The players appear to like the new format for the Diamond Pool Tour, as a field of 54 players made their way to Pockets Pool and Pub in Tucson, Arizona for stop #2 on the tour. Even with that size of a field, it was still local Tucson players dominating the final stages of the event.
As is always the case, Saturday held it’s fair share of early upsets with Ruben Silva dropping matches to Brian McIntyre and Hugo Villanueva for a “two and out” finish. Another early round upset saw Derek Kawamura drop matches to Terri Adams and Carl Stewart for an early exit.
Saturday play on the winner’s side saw Tucson’s AJ Jones (sans headphones) scoring wins over Marcus Teufel, Brian Long and Ed Scott to remain undefeated. Jones would be joined by Kevin Nguyen, Max Maurer, and Tim Daniel as the final four undefeated players.
The final eight on the one loss side included a handful of lower rated players with Vincent Sbelgio, Steve Adams and Tony Whiting all guaranteed cash finishes. McIntyre and Ricky Teyechea finished one spot out of the money on Saturday night.
Winner’s side action on Sunday saw Jones and Daniel scoring lopsided wins over Nguyen and Maurer to find themselves in the hot-seat match. That match would be a real battle with Jones coming out on top of a hill-hill match.
The story on the one loss side was (Fargo 444 rated) Steve Adams. Adams had remained undefeated almost all day Saturday, finally dropping an 8-1 match to Kevin Nguyen in his final match on Saturday. Adams picked up on Sunday where he left off on Saturday, with wins over Tony Whiting, Ed Scott and Max Maurer. Adams next faced off against Nguyen again, and apparently Nguyen is the only one who knows Adams’ weakness as he defeated Adams 8-0 in the rematch. Adams was so happy with his 4th place finish that he promptly stepped up to become a tour sponsor with his business, Discount Mattress Barn in Tucson.
Nguyen then dropped the semi-final match to Tim Daniel 10-4, setting up a Daniel/Jones rematch in the finals. The players traded racks on the other’s breaks early in the match until AJ Jones finally won rack seven on his own break for a 4-3 lead. That was all the momentum that Jones needed, as he then ran out to a 7-3 lead. Jones would reach the hill first at 9-4 and finally win the match 10-5 for first place.
The Diamond Pool Tour will brave the cold at Freezer’s Ice House on June 9th – 10th for the third stop of the season.
The G Cue Billiard Store Diamond Pool Tour made its only trip to Tucson this season, with a stop at Pockets on July 15th – 16th. Once again, two new champions were crowned at these events, with El Paso’s Ramon Rodriguez winning the amateur event, and Tucson’s Chris Paradowski winning a marathon final match to capture the open division crown.
Things got underway on Saturday, with 25 players competing in the amateur division. By the luck of the draw, Tucson’s Mike Hamman drew his wife Tracie in the first round of play. Mike won that match going away, but it would be far from the last time fans in attendance would hear from the fairer of the Hammans. Mike Hamman’s trek through the winner’s side included a hill-hill nail biter over Tommy Dilorenzo and wins over Chris Campbell and John Alteri.
Hamman’s opponent for the hot-seat was Ramon Rodriguez. This was Rodriguez’s first DCT tour stop, and he had to play at the top of the Fargo scale, meaning he was giving weight to almost every opponent all weekend long. Rodriguez’s run through the right side of the board consisted of wins over James Bentley, Dakota Conroy, Joe Guerra and Johnny Dearmore.
It appeared that Rodriguez saved his best for last, as he sent Hamman to the one loss side by a convincing 9-3 margin.
On the one loss side, Mike Hamman found a familiar opponent in the form of wife Tracie. After the first round loss to Mike, Tracie put together a 6 match winning streak to challenge Mike in the semi-finals. Unfortunately for Tracie, the rematch with Mike was similar to their first match, with Mike winning 9-1.
The semi-final wasn’t the only rematch with a similar outcome, as Rodriguez scored another 9-3 win over Mike Hamman in the first and only round of the finals.
