Daniel Herring was going to be the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour’s 2022 Tour Champion before the first rack was broken at the tour finale, held this past weekend (Nov. 19-20) at Rusty’s Billiards in Arlington, TX. Though he’d finish in the tie for 17th/24th competing in the finale, Herring was ahead by 350 points in the tour rankings going into it and effectively, couldn’t be caught. As it happened, his closest competitor for the tour champion title, Joshua Paredes, who finished in the tie for 9th/12th in the finale, was able to narrow the points gap down to 45 points (from 350 to 305) and remain in 2nd place in the rankings. Matt Wilson, who was in a tie for 9th place in the tour rankings going in and finished about 35 points behind Paredes for third place in the final rankings, went undefeated in the finale, claiming his second tour stop title. He’d defeated Herring in the finals of April’s stop. The $3,760-added tour finale drew 36 by-invitation-only entrants to Rusty’s.
After being awarded an opening round bye, Wilson’s path went through Curtis Caldwell and Fahad Alrawi (double hill), before running into Joshua Paredes in a winners’ side quarterfinal. He downed Paredes, double hill and faced Mark Lawson in a winners’ side semifinal. At the other end of the bracket, Doug Winnett opened with a 10-2 win over Jennifer Hooten and then locked up into two straight double hill battles against Robbie Smith and Tony Loeper. Winnett won them both to pick up Alberto Nieto Garcia in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Wilson defeated Lawson 5-3 and was joined in the hot seat match by Winnett, who’d sent Garcia to the loss side 7-2. With Winnett racing to 8, Wilson claimed the hot seat 5-5 and waited on Miguel Hernandez, who’d lost a winners’ side quarterfinal to Lawson and was working on a five-match, loss-side winning streak that would take him all the way back to the finals.
On the loss side, Hernandez first ran into Curtis Caldwell, defeating him 6-6 (Caldwell racing to 8) and then, facing Don Baker, who’d arrived with Daniel Herring and Joshua Paredes as notches on his ‘gun belt,’ defeated him 6-3. Hernandez drew Garcia, coming over from the winners’ side semifinal. Lawson picked up Robert Reighter, who’d recently defeated Clint Palaci 7-5 and Tony Loeper 6-5 (Loeper racing to 8).
The two loss-side opponents in the 5th/6th matches advanced; Reighter defeating Lawson 5-3, while Hernandez dispatched Garcia 6-2. Hernandez and Reighter locked up in a double-hill, quarterfinal fight that continued Hernandez’ loss-side run and stopped Reighter’s.
With Winnett racing to 7 in the semifinals, Hernandez took another step. He defeated Winnett 6-5 and got a shot at the event title versus Wilson, waiting for him in the hot seat.
In a straight-up race to 6, the ‘570’ (Fargo Rate, Hernandez) faced the ‘536’(Wilson), Hernandez needing to win two matches to claim the title. Wilson took the first and only set to complete his undefeated run and claim the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour’s season finale title.
Tour directors thanked the ownership and staff at Rusty’s Billiards, as well as title sponsor Cuetec, and associate sponsor, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore.
The Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour’s 2023 schedule is, at the moment, a work in progress. The schedule is expected to be posted ‘sometime in December,’ according to tour representatives.
As of this past weekend (Oct. 22-23), there were five pool players in a tie for the 28th spot in the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour’s standings. It took Monti Albadi and Robert Reighter eight events to amass the 200 points associated with the current five-way tie. It took Robbie Cleland six events to earn them. It took Greg Sandifer three. It took Logan Miller, cashing for the first time on the DFW 9-Ball Tour, or anywhere else for that matter, just one. He went undefeated through a field of 72 entrants at the $1,500-added, second-to-last stop (#10) on the 2022 tour hosted by Snookered in Frisco, TX, to claim his first-ever (recorded) cash winnings and event title on the same weekend.
In the end, hot seat and finals, Miller used a handicap (Fargo Rate) to his advantage. In the course of his seven-match march to the winners’ circle, Miller’s Fargo Rate (536) had him battling people above and below his rating. He got by Bobby Coston (even), Monti Albadi (lower), Tony Matthew (higher) and Joshua Paredes, who would end this event in the tie for 5th/6th (even). This set him up to face Jeff Turney (higher) in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Ramon Rodriguez, in the meantime, was working his way to the hot seat match, sending Tina Soto, Tony Loeper, Highway Segadi and Jonathan Rawlins to the loss side and drawing Mark Johnson in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Rodriguez downed Johnson 7-3, as Miller was busy sending Turney over 5-3. With Rodriguez racing to 9, Miller claimed the hot seat 5-6.
