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Aravena goes undefeated at season opener of the Sunshine State Predator ProAm Tour

Rolando Aravena, Raymond Linares and Kodi Allen

Pool being the kind of game that it is, it’s not uncommon to learn that a relative ‘unknown’ has won a regional tour event. Happens all the time, because an ‘unknown’ may be a ‘known’ in a given area, honing his or her skills at local tournaments and league play. Until this past weekend, the first and only time that Rolando Aravena had his name appear in our AZBilliards database was in September 2019, when he and Justin McNulty split a third-place prize in a Scotch Doubles event on the Sunshine State ProAm Tour. This past weekend (Feb. 4-5), Aravena signed on to the Sunshine State Predator ProAm Tour’s 2023 season opener in a field that included (among others) his Scotch Doubles partner McNulty, Raymond Linares, Anthony Meglino, Donny Mills, Mike Delawder, Jason Richko, Bobby Garza and former US Open 9-Ball Champion, Tommy Kennedy. Aravena went undefeated at the $1,500-added event that drew 50 entrants to Stroker’s Billiards in Palm Harbor, FL.

Brackets being what they are, Aravena didn’t have to play all of the ‘knowns’ that signed on, but he did face a few of them along the way. He got by Justin Logan, Casey Grove and Jimmy Garza before running into Anthony Meglino in a winners’ side quarterfinal. Designated for tour purposes as a ‘pro,’ Meglino had to give Aravena two games in a race to 8. They battled to double hill before Aravena prevailed to face his former Scotch Doubles partner, McNulty, in one of the winners’ side semifinals. McNulty forfeited the match and Aravena leapfrogged into the hot seat match. In the meantime, former junior competitor Kodi Allen (now 20) had his own list of well-known competitors to contend with. He sent Dan Marchini, William Shafer and Bobby Garza to the loss side, before facing the eventual runner-up, Raymond Linares in the other winners’ side semifinal and defeating him 7-3 to meet Aravena. Aravena claimed the hot seat 8-4 over Allen and waited for what turned out to be the return of Linares.

On the loss side, Linares ran into Meglino, who’d followed his loss to Aravena with victories over Derrick Santos 8-3 and Casey Grove 8-2. Lee Heuwagen, who’d lost his opening-round match to Tommy Kennedy 8-3 (who was then downed by Donny Mills 8-5), was working on a six-match, loss-side winning streak. Along the way, he’d eliminated Jason Richko 8-4, Bobby Garza 8-5 and Donny Mills 6-3 before benefiting from Jason McNulty’s earlier forfeit and leapfrogging into the quarterfinals. He was joined by Linares, who’d survived a somewhat predictable double hill battle versus Meglino. 

Linares ended Heuwagen’s loss-side streak 6-5 (Heuwagen racing to 7) and then defeated Allen in the semifinal 7-2. With a single “bead on the wire” that he didn’t need, Aravena downed Linares 10-5 to claim title to the Sunshine State Predator ProAm Tour’s season opener. 

Tour directors Janene Phillips and Bobby Garza thanked Jose Del Rio and his Stroker’s staff for their ongoing hospitality and support of the tour, as well as title sponsor Predator Cues, Kamui, Central Florida USA Pool League, Stitch It To Me Embroidery, AZ Billiards, Jamison Daniels, Dr. Billiards and Dr. V’s Custom Shop. The next stop on the Sunshine State Predator ProAm Tour is to be announced.

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Reyes and Murphy Highlight Derby City Classic Days 7 & 8

Efren Reyes

Diamond Derby City Classic XXIV, January 20-28, 2023

Caesars Southern Indiana, Elizabeth, IN

Master of the Table points are accredited to the Banks, One Pocket, and 9-Ball divisions.

The player who accrues the most points from their highest finishes in the 3 disciplines is deemed All-Around-Champion.

Diamond generously delivers an additional $20,000 for first, plus, $3,000 and $2,000 respectively for 2nd and 3rd.

More on that later after the One Pocket final.

