Thanks to a combination of Tony ‘T-Rex’ Chohan and Shane Van Boening, Dennis Orcollo finished third in the West Coast Swing’s One Pocket Challenge in Fremont, CA on the extended weekend of July 4-7. On that same weekend, Orcollo won the WCS 10-Ball challenge, coming back from a hot seat loss to down Ruslan Chinakhov in the finals. Orcollo packed up and moved on to Tempe, AZ, where, three days later (July 11), he joined a field of 50 entrants in the $3,000-added Freezer’s Ice House One Pocket Challenge. Orcollo went undefeated through the field, downing Josh Roberts twice to claim the title.
Orcollo’s path to the hot seat match was relatively unremarkable, allowing his first three opponents (Chris McDaniel, Jose Gonzalez and Eric Young) only two games total in the races to 3. Then he ran in to Scott Frost, who forced a fifth, deciding match, which sent Orcollo to a winners’ side semifinal against The Lion – Alex Pagulayan. Josh Roberts, in the meantime, though he’d opened his campaign with a shutout over Mike Traher, had to contend with two double hill matches to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal against Ian Costello. He’d defeated Chris Adams double hill, given up a single game to Brandon Shuff and won a double hill fight over Tony Chohan (who’d won the WCS One Pocket Challenge in Fremont), to draw Costello.
Orcollo got into the hot seat match with a 3-1 victory over Pagulayan, as Roberts locked up in his third double hill fight, which he eventually won, against Costello. In his fourth double hill match, battling for the hot seat, Roberts ended up moving west to the semifinals, leaving Orcollo in the hot seat, awaiting his return.
On the loss side, following his winners’ side quarterfinal defeat by Roberts, Chohan got right back to work, downing Chip Compton, double hill, and Billy Thorpe 3-1, to draw Pagulayan. Costello picked up Warren Kiamco, who’d been sent to the loss side by Chohan (double hill) and was in the midst of a five-match, loss-side winning streak that had most recently included a shutout over Andy Kachur and the double hill elimination of Jeffrey De Luna (who’d won the 2018 Cole Dickson Memorial that had launched this year’s West Coast Swing).
Chohan and Kiamco gave up only a single game between them in advancing to the quarterfinals; Kiamco shut Costello out, while Chohan gave up the single to Pagulayan. Chohan and Kiamco battled to double hill in those quarterfinals, before Chohan advanced to a semifinal rematch against Roberts. As they had done previously in their winners’ side quarterfinal, Chohan and Roberts battled to double hill, before Roberts downed Chohan a second time, and turned for a second shot against Orcollo.
In a single race to 5, Orcollo completed his undefeated run with a commanding 5-1 victory over Roberts in the finals. For the second year in a row, Orcollo had chalked up two wins on the West Coast Swing. A third victory on the WCS was denied him when Kiamco eliminated him in the quarterfinals of the Freezer’s Ice House 10-Ball Challenge and then went on to win the event (separate story).
Representatives of POVPool (Daniel Busch) and West State Billiards thanked the ownership and staff at Freezer’s Ice House for their hospitality, as well as sponsors Cohen Cues, Big Time Threads, WestStateBilliards.com, KD Cues, Ariel Carmeli (AC) Cues, Tiger Products, and JB Cases.
Sometimes the hard work that a player puts in for one event pays dividends in other events. That was the case for Joey Barrera as his preparation for this year’s Saguaro Cup helped him score an undefeated win at the Diamond Pool Tour’s 3rd stop of the season at Freezer’s Ice House on June 9th – 10th.
Barrera’s 604 rating saw him giving up spots to some players that sounded impossible on paper. His first match of the event saw him giving up five games in a race to eight to Brandon Jewell. To make matters worse, Jewell broke and ran the first rack. Barrera is not known for ever giving up though and he bore down to win eight of the next nine racks for a hill-hill victory. “That win definitely gave me motivation for the rest of the event” said Barrera.
The field of 73 players held a fair share of players competing in their first tour stop of the season, and that lead to a number of players enjoying their first tour cashes of the season including David Friedel, Bryan Bach, Scott Vogelsberg, Jose Gonzalez, Dave Mark, Bill Vander Weyst and Guerra.
Dave Mark dropped a match to Tim Daniel late on Saturday night, but bounced back with wins over Brian Long, Josh Murphy and Vander Weyst to earn another shot at Daniel on the one loss side. Mark would settle for 4th after dropping that match to Daniel 9-5. Daniel would then go on eliminate Guerra 9-5 to earn another shot at Barrera in the finals.
Daniel had lost to Barrera 7-3 on the winner’s side and knew the 9-7 race in the finals would be a tough one. Barrera came out quick and took a 2-0 lead, but Daniel came back to win the next five racks. The players traded the next six racks for a 8-5 Daniel lead but Daniel would get no farther as Barrera won the next two racks for the hill-hill win and first place.
Barrera’s #1 fan, Cheryl Timmonen, felt that all of the practice for Saguaro Cup had certainly helped Barrera bring his ‘A-Game’ on this weekend. “He has been putting in an average of 25 hours of practice a week, on top of a full-time job” she said.
Daniel’s second place finish (his second in two events) was more than enough to keep him in first place on the tour points list, and Barrera’s win moved him to second place. Stop 2 winner, AJ Jones, holds third place on the list with Nick De Leon and Tom Dilorenzo filling out the top five spots.
The Desert Classic Tour closed out their 2014 season at Bullshooters in Phoenix on December 6th and 7th, and Mitch Ellerman took the opportunity to remind the Arizona pool player community that he is still the man to beat on the Desert Classic Tour.