On the loss side, Johnson picked up Paredes, who’d followed his loss to Miller with victories over Sigadi 6-2 and Casey Dawson 6-4. Turney drew David McNamara, who, racing to 10, had lost his opening match to Ricky Phifer 5-8 and embarked on an eight-match, loss-side winning streak that had just eliminated Robbie Smith 8-2 and Cody Pratt 7-2.
McNamara made it eight in a row with an 8-2 win over Turney. Johnson joined him in the quarterfinals after downing Paredes 8-3. Johnson and McNamara battled to double hill (Johnson with two ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 8) before Johnson put an end to McNamara’s long, loss-side run, 6-7 in those quarterfinals.
Johnson started the semifinals with a single ‘bead on the wire’ in a race to 7 against Rodriguez and fought his way into a second straight double hill match. Johnson prevailed 6-6 for a shot at Miller in the hot seat.
With five appearances behind him on the 2022 tour and already poised to record his highest finish of the year no matter how the final matches turned out, Johnson (611) entered the finals. This time, he’d be the one giving up ‘beads on the wire, two of them, to his lower-rated opponent, Logan Miller (536). Even with the ‘two bead’ advantage, Fargo Rate odds gave Miller only a 35% chance of winning his first ever major tournament. He beat the odds, downing Johnson 6-6 to claim the event title, as Johnson’s runner-up finish elevated him into the tour’s top ten competitors..
Tour representatives thanked Craig and Jana Lucas and their Snookered staff for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Cuetec and Associate Sponsor Fort Worth Billiards Superstore (Albert Trujillo and team). The Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour will conclude its 2022 season in the place where it began, Rusty’s in Arlington, TX, where the season’s finale is scheduled for the weekend of November 19-20.
In the absence of the top five competitors in the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour’s standings, two somewhat unlikely candidates emerged to finish as winner and runner-up at the 9th stop on the 2022 tour. Jesse Moore, who last year returned to the regional tour tables after what appeared to be an 11-year absence, went undefeated to the hot seat this past weekend (Sept. 17-18). Though he would lose the first set of a true double elimination final to runner-up Joshua Paredes, Moore persevered to take the second set and claim the title. The $1,750-added event drew 49 entrants to Jeffro’s in Canton, TX.
Having cashed three times previously this year, twice on the DFW 9-Ball Tour (finishing 4th and 7th) and once (17th) at Pool Action TV’s 9th annual Big Tyme Classic in Spring, TX in May, Moore was already in the midst of his best earnings year, to date. He’s brought home more cash this year than in the other two years his name showed up on our payout lists, combined; twice last year and once (his first known cash finish) in 2010. The win elevated him from the tour standing’s 30s to 5th place.
Joshua Paredes, whose runner-up finish at Stop #5 on the tour, combined with six other appearances, brought him in to this latest stop on the tour at #9 in the standings, was elevated to #2, five standing-points ahead of the absent Tony Top. With two wins and two runner-up finishes on the 2022 tour, Daniel Herring is at the top of the tour standings and uncatchable for the tour champion title. If Herring were to take a house by the sea somewhere, not compete in the tour’s final two stops and Paredes were to win them both, Paredes would finish five points behind Herring.
After an opening round bye, Moore’s path to the winners’ circle went through Fahad Alrawi, and Daniel Bowman before he ran into a double-hill struggle against David Franklin in a winners’ side quarterfinal. Franklin began the match with six ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 10 and chalked up three of the four he needed to win. Moore had the final ‘say’ in the matter and advanced to a winners’ side semifinal against Ruben Juarez. Paredes worked his way through Monty Allbadi, Max Sun, Pasini Taloa and Clint Freeman to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal matchup versus Cameron Cummings.
Moore navigated his way through his second double-hill match, eventually downing Juarez and advancing to the hot seat match. Paredes joined him after defeating Cummings 5-4 (Cummings racing to 7). Paredes, racing to 4, forced Moore into his third straight double hill battle, but Moore closed it at 9-3 to claim the hot seat.
On the loss side, Cummings moved over and picked up Roger Prachyl, who’d recently defeated Michael Pickering, double hill (5-8; Pickering racing to 9) and David Franklin 6-1, was working on a four-match winning streak that was about to end. Juarez picked up Clint Freeman, who’d followed his winners’ side quarterfinal loss to Paredes with wins over Daniel Bowman 9-3 and, in a ‘Clint’ duel, Clint Palaci 7-4.
