Geoff Montgomery and Dave Dreidel won their respective events in 8-ball and 9-ball at the Dutch Mill Holiday Classic, held on January 13-14, under the auspices of the Western New York Tour. The two came within a single match of playing against each other in both finals. Each event drew 20 entrants to the Dutch Mill Restaurant, Party House and Pool Room in Greece, NY. Montgomery picked up a second title at a Friday the 13th Warm-Up, a single elimination event, which drew 16 entrants. 

 

As is often, though not always, the case in double elimination tournaments, the finalists met twice in these two events. In the 8-ball tournament, Dan Miosi defeated Montgomery in the hot seat match, only to be unseated by him in a single-game final. Dreidel had been defeated by Montgomery in the opening round of the 8-ball tournament. Dreidel won nine on the loss side to earn a re-match against Montgomery in the semifinals, but a second win sent Montgomery to the finals, where he defeated Miosi. In the 9-ball tournament, Dreidel came back from a loss in the hot seat match to double dip Montgomery in the finals.

 

The Friday night 'warm up,' which featured races to 4, saw Montgomery and Mark Hatch square off in one semifinal, as tour director Nick Brucato faced Phil Johnson in the other. Montgomery shut Hatch out, as Johnson squeaked by Brucato 4-3. Montgomery took the final 4-1 over Johnson to add $400 to his weekend prize package.

 

In the 8-ball event, with Dreidel already long at work on the loss side, Montgomery advanced to a winners' side semifinal against Chris Bassett, while Dan Niosi faced Jeff Purall. Montgomery and Niosi moved into the hot seat match with 3-1 victories, and by that same score, Niosi grabbed the hot seat from Miosi.

 

On the loss side, five matches in to his nine-match streak, Dreidel eliminated Jake Miosi (son to Dan) 3-1, to draw Purall. Bassett picked up Jason DeWolf, who'd just defeated Chad Strong 3-2.

The two loss-side combatants handed the recent arrivals from the winners' side their second straight defeat; Dreidel downing Purall 3-1 and DeWolf defeating Bassett, double hill.

 

Dreidel won the subsequent quarterfinal, double hill, over DeWolf, and got a second shot at Montgomery with a 3-1 victory over Dan Niosi in the semifinals. Montgomery ended Dreidel's streak 3-1 for a second shot against Miosi. That second shot played out in a single game final, won by Montgomery to claim the title. Lynette Cooper and Tracy Roth picked up $65 each as the event's top two female finishers.

 

In the more traditional, double-meet-up way, Dreidel and Montgomery first squared off in the 9-ball event's hot seat match. Montgomery had shut out Jeff Purcell, as Dreidel was busy sending Nick Brucato to the loss side in a double hill fight. In another double hill fight, Montgomery sent Dreidel to the semifinals and sat in the hot seat, having won his final match.

 

On the loss side, Purcell picked up Tracy Roth (on her way to a second 'top two females' cash award), who'd defeated Chad Strong, double hill. Brucato picked up the elder Miosi (Dan), who'd just eliminated Mindy Hagar 3-1 (Hagar picked up the second $30 cash prize for top female finisher). Purcell and Niosi advanced to the quarterfinals; Purcell 3-1 over Roth and Miosi, double hill over Brucato.

 

Purcell took the quarterfinal match 3-1 over Niosi, but had his loss-side streak ended 3-1 by Dreidel in the semifinals. Dreidel completed his much-shorter-this-time loss-side run with a 3-1 victory over Montgomery in the finals.

 

It was the second time in a row on the Western New York Tour that Dave Grau found himself in the hot seat. On Saturday, November 22, at Eastridge Billiards in Rochester, NY, tour director Nick Brucato won 11 on the loss side to meet and defeat him in the finals of a triple-elimination format tournament called the 8-Ball Grind. On Saturday, December 20, at the final 2014 stop on the tour, dubbed The Jingle Grind, again at Eastridge Billiards, Grau did it again, working his way through a field of 52. This time, though, he defeated his challenger in the finals, Angelo Inness, and claimed the event title.

 

The rarely-seen triple elimination format creates a third bracket, into which players who've chalked up a loss on the normal losers' side bracket are sent. Those players play a single game and the winners are eventually woven back into the final stages of the normal losers' side bracket. The format creates some puzzling, late-stage information; like (in this most recent event) Louis Recio, who won a loss-side match, competing for the 9/12 finish, moved to the third bracket, won a match and then finished in that 9/12 slot, when he lost a match to Dylan Stuck.

 

No bracket confusion for Grau, though. It was a straight shot to the hot seat, which went through Seth Tamavoughn among the winners' side final four. Daryl Stuck (father of the two Stucks in the tournament) squared off against Inness in the other winners' side semifinal. Two 3-1 scores put Grau and Stuck in the hot seat match, where a third 3-1 score sent Stuck to the semifinals.

 

On the loss side, Tamavoughn met up, first, with the son in the Stuck clan, Dylan, and after defeating him 2-1, faced Jason Hunt, who'd defeated Al McGuin 2-1. Inness drew Jeff Montgomery, who came from the third bracket to meet him. Tamavoughn defeated Hunt 1-0, as Inness ended Montgomery's day 2-1. In another peculiarity of the triple elimination format, the quarterfinals were between Daryl Stuck, fresh off his defeat at the hands of Grau in the hot seat, and Tamavoughn. A single game decided the quarterfinal, and the elder Stuck moved on to face Inness in the semifinals.

 

Inness defeated Stuck 2-1, and got a shot at Grau in the hot seat. Perhaps, with the sting of his runner-up performance a month earlier still in his head, Grau completed his undefeated run with a 3-1 victory over Inness in the finals.

Travis Solvetti got into the hot seat, and then gave up the first match of a double elimination final to Lance Kellogg, before rallying to take the second set and claim the Western New York Tour stop title on Saturday, March 22. The event, hosted by Premium Billiards in Syracuse, NY, drew 16 entrants.

 

Solvetti defeated Angelo Innis in a winners' side final four battle, as Kellogg was engaged in a 6-4 win over Jared Zimmer. Solvetti took the first of three against Kellogg 7-5 and waited in the hot seat for his return.

 

Innis moved over to pick up Don Purdy, who'd defeated tour director Nick Brucato 8-3 and Jeff Montgomery 7-5 to reach him. Zimmer drew Brett Fenstermaker, who'd gotten by Ibo Eng 6-3 and Dano Veinot 6-4.  Innis got right back to work on the loss side with a 7-3 win over Purdy, as Fenstermaker was busy eliminating Zimmer 6-3.

 

Innis and Fenstermaker locked up in a double hill, quarterfinal fight, eventually won by Innis, who was then defeated by Kellogg 7-4 in the semifinals. Kellogg and Silvetti fought back and forth to double hill in the opening set of the finals, with Kellogg prevailing to force a second set. They came within a game of a second double hill set, but Silvetti edged out in front to win it 7-5 and claim the event title.