The Accu-Stats PPV OnDemand service has all of the above entertainment available for your viewing pleasure until Feb.28, 2023.

Diamond Derby City Classic ONE-POCKET Championship: Semis and Finals

Due to Diamond’s dedication to accommodating the incredible surge in entries –1569 in all – the ONE POCKET Semis and Finals will be completed, and streamed from the Accu-Stats TV Arena,

TODAY Saturday, Jan 28.

Let’s catch up: Highlights from Thursday

Pagulayan vs Schmidt

Alex ran 8-and-out to open his encounter with John Schmidt. It was do-or-die as each contender was down to one bullet.

After the second rack Alex was leading 2-0. Schmidt mustered his gumption to take it to 2-1

Alex, after leaving his 5th ball hanging near his pocket, allowed John an opening.

John, masterfully, manufactured a six ball run until the nudge to open a three ball cluster didn’t cooperate.

He made his 7th ball anyway knowing full well that shape on his game-ball wasn’t very possible.

Needing only one ball to tie the match, necessitated that John went full blooded, He sliced the paint off of it. And, lost the cue ball.

Alex calmly ran his last 4 balls.

Woodward vs Filler

Surely, the comeback of the One-Pocket Championship was when Skyler Woodward, who just joined Shane Van Boening and Fedor Gorst at team Cuetec, faced Joshua Filler.

Woodward fell afoul of his super aggressive play which left Filler opportunities to pull ahead.

Sure, had Skyler made the ball, chances are he was out. When the ball didn’t fall, Filler filled in the gaps.

So, now, they were tied at 2. With only one life left each: Someone’s gotta go.

Joshua, energized, jumped to a 5-2 lead.

Sky, disciplined now, had safety in mind. No more firing at fantasies. No silly sell-outs.

All the balls were soon driven upstream, not quite “the wedge” as they weren’t confined to a corner. 

But, for sure, there was no way to win in one inning. 

Either player must earn it – with pure banking skills. One rail, two railers at a time is how Sky reversed the seemingly insurmountable lead.

You have to see for yourself. The match is available OnDemand at Accu-Stats.com.

It’s must see TV!

Friday, JAN 27

Johnathon Pinegar vs Tony Chohan

Johnathon Pinegar is no stranger to Derby City, yet it might be this year’s superb performance by administering losses to Shane Van Boening, Tyler Styer, Anton Raga, Billy Thorpe, and the first loss to Tony Chohan that will be remembered best.

Thanks to the luck of the algorithm, Johnathon and Tony were chosen to meet again immediately, only this time, in the Accu-Stats Arena.

Here, Tony had home court advantage: He had a few matches “in the can.” He had experienced that the table played slower and banked a little shorter. Plus, he was familiar with the intensity of the 60-second shot clock.

Johnathon found this out the hard way; Mainly as his cue ball didn’t travel as far and interrupted the kind of run-outs he had completed earlier in the outer Diamond Arena.

Tony retuned the compliment and, in under hour, FedExed Pinegar to the buy-back booth.

Pinegar vs Reyes

No rest for Pinegar: He was immediately redrawn to face Efren…in the Accu-Stats arena.

The good news is that as we’re down to four players, he had opportunity to become acclimatized to it. It’s Semis and Finals time: There is nowhere to play but the Accu-Stats TV table.

After Efren defeated Alex, Skyler finished off Filler only to lose to Reyes who’s relentless will to win is truly inspiring.

He still has two lives and he’s been competing for six hours in Pool’s most cerebral discipline. Where is this stamina, both mental and physical, coming from?

Pinegar, too. He’d just succumbed to Chohan, the 2022 One-Pocket runner-up. Now he has to face the man the with more DCC wins than anyone.

And, his confidence is lagging as is the speed of his cue ball. It’s time to adjust.

His relaxed, yet focused, demeanor and superb defensive skills didn’t allow Reyes much of a look at anything, makeable, anyway.

Efren was definitely tiring. Then, he erred. John stole a ball. A few innings later Efren erred again. John ran 7-and-out.

