As several inches of snow swept through Tulsa, Oklahoma for the Inaugural Diamond Oklahoma Winter Classic, so does Roberto “Superman” Gomez, taking down both events!!!
The festivities kicked off March the 8th with the One Pocket event having Carlo and Roberto plowing through their opponents. Three days of action left Carlo Biado and Roberto Gomez battling it for the hot seat, where Carlo triumph over Roberto, sending him to face the fearless and seasoned, Charlie “Hillbilly” Bryant. Roberto did not hold back and defeated Hillbilly 4-0 in order to face the Black Tiger in the finals. With an extended race, Roberto brought in the heat and defeated world champion, Carlo Biado, 5-3 to claim the Diamond Winter Classic Pro One Pocket Champion title.
Switching gears into the 9 Ball Open and determined to take down both events and bring home all the cash, Roberto, went on to defeat Aloysius Yapp, Robbie Capito, Chuck Raulston, and Darren Everett, before facing former ESPN world champion, CJ Wiley for the hot seat. CJ gave it one hell of a fight on the hot seat match; but, in the end, Roberto sent him to the 1 loss side to face up and coming young gun from Hong Kong, Robbie Capito. CJ came out of the gates strong and determined to keep Robbie in his seat defeating Robbie 9-2 and headed back to the finals to face Roberto. CJs powerful break and strategic pattern play earned him a 11-6 win against Roberto and a second chance at the championship. CJ wins the flip and missing a crucial 2 ball shot in the side pocket, handed over the wide open table and the break to Roberto where he jumps to a 4-0 lead on this winner break format tournament. CJ fought back hard and with heart; but, wasn’t able to overcome Roberto’s early lead; being defeated 9-5, and crowning Roberto the Diamond Oklahoma Winter Classic 9 Ball Champion!
Congratulations to all the other top finishers and thank you for coming out!
A special shoutout to Bruce Norfleet, Jennifer Lynn Norfleet and the Deep Pockets Tournament Group entire staff for the amazing venue and hospitality. Michael Smith and team for running a smooth event and John Gabriel for all of your help leading up to the event.
To our sponsors, thank you for always supporting SullyVision and being part of the team!
Stay tuned for an action match to be announced soon.
Josh Roberts, Mike Durbin, Pat Diveney and Skyler Woodward
Josh Roberts has been on something of a One Pocket tear since March, when he defeated Justin Bergman in the finals of the Big Tyme Classic One Pocket Tournament in Spring, TX. One week before entering the 44-entrant, $1,000-added Midwest 9-Ball Tour's One Pocket event at Shooter's in Olathe, KS (June 26-29), he defeated Justin Bergman again, in the finals of the Big Dog One Pocket Championship in Des Moines, IA (June 20-22). In Kansas, his finals nemesis was Skyler Woodward, who finished 5th/6th in the 92-entrant Open event (Roberts finished 9-12; story elsewhere). Woodward chalked up an eight-match, loss-side winning streak to face him in the One Pocket finals; to no avail, as it turned out.
With (typical) races to three, there are only three possible scores to One Pocket matches. Eight of the Midwest 9-Ball Tour's One Pocket event's last 14 games ended in double hill, 3-2 scores, including the hot seat match and finals. There were four shutouts, including one in the semifinals, and two 3-1 scores. In the interest of not being overly repetitive, we'll adopt a won or lost attitude in reporting the details.
On the winners' side, Gabriel defeated Gray and moved into the hot seat match versus Roberts, who'd defeated Saez. Roberts took the hot seat, double hill, and waited on Woodward.
With three down and five to go on his loss-side scoresheet, Woodward defeated Lutman and Walden to pick up Saez. Gray drew Danny Smith, who'd downed Hopkins and Joyner (giving up only a single game in the process; to Joyner). Gray got by Smith, double hill, as Woodward eliminated Saez with a shutout.
Woodward chalked up the second-to-last double hill win against Gray in the quarterfinals, and recorded the last shutout, against Gabriel, in the semifinals. Woodward and Roberts locked up in an appropriate double hill match in the finals, won by Roberts to claim the event title.
In previous tournament results, the Planet Pool Tour held their annual US Open warmup event at The Breaktime Sports Grill & Pub in Salisbury Maryland and it was Scotty Townsend taking the winners side and then fighting off a determined Brian O'Donnell in the true double elimination finals for the win. O'Donnell took the finals to two matches with a 9-1 win over Townsend but Townsend was able to beat O'Donnell by the same 9-1 score in the second match of the finals for the win. The win was worth $1000 for Townsend while O'Donnell took $600 for second. Darren Everett and Ryan McCreesh filled out the top 4 spots.
The ladies division saw Sueyen Rhee's run of three tournament wins in a row stopped by Linda Shea who scored her 4th win this season. The win earned Shea $350 while second place earned Rhee $175.
