill game (if necessary) was an 8-ball contest. The absence of Larry Kressel (#7), and Mike Davis (#5) allowed Brandon Shuff (#11) to move up and join the invited 10. It also advanced Shaun Wilkie (#12), but in his absence, Paul Oh (#13) became the 10th competitor. 
 
Stottlemyer, and Dan Madden (#4) started strong with back to back shutouts, but over the course of the next seven matches, they were overtaken by Shuff, Reynolds (#4), Dominic Noe (#2) and Dave Hunt (#6). Noe chalked up an 8-1 record, which included two shutouts and four, double hill wins. Shuff finished with a 7-2 record, which included four shutouts. His two defeats, both double hill, came in matches against Reynolds and Noe. Reynolds finished 8-1, having given up his only match to Noe in a shutout. The last of the semifinalists was Hunt, who started out slowly, losing three of his first four, but edged Stottlemyer for the last semifinal spot by a single game (Stottlemyer had given up 17 racks, Hunt gave up 16). 
 
The pairings for the semifinal matches pitted Reynolds against Hunt, while Shuff faced Noe. Reynolds defeated Hunt 3-1, while Noe battled Shuff to double hill before prevailing to enter the finals against Reynolds. Reynolds completed his 10-1 day with a 3-1 victory over Noe that earned him the Lambros Cue, valued at $2,000.
 
In the Open 9-Ball event, Brandon Shuff came back from a defeat in the hot seat match to double dip Danny Green in the event finals. Green, who'd only been able to attend two of the tour's 13 stops and thus, entered the 9-Ball Tournament ranked #41 on the tour, went through the tour's top ranked players to get into the hot seat. Following a bye, he took out Danny Mastermaker (#8), Dave Hunt, Dan Madden, and in a winners' side semifinal, Brian Deska, to get into the hot seat match against Shuff. Shuff, on the other hand, faced only one, top-ranked player – Ozzy Reynolds – whom he defeated 5-2 for a spot in the other winners' side semifinal versus Brian Dietzenbach. Shuff downed Dietzenbach 7-1 to face Green in the battle for the hot seat.
 
Green took that hot seat match 7-5, and waited on Shuff's return. Deska, in the meantime, had moved west to meet up with Dominic Noe, who'd defeated Reynolds 5-2, and Chris Bruner 7-2 to meet him. Dietzenbach picked up Danny Mastermaker, who'd shut out Pat Carosi, and downed Dan Madden 7-3. 
 
It was Mastermaker and Deska in the quarterfinals; Mastermaker, having defeated Dietzenbach 7-5, as Deska was busy overcoming Noe by the same score. Deska took command of that quarterfinal match to win it 7-2, and though he put up a fight in the semifinals, Shuff prevailed 7-5 for a second shot at Green.
 
Shuff took the opening set of the double elimination final 7-4, and completed his 6-1 day with a 7-3 victory in the second set. 
 
The Action Pool Tour also awarded another Lambros Cue, this one valued at $1,200, to Dan Madden who came out on top of a season-long competition in participation points. Madden had acquired a winning participation-point total of 167 points, based on attendance at 12 of the tour's 13 events in the 2012-2013 season. In addition, Debbie Davis was recognized as the tour's top female performer, having finished at #23 in the overall rankings, from participation in nine of the 13 tour stops.

Green goes undefeated to take 10th Annual VA State 9-Ball Championships

Eric Moore, Joshua Dickerson (TD) and Danny Green

Though Eric Moore would come back from winning five on the loss side to face him in the finals, Danny Green hung on to go undefeated and win the 10th Annual VA State 9-Ball Championships on the weekend of September 14-15. In addition to prize money, both Green and Moore received free entry to the US Open 9-Ball Championships next month, as did top female finisher, Daisy Blancaflora. The event drew 68 entrants to Diamond Billiards in Midlothian, VA.
 
Having sent Moore to the loss side 9-7 in the fifth round of play, Green moved into a winners' side semifinal against R.J. Carmona. Brandon Shuff, in the meantime, took on Ray Mart-Lim. Green and Shuff faced each other in the hot seat match with identical 9-4 wins over Carmona and Lim. Green and Shuff locked up in a double hill fight that eventually sent Shuff to the semifinals against Moore.
 