Freeman and Prachyl’s loss-side streaks came to an end with Juarez downing Freeman 5-4 (Freeman racing to 9) and Cummings defeating Prachyl 7-1. Cummings earned himself a rematch against Paredes with a 6-1 victory over Juarez in the quarterfinals, but Paredes defeated him 5-1 in the semifinals that followed.
Paredes began both sets of the true double-elimination final with four beads on the wire in a race to 9. They both chalked up five racks in the opening set, which, added to Paredes’ four, gave him the first-set win. Moore took the second set 9-2 to claim the event title.
Tour representatives thanked the owners and staff at Jeffro’s for their hospitality along with title sponsor Cuetec, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore. The next stop on the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 23-24, will be hosted by Snookered in Frisco, TX.
Regional Tours being centered in specific areas of the country, usually attract a regular group of players who are familiar with each other from playing in stops on that tour, as well as other local events. Each stop typically comes down to which of the regulars is playing their best on that particular weekend. Once in a while though, a tour newbie dusts off his cue case and surprises everyone in the field. That was the case at the DFW 9-Ball Tour Tour Stop at Stixx and Stones Billiards in Lewisville, Texas on July 23rd – 24th.
Jon Rawlins, a regular in nearby Denton Texas, ponied up his $80 to enter his first DFW Tour Stop, and went undefeated through the field of 75 players. Rawlins kicked off the event with a 7-0 win over Jim Dixon and followed that up with wins over Joshua Paredes and Raven Rahman on Saturday.
Rawlins came back on Sunday and proved that Saturday was no fluke, as he defeated Alberto Nieto Garcia, Rachelle Dytko and Fahad Alrawi to get to the hot-seat match. Rawlins opponent for the hot-seat, Albert Duran, was on a bit of a roll himself. Duran, a Fargo 519 was getting weight from most opponents all weekend. He only needed to use that weight once, defeating Daniel Herring 4-5 in a first round 10-4 race. Duran went on to defeat Blake West, Pedro Mungia, Aaron Fleming, Jamie Welch and Tony Loeper to take his place in the hot-seat match. That hot-seat match was a 6-5 race and Duran would have needed the weight and more as Rawlins scored a 6-2 win to take the hot-seat.
Duran found Alrawi on the one loss side, and the two competitors went hill-hill before Duran scored the win to earn another shot at Rawlins in the finals. Unfortunately for Duran, the finals were a repeat of the hot-seat match, with Rawlins scoring another 6-2 win for first place.
The DFW 9-Ball Tour will be back in action on August 20th – 21st at Snookered Billiards in Frisco, Texas.
At the start of the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour’s 2022 season, Neil Saidawi was headed in the wrong direction, so to speak. In the season opener, he finished in the tie for 13th place. In February, he slipped down to 17th and in March, he finished in the tie for 33rd place. In April though, he changed direction, finishing in the tie for 9th place, still a long way in tour standings from Daniel Herring, who sat atop the leaderboard. Last weekend (June 18-19), Saidawi went toe-to-toe against Herring three times, taking the last two in a double elimination final to claim his first (recorded) event title anywhere. The $1,750-added event drew 75 entrants to Rusty’s Billiards in Arlington, TX.
Until Herring reached the hot seat match to face Saidawi for the first time, none of his six previous opponents had chalked up more than four racks against him, and that, only once, in his winners’ side semifinal match against Telly Shackelford. He’d given up an average of just over asingle rack per match to Cameron Cummings (0), Monica Anderson (2), Jennifer Cayot (1), Tony Ignomirello (1), Surmin Overovic (1) and finally, Shackelford (4).
Saidawi, in contrast, had to battle right from the start. After a bye, he played five matches to get to the hot seat match, three of which went to double hill, including his opening match versus Frank Granados. He followed that with wins over Joshua Paredes 6-4, Isaac Ruiz and Travis Arredondo (both double hill) and in his winners’ side semifinal, Greg Sandifer 6-5 (Sandifer racing to 8). As he came into the battle for the hot seat, he was four matches away from claiming the title and two of those would go to double hill, as well.
One of those two double hill matches was his first encounter with Herring. Herring won it 8-4 (Saidawi to 5) to claim the hot seat.
