Taipei’s Jung-Lin Chang is off to a good start this year. Combined with his 5th place finish at the World Pool Championships in Poland two weeks ago, Chang’s undefeated run to claim the 27th Annual Jay Swanson “Swanee” Memorial this past weekend (Feb. 17-18) has earned him just shy of one-third of all his recorded earnings during the somewhat lean pandemic years of ’21 & ’22, in a single month. And it’s only February.
It wasn’t a bad start for Singapore’s Sharik Sayed either. The annual “Swanee” memorial was his first reported cash finish of this year, after recording a fairly lucrative 2022 at the tables. As the memorial’s runner-up this year, Sayed earned almost as much in the single event than he’d reportedly earned in any one of the three years prior to 2022.
Conspicuous in their absence were the father/son team of Ernesto and Oscar Dominguez, who, in one combination or another over the 27 years of the event, had finished either 1st, 2nd or 3rd in 10 of them, dating back to 2003 when Ernesto won the event in its 7th year. Oscar would have been the defending champion this year. Shane Van Boening, the event’s 2021 champion, who did compete this year, won six on the loss side before being eliminated by Sayed in the semifinals.
Jay “Swanee” Swanson would likely be proud of the international field and continuing enthusiasm for the event that bears his name. Often known as the ‘Gentle Giant,’ he was considered to be among the best money players of all time before he passed in 1996. The $2,500-added, 27th Annual Swanee Memorial drew 53 entrants to Griff’s Bar & Billiards in Las Vegas, NV.
Jung-Lin Chang’s path to the winner’s circle began with two straight shutouts over Don Mcclelland and Reese Romney. He then advanced through Jordan Holman and Ian Costello to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal versus Feri Satriyadi. Sayed, in the meantime, survived an opening-round double hill battle against Gary Onomura before advancing to down Marshall Jung and then, Shane Van Boening (8-5). He went on to defeat Desmond (Chin Tek) Goh 8-6 in a winners’ side quarterfinal and advanced to the other winners’ side semifinal against Toh Lian.
Satriyadi put up a double hill fight against Chang, but it was Chang who advanced to the hot seat match where he was joined by Sayed, who’d sent Lian to the loss side 8-3. Chang won the first of his two versus Sayed 8-4 to claim the hot seat.
Meanwhile, on the loss side, two potential spoilers to Chang’s aspirations to the event title and Sayed’s hopes for a rematch were battling their way to a confrontation in the quarterfinals. Van Boening had followed his loss to Sayed with four straight, including the elimination of Ian Costello 7-2 and Silviana Lu, double hill, which set him up against Toh Lian. Singapore’s Aloysius Yapp, who’d lost his second-round match to Chin Tek Goh 8-6, set out on a seven-match, loss-side streak that had begun by him giving up only two racks (total) to his first three opponents. He closed in toward the quarterfinals as he eliminated Richard Burns 7-5 and, in a rematch, Chin Tek Goh 7-4. He then faced Satriyadi for the right to advance to those quarterfinals.
Van Boening advanced with a 7-3 win over Lian. Yapp joined him in the quarterfinals with a 7-2 win over Chin Tek Goh. Van Boening added a 6th win to his loss-side trip and put an end to Yapp’s 7-4.
One rematch step away from the potential for a second Swanee title, Van Boening (832) went into the semifinal against Sayed (759) with Fargo odds of winning at 82.3%. Sayed defeated him again, 7-3 this time to earn his rematch against Chang.
Jung-Lin Chang was not sporting a Fargo Rate, or at least any that was included in the bracket information, so it was hard to assess the match from any odds-on kind of way. Given the circumstances though, no one was surprised that the single race to 8 went double hill. Or that Chang emerged as the 2023 Swanee Memorial champion.
The annual Jay Swanson (‘Swanee’) Memorial has a way of drawing the country’s top pool talent to the West Coast, or thereabouts. Not that players need much of an incentive to play out there, but the list of previous winners includes players who are recognizable by their last or just a single name; Orcollo (2013, 2014), The Lion (2011, 2012), Parica (2010), and Archer (2008), for example. Last year (2018), Canada’s Erik Hjorliefson grabbed the title, though he did not compete this year. This year’s finalists, Hungarian Vilmos Foldes and West Coast native and West Coast Tour director Oscar Dominguez played in last year’s quarterfinals, won by Dominguez. This year, Foldes and Dominguez met twice, in the hot seat and finals, with Foldes winning both. The $3,000-added, 23rd Annual Jay Swanson Memorial, held on the weekend of February 23-24, drew 64 entrants to Griff’s Bar & Billiards in Las Vegas, NV.
Foldes’ path to the winners’ circle went through Butch Barba, Brian Begay, Peter Horton and Fach Garcia before arriving at a winners’ side semifinal matchup against Bret Huth. The younger Dominguez (Oscar, with his father, Ernesto, moving in his general direction on the winners’ side) got by Jay Mulimbayan, Marshall Jung, Robin Figueroa and Ian Costello to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal matchup against ‘young gun’ Christopher Robinson-Reinhold, who’d just spoiled Oscar’s opportunity to play his father by defeating him 8-6 in a winners’ side quarterfinal (father and son would not have played, they never do; Ernesto always forfeiting matches in which he’s pitted against his son).
