Ruben Adame came to last weekend’s (Feb. 18-19) Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour stop (#2) having cashed in a previous (recorded) event only once, in August of last year, sharing 5th place with Tina Malm. He went home this past weekend with the first (recorded) regional tour victory on his resume, having gone undefeated at the $2,000-added event that drew 78 entrants to Tailgaters Sports Bar in Frisco, TX.
Adame battled below, at and above his ‘weight’ (7) in the event. Through eight matches, he faced three opponents ‘below’ and three ‘at’ his level. In the hot seat and finals, he defeated two competitors ‘above’ his level to claim the event title. Three of his eight matches went double hill, including his opening match against Marc Oler (below), his third-round bout against Lucah Gianino (below) and his fourth round match, in a straight-up race to 7, against Jonathan Rawlins. He followed the win over Rawlins with a victory over Rodger Shaffer (below) that put him into a winners’ side semifinal against Peter Stovall in what would be another straight-up race to 7.
In the meantime, Josh Hemsoth was advancing to meet him in the hot seat match. Hemsoth, awarded a bye in the opening round, played five matches to get there, all of them against opponents below his ‘weight’ level of 8. With one exception, all of Hemsoth’s opponents on his way to the hot seat match got two ‘beads on the wire’ in races to 8. The exception was Jennifer Hooten, who got four ‘on the wire’ in Hemsoth’s first match. She battled him to double hill before he advanced, downing Joe Pelayo (2), Keith Diaz (3), and shutting out Chase LaFerney to arrive at the other winners’ side semifinal against Miguel Hernandez.
Adame got into the hot seat match with a 7-5 victory over Stovall and was joined by Hemsoth, who’d survived a double hill battle against Hernandez. Adame, facing his first opponent above his rank, was awarded a single ‘bead on the wire’ in a race to 8. He didn’t need it. He allowed Hemsoth only a single rack and claimed the hot seat.
On the loss side, Clint Freeman, who’d lost a winners’ side quarterfinal to Hernandez, went on a five-match run that propelled him all the way into the finals. He survived a double hill battle against Joseph Geesling and downed Rawlins 9-2 to draw Stovall. Hernandez picked up Tim Larson, who’d lost an opening-round, double-hill match to Jeff Turney and was working on a 10-match, loss-side streak that would take him as far as the quarterfinals and had recently eliminated Rodger Shaffer 9-2 and Brian Cady 9-3.
Freeman advanced to the quarterfinals 9-3 over Stovall and was joined by Larson, who’d shut out Hernandez. Freeman ended Larson’s lengthy loss-side battles 9-4 in those quarterfinals and then, by the same score, downed Josh Hemsoth in the semifinals.
In the true double-elimination finals, Ruben Adame got two ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 9 against Freeman, which, as in his hot seat match, he didn’t need. He took the opening and, as it turned out, only set 7-4 to claim the event title.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Tailgaters for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Cuetec and associate sponsor Fort Worth Super Billiards Superstore. The next stop (#3) on the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for the weekend of March 25-26, will be hosted by Rusty’s Billiards in Fort Worth, TX.
The very nature of double elimination pool tournaments lends itself to the realization that it’s not generally how many matches or games you win, but how many you play overall and when you win them. Brian Cady was winner of the February 22-23 stop on the Predator DFW 9-Ball Tour. He took two out of three over Louie Pacheco, claiming the hot seat and the second set of the true double elimination final. He finished with a game-winning average of 63% (59-34). Pacheco finished with a game-winning average of 59% (71-49). Cady was third in the game-winning percentage sweepstakes, though, tied with 4th place finisher Jeff Georges, and behind 7th/8th place finisher TJ Davis (51-28/65%). Winner in that category was Jeremy Jones, who, at 68-30, played five more games than Cady, 22 less than Pacheco and finished 9th/12th having won 69% of his games. The $1,500-added event drew 97 entrants to Billiard Den in Richardson, TX.
According to tour representative Monica Anderson, Cady was certainly what you’d call “under the radar” in this event (he’s a newcomer to our database as of this date) and was not originally going to compete.
“It was his daughter’s 7th birthday on Saturday,” said Anderson, “but his wife told him he could play since his daughter would just want to know what he would buy her.”
Good thinking on the daughter’s part, because Pop came home with just over $1,000, which she can now leverage into some serious swag of her choosing.
Daddy made it past Saturday in the field, advancing to face Joe Pelayo in a winners’ side semifinal, as Pacheco squared off against Mike Sauer in the other one. Cady downed Pelayo 7-3 and in the hot seat match, faced Pacheco, who’d sent Sauer to the loss side 8-2. Cady took his first of three against Pacheco 7-3, and sat in the hot seat, assured of a minimum $680 donation to his daughter’s swag fund.
On the loss side, where Jeremy Jones, among others, still lurked in the ‘field of dreams’ (so to speak), Pelayo and Sauer walked right into their second straight loss. Sauer fell 8-3 to JP Kinman, who’d been sent to the loss side by Pelayo in a winners’ side quarterfinal and started his loss-side work by eliminating Jones, double hill (8-9) and then TJ Davis 8-5. Jones had been defeated, double hill by Pacheco, in the 4th round and was working on a brief, two-match, loss-side winning streak, having defeated Juan Parra, before Kinman eliminated him. Pelayo was sent home 7-4 by Jeff Georges, who’d defeated Eric Smith 7-5 and Brendan Fuller 7-3 to reach him.
Kinman took the quarterfinal match over Georges 8-4, but had his four-match, loss-side streak terminated by Pacheco. They battled in a straight-up race to 8 to double hill before Pacheco prevailed for a second, and as it turned out, third shot at Cady in the hot seat.
As the lower handicap, Cady started each of the two final matches with a single bead on the wire in a race to 8. Pacheco’s momentum from the semifinal likely helped him in the opening set, which he won 8-3. Cady, though, with thoughts of having missed his daughter’s 7th birthday celebration for this, turned things around in the second set and won it 7-4 to claim the title and collect the cash for the daughter’s now-no-doubt extravagant gift.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Billiard Den for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Predator Cues, Business Sponsor Ft. Worth Billiards Superstore and Associate Business Sponsors Aramith Balls, Outsville Racks, Rasson Billiards and JB Cases. The next stop on the DFW 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for March 28-29, will be hosted by Snookered in Frisco, TX.