At 1-0, it’s Reyes’ ball that isn’t reaching the pocket. John in two innings, by running four balls in each, surged ahead, 2-0.

Not to worry. How many times, this week, has Efren been down 0-2 and won the match?

In game 3, Pinegar erred. Reyes ran five, didn’t get the desired spread from the stack and, frustrated now, attempted a very low percentage combo. 

Luckily, he left little.

Yet, it was enough. Pinegar fired in a short rail bank and drew his cue ball to land perfectly on the next indicated sphere. He then ran out the necessary 8-balls to ensure his seat at tomorrow’s table. 

Efren visited the buy-back booth.

And then there were three: Chohan, Pinegar and Reyes – who was soon snoring like a baby.

At around noon on Saturday, he’ll be fresh as a daisy, ready for the redraw.

Someone is going to get a bye – straight into the hot seat.

Would you want it to be you, or would you prefer to win the opening match and be all warmed up for the finals?

Diamond Derby City Classic 9-BALL Championship: LAST DAY – Sat. 28.

Accu-Rack, 9 on the spot, winner breaks.

Since Matchroom deemed the Derby’s 9-Ball Championship a Mosconi Cup point garnering tournament, 9-Ball has become most populated DCC event.

527 entries smashed the previous attendance statistic!

Another record broken is the number of ladies competing this year: Margarita Fefilova, Sakura Muramatsu, Melissa “Sure Shot” Smith sponsored by Brutal Gear, Emily Sumrall, the up-and-coming Catherine Cool, and the ubiquitous Angela Mears, just to name a few of the approximately 20. Diamond thanks you all!

Efren Reyes suffered a first round loss to Robbie Capito and Roland Garcia got Dan Louie. 

Mezz-sponsored Mika Immonen opened the proceedings in the Accu-Stats Arena first thing Friday facing Derby City Classic stalwart Dee Adkins.

Mika was on fire. His early .980+ TPA seemed to intimidate Adkins who wasn’t getting out when he had the opportunity. The more he faltered, the more Mika gained confidence, and the more Dee’s TPA dropped. 

The Mezz player-rep of 21 years closed it out 9-0 with a stellar .958.

Thanks to fan demand, Pat Fleming was asked to explain how the Accu-Stats’ Total Performance Average(TPA) is calculated. During the Mieszko Fortunski vs. Brendan Shuff match, he tells all.

Undefeated are Mosconi Cup team player Oscar Dominguez, Fedor Gorst, Johnathon Pinegar, Skyler Woodward, Josh Roberts, Jesus Atencio, Jayson Shaw, SVB, Tony Chohan, Billy Thorpe, Ike Runnels, Joshua Filler, Mike Dechaine, Marc Vidal, John Morra, Margarita Fervilova, Tyler Styer, Konrad Juszczyszyn, Scott Frost, Donny Mills, Max Eberle, Brandon Shuff plus, the Filipino contingent; Alex, Gomez, Corteza, DeLuna, Garcia, and Raga,

DCC’s Friday Night Ring Game:

Culminating at $1,200 a ball, Shannon Murphy robbed them all banking $5,000. Billy fought gallantly to secure 2nd and $3000. Skyler Woodward claimed a distant 3rd. Shane Wolford began well. Justin Hall fell fast as did Jonathan Demet.

The captured match-ups are available via the Accu-Stats Pay-Per-View OnDemand, 4-camera HD production. Approximately, 60 action-packed hours of pro-pool are projected, PLUS reruns. After each match concludes, it is uploaded and available for your viewing pleasure. With PPV OnDemand, you choose when you watch, no matter what you’re timezone, until February 28, 2023.

Don’t miss a stroke: Visit accu-stats.com. Enjoy.

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Turning Stone Classic XXXVI Day Three Underway

Naoyuki Oi

Day three dawns at the Turning Stone Classic XXXVI, with sixty four players still holding hopes of adding this event to their resume. 

Defending champion Jayson Shaw is still undefeated, and is joined by such notables as Fedor Gorst, Donny Mills, Skyler Woodward, Mika Immonen, Erik Hjorliefson, Vitaliy Patsura, Danny Hewitt, Billy Thorpe, Jeremy Sossei, Naoyuki Oi and Johnny Archer. 

