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Gilsinan and Burden come from deep on the loss side to win FL State Amateur 9-Ball events

Tony Crosby, Jerry Arvelaez, Michael Zingale, Justin Gilsinan and Mike Lear

Between the Main and Second Chance events on the Florida Pool Tour’s $5,000-added Florida State Amateur 9-Ball Championships this past weekend (Jan. 15-16), 183 players (with duplication) came to Zingale’s in Tallahassee to play some 9-ball. It had to be the most heavily-attended event in the state in the last two years. And both events featured winners who’d lost early matches and came back on the loss side to claim a title.

After being awarded an opening-round bye (along with 122 others in the 256-player bracket), Justin Gilsinan lost his third winners’ side match (double hill to Nick Applebee) and then won 10 in a row to claim the $4,000-added, 134-entrant Main Event. Jordan Burden lost his opening match (5-1 to Stacy Harrell) in the $1,000-added, 49-entrant Second Chance event and also won 10 straight to claim that title.

The events were designed to accommodate players at a certain handicap ranking and below. While Fargo Rate was employed to determine a lot of the handicaps (699 and under), co-tour directors Tony Crosby and Mike Lear used that and personal knowledge of players to determine eligibility.

With the eventual winner already at work on the loss side in the main event, it was Jerry Arvelaez and Trenton White who, in races to 7, advanced through the 9-ball field to reach the hot seat match. Arvelaez started his trip with a double hill win over Jason Richko and then advanced through Frankie Bourgeois (3), Josh Hillard (0), Desi Derado (5) and Ben Smith (4) to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal match against White. White had sent Billy Pelkey (5), Lincoln Seiffert (0), Bobby Moore (3), Aidan Rigsby (1) and Jesse Middlebrooks (5) to the loss side to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal against Kelvin Holliman.

Arvelaez and Applebee battled to double hill before Arvelaez prevailed, advancing to the hot seat match. White joined him after sending Holliman over 7-2. Arvelaez and White came within a game of double hill, before Arvelaez edged out in front to claim the hot seat 7-5.

On the loss side, Applebee picked up Roderick Rentz, who’d lost a winners’ side quarterfinal match, double hill, to Holliman and then, given up just a single rack to Joselito Martinez and none at all to Desi Derado to reach Rentz. Holliman had the misfortune of drawing Gilsinan, who was six matches into his loss-side trip, which had consisted of three matches that came within of game of double hill (5-3), two straight double hill wins and a shutout of Josh Hillard.

Rentz chalked up his second straight shutout, downing Applebee and advancing to the quarterfinals, with the possibility of a rematch against Holliman ahead of him. Gilsinan joined Rentz, spoiling the rematch, with a 5-3 win over Holliman. 

Gilsinan put an end to Rentz’ loss-side run 5-1 in the quarterfinals and chalked up loss-side win #9 in the semifinals, eliminating White 5-3. Gilsinan completed his improbable loss-side run in the finals. He downed Arvelaez 8-5 to claim the Florida State Amateur 9-Ball Championship.

Burden comes back from opening-round loss to win Second Chance tournament

The only thing missing from Jordan Burden’s equally improbable, 10-loss-side-win performance to claim the Second Chance victory was what would, no doubt, have been a satisfying ‘So there!’ rematch against Stacy Harrell. It didn’t happen.

It was Jason Jones and Chris Campos who worked their way through the 39-entrant, Second Chance field to square off in the hot seat match. Jones claimed the hot seat 5-2, unaware that his six-match run through the winners’ side was about to come to an end.

On the loss side, Burden’s sixth win came at the expense of Billy Burke, who’d lost his winners’ side semifinal match against Jason Jones. Burden defeated Burke 5-3, advancing to the quarterfinals, where he eventually shut out David Uwate. 

The last piece of Burden’s loss-side puzzle was Campos in the semifinals. A 3-1 victory over him put Burden into the finals, where he defeated Jason Jones 5-3 to claim the Second Chance title. 

Tour directors Tony Crosby and Mike Lear thanked the ownership and staff at Zingale’s, as well as sponsors Aramith Billiard Balls, Outsville, Simonis Cloth, Salotto Pro, Digital Pool, Fargo Rate, Crosby’s Billiards and Darts Supply, Straight Shooter Gear, Patchlab.com, Sniper and XL Press Co. The Florida Pool Tour will return to Zingale’s next month for the $5,000-added Florida State Open 10-Ball Championships, scheduled for the weekend of Feb. 26-27.

Josh Hillard wins Starcade Billiards’ Robin Workman Memorial 9 Ball Fall Classic Tournament in Fort Walton Beach, Florida

Josh Hillard

Starcade Billiards had another great event over the weekend of October 14-15, where 50 of the top players in the region competed for a piece of the $4,100 purse and to take the $1,350 top prize. Top regional pros and talent were present, such as Ronnie Wiseman, Josh Kirby, Randy Jordan, Denny Singletary, Pablo Matheu, Stoney Stone, Josh Hillard, Denny Fox, Randy Jordan, Jeff Jordan, Jamie Baraks, JR Rossman, to name a few…
 
The purse was $1,500 added, $50 entry, 100% payout, no hidden fees. Starcade Billiards does it right every single time. The format was double elimination, with 9 ball express rules in effect. Winner’s brackets matches were races to nine and loser’s bracket matches were races to seven on Saturday and race to nine for both sides on Sunday.
 
The Jordan “Cash” team was in top form from start to finish, with both brothers making it to the final four of the undefeated bracket. Jamie Baraks beat Jeff Jordan 9-5. But Randy Jordan easily bested local favorite, Josh Hillard, by a lop-sided score of 9-1. And then Randy proceeded to beat Jamie 9-5 to capture the hot seat.
 
Meanwhile, on the final four of the one loss side, Pablo Matheu eliminated Denny Singletary, and Stoney Stone gave Denny Fox his marching orders, as well. Then Jeff Jordan sent Pablo to the bleachers, and Josh Hillard handed Stoney Stone his marching orders. This left Jamie Baraks waiting for the winner between Jeff Jordan and Josh Hillard, with Josh besting Jeff 9-6.
 
So then there were only three…
Out of the three remaining, Jamie Baraks had 5 top 3 finishes, being the runner-up twice. And this time we would crown a new champion. All defending title holders had been eliminated. So Jamie squared off with Josh, and the winner would earn a rematch with Randy Jordan and another title attempt. Josh would earn the opportunity to redeem his previous title attempts with a 9-4 victory over Jamie. And these two have been knocking on the winning door for quite some time now.
 
Over the last two decades, I have personally witnessed Josh Hillard play in the finals of this tournament at least 3 times, possibly 4, losing to Tommy Kennedy, David Broxson, and Pablo Matheu – making this his 4th attempt to capture the much coveted title.
 
The championship match would be an extended single race to twelve. This time, however, Josh was holding the winning ticket with some really solid play and defeated Randy 12 to 7.