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Shabib comes back from first-set loss to down Hooks and win Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball stop

Raed Shabib

While headlines have tended to focus on the state of Florida’s fortunes in the wake of Hurricane Irma, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that Irma’s impact stretched further north, as far as Atlanta, GA, where as late as this past weekend (September 16-17), there were still thousands of people without power. Mr. Cues II in Atlanta had the power necessary to host a Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour stop over the weekend, though the continuing issues may well have contributed to a relatively low field of competitors. Raed Shabib navigated his way through a field of 28, on-hand for the $500-added event, and after dropping the opening set of a true double elimination final to Jeff Hooks, came back to win the second set and claim the event title.
 
Shabib advanced to a winners’ side semifinal against Marvin Reed, as Jeff Crawford squared off against Mike Chapman. Shabib got into the hot seat match with an 8-4 win over Reed. He was joined by Crawford, who’d defeated Chapman 9-3. Shabib claimed the hot seat with an 8-7 win over Crawford, who was racing to 9, and waited on the return of what turned out to be Jeff Hooks, who, at the time of the hot seat match, was in the midst of a five-game, loss-side winning streak that began with a defeat at the hands of Reed, and would give him a shot against Shabib in the finals.
 
On the loss side, it was Chapman who drew Hooks, three matches into his streak, with recent wins over John Maikke 7-4 and Bernardo Hernandez, 7-8 (Hernandez racing to 10). Reed picked up Justin Duncan, who was on a win streak of his own, having been defeated in the event’s opening round, and winning six straight to advance as far as the quarterfinals.
 
Hooks downed Chapman 7-2 and was joined in the quarterfinals by Duncan, who defeated Reed 6-5 (Reed racing to 7). Hooks and Duncan locked up in a double hill fight that saw both of them miss a shot at the 9-ball, three times, in the deciding game. Hooks eventually advanced to the semifinals against Crawford, where a 7-6 win (Crawford racing to 9) gave him a shot against Shabib in the hot seat.
 
With Shabib racing to 8, Hooks took the true double elimination opener 7-6. With one loss for each of them going into the second set, they battled to double hill for the title. Shabib hung on to win it 8-6 and claim that title.
 
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Mr. Cues II, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Delta 13 Racks, AZBilliards and Professor Q Ball. The next stop on the Viking Cues' Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for September 23-24, will be hosted by Brown’s Billiards in Raleigh, NC.
 

Shaw, Nevel and Clay Win at the 4th Annual Richard Sweet Memorial

Jayson Shaw, Rick Sweet and Phil Miles Burford

Mr. Cues II in Atlanta played host to the Simonis Cloth's 4th Annual Richard Sweet Memorial over the July 4th weekend which is a memorial event and a celebration of his life and contributions to our sport, featuring four separate events; two, single-elimination, 'King of the Hill' format (one $500 1st prize)  tournaments, a Thursday 8-Ball  tournament and a Friday 9-ball tournament , a 1-day $1,000-guaranteed prize fund 9-Ball race to 4 double elimination tournament on Sunday, and a $3,000-guaranteed prize fund main event in 10-Ball which ran Saturday and Sunday. Jayson Shaw won two of them, and almost won a third. He opened the weekend's proceedings with a finals victory over John Maikke in the first of the single elimination tournaments(8-Ball) on Independence Day that drew 86 entrants. The following day, in the second of the single elimination tournaments (this one, with 79 players and 9-Ball), Shaw made it to the finals again, only to be denied his second win, by Michael Clay, who shut him out in the finals.
 
In the Saturday, main event, the 10-Ball Competition, Jayson Shaw squared off the event's defending champion, Phil Burford, twice; once in the hot seat match, and again, in the finals. Shaw had sent Jeff Hooks to the loss side 7-3 among the winners' side final four, as Burford was busy doing likewise to Randy Jordan 7-2. Shaw got into the hot seat with a 7-5 win over Burford and waited for him to get back. It wasn't long.
 
Jordan and Hooks moved to the loss side, where they were picked up by J. R. Rossman and Tim Orange. Rossman had gotten by Matt Bulfin 7-2 and John Maikke 7-4. Orange had defeated Dustin Byrd (The Parakeet) 7-5 and John Jones 7-3. Jordan advanced to the quarterfinals, double hill, over Rossman. Orange handed Hooks his second straight loss 7-5 to join him.
 
Jordan took the quarterfinal match over Orange 7-5 and earned himself a re-match against Burford, who'd sent him west among the winners' side final four. Burford, anxious for his own rematch against Shaw in the hot seat, downed Jordan 7-5. Shaw, though, hunkered down and gave up only a single rack in the opening set of the potential two-set final to claim the event title.
 
Events shifted to double elimination with commencement of the races-to-4 9-Ball Tournament on Sunday, which drew 59 entrants. Larry Nevel (who'd won both single elimination tournaments at last year's Sweet Memorial) started out by dropping his opening round match to Danny Cash, but rallied on the loss side to win nine straight, and then, two more in the finals against Bernardo Estevan
 
Estevan had advanced to the hot seat with a winners' side final four victory over Tommy Najar 4-2, while the winner of the second single elimination 8-ball tournament, Michael Clay, advanced to meet him with a 4-1 victory over Pat Cooper. Estevan shut Clay out in the battle for the hot seat and waited on the return of Nevel.
 
Meanwhile, on the loss side, The Truth was mowin' 'em down, one by one. With four down and five to go, he defeated Tony Riley 4-1, and survived a double hill battle against Jason Lyons, to pick up Majar. Cooper drew Andy Stewart, who'd squeaked by Horace Goodwin 4-3 and defeated Dana Aft 4-1. Nevel and Stewart handed Najar and Cooper their second straight defeats; Stewart shutting out Cooper and Nevel advancing to the quarterfinals 4-2 over Najar.
 
Nevel gave up only two racks over his next 14 games. He shut out Stewart in the quarterfinals, and gave up a single rack to Clay in the semifinals. Moving into the opening set of the finals against Estevan, he gave up one that forced a second set. Estevan battled him to double hill in that second set, but Nevel prevailed to claim the title.
 
Full payouts for the main 10-Ball event are as follows:
 
1.    Jayson Shaw = $1,850
2.    Phil Burford = $1,050
3.    Randy Jorday = $650
4.    Tim Orange = $400
5/6    Jeff Hooks, JR Rossman = $200 each
7/8    John Jones, John Maikke = $130 each
9-12     Bucky Souventhong, Jeff Jordan, Matt Bulfin, Dustin Byrd = $60 each
13-16    Jeff Crawford, Larry Nevel, Ken Hall, Jared McGee = $40 each
17-24     Andrew Stewart, Billy Tyler, Justin Kaleb, Nick Varner, Lane Simons, Ramone Rodriguez, Tommy Najar, Bill Huffman = $20 each
25-32 = Carlos Murillo, Michael Clay, Horace Godwin, Travis Barber, Tony Riley, Tim Hart, Bruce Nagle = $10 each
 
Payouts for the Sunday 9-Ball event are as follows:
 
1.    Larry Nevel = $400
2.    Bernardo Estevan = $300
3.    Michael Clay = $200
4.    Andy Stewart = $100