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Ng Rebounds on Gulf Coast Tour

Gail Eaton and Ming Ng

It was a slow start for Houston’s Ming Ng who lost a fourth round match to Gail Eaton, 7-6, and although Eaton went on to face 2014 Gulf Coast Tour Champion Belinda Lee for the hot seat, Ng reentered the scene to stake her claim, winning an impressive 7 straight matches to take home the title, 2015 Gulf Coast Tour 10-Ball Champion.
 
It was a choice weekend to win on the Gulf Coast Tour which hosted its first 2-day event on September 12th-13th, 2015, drawing a record 48 women, paying out close to $2,000 in prize money, and offering a qualifier spot for the 2016 WPBA Masters event.  Thanks to an anonymous sponsor, room owner David Richardson, and tour sponsors Delta-13 Rack and the APA of North Harris County, the Gulf Coast women enjoyed their most successful event since the tour’s 2013 inception. “This tour is growing by leaps and bounds, and we look forward to building on this event, and our 52-player, WPBA membership”, says tour director, Kimberly Newsome. “This tour offers experience; it’s competitive, mixed with a little fun and craziness. It’s a perfect balance that allows players to take their game to the next level, and create friendships along the way.” 
 
Although most of the competitors had never played a single game of 10-ball, everyone caught on very quickly, and had a great time doing it. On the battle field, veteran player Ming Ng fought her way through a distinguished field of 48 women with wins over Kim “Texas Heat” Pierce, Yvonne Garcia, and newcomer Sophie Salinas, 7-4, before losing to Gail Eaton, 7-6. Belinda Lee took down Cindy Cole, 7-1, Terry Petrosino, 7-3, and Liz Mitchel, 7-0. Daughter, Robyn Petrosino, made her own bid for the hot seat with wins over Karen Reilly, 7-3, Shannon Collins, 7-1, and newlywed Natalie (Esparza) Rocha, 7-2, until falling to Eaton, 7-5. Loretta Lindgren came out firing as well, ousting Bonnie Mason, 7-2, and Mandy Hood, 7-3, until losing a nail-biter to Lee, 7-6. On the one loss side, after losing her first round match to newby Theresa Mireles, 7-3, Ricki Casper won 6 consecutive matches, eliminating Darcy Whatley, 7-2, Mindy Williams, 7-5, Austin’s Erica Hanlon, 7-0, Mitchel, 7-5, Pierce, 7-2, and R. Petrosino, 7-3. Contender Tara Williams was taken down in the first round by Teresa Garland, 7-2, but went on to eliminate Toni Esteves, 7-3, Terry Petrosino, 7-3, and Tina Allen, 7-4, before being ousted by Ng, 7-3. Ng went on to defeat Rocha, 7-6, Lindgren, and finally Casper, 7-6, while Eaton made quick work of securing the hot seat match over Lee, 7-3. Ng overcame Lee, 7-4, the final obstacle standing between her, and Eaton. In the first set of the true, double elimination final, Eaton jumped to a 5-0 lead. Directly off a five-game winning streak, momentum unwavering, Ng came back to win the first set, 7-6. In overtime, Ng came on strong, closing out the final set, 7-5. Congratulations to Ming Ng on her 2015 Gulf Coast Tour 10-Ball title and to Gail Eaton who secured the WPBA qualifier spot.
 
Welcome to the club! The tour would like to welcome its newest members and recognize them for their tenacious character: Sophie Salinas, Theresa Mireles, Shannon Collins, Brandi Umber, Cindy Cole, Annette Moreno, Yvonne Garcia, Regina Gomez, Kristina Bevers, and Cierra Powell. 
 
Derrell Montgomery, official tour referee, tour supporter, and pool philanthropist, awarded the 10-ball champ with a hand-crafted and engraved, trophy pen. Each one of Mr. Montgomery’s pens is one-of-a-kind, and it’s a Gulf Coast tradition to award a “Montgomery Trophy Pen” to each year’s tour champion.  
Mr. Montgomery also donated two pens to the Emma Davis Memorial and Family Benefit, held this past weekend in conjunction with the Gulf Coast Tour event. Emma Davis, wife of famed Texas pool player, James Davis Jr., and mother to infant son, James Davis, Jr. III, passed in her sleep, on September 9th, 2015. Upon hearing the news, the women of the Gulf Coast Tour and the entire Texas pool community, donated numerous auction and raffle items to help raise funds for the family. Over the weekend, with a baked goods auction, silent auction, raffle, and donations, the group raised nearly $5,000. Emma Davis was an avid pool player herself, a Gulf Coast Tour member, and a conditional member of the Women’s Professional Billiard Association. Emma was the “sweetheart” of the Texas pool community, and at only 28 years of age, touched many lives, near and far. “Gone but never forgotten” echoes throughout social media, and has become a mantra for Davis’ family and friends. Numerous fundraisers have been scheduled to assist the family in their time of need. The next one will take place at Bogies West, 9638 Jones Road in Houston, this Saturday, September 19th, 2015, during the Viking Tour stop.
 
