It was, apparently, Reymart Lim’s turn, so to speak. In the third stop of the 2019 Action Pool Tour (APT) season, Lim went undefeated to capture his second APT title of the year. In the finals, he downed RJ Carmona, who’d won the APT’s second stop, which was the 2019 VA State 10-Ball Championships, held last month (Feb. 16-17), at which Lim finished in the two-way tie for 7th place. Lim had won the season opener back in January, with Carmona finishing in the three-way tie for 9th place. They finished last year’s season opener the way they finished this year’s third stop; as winner and runner-up. This most recent event (for double tour points) – The East Coast Landscaping Bar Box Bash – drew 31 entrants, playing 8-ball, to Peninsula Billiards in Newport News, VA.
It was a dominant performance by Lim, who ended up playing 43 games of 8-ball and lost only five of them to six different opponents; an astonishing 88% win percentage, or, put another way, winning, on average, damn near nine out of every 10 games he played. He arrived at a winners’ side final match against Steve Fleming, having shut out his first two opponents (Larry Phlegar and Jimmy Bird) and given up only two games to his third (Greg Sabins). Carmona, in the meantime, had downed Tony Plumb 6-3 and Bill Duggan 6-4, before he was sent to the loss side 6-4 in a winners’ side quarterfinal against Fleming, who moved on to face Lim.
At the opposite end of the 32-player bracket, Liz Taylor started her campaign as the only competitor to be awarded an opening round bye. She then, in her own initially dominant performance, gave up only a single rack to her next two opponents; one to Jacki Duggan and none at all to Justin Darouse to draw Trent Parrish in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Lim chalked up his third shutout, over Steve Fleming, to get into the hot seat match. Taylor joined him after sending Parrish to the loss side 6-4. Lim gave up the third of his five total games in that hot seat match and sent Taylor to the semifinals 6-1.
On the loss side, Fleming picked up Bill Duggan, who’d lost his second-round match to Carmona and was in the midst of a five-match, loss-side streak that would end the way it started, against Carmona. He’d most recently eliminated Darouse, double hill and JT Ringgold 5-3. Parrish drew Carmona, who’d defeated Ryan Martin 5-3 and Greg Sabins 5-2 to reach him.
Duggan advanced one more step, downing Fleming (last year’s tour champion, by the way) 5-3. He was joined in the quarterfinals by Carmona, who thought it was about time to join the shutout parade and chalked one up against Parrish. He then chalked up another one in his rematch against Duggan in those quarterfinals.
Carmona then gave up only a single rack in his semifinal match against Taylor to earn himself a shot at Lim in the hot seat. The two of them arrived at the event finals sporting decidedly different winning percentages overall. Carmona had upped his percentage considerably with his two, loss-side shutouts and his 5-1 victory over Taylor in the semifinals, but he entered the finals with a 41-19 record (68%). Their Fargo Rates were only 84 points apart (731 for Lim and 647 for Carmona), but the system gave Carmona only a 12.7% chance of winning their race-to-8. Lim gave up the last two of his five total games in the event, downing Carmona 8-2 to pick up his second 2019 APT title.
Tour directors Kris Wylie and Tiger Baker thanked the ownership and staff at Peninsula Billiards for their hospitality, as well as sponsors East Coast Landscaping, Inc., Cue Sports International (CSI), Chix Cabinets Direct, Grant Wylie (professional photographer), Brown’s Mechanical, LLC, and George Hammerbacher Advanced Pool Instructor. The next stop on the APT, scheduled for the weekend of April 13-14, will be the 13th Annual Bob Stocks Memorial Tournament, hosted by First Break Café in Sterling, VA.
(l to r): Rick Scarlato & APT co-owner Tiger Baker
Ozzy Reynolds, former owner/tour director of the Action Pool Tour and current CEO of Cue Sports International traveled to Newport News, VA on the weekend of Oct. 13-14 to pass the Action Pool Tour ownership baton to its new owners, Kris Wylie and Tiger Baker. The idea was to assist the new owners with the logistics of their first tour stop at the APT helm. When the $270-added event, hosted by Peninsula Billiards in Newport News, drew a modest field of 20 entrants, Wylie and Baker asked Reynolds to join the field of entrants and compete. Without too much arm-twisting, Reynolds agreed and damn near won the thing.
As it turned out, Rick Scarlato, who’d been sent to the loss side by Reynolds and won five on that side of the bracket, earned himself a rematch against Reynolds, who’d advanced to the hot seat. But Reynolds was already gone, having agreed, due to the lateness of the hour and the impending closing time of the venue, to accept second place. This left Scarlato to face Greg Sabins, who’d been defeated by Reynolds in the hot seat match. With the venue set to close, the two agreed to a single-game final. Scarlato won that game to claim the first title under the auspices of the APT’s new management team.
