The fourth season of the Diamond Pool Tour kicked off with new sponsors and a new format. The tournaments are now one big bracket with full Fargo races based on the higher rated player’s rating.
As expected, this led to top players being forced to bring their “A Game” each and every match as they were giving up huge spots to lower rated players. Even with those spots, the tournament came down to some of the top Fargo rated players in the event.
A prime example of the spot in this event was Nick De Leon’s first match against Joshua Murphy, 171 Fargo points led to De Leon giving up six games for a 10-4 race. He would be pushed to the hill by Murphy before scoring the 10-3 win. De Leon’s journey through the winner’s side didn’t get any easier with wins over “The voice of the Diamond Pool Tour” George Teyechea, Nick Cipiti, Gil Franco and Rick Armbrust to get to the hot-seat match.
De Leon’s hot-seat opponent also had a tough path to the hot-seat match, as Tom Dilorenzo (who still doesn’t think his game is better than 75% of his current speed) scored notable wins over Scott Chadwick, James Main, Todd Dilley and Kurt Siebels.
The hot-seat match saw De Leon forced to give DiLorenzo three racks for a 10-7 race. DiLorenzo has probably been playing pool longer than his opponent has been alive, and he gave De Leon all he could handle before De Leon came out on top of the match 10-6.
In the past six months, After dropping the match to De Leon on the winner’s side, Rick Armbrust had wins on the left side of the board over Bret Huth and Jason Sweet (with neither win taking advantage of any handicap). Armbrust finally fell to DiLorenzo 9-6 in the semi-final match.
After their hill-hill battle for the hot-seat, fans in attendance were expecting another great match, and they weren’t disappointed as the two players battled to another hill-hill score before De Leon pocketed the final 9-ball for first place.
He never actually left. Although “Fireball” Mike Dechaine has cut back, way back, on the number of tournaments in which he competes, he’s kept his hand in, so to speak. In fact, he’s won four of the last eight tournaments he’s entered – The Robert Dionne Memorial (NE 9-Ball Series) in January of 2017, the Gotham City Pro Classic in October, the New England 9-Ball Series’ Tour Championships just last month, and now, on the weekend of April 12-15, the $16,000-added Diamond Open 10-Ball Professional Players Championship, part of the annual Super Billiards Expo at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center IN Oaks, PA. Dechaine went undefeated through the field of 64, competing for $48K in prize money, and in the end, got by, in order, Thorsten Hohmann, Earl Strickland, and Jayson Shaw, before meeting and defeating Danny Olson in the finals.
According to Dechaine, being away from the sport and focused more on a regular job, has allowed him to approach the occasional tournaments in which he now participates with a different, if not downright better attitude. It’s an attitude, he said, that decreases the influence of expectations.
“I go into every tournament expecting to do well,” he explained, “but I think part of me winning these days is having a job now; a foundation (which) allows me to approach a tournament without expectations, (other than) just to enjoy myself and have fun.”
Aiding and abetting this somewhat new approach for the “Fireball” was an RV in which he and a group of friends were able to travel from Maine to Philadelphia in about six hours, and then, to stay, throughout the course of the weekend.
“The RV belonged to a friend of mine (John),” he said. “The (Greater Philadelphia Expo Center) was about 10 steps outside of the door, so we could come back, relax, take a nap if we wanted to. We had a blast.”
The indoor ‘blast’ got underway on Thursday, April 12. For both eventual finalists (Dechaine and Olson) the path to victory went through Thorsten Hohmann. Following a victory over Xavier Libby, Olson faced him in his second match and was sent to the loss side, from which he would eventually emerge as one of the eight loss-side finalists. Hohmann would go on to be among the eight winners’ side finalists. Dechaine, in the meantime, advanced on the winners’ side, defeating Lee Kang and Martin Daigle, before facing Tommy Kennedy, in what he (Dechaine) would describe later as his toughest match of the tournament.
“He played tremendous,” said Dechaine of Kennedy’s double hill effort. “The change was that his break started not working for him. I fought back and got lucky.”
The victory advanced Dechaine into a pool ‘dream team’ of eight final winners’ side competitors, including Shane Van Boening, Jayson Shaw, Skyler Woodward, Mika Immonen, Alex Pagulayan, Earl Strickland, and Hohmann, whom Dechaine met first.
