This past week, the legendary Q-Masters Billiards of Virginia Beach, VA hosted StraightPoolEye’s Triple Crown Women’s Invitational. The brainstorm of StraightPoolEyes’ founder, Eric Nelson, the $10,000 added event had three divisions – Straight Pool, Ten Ball and One Pocket. Twenty three ladies paid a $450 entry fee for all three divisions.
A players meeting, players auction and draw was held on Sunday night while play in the Straight Pool division started on Monday. All preliminary rounds were fifty point matches while the final match was to one hundred points. Monica Webb defeated Janet Atwell to advance to the finals against the undefeated Joann Mason Parker. Janet finished in third place.
Monica took advantage of a couple of Joann’s missed break shots to shoot out to a big lead. Joann clawed her way back and by the last few racks of the finals, it was neck and neck. The final rack was a nailbiter as both players played cat and mouse but it was Monica who pocketed the last few balls to take the match 100-94. Congratulations, Monica! Good tournament, Joann! Thanks to Straight Pool Tournament Director, Ron Shepard, for running a fine event!
Now, on to the Ten Ball! The tournament played down to the hot seat match which featured the new versus the old guard. Veteran and former US Open 9 Ball Champion Joann Mason Parker was sent west by the straight shooting Kaylee McIntosh. There, Joann faced another veteran player, Liz Taylor. The match went down to the wire 5-4 with Liz moving on to the finals. Joann finished in third place.
Liz Taylor and Kaylee McIntosh
Racing to seven, the final match was a battle between Kaylee and Liz. As this was true double elimination, Liz would have to defeat Kaylee twice to claim the title. Liz won the first set 7-4 to force a second set. It was a squeaker going down to the case game! Liz pocketed the final ball to win the Ten Ball division 5-4! Congratulations, Liz! Good tournament, Kaylee! Thanks to the Ten Ball Tournament Director, Rho Reyes, for doing a first class job!
The final event of the Triple Crown was the One Pocket division. The hot seat match featured Monica Webb and Julie Melman Cone with Monica claiming her seat in the finals. Julie then faced Janet Atwell to vie for the remaining seat in the finals. Julie prevailed leaving Janet with another third place finish. Good job, Janet!
Racing to three, the One Pocket title was claimed in the first set by the undefeated Monica Webb 3-0. Congratulations, Monica! Good tournament, Julie! Thanks to the One Pocket Tournament Director, Alex Shapsevich, for a great job!
StraightPoolEyes would also like to congratulate our first Master of the Table, Joann Mason Parker! Fantastic performance, Joann!
StraightPoolEyes and PoolActionTV.com would like to thank the Behrman family, owners of Q-Masters, General Manager Gary Ornoff his staff for rolling out the red carpet for all the players fans.
We’d also like to thank the Triple Crown tournament sponsors for a fantastic inaugural event! They include becue, Simonis, Aramith, LS2 Helmets, the Punch Zaddy Band, Hanshew Jump Cues, IPKT, BulletproofEnterprise.com, Contractor Equipment & Supply, Olympic Technologies, Inc. and Fort Worth Billiards Superstore of Fort Worth, TX.
PoolActionTV.com would like to thank Jeremy Jones, Larry Schwartz, Mary Kenniston and Justin Cone for their topnotch commentary.
We’d also like to thank our sponsors. They include Acme Cases, Durbin Custom Cues, Clutch Shot Billiards Apparel, Digital Pool, Hanshew Custom Cues, Diamond Billiard Products, Aramith, Simonis, Lomax Custom Cues, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore of Fort Worth, TX and The Action Palace of Dayton, OH.
Our next event is The Rematch of the Battle4TheBorder – Team Michigan vs. Team Ohio! To be held at the Causeway Bay Hotel & Conference Center, the dates are December 3rd-5th. Hope to see you there!!!