Players, friends, and fans, the final 2015 Gulf Coast Tour event (#6) will be held Saturday, October 10th, 2015, at Bogies Billiards & Sports Bar (FM 1960 location). The players’ meeting begins at 11:00am. All new players’ dues will be good through 2016! This event will take place alongside the final event for the Lone Star Billiards Tour.
 
The Gulf Coast Tour is a sanctioned, WPBA Regional Tour, one of (13) tours situated across the U.S. For information on hosting a Gulf Coast Women’s Regional Tour event, contact Kimberly Newsome at 713.825.1411 or email gulfcoasttour1@gmail.com. For more information about the Gulf Coast Tour, please visit www.facebook.com/gulfcoasttour  (players’ page) or the new business page at www.facebook.com/gulfcoasttour1. Follow us on Twitter @gulfcoasttour! 

The Sky is the Limit at The 2nd Annual Big Tyme Classic

Skyler Woodward

The Big Tyme Classic held its 2nd Annual Event on March 20th – 23rd. It was a $10,000 added event in all. The event drew players from all over the United States and a few from foreign soil. There was 6 events held total and 5 of the 6 were full fields, the ladies event fell 2 players short of being full. The main event filled up last year and although it filled up again this year it was bigger and better then the last one. You know what they say everything is bigger and better in Texas.
 
The $1,500 Added One Pocket kicked everything off at Noon sharp on March 20th. It was a 32 player single elimination field to be completed in one day. The races were to 4 and there was plenty of stellar play along the way, by some great players.  It paid out 8 spots. The players finishing 5th thru 8th for $300 each were Sylver Ochoa, Justin Hall, Skyler Woodward, and Robb Saez. Finishing in a tie for 3rd and $600 each was Richie Richeson and Jeremy Jones. The two finalists Josh Roberts and Justin Bergman chopped up first and second for a total of $1800 each, as the event was to pay $2,400 for first and $1,200 for second.
 
Also on Thursday night there was a 16 man mini tourney on the diamond bar tables. The entry fee was $50 and it was a race to 9, it was slated for winner take all ($800). The event drew the likes of Brandon Shuff, Warren Kiamco, Skyler Woodward and plenty of other heavy hitters. At the end of the night the last two players left standing was Joey Barnes and Manny Chau, it was late and they decided to split it up and get some rest before the next event at noon, the 9-ball banks event.
 
Friday, the busy day has arrived. We kicked it off at Noon with the $1,500 Added 9-Ball Banks and a full field of 32. This was a single elimination race to 5 to be completed in one day as well. Besides John Brumback this event was loaded with heavy hitting bank pool players. The list included Justin Hall, Skyler Woodward, Jeremy Jones, Manny Chau, Richie Richeson, Brandon Shuff, Cliff Joyner, and a slew of others. The event paid out the top 8 spots. Those finishing 5th thru 8th for $300 each were Joey Barnes, Jeremy Jones, Skyler Woodward, and Justin Bergman. Finishing in a tie for 3rd and $600 each were Ronnie Wiseman and Manny Chau. The two finalists Justin Hall and Warren Kiamco decided to chop up the top 2 spots and they both received $1,800 each. This event paid out the exact same as the one pocket event.
 
Also on Friday night the $5,000 Added 9-Ball Main Event kicked off at 7:00 with the players auction. The players auction lasted about three and a half hours and drew in slightly over $45,000. This topped last years event and we look to top this again next year, hoping to get up to the 60k mark, I think we would have hit that number this year if not for some last minute defections of a few upper echelon players. Nonetheless this was a super number and bigger then most anywhere except the one right down the road at White Diamonds. The players auction had two blind picks, the first one was Yu Usuan Cheng from Taiwan as he sold for $3,500. The second blind pick sold for $3,600 and was Warren Kiamco from the Philippines. This event was loaded with super star talent, besides the two I just named  as the blind picks others in attendance was Team High Pockets (Justin Bergman, Robb Saez, Skyler Woodward, and Robert Frost), Cliff Joyner, Manny Chau, Jeremy Jones, Ronnie Wiseman, Justin Hall, Richie Richeson (Derby City Action Award Winner of 2014), BCA National Champion Mike Alonzo, U.S. Amateur Champion Ernesto Bayaua, Brandon Shuff, Josh Roberts, Rene Rendon, James Davis Jr. Sam Gilmer, Lil D Daniel McKenney, Sylver Ochoa, two WPBA touring pros in Vivian Villarreal and Brittany Bryant and a slew of others to fill the 128 player field. It was tough as nails.
 