Naoyuki Oi is earning a new set of fans here at Turning Stone, with his dominant play. Oi won his first two matches, over Ray Carey and Kristina Tkach, by a combined score of 18-0. Oi looked well on his way to keeping that record alive in this third match of the event, as he led John Morra 5-0 early in their match. Morra finally took advantage of an Oi miss and got back into the match, to eventually tie things at hill-hill before Oi pocketed the case ball for the 9-8 win. Oi will face the Ukraine’s Vitaliy Patsura at 2pm EST today. 

Johnny Archer ended his Friday play with a convincing 9-6 win over Poland’s Mieszko Fortunski to remain undefeated. Archer’s first action on Saturday will be a match with fellow American Skyler Woodward. 

Upstate Al is streaming selected matches on his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/UpStateAL. Fans can follow all of the action online with our online brackets and real time scoring pages.

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Turning Stone Classic XXXVI Underway

The Turning Stone Classic XXXVI kicks off today (January 5th) at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, NY.

The event, once again, sees a full field of 128 players competing not only for $25,000 in added prize money, but also for valuable Nineball World Ranking Points.

The field includes such notables as defending champion Jayson Shaw, Fedor Gorst, Skyler Woodward, Billy Thorpe, Naoyuki Oi, John Morra, Oscar, Dominguez, Mika Immonen, Donny Mills, Johnny Archer, Mieszko Fortunski, Shane Wolford and Kristina Tkach.

Upstate Al will be streaming selected matches on his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/UpStateAL. Fans can follow all of the action online with our online brackets and real time scoring pages.

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Yapp wins 9-ball and 10-ball events at $10K-added, 3rd Annual Meucci Classic

Silviana Lu and Aloysius Yapp

Silviana Lu wins Ladies 9-ball

Yep, Yapp won ‘em both. And his girlfriend, Silviana Lu won the other one. 

The 3rd Annual Meucci Classic at Racks Billiards Sports Bar & Grill in Sanford, FL this past weekend (Nov. 10-13) gave Singapore’s Aloysius Yapp his third and fourth 2022 event victory, which added to his already-best (recorded with us) earnings year since we recorded his first two cash winnings in September of 2012, a week apart; a 17th place finish at the Party Poker World Cup of Pool in Quezon City in the Philippines (won by Mika Immonen) and a week+ later, a 33rd place finish at the China Open in Shanghai (won by Dennis Orcollo). 

So, the Meucci Classic was nowhere near his first rodeo. By the same token, Yapp’s presence outside of a fairly consistent group of world-travelling pool professionals had him flying under a lot of the US pool-playing radar until he showed up in the finals of the 2021 US Open 9-Ball Championships in Atlantic City and battled in the finals (unsuccessfully) against Carlo Biado. He became a much more consistently-present figure for the rest of the year, with appearances in (among others) the American 14:1 Straight Pool Championships (9th), the International 9-Ball Open (17th), the International Open’s Big Foot 10-Ball (3rd behind Joshua Filler and Mika Immonen) and a win on the Predator US Pro Billiard Series in Battle Creek, Michigan.

He’s cashed in 19 events this year, winning four of them, runner-up in two and 3rd in three. He won this year’s Michigan Open and the Sandcastle Open before heading to the eastern shores of Virginia where he finished 9th at this year’s International Open 9-Ball tournament and was 3rd for the second time at the Big Foot 10-Ball event; this time, behind the juggernaut known as Fedor Gorst and Joshua Filler. He shuffled off to Sanford, FL last weekend, where he went undefeated through seven opponents, downing Austria’s Max Lechner twice; double hill in the hot seat match and 9-5 in the finals of the $4,000-added, 121-entrant 9-Ball tournament.