Max Watanabe has joined a thankfully growing list of New York City’s tri-state competitors in returning to area tables, unofficially announcing that return with an undefeated run on the Predator Tri-State Tour this past weekend (Sat., Oct. 3). He stretched the geographic definition of New York’s “tri state area” a couple of weeks ago when he competed in the US Open PoolChampionships in Atlantic City, finishing out of the money. This most recent win was his first cash finish on the tour since February, 2020. The $500-added event drew 26 entrants to Clifton Billiards in Clifton, NJ.
Watanabe advanced through the field to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Julian Tierney, as the eventual runner-up, Nishant Narang, squared off against another recently-back-at-the-tables, Mike Strassberg. Watanabe and Tierney battled to double hill before Watanabe advanced to the hot seat match. Narang joined him for their first of two, after downing Strassberg 6-3. Watanabe claimed the hot seat 8-4.
On the loss side, in the first money round, Tierney and Strassberg ran right into their second straight loss. Tierney was defeated 7-2 by Joann Mason Parker, who’d eliminated Pashk Gjini 7-2 and Hoa Vu 7-1 to reach him. Strassberg fell to K.C. Clayton, who’d previously gotten by David Fitzpatrick 6-3 and survived a double hill fight against Steve Root.
Parker took the quarterfinal match 9-4 over Clayton but had her loss-side run ended by Narang in the semifinals. An 8-6 win sent Narang to the finals for Round Two of his bout with Watanabe.
The second round played out in much the same way as the first. Watanabe defeated Narang a second time 8-4 to claim the event title.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Clifton Billiards, as well as title sponsor Predator Cues, Ozone Billiards, Sterling Gaming, Kamui Tips, Phil Cappelle, Blue Book Publishing, Human Kinetics, Pool & Billiards, Romer Trophies and Professor Q Ball. The next stop on the Predator Tri-State Tour, scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 23-24, will be hosted by New City in Woodside, NY.
On Sunday, August 22, Sandcastle Billiards hosted a $200-added, A-D event on the Garden State Pool Tour that drew 27 entrants and was won by Tae Chang, who went undefeated. Just shy of a week later, the tour held another $200-added event; this one an A-B event (with C-D players allowed, but expected to compete from the beginning against A-B players). This second event was hosted by Breaker’s Billiards in Clifton, NJ, drew 23 entrants and saw Joann Mason Parker go undefeated to claim the event title.
At Sandcastle Billiards, Tae Chang was looking for his first major event victory and found it. A week earlier, he had been runner-up to James Conn at an event on the Predator Tri-State Tour. The two had opted out of a final match, leaving Conn, as the undefeated occupant of the hot seat, with the event title. In June, Chang had finished 5th at another stop on the Predator Tri-State. Those two events represented Chang’s only (recorded) cash winnings in the AZBilliards database. This time, Chang played through to the end and chalked up his first win.
In the event’s format, A-B and C-D players were competing in separate brackets and it was Chang (C-D) and Christian Orque (A-B) who worked their way through the field and met, for the first, and as it turned out, only time in the hot seat match. Chang claimed the hot seat 7-3 and waited on the return of one Joe Mazzeo.
Mazzeo had lost to Christian Orque in one of the winners’ side semifinals and one the loss side, had chalked up two straight double hill wins – versus Jersey Mars and Rob Calton – to earn a rematch against Orque in the semifinals. That, too, went double hill, but it advanced Mazzeo to the finals.
Chang, no doubt seeing his first major event victory on a nearby horizon, put pedal to the metal and jumped out to what proved to be an insurmountable lead of 5-0. Mazzeo was able to chalk up three racks right after that, but Chang came back with two of his own to claim the event title.
Julian Tierney, Joann Mason Parker and Levie Lampaan
Mason Parker returns to the tables
A week later, at Breaker’s Billiards, JoAnn Mason Parker, who, according to our records, hasn’t cashed in an event since she went undefeated at a season opening stop on Florida’s Flamingo Tour, 10 years ago (her third of three straight on that tour, dating back to the previous year). Her history dates back to what remains as her best earnings year at the tables (1999), when she cashed in an ESPN Ultimate Challenge event, behind, in order, Allison Fisher, Gerda Hofstatter, Helena Thornfeldt, Karen Corr and Jeanette Lee. In October of that year, she finished 4th in a Northeast Women’s Tour event won by Corr.