Nothing like a smooth, standard first-time experience for new management. The event started out normally enough. Reynolds won a preliminary round over RAndy Davis, before meeting up with Scarlato and sending him on what proved to be his loss-side journey back to the finals. Reynolds moved on to defeat Jaime Gonzalez 8-2 to earn a winners’ side semifinal matchup against Tim Collins. Sabins, in the meantime, got by Jason Trigo (#2 on the APT’s Ranking List) 8-3 and James Miller 8-2 to draw Steve Fleming (#1 on the APT list) in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Reynolds downed Collins 8-2 as Sabins was busy sending Fleming to the loss side 8-5. Reynolds won his last match 8-5 over Sabins to claim the hot seat.
On the loss side, Scarlato got by Larry Phlegar 8-2, James Miller 8-6 and Jose Vega Hernandez 8-4 to draw Collins. Fleming picked up Jaime Gonzalez, who, after being sent to the loss side by Reynolds, had eliminated Trigo 8-4 and Randy Davis 8-3.
Scarlato advanced to the quarterfinals with an 8-4 victory over Collins and was joined by Fleming, who’d survived a double hill match against Gonzalez. Reynolds’ exit from the field turned the quarterfinals into the semifinals and Scarlato downed Fleming 8-5 to move into the single-game final. Scarlato won the single game over Sabins and claimed the title.
APT owners and tour directors Wylie and Baker thanked the ownership and staff at Peninsula Billiards for their hospitality, as well as sponsors Viking Cues, Predator Cues, Tiger Products, Diamond Billiard Products, Inc., Ozone Billiards, Simonis Cloth, Aramith Balls and George Hammerbacher Pool Instructor. The next stop on the Action Pool Tour, scheduled for the weekend of November 10-11, will be the VA State 8-Ball Championships, hosted by Diamond Billiards in Midlothian, VA.
The 39th Simonis/Aramith U.S. Open 9-Ball Championship saw a few changes this year. First, the 9-Ball is being racked on the spot to de-power the break shot and to remove soft breaking. Then, we are playing all-ball fouls this year and the 9 only counts as a win on the break if it does not go into the bottom corner pockets.
The break was a work in progress for almost every player as they experimented throughout their match with different break spots on the headstring, and different speeds and contact points on the 1 ball. This resulted in dry break after dry break, and certainly answered the organizers concern about stopping the wing ball dropping every time on the break.
The first top seed to get relegated to the losers bracket was World #1 ranked Niels Feijen who went down to Max Eberle 11-8 in the first TV match of the day. Feijen has been winning a lot of late, and played very well in his match against Eberle but Eberle kept making clutch shots at critical moments and scratches by Feijen at two critical points in the match spelled the end of Feijen's stay on the right side of the board. Eberle recently returned from a successful trip playing in the Philippines and the trip appears to have affected his game for the better. "The trip made me more resilient to pressure" Eberle said. "If you can run out with a sticky cue, sweaty face, talcum all over and players standing by the table, you can run out anywhere" Eberle explained.
This is an important event for the prospective USA Mosconi Cup team members. They are all here with coach Mark Wilson watching. The team members will be announced following this event, so they all want to show their stuff for the boss. Jeremy Sossei was first out and he had no opportunity to show his considerable skills as his opponent failed to show for the match.
Corey Deuel played well in his first match and won 11-8 over Sean Morgan. Oscar Dominguez was not so fortunate. He ran into a super-tough Jonathan Pinegar who came on very strong near the end of the match to send Dominguez to the one-loss side 11-9. Justin Bergman looked unstoppable in his 11-0 whitewash of Chris Cantrall, but Justin Hall had a much tougher time with Hanni Al Howri as the tough player from the UAE took Hall to hill-hill before Hall pulled out the win. John Schmidt fought hard, but couldn't get past Jason Klatt in their 11-9 match on the TV table. The night ended on a sour note for Mosconi hopeful Brandon Shuff as he came back from a late deficit to tie his match with Kenichi Uchigaki at hill-hill before Uchigaki won the case game.
One of the most colorful guys out there, Larry Phlegar, won his match against Canadian Randy Russell 11-8 but it could have been a larger margin if he had not missed several 9 ball shots. He would play well until the last shot and then get completely out of his normal rhythm and rush the last shot. Nevertheless, he hung in there and came out of the pits a happy man.
One match that caught the eye of the crowd was Majid V Majid. Popular player Imran Majid faced a new challenge in the form of Waleed Majid. W. Majid controlled this match the whole way, shot the lights out, and defeated I. Majid 11-4. He is a true force with which to be reckoned.
While a number of players struggled with the break, a handful of the top players seemed to have found the sweet spot, and are treating it as business as usual. Mike Dechaine and Darren Appleton seemed to be having no problem with the break. Mike trounced Tony Drago, who ended up on the wrong side of an 11-5 score line, and also having to watch Dechaine run a three pack in the process. Appleton also broke well against fellow Englishman So Shaw, and easily got the better of him 11-2.
Interesting matches coming up are: Skyler Woodward v Alex Pagulayan at 10:30 am Tuesday on the TV table and Efren Reyes v Jose Parica at 10:30 am Wednesday. While this match has not been announced on the TV table, logic dictates it deserves a home there.
