The Mezz West State Tour returned the weekend of April 25th and 26th to the beautiful Hard Times Billiards of Sacramento, California. The first season was a huge success averaging 88 players per event. This second season started off with a bang accumulating a total of 114 players shattering the all time high of 96 players. Among the locals, strong talent from all over the west coast was in attendance including players from Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona. The railbirds and locals were treated to a great display of pool by some great talent including "Rocket" Rodney Morris and "Iceman" Mika Immonen, alongside tour regulars Oscar and Ernesto Dominguez, Johnny Kang, Beau Runningen, Sal Butera and Amar Kang. Several top amateur players also made an apperance including Tommy "Too Good" Soria, Kevin May, Spike Aiardo, Mark Chernin and Rylan Hartnett.
With a field loaded with killers, there was no such thing as a "soft draw". The top of half of the bracket contained Sacramento Hard Times house pro Carl Wilson, Corey Harper, Johnny Kang, Jason Williams, Melissa Herndon, Spike Aiardo, Beau Runningen, Mika Immonen, Tommy Soria and Amar Kang. Battling through the top of that bracket was Phoenix's own Spike Aiardo with wins over Brandon Boatman, Mark Chernin, Jason Williams and Carl Wilson to reach the final four winners side of the event. Meeting him in there was a tough Mika Immonen, who had found victories over Patrick McLoud, Dirk Grundman, Chong Vang, Tommy Soria and Amar Kang. This match was heavily one sided with Mika pulling away to win 9-4, securing his place for the hot seat match.
Meanwhile in the bottom bracket, Ernesto Dominguez, Oscar Dominguez, Rodney Morris, Vilmos Foldes, Jaynard Orque, Dave Hemmah, Bobby Emmons, Paul Silva and Sal Butera all battled it out. Coming through the top of that bracket was Oscar Dominguez with wins over Zaldy Rosaluna, Mike Mitchell, Paul Silva and Ernesto Dominguez to put him in the final four winner side. Vilmos Foldes was waiting for him in the bottom portion of the bracket with tough wins over Emerson Joiner, Dave Gomez, Rylan Hartnett and Rodney Morris. Foldes had Dominguez down 6 to 1 in the blink of an eye, but Dominguez showed heart grinding back to win 9-7 and securing his spot in the hotseat match to face Immonen.
The hotseat was one sided with Dominguez breaking and running 4 racks on Immonen, allowing him to find victory 9-4. Mika would then travel to the one loss side to battle a tough Rodney Morris for his second shot at the finals. Rocket was in dead stroke at this point with wins over Tommy Soria, Geoff Somer, Spike Airado and Amar Kang. Immonen and Morris exchanged break and runs back and forth until it was 4-4. Rodney slowly pulled away winning 9-5. The finals are one extended race to 11 and Morris handled an exhausted Dominguez very easily winning the event 11-4.
This Mezz West State Tour would like to thank all their sponsors: Mezz Cues (Miki-Mezz.com), West State Billiard Supply (WestStateBilliards.com), Zan Tips (Zan-Tip.com), Taom Break/Jump Tips (TaomTips.com), Andy Cloth (AndyCloth.com), PiUs Company, So Cal Tap, Kurzweil Country Meats, fast&loose desgins (fastnloosedesigns.com), Contact Point Media, Turtle Rack, NYC Grind (NYCGrind.com) and AZ Billiards (AZBilliards.com).
We would also like to thank Karen, Mike and Rachel Markulis, along with the entire Hard Times Billiards staff for hosting the event. We would also like to thank all the players for coming out and supporting the tour.
After 11 events on the Mezz West State Tour, a total of 32 invited players came to Hard Times Billiards in Bellflower, CA to compete in the year end event for its 12th and final event of Season 1. The invited players were chosen based off a points system based off the Camel Pro Tour rankings. The top players accumulated points based off their performances to play in a special year end event of $2000 added prize money plus the membership dues collected throughout the season which totaled to 5750 off of 231 total members. In addition, as a bonus, the top 16 ranked players did not pay an entry fee while the 17-32nd ranked players paid a standard $65 entry fee.
The top half of the board was led by co founder of the MWST, Oscar Dominguez with wins over the Filipino veteran, Ramon Mistica 9-4, followed by wins over Johnny Kang 9-4, Dave Hemmah 9-5, and Ernesto Dominguez 9-0, to lead up to the hot seat match. The bottom half of the bracket was dominated by Hungarian sharpshooter, Attila Bezdan, with wins over Phil Prentice 9-3, Ramin Bahktiari 9-3, Melissa Herndon 9-4, and road companion Vilmos Foldes 9-4. The hot seat match was one sided as Attila came out firing balls in from all angles putting pressure on Dominguez. After a few failed safeties, Attila ran away with the match with a 9-5 score.
Meanwhile on the losers side, Rodrigo Geronimo who lost his first match to Tang Hoa 8-4, had grinded through seven matches against Kevin May 9-3, Beau Runningen 9-7, Chris Fangre 9-3, Melissa Herndon 9-5, Tang Hoa 9-4,Ernesto Domiguez 9-4 and Ruben Bautista 9-7 to reach the 3rd place match against Oscar Dominguez. Rodrigo looked hungry to reach the finals and took a quick 5-1 lead over Dominguez. It wasnt until Geronimo missed a crucial 2 ball in the side pocket to widen the lead to 6-1 that Dominguez had a chance to take control of the table. Winning that game and then the next 3, Dominguez was able to tie it up 5. The following 6 games were each nail biters, with each player playing inspirational kick, jump and safety shots. Dominguez fell behind once again 7-5, but in his true fashion, showed a lot of heart to come back and win the match 9-7 sending him back to the finals to seek revenge on Bezdan.
