Gail Eaton, Kawania Watson, Jennifer Dooley and Jennifer Yo
The event was one for the books, as San Antonio’s Kawania Watson went unchallenged amidst an impressive field of 25 semi-professional players to capture her first Gulf Coast Women’s Regional Billiards Tour 9-ball event. Watson, who joined the tour in November 2016, fell short in her first outing, finishing 9th, but made up for it in only her second start on tour. She secured the hot seat match, taking down the tour’s current #1 ranked player, Gail Eaton, 7-6. In the finals, she defeated #2 ranked, Austin’s Jennifer Yo, 7-4, notching her belt with a first-time, Gulf Coast Tour victory.
On May 6th, 2017, the Gulf Coast Tour held its 5th stop of the year at Skinny Bob’s Billiards in Round Rock, Texas. Room owners John and Sue Cielo, along with tour sponsors Cyclop Pool Balls www.facebook.com/CyclopPoolBalls, Ozone Billiards www.OzoneBilliards.com, APA of North Harris County www.facebook.com/apanorthharriscounty, Realtor Jimmy Jenkins, and www.OutsvillBilliards.com, facilitated another successful event for the women of the Gulf Coast Tour. Dubbed the “8th Annual Texas 9-Ball Shoot-Out”, the one-day, open bar table event, paid out a generous $900, and featured a non-smoking, private playing area with eight (8) new Diamond bar tables. “This is our eighth, consecutive year hosting events at Skinny Bob’s. We’d like to thank John and Sue for their generosity over the years, and for being a constant source of support for the Texas pool community”, says Gulf Coast Tour and Poison Lone Star Tour Director, Kim Newsome.
Following a short players’ meeting, action kicked off around noon, and Watson began her trek to the winners’ circle. She booked wins over Lisa Pinkston, Kris Wilburn, 7-2, and Megan Hardin, 7-1, while Jennifer Dooley bested Cheryl Gaffaney, Toni Estevez, 7-6, and Amber Keithley, 7-3. Jennifer Yo overcame Louisiana’s Hopey Carter, 7-3, and Yvonne Asher, 7-4, while Gail Eaton, aka “Virginia Slim”, bested former WPBA player and tour newcomer, Tina Hess, 7-4, Aryana Lynch, 7-2, and Veronica Perez aka “Pistol Perez”, 7-0. As the final four on the winners’ side took shape, one-loss side action was in full swing. Newest tour member, Cindy Barthel, lost her first match to Perez, and went on to eliminate Estevez, 5-3, Gail Roles, 5-0, and Asher, 5-1. After losing her first match to Asher, San Antonio’s Sophia Lopez took out Lois Morgado, 5-2, and Wilburn, 5-4, but fell to Perez, 5-2. Barthel took out Perez, 5-2, sliding into 5th-6th, and in the money. Teenage phenom, Lynch, suffered a first-round loss at the hands of Loretta Lindgren, and made her bid on the one-loss side with wins over Diana Cardona, 5-3, and Marilina Nieves, 5-1, but was sent home by Hardin, 5-3. Carter secured west-side wins over Pinkston, 5-3, Rebecca Arcangeli, 5-4, and Keithley, 5-1, before falling to Hardin, 5-2. While Barthel and Hardin secured their place in the top six, the east side final four witnessed Watson slip by Dooley, 7-6, and Eaton make quick work of Yo, 7-3. The hot seat match between Watson and Eaton was a fight to the finish, and a real crowd pleaser. When the smoke cleared, it was Watson on top, 7-6. Back on the west side, Yo defeated Hardin, 5-0, while Dooley ended Barthel’s run, 5-2. Yo eliminated Dooley, 5-0, and Eaton, 5-3, to meet Watson in the finals. Watson was hungry for her first tour win, and Yo was going for her second victory of the year. Watson rose to the occasion, defeating Yo in the first set of the true double elimination final, 7-4. Congratulations to Kawania Watson on her first-ever, Gulf Coast Tour win!
The Gulf Coast Tour welcomes its newest member, Cindy Barthel, who also achieved her highest tournament finish to date (5th-6th), at this event. Jennifer Dooley and Megan Hardin booked their highest finishes as well, 4th and 5th-6th, respectively. Congratulations to all those who reached a milestone at this event.
The Gulf Coast Women’s Regional Billiards Tour is open to players of all ages and skill levels, however, the top 32 WPBA Exempt Professionals are not permitted to participate. The next Gulf Coast Tour 9-ball event will be held on May 27th-28th, at CK Billiards, 9247 Skillman St., Suite 105, in Dallas, Texas. This event will be $1,000 added, played on 8’ tables, with Cyclop Pool Balls. This event will also be a qualifier for a 2018 WPBA Pro Event. Free practice begins at 10am, and the mandatory players’ meeting begins at 11am. For more information about the WPBA sanctioned, Gulf Coast Women’s Regional Billiards Tour, visit GulfCoastWomensTour.com. Follow us on Facebook @gulfcoasttour1 and Twitter @gulfcoasttour.
The WPBA (Women’s Professional Billiard Association) is the governing body of women’s professional billiards in the U.S. The Gulf Coast Women’s Regional Billiards Tour is a sanctioned, WPBA Regional Tour, part of the grass roots system that feeds the WPBA Pro Billiards Tour. Amateur and semi-professional, female players, who aspire to play women’s professional billiards, must qualify through this elite system in order to attain the sought-after title, WPBA Exempt Professional. Have you ever considered taking your game to the next level, looking for a different challenge? Are you tired of the same old week-in, week-out routines deterring the progress of your game? Is it your dream to play in a pro event, or turn pro? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, it’s time to find the WPBA Regional Tour nearest you. Exclusively, WPBA Regional Tour Players gain access to WPBA Pro Event Qualifiers and earn valuable WPBA Regional Tour Points which count toward earning invitations to the annual WPBA Regional Tour Championship and WPBA Pro Events. Live your dream, support and become a part of, the longest-running, professional billiard organization in the U.S., the WPBA.