Left in the good-company dust (among others) were Austria’s Wiktor Zielinski, Poland’s Mieszko Fortunski, Germany’s Moritz Neuhausen, Finland’s Mika Immonen, Austria’s Mario He, Greece’s Alex Kazakis and Estonia’s Denis Grabe. Lithuania’s Pijus Labutis finished the tournament with the distinction of having won the most consecutive matches, 10 of them on the loss side, before he was stopped by Lechner in the semifinals. Leading the American charge for the title was BJ Ussery, Jr., who finished 4th; an outstanding finish for the South/mid-Atlantic competitor. Also in the US lineup were local stalwarts Anthony Meglino, Donny Mills, Mike Delawder, Raymond Linares, Bobby Garza and 1992’s US Open 9-Ball Champion, Tommy Kennedy.

The 3rd Annual Meucci Classic’s $5,000-added, 63-entrant 10-Ball Tournament was a different story. Same ending, just a different story. The 10-Ball battles preceded and overlapped the 9-Ball battles, so Yapp availed himself of the six-opponent practice opportunity, with an extra ball in the game, and went undefeated. He got by Poland’s Konrad Juszczyszyn and two Americans, George Saunders and Alan Rolon Rosado, to advance to the 16-player, single-elimination phase of the event. Yapp was joined in the winners’ side advancement by Wiktor Zielinski, Bosnia/Herzegovina’s Sanjin Pehlivanovich, Dmitri Loukatos, Taipei’s Jung Lin Chan and Jeffrey DeLuna. BJ Ussery, Jr., who’d go on to finish fourth in the 9-Ball competition, advanced, as did Donny Mills. Joining them from the loss side were Adam Wheeler, Max Lechner, Pijus Labutis (who would not get the most consecutive win prize in this event), Jani Uski, Mika Immonen, Mario He, David Singleton and Denis Grabe.

Ussery would engage in the only double hill battle of the single-elimination’s first round, against Jani Uski, and it would knock him out of the 10-Ball competition. Three of the four quarterfinal matches went double hill; Immonen over Uski, Yapp over Labutis, and Grabe over Lechner. Zielinski downed Pehlivanovic 11-5.

Zielinski ‘iced’ the Iceman, allowing him only a single rack in one of the semifinal matches, while Yapp was a little busier, eliminating Grabe 11-7. Yapp claimed the 10-Ball title with a stingy 11-3 victory over Zielinski.

Indonesia’s Silviana Lu goes undefeated, winning 81% of her 37 games to claim Ladies title

In this, her first year as a cash-winning player in our AZBilliards database, Indonesia’s Silviana Lu has cashed in only two events. She finished in a tie for 5th place at the Asian Pool Federation’s 9-Ball Open, Women’s Division in August. A month later, she finished in the tie for 9th place at the WPBA’s Michigan Open. Her boyfriend, Singapore’s Aloysius Yapp finished in the tie for 17th in the former event and won the latter.

She has recorded her first event victory with us as a result of going undefeated through a field of 27 entrants in the $1,000-added Ladies 9-Ball event. And she did so by defeating her six opponents with an 81% game-winning average (30-7), shutting out half of them and not allowing any of them to chalk up more than three against her; Nicolle Cuellar, who has Florida-area tour victories and cash finishes going back 10 years to the former Flamingo Tour.

Note to competitors looking to take advantage of the increased amount of money being offered at Scotch Doubles events across the country: In addition to the Fillers (Joshua and Pia) and the Fedor Gorst/Kristina Tkach pairing, you might want to watch out for the Yapp/Lu partnership.

Lu’s trip to the winners’ circle went through Marge Soash (0), Cuellar (3), Palmoa Santana (1) and Jessica Human (1) to arrive at the hot seat match versus Jennifer Berzinski to whom she gave up two racks to claim the seat. Adriana Villar, who lost her opening match to Cuellar and won eight on the loss side (shutting out three and surviving a double hill match against Helene Caukin), challenged Lu in the finals. Lu shut her out to claim the event title.

In addition to the 218 participants in the three events (with some duplication), tour representatives thanked title sponsor Meucci Cues, the ownership and staff at Rack’s for their hospitality, Outsville, JB Cases, Carlos Sanchez productions, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore and Clutch Shot Billiards Apparel.