On the loss side, Shackelford picked up Arredondo, who’d followed up his loss to Saidawi with victories over Robin Barbour 7-4 and Jesse Moore 6-3. Sandifer drew Juan Parra, who was working on a modest, four-match, loss-side winning streak that had recently eliminated Tony Top (#2 in tour standings) 7-2 and Surmin Omerovic 8-0.
Shackelford downed Arredondo 7-4, as Sandifer was stopping Parra’s loss-side streak 7-3. Sandifer defeated Shackelford 7-3 in the subsequent quarterfinals and walked right into a semifinal rematch against Saidawi, who chalked up his fifth and final double hill match of the event to earn his spot in the finals.
Saidawi started both of the final two matches with three ‘beads on the wire’ in races to 8 against Herring. He didn’t need them. Saidawi took the opening set 5-2 and claimed the event title by winning the second set 5-3.
Though both Herring and Top, at the . . . top of the tour standings, remained there, advancing further in points, Saidawi’s victory advanced him among the tour’s top 10. And arguably put his fellow competitors in the top 10 on notice that with the 2022 Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour now past its midway point, he’s only half done.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Rusty’s Billiards for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Cuetec and Fort Worth Billiards Superstore. The next stop on the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for the weekend of July 23-24, will be a $1,750-added event, hosted by Stixx & Stones in Lewisville, TX.
Max Sun, a skill-level 4, a newcomer from Wylie, TX and new to the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour, signed on to last weekend’s (May 21-22) $1,750-added event (Stop #5) and went undefeated through a field of 83 entrants to win his first (recorded) regional tour event at Snookered in Frisco, TX. Though he did not have to face the top two competitors in point standings on the tour (Daniel Herring and Tony Top), he did work his way through seven opponents, all of whom entered the tournament with higher Fargo Rates than his own (450). The average Fargo Rate of his opponents was 556, which, on average, from start to finish, gave him a little less than a 1 in 3 chance of winning each of his seven matches.
All of which begs the question, “How did that happen?” To which the only answer is a familiar one – “It happens.”
According to tour director Monica Anderson, though engaged in giving the man the credit he was due for his accomplishment, Sun “capitalized on opponent’s mistakes, and had a few decent runs, and break and runs.”
“(That’s) easy to do if you get the rolls on a barbox table,” she said.
After an opening round bye, the only competitor that Sun faced against whom he played a straight-up race (to 5) was his first against Jim Dixon. He defeated Dixon 5-2, after which he did not face an opponent below a skill level of 7 until he was in the finals against Joshua Paredes (6). After Dixon, Sun downed Carl Oswald (racing to 8) 4-5, Darrell Smith (to 7) 5-0, and Neil Sidawi (to 8) 4-6, arriving at a winners’ side semifinal against Michael Oman. In the meantime, Sun’s eventual hot seat opponent, Mohammed Alrawi, got by Andy Kiesling, Miguel Hernandez and Will Lovos to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal against Paredes.
Sun chalked up for his first hot seat match with a 4-4 victory over Oman (racing to 8). Alrawi joined him after sending Paredes to the loss side, double hill (7-4). Sun claimed his first hot seat with a double hill win (4-7) over Alrawi.
On the loss side, Oman picked up Rick Stanley, who’d lost a winners’ side quarterfinal to Paredes and went on to defeat Pete Stovall 9-1 and Will Lovos 10-3. Paredes drew Jimmy Fujimori, working on a modest four-match, loss-side streak that had recently eliminated, in straight-up races to 7, Neil Sidawi and Miguel Hernandez, both 7-4.
Stanley and Paredes advanced to their rematch in the quarterfinals; Paredes, double hill (6-7) over Fujimori and Stanley ousting Oman 9-1. Paredes won the rematch 4-3 (Stanley racing to 10) and denied Alrawi his rematch versus Sun with a 5-5 win in the semifinals (Alrawi racing to 7).
Sun began the finals with a single ‘bead on the wire’ in a race to 6. They battled to double hill before Sun closed out his first shot at a final and claimed his first event title.
Aaron Fleming and Blake Kamiab battled twice – hot seat and finals – in an 18-entrant Second Chance event. Fleming came out on top in both of them, downing Kamiab the first time, double hill (2-4) and the second time 2-3. Kamiab had come back from a shutout victory over Matt Delgarza in the semifinals.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Snookered, as well as title sponsor Cuetec and the Fort Worth Billiards Superstore. The Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour will return to Rusty’s Billiards in Arlington, TX, where the 2022 tour began this past January. The $1,750-added event is scheduled for the weekend of June 18-19.
