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.
In the absence of the event’s defending champion and runner-up, Shane Van Boening and Corey Deuel, the 26th Annual Jay Swanson “Swanee” Memorial’s 2022 champion was Oscar Dominguez, who went undefeated through a field of 64. Advancing to the hot seat against him was the 2019 winner, Max Eberle, who was ousted in the semifinals by runner-up, Ruben Bautista. The $4,000-added event was hosted by Griff’s in Las Vegas.
As is always the case, the annual memorial to someone who is remembered in the pool community, leads to conversations about him. Jay “Swanee” Swanson, referred to as a ‘Gentle Giant,’ was, by all accounts, one of the best ‘money’ players of all time, before he passed in 1996. In June, 2008, a Forum thread was initiated on AZBilliards, entitled “Tell me about Jay Swanson.” If you weren’t at the tournament and/or know nothing about the man, use the opportunity and read that thread, in lieu of a moment of silence in his honor, to learn what many in the existing pool community already know.
As it turned out, Oscar Dominguez’ undefeated seven-match march to the finish line of the “Swanee” Memorial was not the longest string of wins at the event. Jordan Holman also had a seven-match winning streak, in between his opening match loss and his final loss in the battles for 5th/6th. The ‘most wins in a row’ prize went to Ronnie Wiseman, who finished 4th, also sandwiching his eight wins between an opening round loss and his last match.
Dominguez’ seven-match march to the finish line started out with a shutout and until the hot seat match, no one chalked up more than four racks against him in the races to 8. Tom Whitten was the opponent he shut out before he gave up three each to Richard Burns and Vilmos Foldes. It was Ernie Rivas who managed the four, which brought Dominguez to a winners’ side semifinal against Ian Costello.
Eberle, in the meantime, opened with back-to-back 8-2 victories over Charles Joseph Jacques and Scott Bush, before James Davee threw a one-game-away-from-double-hill scare into him with six racks. The ‘scare’ appeared to inspire him, as he shut out his next opponent, Matt Hardwick, and moved on to a winners’ side semifinal against Ruben Bautista.
Dominguez got into the hot seat match with an 8-1 victory over Costello. Eberle joined him after downing Bautista 8-5 and sending him to the loss side from which he would return to challenge Eberle again, in the semifinals, and Dominguez in the finals.
On the loss side, Bautista picked up Jordan Holman, who’d lost to Jeff Gray in the opening, winners’ side round and was six matches into his loss-side run, that had included recent victories over Ernie Rivas 7-2 and a shutout win over Tim Daniel. Costello drew Ronnie Wiseman, who was six matches into his eight-in-a-row, loss-side run. He’d eliminated Jeff Gray (for Holman), had recently handed Matt Hardwick his second straight shutout and sent Bret Huth home 6-2.
Bautista ended Holman’s loss-side streak, though not before Holman had forced a 13th deciding game. Wiseman, in the meantime, extended his streak to its eighth win, downing Costello 7-2. Bautista left Wiseman in the 4th place dust (7-2) and then, in a rematch, defeated Eberle 7-4 in the semifinals.
Entering the finals, Oscar Dominguez was sporting a 73% game-winning average through six matches (48-17). Bautista stepped to the table with a 66% average through eight matches (58-29); his loss to Eberle and his first loss-side, double hill match versus Holman had dropped that percentage down from the 78% it had been before he’d run into Eberle. Dominguez won the game-winning percentage in the finals by a fair amount (66%). Bautista’s game-winning average in the finals was dramatically low at 38%, much more dramatic than the actual score. Dominguez completed his undefeated run with an 11-7 win over Bautista to claim the 26th Annual “Swanee” Memorial title.
Tournament director Tim Kovacs thanked Mark Griffin (“for adding the $4,000 and for all (he) does for pool) and his “always awesome” Griff’s Staff for their hospitality. He thanked Daniel Krupinski, as well, for filling in on short notice and doing a good job running the free stream. Kovacs also thanked Mike Moyer for helping things run smoothly ‘on the board.’ He broadened the scope of general thanks, to include any and all who’d supported the event.