If you are interested in starting a WPBA Regional Tour in your area, or participating on a WPBA Regional Tour, please contact the WPBA Office at 1.855.FOR.WPBA or visit www.WPBA.com.
OB Cues Ladies 9-Ball Tour held their 6th and final tour stop December 3 & 4th at Rusty’s Billiards in Arlington, Texas. Thirty-three players were on-hand to close out the 2016 tour year and see who would take top honors for the annual awards. The owner and manager, Jeff Pitts and the entire bar and wait staff did a wonderful job taking care of all the ladies as always. Rusty’s is a great room to visit and play at, so be sure to hit them up whenever you can!
At the players meeting, board member Monica Anderson announced yearly awards. The Best Sportswomanship Award went to Teresa Garland of Houston, for her positive attitude both on and off the table, regardless of the match outcome. The Most Improved Player was Corina Campbell of Carrollton. Corina had a banner year on the OB tour, finishing 6th in the ranking and posting a second place in one tour stop, earning her well-deserved title of Most Improved for 2016. For the 3rd year running, Tara Williams of Fort Worth secured her first place ranking on the tour by winning four tour stops and finishing 4th in the remaining two, securing the title as 2016 OB Cues Ladies Tour Champion.
Three additional awards are drawn at the tour finale, based on attendance and performance at the tour stops throughout the year. For the Perfect Attendance award, seven players were eligible to be drawn for the $200 cash award. Tara Williams, Orietta Strickland, Jennifer Yo, Natalie Mans, Shayla Neris, Monica Anderson, and Julie Enzensperger were at every event in 2016 and one of them would receive $200 cash even before the tournament started. OB Cues Customer Service Manager, David “Doc” Reyes officiated the draw and Shayla Neris was the lucky recipient of the extra $200. At every tour stop, when a player gets a 9-on-the-snap award or a break and run, they receive a scratch-off. At the end of the year, each player who earned a scratch off also received an entry for a drawing for a $20 scratch-off and that winner was Marilina Nieves from San Antonio. Same rules apply for a break and run and the lucky player whose name was drawn for the $50 scratch-off was Jeannie Kim of Dallas.
On Saturday, the top eight ladies returned to continue in the Main Event on Sunday morning. The final four remaining in the winner’s bracket were Tara Williams (Ft. Worth) vs. Jeannie Kim (Dallas) and Natalie Mans (League City) vs. Orietta Strickland (Dallas). The four ladies returning on the one loss side were Melinda Bailey (Ft. Worth) vs. Tracie Voelkering (Ft. Worth) and Chris Fields (Weatherford) vs. Brittany Williams (Longview).
Eliminated first round Sunday morning at the 7th-8th position was Chris Fields and board member Tracie Voelkering. In the winner’s side matches, Tara defeated Jeannie and Orietta defeated Natalie to set the hot seat match. Moving over to the one-loss side for the 5/6th place matches, Brittany was eliminated by Natalie and Melinda came out the winner over Jeannie. For the next match, Melinda once again persevered, leaving Natalie to settle for the 4th place spot.
Tara made her way through Saturday with wins in a first round tournament matchup over Melinda Bailey (7-3), Shirley Fields (7-1), Jennifer Yo (7-2) and Snowy Belt (7-0). On the other side of the winner’s bracket, Orietta was making her way through her Saturday matches with her speedy, yet consistent play. She posted wins over Tina Soto (7-1), Chris Fields (7-4), and Tracie Voelkering (7-2). In the hot seat match, Tara ended up on top in the match 7-3 and waited to see who would be coming through the one-loss side to meet her in the finals.
For the 3rd place match, Melinda was blazing trails and steadily fighting all through the tournament after her 1st match loss against Tara. She had a successful run through the B-side eliminating Orietta to move to the finals against Tara and a rematch for revenge. Congratulations to Orietta for a great tournament!
With Melinda and Tara in the finals, Melinda had quite a run to make it back to the finals surviving three hill-hill matches on her path to the finals. However, in the finals, Tara got out to a quick lead and didn’t look back. Melinda put forth her best effort to try and stop the tour champion’s effort, but came up short, with Tara winning the match with a final score of 7-2. Congratulations to both ladies for an exciting finals match and great tournament finish!
Thanks again to Rusty’s for our first and last tournament this year, and to all our board members who do a fantastic job all year around. A special year-end thank you to the man behind the tour, always supporting the ladies and feeding us bananas, chocolate and other energizing food and goodies, such a great friend and wonderful person, Carter, we love you.
Special recognition and thanks to OB Cues our main tournament sponsor. If you want to get serious about your game, check out OB Cues at www.obcues.com. The new Digicue is available so be sure to get you one.
Also many thanks and love to all our families, fans, supporters—we greatly appreciate each and every one of you. Also to the many, many ladies/ players/friends who traveled from near and far; we loved seeing you all again and greatly appreciate you making the journey to play on the OB Cues Ladies Tour. We look forward to seeing everyone once again in 2017. Our first stop of the 2017 season will at Rusty’s Billiards in Arlington, Texas, February 4th-5th weekend.
Good Pool, Good Friends, Good Times – we are the OB Cues Ladies Tour!!!!!
Check us out at www.obcuestour.com or stay up to date with instant news by adding us on Facebook/obcuestour
