Stan Tourangeau worked his way through a larger-than-expected field of entrants at the Memorial Weekend 9-Ball Championship and went undefeated to claim the title. The $1,640-added event, which had originally advertised a 64-player field drew twice that many to the 15th Street Grill in Auburn, WA. Held under the auspices of the not-for-profit organization of pool players in the greater Seattle area, called Players Club Limited, selected matches of the event throughout the weekend were live-streamed through the services of Rail2Rail.TV.
Tourangeau’s undefeated effort was almost derailed at the outset by Tommy Sliva who battled him to double hill before giving way and allowing him to advance. Tourangeau got by three more opponents – Tom Christine 7-4, Dave Demmit 7-5 and Clay Belvoir 7-4 – to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal match against Sean Lewis. Randy Baker, in the meantime, who would end up facing Tourangeau twice, squared off against Jeff Coates in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Lewis would end up giving Tourangeau a second, double hill run for his money, but Tourangeau advanced to the hot seat match to face Baker, who’d sent Coates to the loss side 7-5. In their first of two, Tourangeau downed Baker 7-3 to claim the hot seat.
On the loss side, Coates picked up James Davee, who’d shut out Lito Atendido and defeated Tim Tweedell double hill to reach him. Lewis drew John Doherty, who’d been sent to the loss side by Baker in a winners’ side quarterfinal and then eliminated Gerald O’Connor 6-4 and shut out Blair Wentzell.
Davee and Lewis advanced to the quarterfinals with identical 6-4 victories over Coates and Doherty. Davee then eliminated Lewis 6-2. Baker earned his right to a re-match against Tourangeau with a 6-3 victory in the semifinals.
In the race-to-9 finals that followed, Baker got a few more extra racks in than he’d been able to muster in the hot seat match, but they weren’t enough. Tourangeau took the final 9-5 and claimed the Memorial Weekend 9-Ball Championship title.
Shane Van Boening double-dipped James Aranas of the Philippines to win the 8-Ball Division of the U.S. Bar Table Championship Saturday, locking up the All-Around title for the third time.
Van Boening won the 9-Ball Division and took second in the 10-Ball Division earlier this week. He also won the All-Around title in 2008 and 2010.
Van Boening came into the finals from the one-loss side of the bracket. He started the tournament with wins over: Ernesto Dominguez, 5-1; Dave Strachan, 5-0; Dennis Orcollo, 5-3; Max Eberle, 5-4; before losing to Jesse Engle, 4-5. On the B-Side of the bracket, he bested; Mitch Ellerman, 5-1; Skyler Woodward, 5-3; and Jesse Engel, 5-2 to make it to the finals. Van Boening met Aranas in the finals and beat him 5-1 in the first set, to force a second set in the true double-elimination tournament.
Aranas’ went into the finals undefeated, beating: Michael Tonsowny, 5-0; Andrew Wroblewski, 5-3; Marshall Hill, 5-2; Mitch Ellerman, 5-2; Skyler Woodward, 5-0; and Jesse Engel, 5-3. But he was unable to beat Van Boening in the finals.
[photo id=48388|align=right]In the Women’s Division, Arizona’s Bernie Store was undefeated to win the title of 2017 US Bar Table Women’s 8-Ball Champion.
Jessica Frideres, who won the 9-Ball Division, came through the one loss side to meet Store in the finals. Frideres won her first match of the tournament against Amanda Stevens, 4-0, before Store sent her to the losers bracket, 4-3. On the B-side, Frideres bested: Molly Oliver, 4-0; Karen Poitra, 4-2; Jennifer Shumaker, 4-1; Rachel Lang, 4-0; and Tian Tian, 4-2. But Frideres wouldn’t be able to overcome Store in the finals, where she lost 4-1.
They call it The Freeze; an annual event, hosted by Malarkey's Pool & Brew in Tacoma, WA. Given that temperatures throughout this year's March 5-6 event ranged in the upper 50s to low 60s, the title's a bit of a misnomer, and given the level of competition generally on display, you'd think it would boast a title with a touch more heat to it. Last year, Shane Van Boening defeated Rafael Martinez in the finals. This year, Marc Vidal and Simon Pickering worked their way around a host of other marquee names (Warren Kiamco, Jeffrey Ignacio and John Morra, for example) to be the last two standing. Vidal went undefeated in the $1,500-added event that drew 72 entrants to Malarkey's.
Vidal and Pickering met first in the hot seat match. Vidal had sent Kiamco to the loss side 7-4, as Pickering was doing likewise, 7-5, to Ignacio in the winners' side semifinals. Vidal moved into the hot seat 7-5 over Pickering and waited for him to get back.
On the loss side, Kiamco had the misfortune of running into a surging John Morra, who'd defeated Paul Poitier 7-4 and Eddie Carrido 7-2 to reach him. Ignacio picked up Damian Pongpanik, who'd just eliminated Sean Lewis and Dan Louie, both 7-3. Ignacio and Morra moved on to the quarterfiinals, both 7-5, over Pongpanik and Kiamco.
Morra defeated Ignacio 7-4, and then, by the same score, was himself eliminated in the semifinals by Pickering. Vidal required only a single set of the potential double elimination final, defeating Pickering 7-3, to complete his undefeated run and claim the 2016 Freeze title.
