Gray goes undefeated to claim MD State 8-Ball title
Loye Bolyard, Tuan Chau, Dave Nangle, Jordan Gray and Rick Scarlato, Jr.
It is arguably heartening to know that Pro Football’s “Any Given Sunday” rule is alive and well and living on pool tables from coast to coast. The unwritten rule dictates that on any given Sunday, a football team, no matter what its history or record going into the game, is capable of beating a team with a much better record and greater odds of winning. Translated to the fields of felt-covered slate, it means that in any given tournament, a player with limited history at the tables, with fewer earnings than any number of potential opponents can win a tournament, populated by players with much more robust track records. As in the way that the ‘rule’ is applied to football, it presupposes that the lesser-skilled team/individual player has some decent measure of experience on the playing field and that no one has to explain to a player how the game is played, or in the case of pool, which end of the cue stick to use when attempting to pocket a ball.
The 2021 Maryland State 8-Ball Championships, held this past weekend (July 24-25) drew 42 competitors to Champion Billiards Sports Bar in Frederick, MD. Many of those in attendance were seasoned veterans; known competitors, not only in the mid-Atlantic region, but at nationwide events dating back years. Brandon Shuff and Steve Fleming, for example, who are former Tour Champions of the Action Pool Tour; Fleming in 2018 and runner-up in 2019, Brandon Shuff in 2015. Or Joey Korsiak, who’s been in the AZBilliards database since before the turn of the century. Or Bethany Sykes, who’s won Ladies events on the Action Pool Tour, the National Pool Tour (NAPT) and was the VA Women’s 8-Ball Champion in 2018.
The winner (Jordan Gray) and runner-up (Tuan Chau) in this 2021 Maryland State 8-Ball Championship, combined, have recorded career earnings less than, as an example, Joey Korsiak earned winning this past May’s MD State 9-Ball Championships and this past June’s Dynaspheres Cup 8-Ball Championships. The winner, Jordan Gray, went undefeated through the field and it wasn’t entirely due to the luck of the bracket draws. He defeated the aforementioned Steve Fleming in the third round, and in his winners’ side semifinal, faced and defeated Bryan Jones, who’d sent Joey Korsiak to the loss side in the winners’ side quarterfinals.
It’s an “Any Given Sunday” reminder to veterans and a reminder to up-and-coming challengers, from wherever they may emerge, to “play the table, not the opponent.”
Gray’s path to the winners’ circle went through Randy Davis, Jeremy Mason and Fleming without giving up more than three racks in any of those first three matches, which put him into the winners’ side semifinal against Bryan Jones. In the meantime, Dylan Spohr, got by Randy Clepper, Leroy Taylor and the eventual runner-up, Tuan Chau, to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal matchup versus Brandon Shuff.
Spohr dispatched Shuff to the loss side 6-1. Gray joined him after surviving a double hill match against Jones. Gray survived a second straight double hill match in his battle for the hot seat and sat in it, waiting for Chau to complete his five-match, loss-side winning streak.
It was Jones who moved over and picked up Chau, who’d followed his shutout defeat at the hands of Spohr with loss-side victories over Joonick Jun 6-3 and Russell Obaker 6-2. Shuff drew Korsiak, who, after his defeat at the hands of Bryan Jones, had eliminated Clint Clayton 6-4 and just did survive a double hill battle against Steve Fleming.
In one of the more ‘classic’ matchups of the event, Shuff defeated Korsiak 6-4. Chau, in the meantime, had eliminated Jones by the same score to face Shuff in the quarterfinals.
Chau won two straight double hill matches to earn his spot in the finals. He downed Shuff in the quarterfinals and Spohr in the semifinals. Chau chalked up a third double hill win in the opening set of the finals. Gray, though, won the second set 6-4 to become the 2021 Maryland State 8-Ball Champion.
On the Hill Productions’ Loye Bolyard and Rick Scarlato, Jr. thanked the ownership and staff at Championship Billiards for their hospitality, as well as their “generous tournament and streaming sponsors” AZBilliards, Aramith Balls, Mezz Cues, Turtle Racks, Simonis Cloth, TAP Chesapeake Bay Region, Safe Harbor Investments, Poison Cues, Gina Cunningham of Keller Williams Integrity. They also gave a shout out to Josh Parks, for his photography work at the events.
Next up will be the MD State 10-Ball Championships, scheduled for August 28-29. For further information, follow On the Hill Productions on Facebook.