Chuck Evans looked to be on his way to another strong finish until he ran into Ritonya on the winners side. The loss to Ritonya was followed by by a loss to Will Sexton and Evans finished out of the money.
A welcome guest on the tour for this event was WPBA veteran Sarah Rousey. Rousey admitted that she was out of stroke and took a “two and out” finish after losing to Sexton and Ray Robles.
Sunday play got underway with six players left in the running. Ellerman and Ritonya were the final two on the winners side, with Tim Daniel, Dennis Orender, Brian Reich and Rudy Alameda all hoping they could still win the event from the one loss side.
Daniel ended Orender’s tournament with an 8-5 scoreline, and Reich sent Alameda back to Tucson in 5th place with an identical 8-5 score.
The match for 3rd and 4th place came down to a notable finish that said quite a bit about Brian Reich. Reich and Tim Daniel were tied at hill-hill and Reich had a tough shot on the 5 ball. With the fans staring at the 5-ball to see if Reich would make a good hit, Reich tapped the cue ball with his cue. Reich presented a surprised Daniel with ball-in-hand and Daniel gladly ran out the rack for the win. While someone who doesn’t know Reich might have been surprised by him calling the foul on himself, anyone who knows him would have expected nothing less.
Back on the winners side, Ellerman was running out at will and turned in a 10-3 trouncing of Ritonya for the hot-seat.
It took some time for Ritonya to recover from the loss to Ellerman and he came out slow in the semi-final against Daniel. Ritonya would come back to make it a hill-hill match, but Daniel would win the case game to win the match 8-7 and earn the right to take his shot at Ellerman in the finals.
Unfortunately for Daniel, he discovered just how hard it is to beat a motivated Mitch Ellerman as Ellerman cruised to a 10-1 win in the first and only set of the finals.
Tournament director Dennis Orender expressed his thanks to Mike and Julie Bates, as well as all of the staff at Bullshooters for hosting another great tournament.
While this event signaled the end of the 2014 season, plans are already underway with lots of changes for the upcoming 2015 season. In addition to the new junior program announced in these pages last month, many more announcements regarding format changes and sponsorship can be found in this month’s paper on page 8.
The Arizona Women’s Billiards Tour crowned it’s fifth different event winner, and a rookie event winner, at the final stop of the 2013 season at Bull Shooters on November 16th and 17th.
Saturday play saw it’s fair share of early favorites taking losses much sooner than they had hoped. April winner (and current points leader) Bernie Store handed Stacy Allsup a loss early on Saturday, but Store would soon join Allsup on the left side of the board after a loss to tour veteran Susan Mello.
Miller ended her streak of cashes after a loss to Nancy Ann Kennedy was followed up with a loss to Bernie Store late on Saturday.
Sunday morning brought eight players back with two time winner Susan Wililams facing Susan Wilbur and Susan Mello taking on Amanda Pulley. Both of these matches would be true battles with Pulley falling to Mello and Williams losing to Wilbur.
Meanwhile, Bernie Store was sending Jodie Villegas back to the one pocket table 7-5, and Nina Tagley was eliminating Stacey Allsup 7-6.
Next up on the one loss side was a battle between first and second place on the points list as points leader Bernie Store eliminated #2 ranked Susan Williams 7-5 to end Williams’ hopes for a tour points win for the year. The other one loss side match saw Pulley eliminate Nina Tagley in 5th place.
Back on the winners side, Susan Mello and Susan Wilbur were facing off in another battle. Mello looked to be running away with things at 5-1, but Wilbur won back to back games to get back within two at 5-3 before Mello win the final two games to the take her first hot-seat of the season.
On the one loss side, Bernie Store was taking on Amanda Pulley in a back and forth match. Pulley raced to a 4-1 lead, but Bernie soon righted her ship and clawed back to tie things up at 6-6. The comeback would prove to be for naught as Pulley dispatched Store 7-6 to end Store’s day in 4th place.
Next up was the match of the day as Amanda Pulley took on Susan Wilbur. This match started out firmly in Wilbur’s control as Pulley couldn’t seem to get anything together. Wilbur held a commanding 6-1 lead when Pulley started her comeback. The roles suddenly reversed and it was Wilbur who couldn’t close out a game and Pulley would took the reins of the match. Pulley won six straight games to earn a 7-6 victory and a spot in her first final match of the season.
The final extended race to nine match saw Susan Mello take an early 2-0 lead, but Amanda quickly erased that lead and tied the score at 2-2. Mello seemed to struggle closing out games in this match and Pulley was more than happy taking full advantage of those mistakes. Pulley won four more games to lead 6-2 before Mello would move another bead for herself. There would be no comeback for Mello as Pulley finished off the last two games for the lopsided 9-3 win and her first AWBT event win.
Sunday’s second chance tournament saw Terri Johnson-McCauley beat Beth Orth in the finals for first place.
Assistant Tour Director Tres Kane commented after the tournament, “The 2013 season was a great year for the AWBT with a lot of new faces winning and cashing. We celebrated not only the great competition but also a wonderful fellowship that will carry us into a very robust and successful 2014 season.”
The AWBT wants to thank BullShooters owners Mike and Julie Bates for hosting and adding a total of $400 to both tournaments. We want to thank Jose Gonzalez of Las Glorias Grille for adding $100 and the Friends of the AWBT for adding $200. Thanks to Kristie Ortega and her man Scooter for running another smooth tournament.
Don’t forget to come out and support the WPBA’s Regional Tour Championships at Bullshooters January 16-19.
