The fourth season of the Diamond Pool Tour kicked off with new sponsors and a new format. The tournaments are now one big bracket with full Fargo races based on the higher rated player’s rating.
As expected, this led to top players being forced to bring their “A Game” each and every match as they were giving up huge spots to lower rated players. Even with those spots, the tournament came down to some of the top Fargo rated players in the event.
A prime example of the spot in this event was Nick De Leon’s first match against Joshua Murphy, 171 Fargo points led to De Leon giving up six games for a 10-4 race. He would be pushed to the hill by Murphy before scoring the 10-3 win. De Leon’s journey through the winner’s side didn’t get any easier with wins over “The voice of the Diamond Pool Tour” George Teyechea, Nick Cipiti, Gil Franco and Rick Armbrust to get to the hot-seat match.
De Leon’s hot-seat opponent also had a tough path to the hot-seat match, as Tom Dilorenzo (who still doesn’t think his game is better than 75% of his current speed) scored notable wins over Scott Chadwick, James Main, Todd Dilley and Kurt Siebels.
The hot-seat match saw De Leon forced to give DiLorenzo three racks for a 10-7 race. DiLorenzo has probably been playing pool longer than his opponent has been alive, and he gave De Leon all he could handle before De Leon came out on top of the match 10-6.
In the past six months, After dropping the match to De Leon on the winner’s side, Rick Armbrust had wins on the left side of the board over Bret Huth and Jason Sweet (with neither win taking advantage of any handicap). Armbrust finally fell to DiLorenzo 9-6 in the semi-final match.
After their hill-hill battle for the hot-seat, fans in attendance were expecting another great match, and they weren’t disappointed as the two players battled to another hill-hill score before De Leon pocketed the final 9-ball for first place.
Brian Begay of Shiprock, N.M. won the Mixed Gold Division and Joe Avila of Avondale, Ariz. finished first in the Mixed Silver Division at the 2016 Southwest Regional 8-Ball Tournament at We-Ko-Pa Resort & Conference near Scottsdale, Ariz. on Friday.
The Gold Division had 54 players, with Fargo ratings spanning from 519 to 697 and the Silver Division also had 54 players, with Fargo ratings ranging from 367 to 510. The races were handicapped with the lower-rated player receiving game spots based on the difference between the player’s Fargo ratings.
Begay’s path to the finals against Michael Allen of Salt Lake City, Utah, included wins over Tres Kane III, 6-4; Pete Barnes, 6-2; James Main, 6-2; Tim Daniel, 6-4; Ricardo Ritchie, 6-3 and Allen, 6-1.
Allen had a long string of wins before buckling to Begay. He beat Bill Truitt, 5-2; Tenadore Lee, 5-2; Wayne Cagle, 5-4; Bryan Wilson, 5-1; and Navin Talreja, 5-4, before losing to Begay. In the loser’s bracket, Allen beat LeRoy Banks, 5-1, giving him the opportunity to play Begay again in the finals.
Allen jumped out of the gate determined not to let Begay get the best of him, and beat Begay to force a second set in the true double-elimination formant.
But Begay was able to ward Allen off for the second set, beating the Salt Lake City-basEd Allen by a score of 6-3 in the finals to win the division, earning $1,000 and a plaque.
[photo id=45235|align=left]In the Silver division, Joe Avila started his day with a forfeit and then went undefeated to the finals, with wins over Lee Schnieders, 5-0; Mike Sauer, 5-4; Bryson Hunter Sr., 5-4; Anthony Laudadio, 5-4; and Todd Rodgers, 5-2, to take the hot seat.
Adam Payan, who would meet Avila in the finals, beat Guy Martinez Sr., 5-4; John Hardy, 5-0; and Willie Horton, 5-2, before falling to Todd Rodgers. Then Payan moved through the loser’s side of the bracket, with wins over Vince Villalva, 5-1 and Anthony Laudadio, 5-1, before getting revenge against Rodgers, 5-1.
But Payan couldn’t stop Avila’s winning streak and lost in the finals by a score of 5-2. Avila collected $800 for the win.
The women’s divisions, scotch doubles divisions, and the team divisions are still underway.
The 2016 Southwest Regional tournament is sponsored by CueSports International, Diamond Billiard Products Inc., Cyclop, and Simonis.