Sunday’s open division drew a field made up of 16 top players. Stop 1 winner, Gus Briseno, found himself in unfamiliar territory after a first round hill-hill loss to Bret Huth, but he would be back again.
Huth dropped his next match to AJ Jones, who then went on to challenge Chris Paradowski for the hot-seat. That match was fairly lopsided, with Paradowski scoring a 10-3 win.
Meanwhile, Briseno was putting on a 9-ball clinic on the one loss side of the board. Briseno notched wins over Ben Hrabina, Tonee Allin, Tim Christopher and Ruben Silva, by a combined score of 44-9. Briseno then took advantage of a forfeit by Rudy Alameda and then continued his winning ways with an 11-3 win over Jones in the semi-finals.
The finals saw Briseno facing Paradowski in an 11-9 race. The late hour meant nothing to these players as they battled to hill-hill in the first set before Briseno pocketed the final 9-ball. That meant a second set would have to be played to determine the final winner. Again, the match went to hill-hill, but this time it was Paradowski pocketing the final 9-ball and earning the tournament win.
The G Cue Billiard Store Diamond Pool Tour will travel to Las Vegas next month for a stop at Griff’s on August 5th – 6th.
The G Cue Billiard Store Diamond Pool Tour is proudly sponsored by…
Skyler Woodward added 28 points to his Mosconi Cup ranking total on the weekend of October 7-10, with an undefeated run in the Men's Division of the 4th Annual Chinook Winds 10-Ball Championships. Woodward is 77 points behind the Mosconi Cup rankings leader, Shane Van Boening, and 32 points ahead of Rodney Morris, who finished in the tie for 5th. The $10,000-added event drew 100 entrants to the Chinook Winds Resort & Casino in Lincoln, OR. A $4,000-added Ladies Open event (still ongoing as of this writing) was run concurrently, and drew 29 entrants.
Woodward also won the Friday night "Warm Up" event, which drew 73 entrants, and featured three matches between Woodward and Morris; the hot seat match, won by Woodward, and the finals, which they split, with Woodward winning the decisive last match.
In the main event, two preliminary brackets yielded 16 competitors advancing to a final bracket of 32, 16 on each side. With memories of Friday night's "Warm Up" in place, Woodward and Morris were still in play to battle it out for the title (and Mosconi Cup points), though Morris, originally defeated, double hill, by Dan Louie in one of the preliminary brackets, was on the loss side.
In a winners' side quarterfinal, Woodward downed Todd Marsh 7-3 and advanced to face Chris McDaniel. Filipino Antonio Lining, in the meantime, survived a double hill battle versus Max Eberle to face Amar Kang in the other winners' side semifinal. Kang got by Lining 7-4 and in the hot seat match, faced Woodward, who'd sent McDaniel to the loss side 7-3.Woodward defeated Kang 7-4 and waited in the hot seat for what turned out to be Lining.
On the loss side (final bracket, after winning three in the preliminary bracket), Morris had gotten by Ruben Silva 7-5, Chris Byers 7-1 and Ramil Gallego 7-5 to draw Lining. McDaniel drew Chris Eberle, who'd defeated Christ "Spike" Airdo 7-3, and Jason Williams, double hill, to reach him.
The potential for a Woodward/Morris matchup in the finals was thwarted by a double hill win for Lining, who advanced to the quarterfinals. He was met by McDaniel, who defeated Eberle 7-2.
Lining gave up only a single rack to McDaniel in those quarterfinals, and turned for a re-match against Kang in the semifinals. He eliminated Kang ??-?? to earn a shot against Woodward. To no avail, as it turned out. Woodward made it a single set final with a double hill win to claim the event title.
Andrew “ATM” Pettinger, Jay Hlavachek, Matt Driste and Tony Piazza
The inaugural event of the 2012 Felt Pool Tournament Series was a successful one. On January 21-22, Felt Billiards of Englewood, Colorado hosted the 9-Ball Knock Out, a big table 9-ball tournament with two events, an open two-day main event that started Saturday morning and an A’s & Down event that began Sunday morning. As a fun format, players received the option to “BUY A BYE.” At the time of sign up, the first 16 open players and the first 8 amateur players could purchase a guaranteed bye in the second round which also guaranteed they would not play their first match before noon.
