Big Dog Billiards in Des Moines, IA hosted their seventh annual extravaganza and, as usual, it was a huge success. In addition to the Cue Expo, there were four events – One Pocket, Nine Ball, a Banks Ring Game and Open Nine Ball.
Owners Jim Landrum and Randy welcomed hundreds of pool players, fans and cuemakers to their beautiful room.
Presented by Diveney Cues, Big Dog Billiards and PoolActionTV.com, the $18,000 added event featured a One Pocket Championship, a Nine Ball Championship (played on nine foot tables), a Bar Table Nine Ball Championship and a Banks Ring Game. Other sponsors included Jacoby Custom Cues, Anderson Animal Hospital, Kamui, Simonis, Aramith, Diamond Billiard Products, 1 of a Kind Billiard Supply and Pechauer Rogue.
As previously reported, this year’s event kicked off on Wednesday with the $5,000 added One Pocket Championship. Tony Chohan double-dipped Sky Woodward to take the title.
Friday night saw the $10,000 added Nine Ball event begin with a players auction followed by a players meeting and draw. The field of nineteen players paid a $500 entry fee to compete on the beautiful nine foot Diamonds. The format was old school nine ball – double elimination with races to eleven and winner breaks.
In the top portion of the bracket, Josh Roberts started out fast and loose as he defeated Kenny Nguyen 11-3, Roberto Gomez 11-9 and Shane Wolford 11-6. After drawing a first round bye, Corey Deuel had wins over Brandon VanOverbeke 11-9 and Marcus Genson 11-7 before running into Roberts. Before you knew it, Josh had smoked Corey 11-4 to arrive at the hot seat match.
In the lower part of the bracket, Sky Woodward also drew a first round bye and then beat Vitaliy Patsura 11-9 and Tony Chohan 11-7 to move to the hot seat match.
The hot seat match was to be played the following day because Saturday night was for the bank fans! A field of eight competed in the $1,000 added Banks Ring Game. Eight men posted a $250 entry fee. After several hours, Roberto Gomez and Fedor Gorst were the last two standing. Fedor defeated Roberto for the winner-take-all cash! Congrats, Fedor! Good effort, Roberto!
The following day saw Woodward and Atencio as well as Chohan and Deuel struggling to survive. It was Woodward who emerged11-7 and Deuel eked out his win 11-10.
Next round – the hot seat match! With both players in dead punch, it was no surprise that the match was close – until the end. Fedor pulled away to an 11-8 finish – locking up his seat in the finals. Josh had to cool his heels to await the results of the Deuel-Woodward match.
Fighting to stay alive, Sky put his pedal to the metal leaving Corey to play catch-up. Ahead 3-0, Deuel came back to 3-2 only to see Woodward pull away again to 5-3. Finally tying it up at five apiece, Corey would again fall behind as Sky took a two game lead. Jockeying back and forth, Deuel reached the hill first – his first lead in the match!
Sky tied it up at 10-10 – the final game saw both players come to the table with shots and safeties. Corey had the first open table of the game and hung the six! Sky leaped out of his chair and ran the remaining balls leaving Deuel in fourth place.
Duking it out for that open seat in the finals, Josh rocketed out to a 3-0 lead – and then miscued! Sky came to the table, won a couple and then the players went back and forth until mid-match. Woodward pulled away and never looked back as he defeated Roberts 11-6. Josh finished in third place.
As this was true double elimination, Sky would have to beat Fedor twice for the title. The match went neck and neck until Gorst pulled away at six apiece.Final score – 11-6.
Congratulations to Fedor for a well-played event!Good job, Sky!
While the big table nine ball event was underway, the $2,000 Open Nine Ball began. 167 players ponied up their $25 to play in this double elimination, alternate break, race to seven event. When the smoke cleared, it was the undefeated George Walters and challenger Brandon Heldenbrand in the finals.
Brandon won the first set 7-4 forcing a second set. George regrouped and took down the second set 7-2. Congratulations, George! Well played, Brandon!
Congratulations to Fedor Gorst, Tony Chohan and George Walters for becoming the 2022 Big Dog champions!!!
What a week!!!
Thanks again to Jim Landrum and Randy Hanson for hosting such a great event. They and their staff rolled out the red carpet for both players and fans.
In addition, PoolActionTV.com would like to thank Tournament Director Ray Hansen and his assistant, Jason Hill, for keeping things going without a hitch.