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Kennedy/Hunter go undefeated to win Open/Amateur divisions of 5th Annual Labor Day Classic

Rhyan Hunter and Ameet Kukadia

Capone’s 5th Labor Day Classic, held this past Labor Day weekend (Sept. 3-4), is in the books and the undefeated winners are Tommy Kennedy in the $500-added Open event and Rhyan Hunter in the $1,000-added Amateur event, which was open to competitors with a Fargo Rate of 640 and under. Both events yielded full fields; 64 in the Amateur event and 16 in the Open event at Capone’s in Spring Hill, FL.

Hunter was the only player in the Amateur event having to give the entire field a single game on the wire, which wasn’t enough for anyone to come close to him. His precision shooting and heart gave him the victory in every match. He opened with a shutout over JT Russell and advanced through victories over Justin Logan 7-3, Justin Ward 7-3 and another shutout, versus Dan Mello, to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Andy Crews. In the meantime, eventual runner-up Ameet Kukadia, slowly becoming a regular at Capone’s events, advanced to the other winners’ side semifinal versus (unrelated to Dan) Mike Mello, who was playing in his first event at Capone’s. 

Hunter defeated Crews 7-3, as Mike Mello sent Kukadia to the loss side 7-4. Hunter claimed the hot seat 7-4 over Mello and waited on Kukadia’s return.

On the loss side, Kukadia drew Dan Mello, who’d survived a double hill match against Jamison Daniels and shut out Justin Logan to reach him. Crews picked up Justin McNulty, who’d also survived a double hill match, against Benji Estor, and came within a second straight double hill match, downing Litos Davila 6-4. 

Kukadia and McNulty advanced to the quarterfinals; Kukadia, 6-2 over Dan Mello and McNulty, 6-4 over Crews. Kukadia defeated McNulty in those quarterfinals 6-3 and then won his redemption match versus Mike Mello 6-2 in the semifinals.

To claim the title, Kukadia needed to win two matches against Hunter in the finals that followed. Hunter completed his undefeated run with a 7-2 win in the only set necessary.

Tommy Kennedy (File photo)

Kennedy weathers ‘challenge’ storms to go undefeated in Open event

The Open event had its share of past champions, including Jason Richko (2019) and Tony Crosby (2021). Not present was the Labor Day Classic’s 2020 Champion, Donny Mills, who was ‘laboring away’ at Turning Stone in New York state over the weekend. 

“He was doing damage up there,” said TD Carrie Vetrono, “and finished as runner-up. Congratulations to Donny.”

Tommy Kennedy was a former champion, as well (2019), and his undefeated run through the Classic made him the first competitor to have his ‘name up in lights’ as winner of the event, twice. It was not an easy journey for TK.

Of the five matches Kennedy played to claim the Labor Day Classic’s 2022 Open title, two went to double hill and two more came within a game of it. He opened with an 8-6 win over Marcus Murillo and a double hill win over Richard Broumpton, which set him up in a winners’ side semifinal against one of the former champions, Jason Richko. In the meantime, Lee Heuwagen and Tony Crosby were working their way to their meetup in the other winners’ side semifinal; Crosby arriving with a 16-3 aggregate score against Zee Zee Green (0) and Ross Webster (3), Heuwagen arriving with a 16-4 aggregate score against Bobby Jones (3) and Guy Jones (1). 

Kennedy got into the hot seat match 8-6 over Richko. Heuwagen joined him after a commanding 8-2 win over Crosby. TK grabbed the hot seat 8-4.

Crosby wanted the trophy and came back from the loss-side, knocking out Sandeep Swain 7-5, Ross Webster 7-1 in the quarterfinals and this time, victorious over Heuwagen in their semifinal rematch 7-5.

Kennedy and Crosby locked up in what was Kennedy’s second double hill match. After a long day of shooting, Crosby fell short, giving way in the 15th rack and handing Kennedy the title.

