Things were running fairly smoothly for the 2015 Action Pool Tour Champion, Brandon Shuff, during the tour's 2016 season opener on the weekend of January 16-17. Until, that is, Shuff ran into Danny Mastermaker in a winners' side semifinal. Shuff had to shuffle on over to the loss side, where he chalked up three wins (including a rematch versus Mastermaker), and came back to defeat hot seat occupant, Rafael Reyes in the finals. The event drew 54 entrants to Magic 8 Cue Club in Cockeysville, MD.
Over his first four games, each of Shuff's opponents added two racks to the number scored against him in the previous round. An opening round shutout over Alan Duty was followed by a 7-2 win over Chris Pyle, which was followed by a 7-4 win over Kenny Miller, which was followed by a double hill, 7-6 win over Brett Stottlemyer. This set him up in a winners' side semifinal against Mastermaker, as Reyes and Shaun Wilkie squared off in the other one.
Mastermaker sent Shuff to the loss side 7-2, while Reyes (who, by the way, started out with a double hill win and followed it with a shutout and two 7-4 wins) defeated Wilkie 7-3. Reyes claimed the hot seat in one of those 'almost double hill,' 7-5 battles and waited on the return of Shuff.
On the loss side, Shuff picked up Steve Fleming, who'd been sent to the loss side by Wilkie and after shutting out Will Moon, had defeated Randy Thomas 7-2. Wilkie, in the meantime, drew Stottlemyer, who, following his defeat at the hands of Shuff, had defeated Jimmy Varias and Trevor Dentz, both 6-2.
Stottlemyer and Shuff advanced to a somewhat familiar quarterfinal matchup, once Stottlemyer had eliminated Wilkie 6-2, and Shuff had downed Fleming 6-4. Shuff then took care of business with Stottlemyer, retiring him 6-4 in the quarterfinals, and turning for a re-match against Mastermaker.
Shuff gave up only a single rack to Mastermaker in the semifinals, and turned to face Reyes in the hot seat. A double hill battle ensued, eventually won by Shuff 9-8 to claim the APT's season opener; step one in a quest to repeat as tour champion.
First it was Brandon Shuff, and now, it's Brian Deska. Action Pool Tour ranking leader, Shaun Wilkie can't get a break. After winning the final four stops on the 2014 tour schedule, Wilkie won the opening two stops in 2015. His seven-peat was stopped by Brandon Shuff, who won two straight, and then, joining the tour for the first time in 2015, Brian Deska defeated both Shuff and Wilkie, back to back, in May. He went on to defeat Shuff a second time in the finals. On the weekend of June 13-14, at Diamond Billiards in Midlothian, Virginia, Deska (again) went undefeated through a field of 44, this time defeating Wilkie twice.
In the opening four rounds of play, each of Deska's opponents did just a little better than his predecessor. Deska defeated Joshua Watson 8-2, Mike Davis (third place in the tour rankings) 8-3, Kenny Miller 8-5, and had to survive a double hill fight against Steve Fleming to advance to a winners' side semifinal against John Wright. Wilkie, in the meantime, gave up only five racks, total, in his four rounds against Luther Pickeral, Cheryl Pritchard, Cary Dunn (2), and Trevor Dentz, advancing to the other winners' side semifinal against Shuff. Deska made short work of Wright, dispatching him to the loss side 8-1, while Wilkie and Shuff battled to double hill, before Wilkie prevailed to join Deska in the hot seat match. Deska claimed his second straight APT hot seat 8-5, and waited for one of the tour's two top-ranked players to return from the semifinals.
On the loss side, Mike Davis, following his defeat at the hands of Deska in the second winners' side round, was on a six-match winning streak, that included two shutouts. He defeated Garrett Waechter 6-1 and Cary Dunn 6-3, to draw Shuff. Wright picked up Joey Mastermaker, who'd gotten by Randy Thomas 6-4, and survived a double hill battle versus Kenny Miller to reach him.
The match between the tour's second and third-ranked player (Shuff and Davis) went Shuff's way 6-3, while Mastermaker eliminated Wright 6-4.
Shuff defeated Mastermaker 6-3 in the quarterfinals, creating a second matchup between the tour's first- and second-ranked player, Wilkie and Shuff. They'd had to compete in a 15th game to decide their winners' side match. They only played seven in the semifinals, with Wilkie giving up just a single rack to earn a second shot against Deska.
Deska, though, proved to be just as stingy. He gave up only three racks to Wilkie in the finals, completing his undefeated run 10-3 to claim his second straight APT title. Having only participated, so far, in two of the tour's six stops to date, Deska is currently at #19 on the tour's rankings, well behind Wilkie, Shuff and Davis. Wilkie has competed in all six stops, while Shuff and Davis have each competed four times.