We’d also like to thank our commentators Larry Schwartz, Mary Kenniston, Josh Roberts and Ray Hansen for a great job.
Last, but not least, thanks to our fans and sponsors. Our sponsors include JB Cases, CR’s Sports Bar, Hanshew Jump Cues, EnvironmentalAssessments.com, Lomax Custom Cues, Aramith, Simonis, Diveney Custom Cues, Diamond Billiard Products, Durbin Custom Cues and Fort Worth Billiards Superstore.
Our next event is the $20,000 One Pocket Champions Challenge featuring Evan Lunda and Josh Roberts. Held at the world famous Buffalo’s in Jefferson, the dates are July 28th-30th. Hope to see you there!!!
All year long, one pocket aficionados look forward to the biggest tournament of the year!
Held in Jefferson, LA, a suburb of New Orleans, players and fans streamed into James Leone’s Buffalo’s on Bloomfield for the Seventh Annual Buffalo’s Pro Classic. Local sponsors for this year’s event – Buffalo’s, PoolActionTV, Lomax Custom Cues, Joseph P. Long, Aramith, ART CO, Diamond Billiards and Fort Worth Billiards – added a total of $26,000! $20,000 was added to the Pro One Pocket, $5,000 to the Open Nine Ball and $1,000 to the One Ball One Pocket.
Some of the best one pocket players came to play including Buffalo’s house pro, defending champ and current US Open One Pocket and Midwest Open One Pocket champ Tony Chohan.He was joined by current Scotty Townsend Memorial One Pocket champ Alex Pagulayan, current Iron City One Pocket champ Josh Roberts, this year’s Derby City One Pocket and Master of the Table Fedor Gorst, last week’s Big Tyme Classic One Pocket Champ Robert Frost and last year’s One Ball One Pocket king John Morra.
Billy Thorpe and Robbie Langford
Wednesday night kicked off with the 32 player One Ball One Pocket tournament. Posting a $200 entry fee, the format was single elimination with races to four. Including the players auction, there was a total purse of $21,430!
Two-time Derby City Classic One Pocket champion, Billy Thorpe, plowed through the field on his way to the finals leaving Shane Winters, Hunter White, Josh Roberts and John Morra in his wake. The always tough Robbie Langford beat Kenny Nguyen, Mike DeLawder, Ike Runnels and Evan Lunda to get there. The final match was all Billy as he smoked Robbie 4-0 to claim the title. Congratulations, Billy! Good tournament, Robbie!
The following evening, the $2,000 entry fee double elimination one pocket event began with a rousing player auction and was followed by the players meeting and draw. Twenty eight players racing to five and competing for a record $228,600 total purse! WOW!!!
Play began with Corey Deuel edging out Justin Hall 5-4 while Fedor Gorst skunked Sky Woodward 5-0. Ike Runnels had Danny Smith down 4-0 but ended up losing the match 5-4! Josh Roberts outmoved Roberto Gomez 5-1 and Billy Thorpe escaped with a 5-4 win over Robert Frost as did Scott Frost over Alex Calderon by the same score. Chip Compton got off to a great start as he defeated Warren Kiamco 5-1.
Gorst won over Deuel 5-4, Evan Lunda spanked Earl Strickland 5-0 and Chohan beat Smith 5-3. Jeremy Seaman skunked Omar Al Shaheen 5-0 and Thorpe dusted Compton 5-2. Frost had Alex Pagulayan 3-0 and watched his opponent win five in a row to claim the match.
Fedor and Evan went down to the wire with Gorst claiming the win while Tony breezed past Jeremy 5-0. Billy started out strong against the Lion but he went down 5-2.
Down to four on the winners side, Chohan battled Gorst to a 5-3 win while Roberts kept Pagulayan off the board with a 5-0 score. Tony and Josh moved to the hot seat match where Chohan sent Roberts west to await an opponent – score 5-1.
After losing to Gorst in the third round, Lunda defeated Mike DeLawder 5-1 and Compton 5-3. Moving into his match with Pagulayan, he hung tough but Alex pulled out the win 5-4.
Calderon had a tougher road. After losing his first match, he beat Deuel 5-1, Strickland 5-2, Hunter White 5-4 and Thorpe 5-3. He went down to the case game with Gorst but was eliminated 5-4.