TD Carrie Vetrono thanked everyone that participated and helped make Capone’s 5th Annual Labor Day Classic the tournament that it was. 

“Without everyone’s help we could not do this,” she said. “Special thanks to Rocco-Rocky McElroy and his Capone’s staff for all they do, as well as Joel Vetrono and Anthony Fisher for helping send matches out on the amateur event.”

The next event at Capone’s, scheduled for the weekend of October 8-9, will be an Open Handicap event that will play out on the venue’s 9-foot tables. 

See y’all on the rail!

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Jayson Shaw Wins his Eighth Career Turning Stone Title

Jayson Shaw

The record for career Turning Stone Classic titles is now eight, and Jayson Shaw made number eight look easy.

Shaw cruised through the first three days of play with notable wins over Earl Strickland and Danny Hewitt on his way to Sunday play, still on the winners side. Shaw kicked off Sunday with a 9-3 win over regional player Jimmy Rivera, followed up with a 9-1 shellacking of Mika Immonen for the hot-seat.

On the one loss side, Donny Mills avenged his earlier loss to Immonen and eliminated the Finnish World Champion in 3rd place with a 9-6 scoreline in the semi-finals. 

The extended race to 13 final match between Shaw and Mills saw Mills take an early 1-0 lead, but it would not last long as Shaw won six straight racks to take a lead that he would not give up for the rest of the match. Mills fought back to a 6-4 scoreline, but Shaw then took control and won seven of the next eight racks for a 13-5 win and his eighth career Turning Stone Classic title. 

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Turning Stone Classic Final Four

Mika Immonen

The Turning Stone Classic XXXV is now down to just four players. Mika Immonen and Jayson Shaw will face off for the hot-seat, while Donny Mills takes on Bucky Souvanthong on the one loss side. 

The hot-seat match is an interesting contest, when you consider that Immonen won the first ever Turning Stone Classic 22 years ago, while Shaw won the last Turning Stone Classic back in January. Shaw will be trying to extend his record to eight Turning Stone Classic career titles, while Immonen is looking for his third. 

Mills dropped a match to Shaw on the winner’s side Sunday morning, but outlasted Jesse Engel on the one loss side to keep his tournament hopes alive. Souvanthong lost a one sided 9-1 match to Immonen on Saturday, but has won three matches so far on the left side of the board. 

Fans who can’t make it to Turning Stone can watch selected matches online as part of Upstate Al’s Free streaming coverage, and can watch online brackets and live scoring courtesy of AzBilliards and Digital Pool. 

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Turning Stone Classic Day Three Underway

Earl Strickland

Saturday play at the Turning Stone Classic XXXV is underway and the field has been cut in half from 128 players down to just 64 remaining players. Saturday play will cut that field down to just eight players. 

Most of the usual suspects who were expected to excel at this event have lived up to their expectations so far. Players still on the winners side include Shane Van Boening, Jayson Shaw, Mika Immonen, Earl Strickland, Jeremy Sossei, Donny Mills, Bucky Souvanthong, Kevin West and Danny Hewitt. Those players are going to start running into each other today, with Van Boening facing Sossei and Shaw playing Strickland at 2pm ET.

Fans who can’t make it to Turning Stone can watch selected matches online as part of Upstate Al’s Free streaming coverage, and can watch online brackets and live scoring courtesy of AzBilliards and Digital Pool. 

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Turning Stone Classic XXXV Underway

The Turning Stone Classic XXXV is underway at the Turning Stone Casino and Resort in Verona, NY.

Jayson Shaw is back and looking to win a record 8th Turning Stone Classic title. He will have to get by Shane Van Boening, who is looking to match Shaw’s current record of seven Turning Stone titles. Other top players competing in this event include Earl Strickland, Mika Immonen, Jeremy Sossei, Donny Mills, Bucky Souvanthong, Danny Hewitt, Frankie Hernandez and Matt Krah.

Fan’s who can’t make it to Turning Stone can watch selected matches online as part of Upstate Al’s Free streaming coverage, and can watch online brackets and live scoring courtesy of AzBilliards and Digital Pool.

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