The 2016 Southwest Regional Tournament is produced by CueSports International, the parent company of the BCAPL and USAPL. CSI also produces independent events, such as the US Open 10-Ball Championship, the US Open 8-Ball Championship and much more. For more information, visit www.playcsipool.com or call 702-719-POOL.
On the weekend of July 11th and 12th, a very talented group of 79 pool players escaped the blistering heat of Phoenix, Arizona to compete in the Mezz West State Tour's 5th event of their 17 stop season. Room owners of Bull Shooters, Mike and Julie Bates have one of the premier pool rooms in the nation boasting a huge array of tables, full kitchen, and full bar catering to both the recreational and serious pool fan. This is the second time the tour has visited Bull Shooters and the players thoroughly enjoy the venue.
Several of the tour "regulars" were in attendance who came from California and Nevada to compete against the top players from the Arizona area including Bernie Pettipiece, Tim Daniel, Bobby Emmons, Tres Kane among others. Leading the top half of the tournament board was co founder of the MWST, Oscar Dominguez with wins over Mike Massey, James Main, Nick De Leon, Bobby Emmons, Tim Daniel, and Beau Runningen setting up for the hot seat match.
The bottom half of the bracket was lead by one pocket specialist Bernie Pettipiece with wins over Marshall Anonby, Michael Langarica, John Ritonya, George Tehachea, and Mark Whitehead to face Dominguez for the hotseat.
Meanwhile on the one loss side, early tounament favorites such as Sal Butera, Dave Hemmah, Rodney Morris, Vilmos Foldes, Brian Parks, and Ernesto Dominguez all faced early defeats making the one loss side littered with top players and amateurs. Once the dust settled, it was former Junior National Champion Beau Runningen clawing his way through the B bracket with wins over Bobby Emmons, 17 year old sharpshooter Chris Robinson, and Bernie Pettipiece to set up an all Southern California finals between Dominguez and Runningen for the title in the single extended race finals. After a few critical mistakes by Oscar, Beau capitalized with solid safety play and firepower to take tour stop #5 and first prize.
The top female bonus was awarded to Melissa Herndon and we would like to thank all our sponsors and players for their continued support.
The Mezz West State Tour would like to thank all their sponsors: Mezz Cues (Miki-Mezz.com), West State Billiard Supply (WestStateBilliards.com), Zan Tips (Zan-Tip.com), Taom Break/Jump Tips (TaomTips.com), Andy Cloth (AndyCloth.com), Ozzy Reynolds and CSI (PlayCSIPool.com), PiUs Company, So Cal Tap, Kurzweil Country Meats, fast&loose desgins (fastnloosedesigns.com), Contact Point Media, Turtle Rack, NYC Grind (NYCGrind.com) and AZ Billiards (AZBilliards.com).
We would also like to thank Mike and Julie Bates, along with their two daughters and the entire Bull Shooters staff for hosting the event. We would also like to thank all the players for coming out and supporting the tour.
The AWBT kicked off their 2018 season on March 10th – 11th at Bullshooters with a field of 43 players and Bernie Store coming back from the one loss side to win and stake early claim to the AWBT points list.
Store’s path through the brackets started off with wins over Stephanie Woodman, Carol Strong and Sandi Wilson before running into Heather Cortez in the final eight. Cortez, the 2017 points list winner, sent Bernie packing to the one loss side in a hill-hill match.
After her win over Store, Cortez went on to defeat Nina Tagley in the final four and then Amanda Pulley for the hot-seat 7-3.
On the one loss side, Store got down to business with wins over Justine Bishop, Beth Orth, Jaye Succo (a hill-hill nail biter), Tagley and then Pulley in the semi-finals.
As is always the case on the AWBT, the finals were an extended race to 9 and Store cruised to a comfortable 9-5 victory for first place.
Sixteen players came back to Bullshooters on Sunday to compete in the second chance event, where Pearl Ortiz defeated Justine Bishop in the finals for first place.
In addition to the ladies events, the AWBT also held their first “Balls Only” event where Jason Melm completed an undefeated run with back to back wins over James Main in the finals for first place and $310 in prize money.
The AWBT will be at Freezer’s for the second stop of the season on April 28th – 29th where they will be playing 9-ball on the 9 foot tables with $500 in added prize money.