The main event kicked off Saturday morning with a 32-player field and the A’s & Down filled with a full 24-player field with 8 byes. A handful of A players opted to also try their luck on Saturday. For Mike Ellis of Aurora, that extra table time on Saturday paid off as he cruised through the field on Sunday.
Saturday drew an elite field of players, spanning three different states. Top player Mike Dudack from Casper, Wyoming came to try his luck, along with women’s professional player Anna Kostanian and husband Peter Sucre of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Players flocked from the North and South. Jim Calderon came from Pueblo, as well as Colorado Springs road partners Ruben Silva and Frank Ubaniak. Fans were also treated to appearances by touring professionals Melissa Little “The Viper” and Laura Smith.
The rail was jam packed all weekend with savvy spectators who demanded a good show and were not disappointed. Along with the top-notch live pool, fans and players were entertained between matches with the broadcast of the live streaming from the 14th Annual Derby City Classic that was shown on the big screen in the dining area. This professional event kept away local top players, Mark Haddad and recent transplant Marc Vidal.
Both main event and Sunday event went smoothly, even accommodating for the regular Sunday afternoon 10-ball tournament which started a couple hours late. All three finals wrapped up by Sunday evening. In the main event, it was a race-to-seven, winner-break format, using the Magic Ball Racks. After escaping a couple close calls from James Winter and Matt Driste, Andrew Pettenger “ATM” went undefeated for all the marbles. Driste, the dark horse who’s been out of the scene until recently, came out like gang-busters, defeating Kostanian 7-0, as well as victories over Jay Hlavachek and Greg Romero before facing “ATM” for the a-side finals.
In the end, Hlavachek came back through the b-side but was no match for Piazza who would claim that match 7-0 and advance to the semi-finals. Piazza also escaped a close call earlier against Urbaniak. After defeating Hlavachek, he also took out Driste but would find himself no match for Pettenger. In the final rack, Pettenger was ahead 6-5 and opted to play a safety on the 8 ball which left Piazza a safety in return. Pettenger was now faced with a long, touchy 8 ball. After much deliberation, he fired at it, missing the pocket but banking it two rails into the opposite pocket leaving himself straight in on the 9 ball and that was all she wrote.
As the main event brought many close matches, the A’s & Down saw quite a few lop-sided ones. Ellis bought himself a first round head start but didn’t really need it. Of his three rounds after that, he only gave up three games and went undefeated until Joe Conway came along. When they first met, Ellis took that match 4-0. Conway would make his way back for a rematch. In the first round of the finals, Conway returned the favor with 4-0 of his own. Keeping with the theme, Ellis prevailed in the second set 3-0 for the title.
Dustin Yeager of Aurora and Winfield Hong of Centennial both also made a splash on Sunday with their third and fourth place finishes. Yeager was a last minute wild card when a player dropped out the day before. The A’s & Down field was filled by Thursday night.
Felt proudly added $700 between the two events and will continue to add even more money to upcoming events. For more information about the 2012 Tournament Series, visit feltbar.com/2012series. Felt Billiards is located at 101 West Floyd Avenue in Englewood, Colorado and is home to the best weekly tournaments, nightly food and drink specials, and a home away from home for players and spectators alike. Check out feltbar.com for more information and a complete calendar of events.
Special thanks go to our sponsors for this event: Rocky Mountain USA Pool League (RockyMountainPool.com), Access Printing in Englewood (AccessPrint.biz), and the Magic Ball Rack courtesy of CueSports International (playbca.com/magicballrack.aspx). Special recognition also goes to Don Posri and Sean Thamrongpradith for their thankless hard work all weekend. Additional sponsorship opportunities are available for the tournament series. Contact Felt for more information.