The finals was one to be seen. Bezdan played flawless, only missing two balls the entire set. He pocketed every ball on the table as if they had eyes and controlled the cue ball at a top notch level. His break was also in top gear, leaving Dominguez helpless. Attila Bezdan went on to easily win the set 8-2. His victory was well deserved, as he was the best player on this day. All of us on the Mezz West State Tour will surely miss him next season and would like to congratulate him on his very great accomplishment.
We would like to again thank all of the players and sponsors who make all of this possible: Mezz Cues (miki-mezz.com), West State Billiards Supply (weststatebilliardsupply.com), ZAN tips (Zan-tip.com), Kurzweils Country Meats (kurzweilscountrymeats.com), AZbilliards.com, NYCGrind.com, POVPool.com, Marty Carey Jump Q, ontherailtv.com, Turtle Racks, and fast&loose designs.
Stop #6 on the Mezz West State Tour headed south to the San Diego area of La Mesa, CA to On Cue Billiards. 96 players from all over California, Nevada, Arizona, and several international players were all in attendance for a chance to grasp their hands on piece of the $6800 prize fund.
Leading the top half of the bracket was Phoenix, Arizona native Tim Daniel. Tim had strong wins over Art Garcia, Kevin May, Ramin Bakhtiari, Victor Ignacio, and Chris Fangre all the way to the hot seat match. While on the lower half, Santos Sambajon Jr. slowly but surely snuck his way through players Mike Meeker, Al Garcia, Fach Garcia, Ernesto Dominguez, Tang Hoa, and Amir Shoshan setting up the hot seat match between Daniels and Sambajon. This match would prove to be a lobsided one as Santos' experience and shotmaking took the hot seat with a resounding 9-2 scoreline.
After an early defeat, Hungarian native Vilmos Foldes stormed through the losers bracket with 6 wins on the losers side. Tim Daniels finally stopped the former Junior World Champion in his tracks to settle for third place setting up a rematch in the true double elimination finals between Daniel and Sambajon.
The packed house at On Cue was treated to a nail biting finals as Daniels managed to control the first set with uncharacteristic errors on behalf of the diminutive Filipino by a 9-4 score. Santos and Daniels battled toe to toe in the final and concluding second set with Daniels having a very routine out with only 3 balls left on the table. Upon pocketing the 7, Daniels left himself a slightly awkward angle which would prove costly as Daniels failed to manage the carom on the 9 correctly by scratching, only leaving the gift of shooting the 9 ball with ball in hand for Santos. The devastated Daniels consoled himself with runner up prize money of $1000 while Santos took home the title and $1500 first prize.
A very special thanks to all of our sponsors; Mezz Cues, West State Billiard Supply, ZAN tips, Turtle Rack, POVPool, NYCGrind, AZBilliards, Kurzweil's Country Meats, Marty Carey Jump Cue, Virtual Pool 4, and Fast & Loose Designs.
Hard Times Billiards, who celebrate their 25th Anniversary this month, added yet another $5,000 from their main sponsor Crooks & Castles to the prize money of their Hard Times 10 ball Open. This event now in its fourth year, saw a field of champions show up to try and get their hands on the $10,000 added prize money.
What with the Bonus Ball players and the other pros from all over the world that will be in Las Vegas for the CSI 10 Ball Championship next week, this event has drawn a who’s who of champions that would have any promoter drooling at such a talented field.
Not surprisingly we saw top players fighting it out in the very first round, as witnessed by the first match-up on the “povpool.com" Free Live Stream match on table one, which showcased the games of Jayson Shaw and Thorsten Hohmann. This match saw Jayson Shaw switching over to the losers side after he missed a 3/10 combo at hill-hill.
WINNERS SIDE LAST EIGHT MATCHES
Louis Ulrich V Arturo Rivera – Chris Fangre V Wang Can – John Morra V Dennis Orcollo – Stevie Moore V Thorsten Hohmann – Dennis Hatch V Francisco Bustamante – Johnny Kang V Raj Hundal – Corey Harper V Carlos Biado – Ruben Escalera V Rodney Morris
LOSERS SIDE LAST EIGHT MATCHES
Alex Pagulayan V Manny Chau – Mike Davis V Nikos Economopoulos – Santos Sambajon Jr V Ernesto Dominguez – Warren Kiamco V Jayson Shaw – Max Eberle V Ramin Bakhtiari – Ralf Souquet V Beau Runningen – Johnny Archer V Shane Van Boening – Kevin May V Chris Melling
This writer thinks you should not be surprised if the winner of this event, now in its fourth year, has PHI behind his name, as the first three events were won by the following players:
2010 Lee Van Corteza
2011 Alex Pagulayan
2012 Dennis Orcollo
2013 ?
HARD TIMES BILLIARDS first emerged on the pool scene back in 1988, and apparently got its name due to the fact that you would probably end up on hard times if you tried to win there. The room over the years has had a reputation of always having a stable of giant killers in house, and that it would be very hard for a visitor to walk out with a pot of gold!
HARD TIMES is situated at the following address:
Hard Times
17450 Bellflower Blvd
Bellflower, CA 90706
Hard Times is a very event oriented room, as witnessed by this event, plus the 17-year old Jay Swanson Memorial and the TAD CUP in its fourth year. The Tad Cup is an event solely for the Amateur, and is sponsored by TAD Cues and will be played on the 3rd & 4th of August 2013.
We will be covering this event on a daily basis, so stay tuned! Streaming of this event may be found at www.POVpool.com.