Moore's march back to the finals began with a 9-6 win over Corey Sykes and was followed by a 9-7 win over Max Schlothauer, which set Moore up to face Carmona. Lim drew David Hunt, who'd gotten by Ray Reyna 9-3 and Chris Futrell 9-5. 
 
Moore and Lim moved into the quarterfinals with 9-7 wins over Sykes and Hunt, and then battled each other to double hill before Moore advanced. Moore then took out Brandon Shuff 9-7 in the semifinals for a second shot against Green. Green took the final match 11-7 and the 10th Annual VA State 9-Ball Championship crown.
 

Davis wins Action Pool Tour season finale

Mike Davis

Mike Davis followed his win in the Open portion of the George "Ginky" Sansouci Memorial Tournament on Labor Day weekend by traveling four hours south to Herndon, VA and winning the season finale of the Action Pool Tour. In so doing, Davis stopped an eight-match, loss-side winning streak by Danny Green, who faced him in the finals. The event drew 64 entrants to Breakers Sky Lounge in Herndon, VA.
 
Davis started strong, winning his first four matches by an aggregate score of 28-6. He shut out Steve Luskey and Doug Grams, while giving up three racks each to Jimmy Varias and Dan Madden. This set him up to face Chris Bruner in one winners' side semifinal, as Larry Kressel and Jimmy Endara squared off in the other. Davis was tested by Bruner and had to win a deciding 13th game to advance to the hot seat match, where he was met by Endara, who'd sent Kressel west 7-2. Davis then prevailed 7-4 over Endara and sat in the hot seat, waiting on Green.
 
Meanwhile, on the loss side, Green, who'd won his opening match and then fell to Brandon Shuff 7-4 in the second round, was chalking up the wins. He was tested by Sean Sporleder in his opening, loss-side match, but survived a double hill battle to move on and shut out Rocky Guell. He followed up with victories over Kim Whitman, Matt Kravitz, Dave Hunt and Brian Dietzenbach to pick up Bruner, coming over from the winners' side semifinal. Kressel came over and met up with Dan Madden, who, following his loss to Davis, had defeated Dominic Noe 5-3 and just did get by Brandon Shuff, double hill.
 
Madden won a second straight double hill match, defeating Kressel, as Green was busy getting by Bruner 5-2.  Green took the quarterfinal match 5-3, and then got a shot at Davis with a 5-2 win over Endara in the semifinals. Davis, though, stopped the streak with a 7-4 win in the finals that, in effect, ended the regular season of the Action Pool Tour. 
 
Brett Stottlemyer, who finished in this event in the tie for 13th place, finished the season at the top of the Action Pool Tour rankings, and as a result, earned free entry to next month's US Open 9-Ball Championship. Dan Madden's fourth place finish in this event moved him up to second place. Tour director Ozzy Reynolds and Dominic Noe entered the tournament in second and third place, respectively, and finished with their positions reversed; Noe in third, and Reynolds in fourth, as Noe finished in the 9/12 slots, and Reynolds in the tie for 17th place.
 
Though this was the last point-earning stop on the tour, there is one more event left on the tour calendar – the Lambros Cue Round Robin tournament, scheduled for September 28-29 at First Break Cafe in Sterling, VA. The tour's top 10 players will participate in a series of round robin matches, and this year (unlike in the past), the top four finishers in the round robin will square off in a single elimination event, leading to a winner, who'll receive a $2,000 Lambros Cue. Prizes will be awarded at the event to the top players of the season, as well as awards for Best Sportsman, overall participation, top female performer, best sponsor and best room. 

Davis hangs on to win his third 2012-2013 Action Pool Tour stop

Mike Davis

Mike Davis took two out of three matches against Brandon Shuff to claim the twelfth stop on the 2012-2013 Action Pool Tour season. Heading into the tour's final point-eligible event, scheduled for September 7-8, Davis' victory assured him a spot among the tour's top 10 players for the 2012-2013 season. The event drew 37 entrants to First Break Cafe in Sterling, VA. 
 