Dechaine downed Hohmann 13-6, and then, faced Earl Strickland; a matchup that in bygone days might have seen a few ‘fireworks’ as the “Fireball” met the Pearl. Not this time around, however.
“Earl was a complete gentleman,” said Dechaine later. “It was good to see and it was fun to watch him.”
Dechaine won that match 13-1 and turned to face Jayson Shaw. In the losers’ side bracket, Olson, who’d defeated Daigle 13-5, and Morra 13-3, picked up Oscar Dominguez. Dechaine advanced to the finals with a 13-9 victory over Shaw. Olson joined him after defeating Dominguez 13-10.
Still at work enjoying himself and having fun, Dechaine stepped into his first major event final since last October, when he’d squared off against Yu-Lung Chang in the finals of the Gotham City Pro 9-Ball Classic (aka The Sharon ‘Sam’ Fagnoni Memorial).
“It was nerve-wracking being in the finals, of course,” he said, “but I was just trying to push through and play the best that I could.”
“Danny (Olson),” he added, “is an up-and-comer, and he’s going to be around for a while.”
Dechaine completed his undefeated run with a 13-10 victory over Olson. As he ponders his participation in future events, he is cognizant of the degree to which his somewhat lowered expectations have provided him with a key that might lead to further success.
“Focusing on one shot at a time,” he said. “Being the best that I can be.”
Pros and Amateurs mixed in Pro-Am Bar Box Tournament, won by Zoren James Aranas
“How good do you really think you are?” was the question posed on the Super Billiards Expo’s Web site Details and Registration page for the Pro-Am Barbox Championships.
“Take your best shot in this challenging 32-player event,” it suggested further.
And so they did. Though invited, there were no women among the single-elimination event’s 32-entrants. At stake was $10K in total prize money.
Zoren James Aranas went undefeated through five opponents to claim this event’s title, downing Jorge Rodriguez in the finals. Aranas got by Justin Martin, Shaun Wilkie and Benjamin Warblan to face Nathan Rose in the event semifinals. Rodriguez, in the meantime, had downed Cory Young, Jeff Jones and Nick Cipiti to draw Dee Adkins in the other semifinal.
In races to 6, best 2 out of 3 sets, Aranas advanced to the finals in two sets; 6-3, 6-1, over Rose. He was joined by Rodriguez, who’d been tested in his first match against Adkins, but hung on to win 6-5, and then eliminated him 6-4 in the second set.
Aranas won the first set of the finals 6-2. Rodriguez fought back in the second set to double hill. Aranas completed his undefeated run by finishing it.
The G Cue Billiard Store Diamond Pool Tour held their second stop of the season at Skip & Jan’s in Gilbert on June 17th – 18th, where they once again crowned a new winner in the amateur division, and a returning champion in the open division.
The amateur division kicked off on Saturday with 36 players and a new group of favorites at the top of the list. With tour stop one winner Max Maurer over the 625 Fargo limit, early favorites in this event included Rick Armbrust (619), Lee Brown (619), Ken Laney (618) and Mike Hamman (616). As a testament to the handicapped format of the event, only Armbrust would finish in the money.
Saturday play whittled the field down to the final eight players in the money, with Bob Mizer set to face Scott Vogelsburg (looking for his second big win in as many weeks) and Rick Armbrust set to face Nick Cipiti. The one loss side came down to Steve Stowers vs Wes Sowers and Randy Reid vs Jesse Johnson.
As play began on Sunday, Vogelsberg beat Mizer 8-2 in an even 8-8 race, and Armbrust beat Cipiti 9-6 in a 9-8 race.
On the left side of the board, Steve Stowers eliminated Wes Sowers 8-5 in an 8-7 race, while Randy Reid upset Jesse Johnson 6-2 in a 6-8 race. Stowers would then eliminate Mizer in a hill-hill match 8-6, and Cipiti bounced back from his earlier loss to send Reid to the seats with an 8-2 scoreline. Cipiti would soon be joining Reid in the seats, as Stowers scored a hill-hill win to eliminate Cipiti in 4th place. Due to the Father’s Day holiday, Vogelsberg forfeited his semi-final match against Stowers and the race to 9 final match was underway.