Foldes got into the hot seat match 8-4 over Huth. Oscar Dominguez joined him after an 8-2 victory over Robinson-Reinhold. Foldes took the first of his two against Dominguez 8-5 and claimed the hot seat.
Over on the loss side, Robinson-Reinhold picked up Nick DeLeon, who, after his defeat at the hands of Bret Huth in a winners’ side quarterfinal, had eliminated Tuan Tran 7-3 and Fach Garcia 7-1 to reach him. Huth, in the meantime, drew Mitch Ellerman, who was in the midst of a six-match, loss-side winning streak that included the elimination of Ernesto Dominguez and Ian Costello, both 7-2.
Huth ended Ellerman’s run 7-5 and in the quarterfinals, faced Robinson-Reinhold, who’d defeated DeLeon 7-5, as well. Robinson-Reinhold took one more step, shutting Huth out in those quarterfinals.
Oscar Dominguez, no doubt eager for a second shot at Foldes in the hot seat, got his chance with a 7-4 win over Robinson-Reinhold in the semifinals. Foldes, though, in a final race to 11, claimed the 23rd Annual Swanee Memorial title 11-8 over Dominguez.
Event representatives thanked Mark Griffin and his staff for their hospitality, as well as sponsors Predator Cues, JB Cases, Simonis Cloth and Discount Custom Apparel.
It’s hard to know what causes the roller coaster of some careers in pool. Jobs, family, and a host of other influences can impact pool earnings in significant ways, including the distinct possibility of incomplete information. What may look in a given database (our own, included) like a severe drop in a player’s level of participation, may, in fact, just be just a gap in the information reported on his, or her activities.
Take Canada’s Erik Hjorleifson, for example, who just went undefeated to win the 22nd Annual Jay Swanson (“Swanee”) Memorial, held on the weekend of February 24-25. Fourteen years ago, he finished in the four-way tie for ninth place at the US Open 9-Ball Championships with three competitors well-known enough to be recognizable by their first names – Earl, Tony, and Ralf (Strickland, Robles and Souquet). A couple of years later (2006; his best recorded earnings year, to date, according to our records), Hjorleifson won two stops, back to back, on what’s known as the Canadian 30K Tour, and here in the US, finished runner-up to Dennis Hatch at a stop on the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour. He won another Canadian 30K Tour stop the following year, and cashed in 10 other events, including Turning Stone VIII (17th). And then, though he continued to appear on payout lists, there were no major tour victories of any kind until he showed up as the winner of the Canadian Championship Men’s Open 10-Ball in 2014.
Though he hasn’t been inactive or absent from payouts lists since then (second to Mika Immonen at Turning Stone XXV in 2016, for example, and 25th at both Turning Stone XXVII and XXVIII in 2017), Hjorleifson does appear to have experienced a drop in competitive frequency. Whether his victory at the recent Jay Swanson Memorial is a sign that his personal roller coaster is rising again, remains to be seen, but it was definitely a significant move in the right direction. He went undefeated through the field of 128 entrants that split a $10,000 prize pool. The event was hosted by OnCue Billiards in La Mesa, CA.
Following victories over Naiel Tito, Victor Ignacio (double hill), Jose Mendoza, Ben Hrabina (all, save Ignacio, 8-4), and the patriarch of the Dominguez clan, Ernesto 8-6, Hjorleifson moved into a winners’ side semifinal match against Dave Hemmah. Manny Perez, in the meantime, the eventual runner-up, was looking for what would be his first major event victory. He got by Johnny Kang, Marshall Jung, Steven Choy, Justin Marks and the “Swanee” Memorial’s defending champion, Brian Parks, to face Hungary’s Vilmos Foldes (7th in the event last year) in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Perez got into the hot seat match with an 8-4 victory over Foldes, and was joined by Hjorleifson, who’d sent Hemmah to the loss side 8-6. Hjorleifson claimed the hot seat 8-4 over Perez and sat in it to await his return.
On the loss side, Foldes picked up Mitch Ellerman, who, after being downed by Hemmah in a winners’ side quarterfinal, had gotten by Justin Marks 7-3, and Fach Garcia 7-4 to reach him. Garcia had previously eliminated the elder Dominguez, Ernest, which kept him (Ernesto) from an approaching match versus his son, Oscar (a matchup that the elder Dominguez traditionally forfeits). Hemmah picked up the son, Oscar, who, after his defeat at the hands of Foldes, in a winners’ side quarterfinal, had eliminated Mika Immonen 7-2 and Brian Parks 7-4.
Foldes advanced to the quarterfinals 7-2 over Ellerman, and was joined by Oscar Dominguez, who’d defeated Hemmah 7-5. Oscar eliminated Foldes in those quarterfinals and then, locked up in a double hill fight against Perez in the semifinals; a fight won by Perez to earn himself a second shot against Hjorleifson in the finals.
Hjorleifson completed his undefeated run. A repeat performance of the hot seat match 8-4 over Perez secured it.