The Main Event. Play started on the 16 Diamond Bar Tables after the Auction was over. We played 32 matches on Friday Night, and play started back up at 10:00a.m on Saturday morning and played down to the final 32 players. Matches were set up on a time schedule and the last round was started at roughly 8:00p.m. on Saturday night. There was some great matches and if you missed them you can find the streamed ones on poolactiontv.com. After we hit the final 32 players the second auction was held Saturday night and it drew in about 7.5k. The first auction paid 12 spots.  Payouts were 9-12th $915 each, 7-8th paid $1,500 each, 5/6th paid $2,500 each, 4th paid $4,000, 3rd paid $5,000, 2nd paid $7,500, and the winner took home a hefty $15,000. The second auction paid 4 spots and paid out as follows. 4th paid $735, 3rd paid $1,100, 2nd paid $2,100, and the winners share paid $3,100.
 
The Main Events eventual winner was Skyler Woodward the young gun from Kentucky. This kids games is way beyond his years. He is well seasoned in all games and has a very bright future in this game of billiards. Congrats to you Sky and we look forward to seeing you back to defend your title next year as well. And yes your name will be on the shirt for The 3rd Annual Bigtyme Classic.
 
Sunday. The wild day with three events running at the same time. There was the final 32 of the main event starting at 1:00, the Ladies had a $1,000 added 9-Ball Event that drew 30 players and the Seniors had a $1,000 added 9-Ball Event that drew a full field of 32 players.
 
The Ladies Event drew 30 players and had some heavy hitters in it led by the Defending Champion the Texas Tornado Vivian Villarreal. Also there was three other WPBA touring players Brittany Bryant, Nicole Keeney, and Kim Pierce . This event was a one day event with races to 7 on the winners side and 5 on the one loss side. When the dust settled it was the defending champ repeating again, congrats to Vivian. This event paid out 8 spots. Finishing in a tie for 7/8th and $70 was Ricki Casper and Belinda Lee. Tied for 5/6th and $130 was Michelle Yim, and Mandy Hood. The 4th place finisher was Natalie Mans for $220. Third place and $330 went to Brittany Bryant. The top two that battled it out for the lions share was Nicole Keeney and Vivian Villarreal. Nicole ended up 2nd with $500 and Vivian took home first and $750.
 
The Seniors Event drew a full field of 32 players. Last year it was chopped between Jose Parica and Lanny Herrin. Jose was not back but Lanny was and trying to defend his share of the crown. This event is always the easiest going event of all, as all the players seem to really love the game of billiards and have played it for along time. The event paid out 8 spots. Finishing in a tie for 7/8th and $70 were C.W. Smith and John Turner. Tied for 5/6th and $140 were Charles Smith and defending champ Lanny Herrin. The 4th place finisher was Bob Guzik for $220. Third place and #340 went to Bob McFerren(Co-Owner of Big Tyme Billiards). The top two that battled it out in a dogfight till the end was Sonny Bosshamer and the man known around the world for his high stakes gambling action, Ronnie Wiseman. Sonny took home $525 and Ronnie got $775.
 
This event was filled with action for the 4 days as the room stayed open 24 hours. We saw $500 a game one pocket, we saw $1,000 a game one pocket played. We also saw sets of 10 ball for $1,000, $3,000, $5,000 and $10,000 and lots of other action going on. This is an event everyone should be trying to attend next year as they like to gamble it up in this area, so if you think you got what it takes come get your fill next March. We will be waiting.
 
We would like to thank all the sponsors of this event, Ace Roofing (Tracy and Kim Sanders), Star City Amusements (Roddy Lucio), APA of North Harris County (Roger Shuett), Omega Billiards (Michael Hoang), and Universe Clothing (Nick Bashizi), everything you did for the event is greatly appreciated.
 
Also a big thanks to the staff of Big Tyme Billiards for doing a great job on a very very busy 4 day event. The owners of Big Tyme Billiards deserves a big thanks as well for putting on this event each year, Bob McFerren, Mark Avery, Debbie Sharp, and Jim Henry.