Since it opened its 2018 season at Q Master Billiards in January, the Action Pool Tour has had six different players win its nine tour stops (Reymart Lim, Roberto Gomez, Johnny Archer, Zoren James Aranas, Ruslan Chinakhov, and Shaun Wilkie). It’s had nine different runner-ups, which is a list as impressive as the winners; Scott Roberts, Karen Corr, Chris Bruner, Ronnie Alcano, Dennis Orcollo, Scott Haas, Warren Kiamco, RJ Carmona and Chris Wilburn. On the weekend of September 8-9, Wilkie picked up his third win on the current tour, going undefeated to maintain the ‘different winner’ count at six, while Wilburn added to the ‘different runner-up’ count by finishing second. The 10-ball event drew 31 entrants to Breakers Sky Lounge in Herndon, VA.

 

Wilkie had to get by Wilburn twice to complete his undefeated run. They met first in the hot seat match. Wilkie had chalked up an aggregate score of 21-6, while defeating his first opponent, Daniel Kerns 7-1, downing the tour’s #1-ranked player, Steve Fleming (7-5) and shutting out its #2-ranked player Jason Trigo. This set Wilkie up to face Tuan Chau, who came into the event as the tour’s #24 player, in a winners’ side semifinal. Wilburn, in the meantime, got by Cameron Lawhorne 7-3, Daniel Morrow 7-2 and Jimmy Coleman 7-3 to meet Will Moon in the other winners’ side semifinal.

 

By identical 7-2 scores, Wilkie and Wilburn advanced to the hot seat match over Chau and Moon. Wilkie dominated the hot seat battle, winning it 7-1 to wait on Wilburn’s return from the semifinals.

 

On the loss side, Chau picked up Jimmy Coleman, who, following his defeat at the hands of Wilburn, had eliminated Kevin Irons 6-4, and survived a double hill fight against Paul Helms. Moon drew Thomas Haas, who’d been defeated in the event’s opening round by Fleming, and was in the midst of a seven-match, loss-side winning streak that would take him to the semifinals. He’d most recently defeated Trigo 6-3 and his own father, Scott Haas 6-2.

 

Coleman advanced to the quarterfinal match with a 6-2 win over Chau. He was joined by Thomas Haas, who eliminated Moon 6-4.

 

Haas took one more step, downing Coleman in those quarterfinals 6-4, before having his loss-side streak ended by Wilburn 6-3 in the semifinals. Wilburn’s single-game, loss-side streak came to an end in the finals, when Wilkie defeated him 9-3 to capture his third APT title.

 

A 13-entrant Second Chance tournament saw Scott Haas lose the hot seat match to Orlin Brizuela and then return from a semifinal, double hill win over Chris Hansen to defeat Brizuela 6-3 in the finals.

 

Tour director Raymond Walters thanked the ownership and staff at Breakers Sky Lounge, as well as sponsors Viking Cues, Predator Cues, Tiger Products, Diamond Billiard Products, Inc., Ozone Billiards, Simonis Cloth, Aramith Balls and George Hammerbacher Advanced Pool Instructor. The next stop on the Action Pool Tour, scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 13-14 will be a Bar Box Bash, hosted by Peninsula Billiards in Newport News, VA.

 

As the Action Pool Tour's seventh stop advanced to its winners' side semifinals, it became possible that not only could a woman emerge as the event champion, there might be two of them in the finals. Only one, Karen Corr, made it, returning from a loss in the hot seat, meeting and defeating Brett Stottlemyer in the finals and becoming the first woman to win a stop on the Action Pool Tour. The event, held on the weekend of September 10-11, drew 66 entrants to Breakers Sky Lounge in Herndon, VA.

 

Corr's seven-match march to the winners' circle was no walk in the park. Though she'd win her first three by an aggregate score of 21-6, defeating Bryan Proctor (3), Jimmy Coleman (2) and Steve Fleming (1), she won her next two 14-9 against Alan Duty (4) and in a winners' side semifinal, Shaun Wilkie (5), both among the tour's top 10 players. In comparison, Stottlemyer's six-match path to the hot seat began with a double hill scare versus Greg Sabins. Things smoothed out a bit, as Stottlemyer went on to defeat Bruce Gardner (3), Eric Moore (2), Amit Kumar (4), and in the other winners' side semifinal, the other woman in the hunt for a first APT championship, Tina Malm (3). As the hot seat match between Stottlemyer and Corr got underway, it was "Advantage Miss Corr" – 35-15 over Stottlemyer 35-18. That changed to "Advantage Mr. Stottlemyer" as he took the hot seat match 7-5 and waited on Corr's return.

 

On the loss side, Malm had the misfortune of opening her bid to become part of an all-woman final against Corr by running into the Action Pool Tour's #1-ranked player, Brandon Shuff, looking for his fourth trip to an APT final and second win of the season. Shuff had been defeated by Eric Moore (the #3-ranked player on the tour) 7-4 in his opening round, and was in the midst of an eight-match, loss-side winning streak that would take him as far as the quarterfinals. Two of the eight went double hill. Wins #5 and #6 came at the expense of Alan Duty and a successful re-match against Moore, both 6-4 wins. Wilkie, in the meantime, the tour's #2-ranked player, picked up Kenny Miller (who'd end up at the conclusion of this stop as the #4-ranked player on the tour). Miller had been sent to the loss side by Malm in a winners' side quarterfinal, and defeated Will Moon and Danny Mastermaker, both 6-4.

 

Shuff chalked up his last win over Malm 6-2, as Wilkie, by the same score, was eliminated by Miller. Miller advanced one more step, defeating Shuff in the quarterfinals 6-4, before running into the apparently determined Corr in the semifinals. She earned her second shot against Stottlemyer, waiting for her in the hot seat, with a 6-3 win over Miller in those semifinals.

 

Combined, Corr and Stottlemyer had been a part of the seven-stop, APT season only three times. Corr was making her first appearance, while Stottlemyer was making his second (he placed fourth in the opening stop). Corr became the first victorious female on the APT tour with a commanding 9-4 win over Stottlemyer in the finals.