After being awarded an opening round bye, Davis got by Stephano Araviakis, Steve Wigglesworth and the tour's #3-ranked player, Dominic Noe. This set him up to play a winners' side semifinal match against Dan Madden, the #4-ranked player. Shuff and the tour's #1-ranked player, Brett Stottlemyer, squared off in the other winners' side semifinal. Shuff sent Stottlemyer to the loss side 9-6, and prepared for his first of three against Davis, who'd defeated Madden 9-2. Davis took the first of those three 9-6, and sat in the hot seat, waiting for Shuff to get back.
 
Stottlemyer moved to the loss side and met up with Shaun Wilkie, who'd been sent over by Shuff in the third round. Wilkie had picked up a forfeit victory over Dominic Noe and then given up only a single rack to Mike Ricciardella. Madden drew Danny Green, who'd eliminated Leo McDaniel 7-3, and Jeremy Perkins 7-5. Both of the matches, fought for advancement to the quarterfinals. went double hill; Stottlemyer picking up his second straight loss, advancing Wilkie,  as Madden was ending Green's weekend.
 
The quarterfinal match between Madden and Wilkie (two of the tour's top 10) went to double hill, too, with Madden prevailing for a shot at Shuff in the semifinals. That match came within a game of being double hill, too, but Shuff earned his re-match against Davis in the finals with a 7-5 win over Madden.
 
Shuff  took the opening set of the finals, chalking up his nine racks and restricting Davis to four. Davis, though, came back in the shortened second set to chalk up seven, holding Shuff to four and claiming his third Action Pool Tour victory.
 
Stottlemyer will be the 2012-2013 Action Pool Tour's top-ranked player 
 
Regardless of the outcome of the APT's final stop on the weekend of September 7-8, at Breaker's Sky Lounge in Verndon, VA, Brett Stottlemyer will end the season as the tour's #1-ranked player. His fifth-place finish in this event earned him performance points that put him out of reach of his closest competitors for the tour ranking title. He will, as a result, be awarded the tour's top-ranking prize of free entry to the US Open 9-Ball Championships in October.
 
There could be an interesting battle on that final tour stop for the tour's second and third-ranked players. Separated, for the moment, by only 29 points in the tour's performance standings (and assuming their presence), tour director Ozzy Reynolds (#2, for now) and Dominic Noe will be battling for that position. If Reynolds finishes the final event ahead of Noe, he will secure the second spot. If the reverse is true, Noe could finish in that spot. There is, too, the possibility that the #4-ranked player, Dan Madden, could pass them both; assuming that at the last event, he is present and finishes ahead of them, way ahead of them.

Kennedy gets by Meglino twice to take SE Open 9-Ball Tour stop; Linares takes Amateur title

The Southeast Open 9-Ball Tour stop on the weekend of August 25-26 drew a field of 39 entrants to an Amateur event on Saturday, and only 10 for an Open event on Sunday. Raymond Linares captured the amateur event title on Saturday, while tour director Tommy Kennedy took the Open event, defeating Anthony Meglino twice to do it. The $700-added Open event and $300-added Amateur event was hosted by the Whiskey Lounge in Fort Myers, FL.

Linares, from the hot seat, won the Amateur event title with a 9-6 victory over Jose Ybarra in the finals.  Ybarra, having been sent west by David King, came back to defeat King in a double hill semifinal. King had defeated Frank Straim in the quarterfinals to earn his unsuccessful re-match against Ybarra. 

In the 10-entrant Open event on Sunday, Kennedy advanced to the winners’ side final four to meet up with Danny Green. Meglino, in the meantime, squared off against Willie McBride. Down 8-5, Kennedy came back to defeat Green 9-8 and in the hot seat match, faced Meglino, who’d downed McBride, also double hill. Kennedy got into the hot seat with a 9-3 win and awaited Meglino’s return.

Green moved west to take on Nathan Rose. McBride picked up Stephen Richmond (Amateur event winner, Linares, shared 9th place with Justin Jacobs). It was Rose and Richmond advancing to the quarterfinals; Rose with a 7-5 win over Green and Richmond, 7-1 versus McBride. 

Richmond and Rose battled to double hill, before Richmond prevailed to take on Meglino in the semifinals. Another double hill match sent Meglino back to face Kennedy a second time. Kennedy defeated Meglino again, this time 11-4, to capture the event title.