Parker showed no signs of a 10-year absence away from the tables, unless you count the two double hill matches, versus newcomer Ahkil Ahjula and Julie Madlener, that opened her undefeated campaign. She went on to defeat Christian Teaza 7-5 to face Kyle Manuel in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Julian Tierney, in the meantime, squared off against Tony Ignomirello in the other winners’ side semifinal.
A 7-2 win by Parker over Manuel and a 7-4 win by Tierney over Ignomirello put them against each other in the hot seat match. It proved to be Parker’s third double hill battle, but she broke and ran rack #13 to claim the hot seat.
Tierney slid over to face Levie Lampaan in the semifinals. Lampaan had lost his second match on the winners’ side and went on to win six loss-side matches, including the quarterfinal against Raymund Paragas 7-3. Tierney stopped Lampaan’s run in the semifinals 7-4.
It looked as though the finals might go the ‘double hill’ distance, as Parker and Tierney fought back and forth to an opening 3-3 tie. Parker, though, chalked up the next three in a row to reach the hill. Tierney needed to reach 7, just to extend the race to 9 games. He won the next rack to make it 6-4, but Parker closed it out to claim the event title.
The Garden State Pool Tour thanked the ownership at both Sandcastle Billiards (Ed Liddawi) and Breaker’s Billiards (Lenny) and their staffs for their hospitality. The next stop on the Garden State Pool Tour, scheduled for Sept. 9 & 10, will be the 5th Annual Fall Brawl at Player’s Billiards in Eatontown, NJ.
Amy Poulter, owner Amy’s Billiards; Jeannie Seaver, winner; Jennifer Page
The largest and longest event for the Flamingo Billiards Tour turned out a record-breaking fifty women on Saturday at the FBT’s 5th Annual “Cues for Cure” breast cancer fundraiser at Amy’s Billiards in Stuart, Florida! A huge "THANK YOU" to all of the players, spectators and sponsors who supported this event, which benefitted the South Florida Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
With so many players, this one-day event was a true test of endurance. Despite having to shoot into the wee hours of the morning, the players remained patient yet persistent. Ultimately, however, experience and determination paid off. About an hour before sunrise Jeannie Seaver won her fourth event of the year. Seaver, whose stroke only got better the closer to it got to daylight, defeated last year’s winner of the “Cues for the Cure” event, Jennifer Page, who shot well throughout the day but couldn’t keep up with Seaver, who barely missed more than two shots the entire final match.
Seaver eliminated newcomer Jessica Karamia Human and Crystal McComick in the final single elimination board. Page defeated Cassidy Mulligan and Vanessa Seaver to make it to the final match. Seaver also takes the 2013 FBT Champion title again this year.
More than half the players were playing in support of or in memory of a loved one or friend who had breast cancer or some other form of cancer. Players and spectators participated in the raffle and other games to raise money for the cause. Darlyne Petrovit won the jar of gummy bears with the closest guestimate of the number of candies in the jar without going over. Cathy Sparling won the jar of M&M’s. Other prizes included cues, cue cases, pool lessons, gift baskets and pink ribbon teddy bears.
Many special thanks to all of you who took time to participate, thanks to everyone who brought a friend or two, thank you to the players who drove hours to attend this event, thank you to the spectators, thank you for your donations, participating in the games and your boundless enthusiasm in supporting the cause!
Thanks to Martz cues, billiard professionals Hunter Lombardo and Tommy Kennedy, Alicia Borjas, Darlyne Petrovit, Janis Sessions, Boynton Billiards and Ozone Billiards. A special thank you to Ann Hanlon for donating her day to help with the fundraising.
Thanks to John Lewis and the American CueSports Association /Pure X All American Tour for their joint sponsorship. Finally, thanks to Amy Poulter and staff at Amy’s Billiards for their ongoing support of the "Cues for the Cure" fundraiser and the FBT.