This set up the match between Fedor and Alex Pagulayan. A man on a mission, he defeated Gorst 5-1 and then Josh Roberts 5-2. And to the finals he went!!!
Since this was true double elimination, Alex would have to beat Tony Chohan both sets to claim the title. With tens of thousands of dollars on the line, both players put their heads down and played their hearts out.
Alex won the first two games and then Tony won three in a row. Tied again at 4-4, you could’ve heard a pin drop in the arena. Nerves got them both as they both missed makeable balls but this one is finally in the books! Tony Chohan successfully defended his title!
Alex Pagulayan and Tony Chohan
Congratulations, Tony! Great tournament, Alex!
While the Pro One Pocket was in progress, 115 players filled the house on Saturday night to play in the Open Nine Ball event. Familiar faces such as defending champ Warren Kiamco, Sky Woodward, Roberto Gomez, Corey Deuel, Omar Al Shaheen, Justin Hall, Chip Compton, Charlie Bryant, Chris Reinhold, James Baraks, Richie Richeson, Robb Saez, Shane Winters, Jeremy Seaman, Sergio Rivas, Mike DeLawder, Justin Espinosa, Joey Aguzin, Derek Fontenet, Robert Frost and Kristina Tkach joined the fray.
Played on seven foot Diamonds, players paid $100 to play in this double elimination portion of the event. The format was rack your own, alternate breaks with races to seven until down to the final sixteen players. At that point, it was single elimination – races to nine.
Omar Al Shaheen and Jeremy Seaman tied for third place. James Baraks moved into the finals to face Sky Woodward.
The finals were neck and neck until the very end! Sky won the match 9-8!!! Congratulations, Sky!! Good tournament, James!
It was a helluva week! Great pool everywhere you looked! Once again, PoolActionTV would like to thank James Leone and his staff for going the extra mile as they took care of all the players and fans.
We’d like to thank Tournament Director Jason Hill for doing a great job running the show – always with a smile on his face!
Last but not least, we’d like to thank our fans and sponsors. They include ART CO, JB Cases, CR’s Sports Bar, Hanshew Jump Cues, EnviroAssessments, Lomax Custom Cues, StraightPoolEye, Durbin Custom Cues, Aramith, Simonis, Diamond Billiard Products and the Fort Worth Billiards Superstore.
Our next stop is Leisure Time Billiards & Sports Bar in East Moline, IL for the $16,000 added Bar Box Classic featuring three divisions – Ten Ball, Eight Ball and One Pocket. Dates are June 1st-5th – hope to see you there!
Taking a bit of a break from the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, BJ Ussery traveled to Georgia over the September 21-22 weekend to compete on the J. Pechauer SE Open 9-Ball Tour. Though he was not afforded the opportunity to compete against its tour director Tommy Kennedy (who normally participates, but did not on this stop), Ussery did go undefeated through a field of 43 entrants on-hand for the $1,000-added event, hosted by Mr. Cues II in Atlanta, GA.
Ussery missed competing against another renowned competitor, a West coast player who is reportedly now living in Georgia, Mary Rakin, who signed on to the event. She would end up in third place, missing the opportunity to face Ussery twice; both times, thwarted by the eventual event runner-up, Bernardo Esteban.
As Esteban was at work sending Rakin to the loss side 7-3 in one winners’ side semifinal, Ussery was busy with Kenny Nguyen in the other one, sending him over by the same 7-3 score. In their first of two, Ussery grabbed the hot seat 7-5 and then waited on Esteban’s return.
Rakin advanced to the quarterfinals 7-3 over Hooks. Jones joined her after a 7-2 victory over Nguyen. Rakin had one more step to take and Jones battled her for it to the very double-hill end. She advanced for a second shot against Esteban in the semifinals.
Esteban upped his game by a rack, downing Rakin 7-2 in those semifinals, for his own second shot against Ussery in the hot seat. Ussery, though, upped his game as well. Racing to 9 in the finals, he gave up only a single rack and claimed the event title.
Tour director Tommy Kennedy thanked the ownership and staff at Mr. Cues II, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Simonis Cloth and Mueller Recreational Products. The next stop on the J. Pechauer Southeast Open 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for October 24-26, will be the 5th Annual Dismal Swamp Thing, to be hosted by Colonial Cues in Elizabeth City, NC.