The final match came down to hill-hill, before Armbrust dropped the final 9-ball for the 9-8 win and first place.
On one side of the winner’s bracket, Foldes was on a tear. He defeated Carl Stewart, Ben Hrabina and Brian Long by a combined score of 30-2. On the other side of the winner’s bracket, it was Bobby Emmons making noise. Emmons defeated Tracie Hamman, Eric Young and then Mitch Ellerman in a hill-hill match.
Ellerman took the trip to the one loss side, where he then dropped a hill-hill match to Eric Young to finish in 4th place.
Back on the winner’s side, Emmons was playing like he didn’t have a care in the world and sent Foldes to the one loss side 7-3 (in a 7-10 match).
Foldes was ready for round two with Emmons though, as he then eliminated Young in a hill-hill 10-4 match.
Just to prove that the first time was no fluke, Emmons defeated Foldes in the first set of the finals by the same 7-3 scoreline.
The tour will next head out to Tucson on the 15th and 16th of July for two events on the 9’ tables at Pockets.
The G Cue Billiard Store Diamond Pool Tour is proudly sponsored by…
On October 5, the Desert Classic Tour rolled into Stingers Sports Bar for a bar table 10 ball event. 24 players arrived on Saturday morning to play in the final B/C event of the year. Many notable regulars were on hand including previous BC winners Rick Armbrust, Mike Hamman, and Jude Espinosa. The tour also welcomed some new players in Ken Cottrell, Joe Avila, Jimmy Brewer and Nick Cipiti.
As the tourney quickly moved through on Saturday, it was decided that a one-day
event was possible. Many of the players agreed with finishing it out late Saturday evening. As the sun set and evening approached, two players began to separate themselves from the rest of the field. Nick Cipiti was mowing down players in the top half of the bracket by scoring wins over Joe Avila, Reid McKinley, and Paul Feltman. After a bye in the first round, these victories would place Nick in the hot seat match on Saturday night.
While Nick was clipping off players in the top of the bracket, a well known Flagstaff player, Junior Jiron, was finishing off the bottom half of the bracket. He too, would receive a bye in the first round and proceed to rattle off wins over Adam Kroll, Chris Miller and Rick Armbrust. His wins would pit him against Nick in the hot seat match.
Meanwhile, over on the B side of the bracket, previous winner Mike Hamman was making quick work of his opponents. After losing his first match of the tourney to
Rick Armbrust, he would roll through Jerry Hartnett, Jude Espinosa, Joe Masi and Sara Miller. This would setup a rematch with Rick Armbrust. Unfortunately for Mike, Rick played as solid as he has all year on the tour and walked away with the victory. Mike would settle for a 5/6 finish.
As the B side progressed, Nick made quick work of Junior in the hot seat match. Nick would cruise to an easy 7-3 victory and await the winner of Rick and Junior. As easily as he lost the hot seat match , Junior would rebound and score a dominant 7-2 victory over Rick, leaving him with a 3rd place finish.
During the finals, both players would make some uncharacteristic mistakes. At 4-4 in the straight race to 7, it was obvious we were in for a close finish. Nick would take the lead at 5-4, only to see Junior win the next two games and reach the hill at 6-5. Nick would quickly tie the match at 6-6. After a scratch on the break in the case game, Junior was faced with a tough out, despite having ball in hand. After 12 games, the players were tied at 6 games a piece. Junior would attempt a 1-10 bank combo only to come up a little short. Faced with a tough out of his own, Nick studied the table and attempted a 1-10 cross side combo bank of his own. Nick would nail the shot to take home the win!
Thank you to Dale and the staff at Stingers for hosting another successful tourney. The DCT would like to thank the 2013 sponsors (On Q Cases, Black Heart Billiard Tips, AzBilliards.com, Billiard and Dart News, Rixx Images, AzPoolscene.com, Jeff Pranke Leather Wraps), and room owners (Pockets, Bullshooters, Kolbys, Skip and Jan’s, Stingers, River City) who continue to support the DCT. The next tour stop is November 2-3, at Bullshooters. This will be the final regular season event before the finale in December. Please visit DesertClassicTour.com for details.