Open
1st Tommy Kennedy $600
2nd Anthony Meglino $300
3rd Stephen Richmond $175
4th Nathan Rose $75

Amateur
1st Raymond Linares $375
2nd Jose Ybarra $240
3rd David King $150
4th Frank Straim $100
5th Neil Martin $65
Shelly Harrison
7th D. J. Wester $45
Terry McCullough
9th Shawn Jones $35
Willie McBride
Rom Nichols
Tim Kipple 

Ultimate Billiards Hosts 2012 Sunshine State ACS Championships

Ladies Team Power Pak

Ft. Pierce, FL (July 29, 2012) – Thursday evening 16 Scotch Double teams kicked off the 2012 Sunshine State ACS 8-Ball Championship events held at Ultimate Billiards in Ft. Pierce, FL.  Jennifer Page and Zeno Rawley of Stuart, Florida, made it to the hot seat.  The team of Colleen Russell & Steve Rolls of Port St. Lucie, Florida, played the Miami team of Kelly Coyle & Jaran Hilton. Although it was a battle, the Miami team bested the Port St. Lucie team to make it to the finals.  However, Page and Rawley proved to be too much for team Miami to handle.  Page and Rawley finished with an undefeated series to capture the Scotch Doubles Division Title. 

As the finals of the Scotch Doubles finished, the Men’s and Women’s Singles got underway. With a field of 29 men and 15 women the draw was completed and play began. Throughout the day many a hill-hill match was played. There would be no clear victor to these two tournaments until the last eight ball was pocketed. Cue maker Danny Green not only knows how to make cues but he knows how to use one as well. Green settled for fourth place after knocking out Jerry Sotelo who finished 5th and 6th along with  Rich Johnson.  On Saturday morning in the men’s division three players returned to battle it out for the title of Men’s Sunshine State ACS 8-Ball Champion.  Randy Epperson of Miami held the hot seat. Justin Gilsinan of Port St. Lucie finished third as Johnny Aguillera moved on to meet Epperson in the finals. This being a true double elimination tournament Aguillera needed two sets for the win. The first set went much the course of the entire tournament with Johnny getting by with a hill-hill victory to set the scene for the final match.  The final game and final eight ball came down to yet another hill-hill game. The deciding eight ball went to Johnny Aguillera along with the title Sunshine State ACS 8-Ball Champion Men’s Singles Division.

Jeannie Seaver won the Women’s Sunshine State ACS 8-Ball Champion Division.  Cheryl Perez finished second, third place went to Jamie Toennies, with Cassidy Mulligan fourth, and fifth/sixth went to Janice Sessions and Janet Smith. 

On the Women’s team side Power Pak, including Jeannie Seaver along with, sister Vanessa Seaver, Cassidy Mulligan, Tracy McCreary, and Kira Brown, took home the Women’s Sunshine State ACS 8-Ball Team Championship title.  After Eight finished second, and the St. Pete Girls finished third. 

The Men’s final three teams returned Sunday with a Palm Beach County ACS League in the hot seat and another in the semi-finals.  Chalk’s Cheap held the hot seat from Saturday night while Smoke Signals and No Butts squared off to decide who would go home in third place. When the smoke cleared, No Butts got theirs handed to them settling for third. 

As a spectator of these tournaments I have to say that when speaking to No Butts, the third place team finishers, they told me they expected to go two and out.  I believe because these guys not only came as a team they ARE a team all year long and with that, their game was up by a good 30 percent above the individual’s ability. No Butts proved that with the right support group great things are accomplished.
Although Smoke Signals moved forward to face Chalk’s Cheap in the finals, Smoke Signals couldn’t get the fire lit and Chalk’s Cheap was crowned the 2012 Florida Sunshine State ACS 8-Ball Team Champion.  

Special thanks to Robbie Morito, President of the Sunshine State ACS Association, ACS Executive Director John Lewis, who flew in from Green Bay, Wisconsin to referee the matches. Also our thanks to Ted Harris and Danny Green of Ted Harris Custom Cues, who were on hand for re-tipping and conditioning the cues. Visit www.tedharris.com e-mail poolcues@tedharris.com or call 754-246-6366.

Our next event is the women’s Flamingo Billiards Tour Stop #4.  August 25, 2012. For more information visit www.flamingobilliardstour.com.  Also, look for END OF SUMMER SIZZLER with $1000-added 9-Ball event Labor Day Weekend sponsored by www.layeredcuetips.com