Traditionally, in order to win a pool tournament, a player either takes the hot-seat or beats the person in the hot-seat. There are those rare occasions though, where that is not the case. The opening event on Desert Classic Tour's 2014 schedule at Bullshooters in Phoenix on February 22nd and 23rd was one of those rare occasions as Chuck Evans won the event from the one loss side and never faced Mitch Ellerman in the hot-seat.

 

Saturday play saw the field of forty four players battle it out to see which eight players would qualify for Sunday play. While Saturday usually has it's fair share of upsets, Saturday play at this event saw mostly top players beating other top players. The day featured very few surprises. 

 

Possibly the biggest upset of the day came at the end of the biggest story of the day, that being the outstanding play of Sara Miller. Sara won her first three matches on Saturday – with wins over Sam Yonki, Tenadore Lee and Ray Robles –  before dropping a match to Chuck Evans. On the one loss side, Sara found Mike Williams waiting. Mike had just eliminated Sara's fiancé Tres Kane, but that didn't phase Miller as she quickly ended Williams' tournament with a 7-2 beat down.

 

Other players winning matches late on Saturday to qualify for Sunday player were Ken Gouso who defeated Junior Jiron, Andy Kachur who eliminated Eric Young, and Brian Reich who got by Max Maurer.

 

Sunday began with four players left on each side of the board. The winners side saw Bret Huth with a dominating 8-2 win over Chuck Evans, and Mitch Ellerman with an equally dominating 10-3 win over Jim Henrickson.

 

Meanwhile, the one loss side saw Miller picking up where she left off on Saturday and eliminating Ken Gouso 7-4, while Brian Reich was sending Andy Kachur to the rail 8-3.

 

Miller kept on rolling in the next round, and defeated Henrickson 7-3, with Reich succumbing to Evans in a tough hill-hill match.

 

The match for the hot-seat saw Ellerman take a hill-hill decision over Huth, and then have to forfeit out of the tournament in order to catch his flight for the US Barbox Championship. 

 

Sara Miller's magic weekend finally came to an end as she appeared to run out of gas against Chuck Evans. Evans took control of a 1-1 match and won seven straight games for the 8-1 victory.

 

The semi-final match, which also served as the final match with Ellerman halfway to Reno, saw Chuck Evans taking control early and racing to the hill at 7-3. Huth had problems getting any started until Evans was already on the hill. At 3-7 down, Huth made one last charge and he brought the match to within one game at 6-7 down, before Evans regained control and won the match 8-6.

New Mexico’s Mickey Provencio completed a hard fought undefeated run through the field of forty eight players to win the Desert Classic Tour’s November tourstop at Bull Shooters on November 2nd and 3rd.

 

It was an impressive run that included a win over tour points leader Mitch Ellerman on Saturday and a win over #3 ranked Dennis Orender on Sunday. Ellerman bounced back from the loss to Provencio with a win over Mike Sandoval to earn his place in Sunday’s matches.

 

A top player who did not make Sunday play was #4 ranked Nick De Leon, who started things off with a win over Prescott’s Bob Soto, but then lost back to back matches to Sammy Martinez and Mike Sandoval.

 

Sunday play on the winners side saw Chuck Evans defeat Mike Williams 8-4 and Provencio defeat Orender 8-7.

 

On the west side of the board, Ellerman ran over Pete Lhotka 10-4 and Bernie Pettipiece earned a tough 8-7 win over Tres Kane.

 

Mike Williams then eliminated Ellerman in a hill-hill 8-9 victory, and Pettipiece sent Orender to the rail 8-3.

 

The hot-seat match was another close one, with Provencio handing Evans his first loss 8-7.

 

After Williams eliminated Pettipiece, the semi final match between Williams and Evans got underway. Mike had started his day with an 8-4 loss to Evans, and he was determined to avenge that loss. Williams cruised to an early 4-0 lead and scored an 8-4 win of his own to eliminate Evans and earn Williams a shot against Provencio in the finals.

 

The final match saw both players go on runs, as Provencio took a 3-0 lead, only to see Williams come back to tie things at 4-4. Another Provencio run saw him take a 6-4 lead and Williams again come back to tie things at 6-6. Finally, it was Provencio’s turn for another run as he won the final two games to win the first and only set of the finals 8-6.

 

The Desert Classic Tour will bring their 2013 Season Finale to Skip and Jan’s on December 6th – 8th. That event is expected to be at least a $2,000 added event.