The first evidence AZBilliards documented about Max Eberle was his 9th-place finish in the ESPN Ultimate Challenge (Men’s Division) in February, 1999. The single-elimination event was won by Efren Reyes, with Dennis Hatch as the runner-up. Eberle shared his 9th place finish with Allen Hopkins, Alex Pagulayan, and Johnny Archer, among others. Moving into his 21st year as a cash-earning entrant in the AZBilliards database, Max Eberle began 2020 with a bit of a bang,  working his way through to a winners’ side semifinal and then, three matches on the loss side to meet and defeat ‘young gun’ Chris Robinson-Reinhold in the finals of the 24th Annual Jay Swanson “Swanee” Memorial on the weekend of January 18-19. The $3,000-added event drew 64 entrants to Griff’s in Las Vegas, NV.

 

The field included the event’s current champion, Vilmos Foldes, but did not include last year’s runner-up, Oscar Dominguez. Alex Pagulayan, two-time winner of the event in ’11 and ’12 was registered, but forfeited his first two matches. The ‘old school’ versus ’new school’ meeting in the finals had its origins in the event’s winners’ side semifinals, when Eberle, after victories over Avelino Arciaga (8-1), Mike Hutcheson (8-5), Chris McDaniel (Forfeit) and Mitch Ellerman (8-6), faced Alfonso Moreno, Jr. (it was Ellerman who’d  sent Foldes to the loss side). Robinson-Reinhold, in the meantime, got by Victor Cucuzza (8-4), Ronnie Wiseman (8-3), Ian Costello (8-6) and Anthony Ortega (8-6) to face Tuan Tran in the other winners’ side semifinal.

 

Eberle and Moreno, Jr. locked up in a double hill fight that eventually sent Moreno to the hot seat match and Eberle off on his three-match, loss-side trip back. Robinson-Reinhold and Tran came within a game of having their match go to double hill, as well, but Robinson-Reinhold pulled ahead near the end and won it 8-6 to join Moreno, Jr. in the battle for the hot seat. Robinson-Reinhold won that fight, decisively, 8-2 and waited in the hot seat for the return of Eberle.

 

On the loss side, as the event moved into its first money rounds (13-16), Foldes, having won his first loss-side match 7-1 to KC Massey, continued to lurk. He’d win two more; to Chris McDaniel 7-5 and Tom Smith 7-3 before falling to Brian Begay 7-5. Begay would move on to face Eberle, coming over from his winners’ side semifinal fight. Tuan Tran picked up Ellerman, who, after his winners’ side quarterfinal defeat at the hands of Eberle had eliminated James Cabal 7-2 and Ian Costello 7-3.

 

Ellerman advanced to the quarterfinals with a 7-4 win over Tran. Eberle earned the rematch with a 7-2 victory over Begay. Eberle downed Ellerman a second time, 7-5, in those quarterfinals and then, downed Moreno, Jr. 7-3 in the semifinals.

 

Eberle chalked up his first (recorded) major victory since he won the Derby City’s 14:1 Challenge in 2013. ‘Old School’ downed ‘New School’ (in the person of Chris Robinson-Reinhold) with a 10-6 victory in the finals.

It is, of course, a hot seat occupant's worst nightmare. After all the effort, time, energy, and sometimes a lot of waiting to arrive at 'last winner' status, a loss-side opponent (more often than not, someone already defeated previously) steps up to the plate in the finals and negates (at least, psychologically) all that work by snatching an event title away. On the weekend of April 9-10, at a stop on the Midwest 9-Ball Tour, Greg Hogue was the hot seat occupant and Chip Compton was the nightmare. Compton took two out of three against Hogue to win the $1,900-added event that drew 51 entrants to Jamaica Joe's in Midwest City, OK.

 

On the Ladies' side, Tara Williams avoided the 'nightmare' by downing Brittany Maynard twice to go undefeated and claim that title. The $600-added Ladies tournament drew 16 entrants.

 

Compton and Hogue met first in the hot seat match. They'd both defeated opponents 9-6 to get there; Compton, defeating KC Massey and Hogue, downing Jacob McMichael. Seemingly hooked on the 9-6 idea, Hogue defeated Compton to claim the hot seat and waited on his return from the semifinals.

 

On the loss side, Massey picked up Daniel Herring, who'd defeated Lawrence Sanders 9-4 and Bobby Coston 9-5 to reach him. McMichael drew Joey Gray, who'd been sent to the loss side 9-1 by Compton in a winners' side quarterfinal, and defeated Jeff Williams 9-5 and Norman Small 9-4. By identical 9-7 scores, Massey and Gray advanced to the quarterfinals over Herring and McMichael.

 

Gray downed Massey 9-3 in those quarterfinals to earn himself a re-match versus Compton in the semifinals. Gray put up more of a fight the second time around, chalking up six racks, but Compton prevailed for his own second and then, deciding match against Hogue in the hot seat.

 

Compton took the first of the two, double elimination matches 9-3. Hogue fought back in the second set, but a single game away from a double hill game, Compton finished it at 9-7.

 

Tara Williams' path to the winners' circle in the Ladies' event went through Brittany Maynard twice. She downed her in the hot seat match 7-4. On the loss side, Renee Young defeated Rachel Peterson 7-1 in a quarterfinal match that set her up to face Maynard in the semifinals. Maynard prevailed 7-5 for a second, and potentially third shot against Williams in the hot seat. Williams rendered the second set point moot with a shutout over Maynard in the finals.

 

The next stop on the Midwest 9-Ball Tour, a $2,500-added event, scheduled for this coming weekend (April 16-17), will be hosted by a new-to-the-tour room – Astros, in Lawrence, KS. On the long weekend of June 2-5, the Midwest 9-Ball Tour will play host to another Mosconi Cup qualifying event, the latest of which, in Raleigh, NC, drew 128 entrants and featured the sport's top opponents. The event will feature a One Pocket tournament, and, as the Mosconi Cup qualifying event, a 9-Ball tournament.