The Diamond Pool Tour kicked off their 2016 season the same way they kicked off their 2015 season, with Scott Frost topping a huge field of “A” and “B” players. The season opener this season was 9-ball on the freshly reclothed 9’ tables at Bull Shooters in Phoenix. Not only did noted table mechanic (and legendary player) Ernesto Dominguez redo the vast majority of the tables at Bull Shooters before the event, but he also stuck around to compete in the event.
A record tying field of 94 players was split between 36 “A” players, and 58 “B” players. Frost started his trek to win the “A” bracket with wins over Emilio Maestas, Eric Young and Navin Talreja. A 9-3 win over top Arizona talent Chuck Evans, was followed up by a nail biting 9-8 win over Dominguez. Frost then cruised to the “A” bracket hot-seat with a 9-5 win over Mitch Ellerman. Ellerman would then defeat Paul Grande 9-3 on the one loss side.
The “B” bracket saw Tucson’s Tonee Allin display top level play all weekend, as he defeated Chris Carpenter, Chan Phan, Joe Guerra, Evan Brinkmann, Manny Luevano and then Oscar Avila Sr. for the hot-seat. On the one loss side. it was Karloz Chavez bouncing back from a 2nd round loss to win nine straight matches, including a 9-4 victory over Avila.
When the two brackets came together, Frost made quick work of Allin 9-2, to take the overall hot-seat. On the one loss side, Ellerman made even quicker work of Chavez, with a 9-0 win. Ellerman then sent Allin back to Tucson with a 9-5 loss, and got ready to take on Frost again in the finals. The finals saw Ellerman hand Frost his first loss with a 9-7 scoreline in the first set of the finals. Ellerman looked to be on his way to the double-dip in the second set, as he led the match early 3-1. A couple untimely mistakes by Ellerman were all that it took though, as Frost came back and won the second set 9-5.
Tour organizers expressed their thanks to Mike and Julie Bates at Bull Shooters, for hosting another great event, Rick Schmitz for the great photos, and “Fast” Lenny Marshall for two days of non-stop streaming coverage of the event.
The tour’s next stop is scheduled for May 14th at Stingers Sports Bar in Phoenix. The event will be bar table 9-ball.
In the seven year history of the Desert Classic Tour, a “B Player” has never won an open event. It was thought by a handful of players that a “B Player” could never win an open event. It took Burt Balancad to correct that misconception.
Twenty nine players made their way to Stingers on November 1st and 2nd to play 9-Ball on the 7’ Diamond tables, and Balancad was almost unstoppable.
As is always the case, day one contained more than it’s fair share of upsets and surprising results. Brett Huth went “two and out” with losses to last month’s winner Oscar Avila & Paul Grande. Ben Sutherland was another “two and out” victim on Saturday. Tres Kane looked to be in danger of the same fate after losing in the first round to Robin Clark, but Kane would correct his path and plow through the one loss side to make Sunday play.
The two players who set themselves ahead of the pack on Saturday were Balancad and “The Mailman” Chuck Evans. Balancad had day one wins over Jerry Stuckart, John Ritonya, Jude Espinoza and Pete Lhotka. Evans stayed with Burt – win for win – all day with wins over Jack Ritonya, Junior Jiron, Brian Reich and Oscar Avila.
Sunday dawned with six players still shooting for the win. Things weren’t looking good for Balancad early in the hot-seat match, as Evans led the 8-7 race 5-2. Balancad then took control and won five of the next six games for the 7-6 win.
On the one loss side, Tres Kane eliminated Oscar Avila 8-5 and Reich sent Pete Lhotka to the seats to join Avila in 5th place.
Reich then beat Kane 8-4 for fourth place.
The semi-final match saw Evans take an early 3-0 lead and force Reich to try to mount a comeback win. The match went back and forth with Evans regaining a three rack lead at 7-4. That was when Reich shifted into a different gear and won four straight games for the 8-7 win.
The first set of the double elimination finals saw each player go on a run. Reich started things off with a three game run, taking a 3-0 lead. Balancad quickly tied things at 3-3, only to watch Reich then win five games in a row for the 8-3 victory, forcing a second set.
The second set was Balancad’s turn to come out and take an early lead. He won the first three games for a 3-0 tally. Reich would then win two games, but Balancad would not allow him to catch up. Balancad pushed his lead back to three games at 5-2 and then traded racks with Reich and won the case game for the 7-4 win.
The Desert Classic Tour will hold their season finale on December 6th and 7th at Bullshooters for a $2000 added 10-Ball event on the 9’ tables.
The Desert Classic Tour returned to Skip & Jan’s Sports Bar in Tempe for the 5th stop on the 2013 schedule with a field of 32 players fighting it out on the 7’ Diamond Tables.
With the best players in the Valley in attendance, it was a slight surprise to see two players ranked outside of the top ten facing off for the hot-seat. #11 ranked Paul Grande started Sunday play with an 8-4 win over #3 ranked Rick Armbrust. Meanwhile, Pete Lhotka (ranked outside of the top 20) beat #1 ranked Mitch Ellerman 8-9 on Sunday morning. That left Lhotka and Grande playing for the hot-seat.
The hot-seat match would be a close one, with Grande coming out as the 8-7 winner.
While the left side of the board looked tough, a handful of the top players on tour didn’t even make it to Sunday play. Dennis Orender (ranked #2), Nick DeLeon (#4) and Bobby Emmons (#7) all suffered “three and out” performances on Saturday and were eliminated out of the money.
While Susan Williams didn’t make Sunday play, she scored her usual upsets over top players with wins over Ray Robles and Dennis Orender on Saturday.
Sunday play on the one loss side was all about “The Freezer”, Scott Frost. After a first round loss to Mike Sandoval on Saturday, Frost had won four matches on the left side of the board to earn his place in Sunday’s matches.
Frost kept things going with a 10-1 win over Tucson’s George Teyechea first thing Sunday morning. Meanwhile, Sandoval scored an 8-6 win over Rick Galloway.
The next round of play saw Frost scoring a 10-5 win over Ellerman and Armbrust eliminating Sandoval 7-5.
The match for fourth place saw Rick Armbrust hold a 3-2 lead over Scott Frost before Frost won eight straight games for a 10-3 win. Frost wasn’t done though, as he went on to win the first nine games against Pete Lhotka in the next match for an amazing run of seventeen games in a row. Lhotka would get on the scoreboard at 9-1, but Frost then closed the match out at 10-1.
The first set of the double elimination finals saw Frost race out to a 4-0 lead and then basically trade racks with Grande for a 10-6 win.
The second set of the finals looked to be going in the same direction for The Freezer as he quickly took a 4-1 lead. That was when Grande took control of the match. He won two games to get back within one rack at 4-3. Frost won another rack and Grande took the next two to tie things at 5-5. Grande then got to the hill at 7-5, leaving Frost needing to win five straight games for the victory. Frost would give it his all and win two in a row before Grande closed out the match with an 8-7 victory.
The Desert Classic Tour will be playing 14.1 at Pockets in Tucson on September 21st and 22nd for the next stop.
