Mike Zingale of Zingale's Billiards in Tallahassee , FL made a phone call, and invited Shannon Daulton and his Great Southern Billiard Tour down for a visit. They went, on the weekend of December 5-6, and ran a $1,200-added tournament that drew 32 entrants and saw Kenny Wilson come back from a loss in the hot seat match and double dip Clint Nichols in the finals to claim the event title.

 

Their first clash followed a 7-4 victory by Wilson over Denny Singletary, and a 6-5 win by Nichols, over Nick Applebee in the winners' side semifinals. Nichols then took the first of three over Wilson, decisively, 6-1, and sat in the hot seat, waiting for the next two.

 

Singletary and Applebee moved over to the loss side and were immediately defeated a second time. Applebee fell, 7-2, to Chris Gentile, who'd recently defeated Jason Wells 7-2 and Jesse Middlebrooks 7-6 (Middlebrooks racing to 8). Singletary ran into Randy Jordan, who'd been defeated by Wilson in the second round, and was in the midst of a six-match, loss-side winning streak that would take him as far as the semifinals. Jordan chalked up loss-side wins #3 and #4 against Lee Sanders 9-4 and Derek Fowler 9-5. 

 

Gentile downed Applebee 7-2, as Jordan was eliminating Singletary 9-5. Jordan took the quarterfinal match that followed 9-6, to earn a second shot against Wilson. Wilson ended Jordan's loss-side streak, defeating him a second time, 7-7 (same as the first time, Jordan racing to 9), and earning his own second (and third) shot against Nichols in the hot seat.

 

Five years ago, Wilson had chalked up his first win on the GSBT, by advancing to the hot seat, and holding off a loss-side challenge by Brian White, who entered the finals on the heels of a nine-match, loss-side winning streak. On this most recent weekend, Wilson chalked up his second tour victory with a 7-4 win in the opening set of the true double elimination final and a double hill win in the second set. 

 

Tour director Shannon Daulton was quite pleased with his tour's first visit to Zingale's, which also hosts Tommy Kennedy's Southeast Open 9-Ball Tour, and Tony Crosby's Florida Pool Tour.

 

"It was a real pleasure to work with Mike (Zingale)," said Daulton. "It's such a player-friendly room (with) an elevated bar for viewing and separate areas for league and tournament play;  just a hell of a layout.

 

"The entire staff at Zingale's was on-point the whole weekend," he added, "and I'll bet Mike served as many drinks as his staff did."

 

The GSBT will return to Shore Thing Billiards in Myrtle Beach, SC, this coming weekend (December 12-13) and will conclude its 2015 season with a Christmas tournament, scheduled for December 19-20, at Legends Billiards, in Inman, SC.

It was a long trip, on a four-rung ladder.

 

James Adams finished 2014 with a third place finish in the Florida State Amateur 9-Ball Championships in December, at Zingale's in Tallahassee, FL. Sent to the loss side by the eventual winner, Jeff Abernathy, he made it back to the semifinals, before Justin Gilsinan denied him a second shot at Abernathy.

 

Two months later, at Stroker's in Palm Harbor, Adams got into the hot seat of the Florida Pool Tour's 2015 season opener. Jason Sheerman, though, capping a 10-match, loss-side run, defeated him in the finals. That same weekend, Adams signed on to a concurrently-run Super 16 Open event, and for the second time, found himself in the hot seat match. Tommy Kennedy sent him to the semifinals, where in a double hill match, he defeated Raymond Linares for a second shot at Kennedy. At 6-6, Kennedy pulled ahead to hand Adams his second straight runner-up finish.

 

"Failure," he told Billiards Digest in an interview a short time later, "is part of the process of success."

 

Eight months later, on the weekend of October 24-25, back at Zingale's, which was hosting the $4,000-added, 2015 Florida State Amateur 9-Ball Championships for the fourth time, Adams put it all together and proved the point. He went undefeated through a field of 89, winning his first title, and completing that long trip on the short 3rd-2nd-2nd-1st ladder.

 

For the third time in just under a year, Adams made it to the hot seat match. He sent Dennis Strickland to the loss side 7-4 in a winners' side semifinal, as Mike Delawder sent Brandon Beatty over 7-3 in the other one. Adams claimed the hot seat 7-4 over Delawder and waited on the return of Kyle Bova, whom he'd defeated once already in a winners' side quarterfinal.

 

On the loss side, Bova defeated Bobby Hicks and J.R. Rossman, both 6-4, to draw Beatty. Strickland picked up Stephen Richmond, who'd gotten by Jose Del Rio 7-3 and Lee Sanders 6-5. Bova and Richmond advanced to the quarterfinals, both 6-4, over Rossman and Sanders.

 

Bova earned a second shot at Adams in the hot seat with two more 6-4 wins; over Richmond in the quarterfinals, and Delawder in the semifinals. Adams, though, defeated Bova a second time, 9-6 in the finals, to claim the 2015 Florida State Amateur 9-Ball Championship title.

 

In a $1,000-added, 54-entrant Second Chance tournament, Derek Fowler defeated David Uwate (13th in the main event) in the finals. Nathan Rose finished third, and Michael Laney finished fourth.

 

In about three weeks (November 21-22), Capone's in Spring Hill, FL will host the $5,000-added (with full field of 32) Super 32 Open 10-Ball Championships. Two months later (January 16-17, 2016), The Florida Pool Tour will be back at Zingale's for the $5,000-added Florida State Open 10-Ball event.