Woodward, Chohan & Kibaroglu Take Big Tyme Classic

April 30th, 2024 | azhousepro | Uncategorized

Skyler Woodward

Owners Billy Sharp, Mark Avery and Jim Henry and their staff welcomed players to their 11^th Annual Big Tyme Classic. Held in Spring, TX, a suburb of Houston, this $14,000 added event featured three divisions – Open 9-Ball, One Pocket and Ladies 9-Ball.

Local sponsors included attorney Joseph J. Long, Brutal Game Gear, Star City Amusements, Diamond Billiard Products, Simonis, Aramith, Savage Billiards, Jim Stinson of AM Inc. and the Fort Worth Billiards Superstore as well as Big Tyme Billiards and PoolActionTV.com.

Kicking off on Wednesday evening was the $5,000 added One Pocket Championship. Sixteen players put up a $300 entry fee to play in this double elimination event. The format was alternate breaks and races to 4/3 with the finals being one extended race to five. After the players auction, meeting and draw, the matches began.

Hot off his victory over Tony Chohan in last week’s Champions Challenge One Pocket match and the reigning Bayou State Classic One Pocket champ, Billy Thorpe blistered Ryan Braselman 4-0. Defending champion Roberto Gomez showed no mercy against Tulsa’s Greg Hogue – also 4-0. Runner-up at this year’s Skinny Bob’s One Pocket Championship, Raed Shabib, edged out Baton Rouge’s Jeff Padilla 4-3. Current Midwest Billiards One Pocket champ, Sky Woodward, survived a 4-3 scare over Wayne Berry – also from Baton Rouge. This year’s Rack One Pocket champ, Tony Chohan, defeated Houston’s Nick Schipon 4-1.

Hometown favorites Alex Calderon spanked Filipino Jeffrey de Luna 4-1, Tommy Tokoph smoked fellow Texan John Braud 4-0 and Ernesto Bayaua scored a win over Gallup, NM’s Eric Aicinena.

Second round action saw Chohan over Calderon and Woodward over Shabib – both scores 4-0. Bayaua defeated Tokoph 4-1 and Gomez sent Thorpe west with a 4-2 win.

In a hard fought match to get to the hot seat match was Bayaua and Gomez – Ernesto won 4-3. In the lower portion of the chart, Woodward defeated Chohan 4-2.

The hot seat match winner was Woodward over Bayaua 4-2. Ernesto headed west to await an opponent.

On the one loss side and after losing his second match, Calderon defeated Hogue 3-1, Shabib also 3-1 and Gomez 3-2 until he faced Chohan. On the one loss side, Tony had scored revenge against Thorpe 3-0 and eliminated Alex 3-1. Chohan was now in high gear and even though he had played well the entire event, Bayaua was no match for Tony and lost 3-0. Ernesto finished with a well-deserved third place finish.

As mentioned previously, the finals were an extended race to five. Neck and neck all the way and tied at four apiece, Sky missed a tough bank and Tony ran out for the game and title. What a match!

Tony Chohan

The $8,000 added Open 9-Ball division began on Friday evening. Played on Diamond bar boxes, the format for this double elimination tournament was alternate breaks and races to 9/7 with the three foul rule in effect. Using the Magic Rack with the nine on the spot, players broke from the box. Nine on the break didn’t count in the racking corners.

Paying an $80 entry fee, 119 players were auctioned off and play began after a players meeting and draw.

To no one’s surprise, it was Jeffrey de Luna, Sky Woodward, Roberto Gomez and Johnathan Pinegar (“Hennessee”) who marched to the final four on the winners side.

In the upper portion of the bracket, De Luna had wins over Kyle Lowry 9-0, Mike Jones 9-2, Jeff Lovelace 9-1, Shahram Changezl 9-6 and Raed Shabib 9-1.

Woodward defeated Chuck Willie 9-2, Sherman Sylestine 9-1, Pablo Trinidad 9-3, James Davis Jr.9-5 and JC Torres 9-3.

Woodward faced off against de Luna and won 9-7. Sky moved into the hot seat match.

In the lower portion of the bracket, Gomez beat Hiep Hong 9-0, Greg Hogue 9-4, Derek Fontenot 9-6, Billy Sharp 9-0 and Jeff Sullivan 9-5.

Hennessee squeaked past Joyme Vicente 9-8 and then went on to beat Jesse Moore 9-2, Joey Bourgeois 9-3, Soledad Ayala 9-6 and Tony Chohan 9-7.

Playing to get into the hot seat match, Gomez claimed victory over Hennessee 9-6.

The hot seat match was all Woodward as he locked up his seat in the finals over Gomez 9-4.

Over on the one loss side, Hennessee eliminated Alex Calderon 7-1, de Luna 7-6 and then Gomez 7-5 to claim the remaining berth in the finals.

Since this was true double elimination, Hennessee would have to defeat Woodward twice to win the tournament.

Hennessee won the first game and Sky tied it up. He then led most of the match with Hennessee mostly playing catch-up until Sky finally pulled away at five apiece and won three in a row to reach the hill. Woodward closed out the last game, winning 9-5, to take the title!

Eylul Kibaroglu

The $1,000 Ladies 9-Ball division began on Saturday night with a players auction, meeting and draw. Thirty nine players paid a $55 entry to play in this double eliimination event. Also played on Diamond bar boxes and using the Magic Rack, the format was races to 7/7 with alternate breaks. Play began the following morning.

From Turkey and now living in Houston, current Skinny Bob’s Ladies Nine Ball Classic and champ, Eylul Kibaroglu, San Antonio’s Mille Alvaraz, Houston’s Robyn Petrosino and Skinny Bob’s co-owner Kim Sanders rounded out the final four on the winner’s side.

After drawing a first round bye, Petrosino cut her way through the field with wins over Tuyen Nguyen 7-5, Jillian Nickerson 7-1 and Sara Bork 7-5.

Kibaroglu defeated Terri Resendez 7-3, Marle Clark 7-1, Trerenee Simpson 7-2 and Annie Swelgin 7-2 before meeting Robyn and beating her 7-3. Eylul moved into the hot seat match.

In the bottom of the bracket, Almaraz also drew a first round bye and followed that with wins over Eva Grigsby 7-1, Jaiden Barbour 7-2 and the always tough Kelly Isaac 7-4.

After another first round bye, Sanders defeated Cheyenne Valdez 7-3, Camille Campbell 7-1 and edged out Larissa Almendarez 7-6 before losing to Mille Almaraz 7-5. Mille then moved into the hot seat match where she was defeated by Eylul 7-2.

Waiting for Almaraz was Petrosino. Robyn went down 5-1 and Mille was in the finals!

Again, since this was true double elimination, Almarez would have to win two sets to claim the title, however, it was not to be. The finals were closer than the hot seat match but when the smoke cleared, it was Eylul who won the match 7-5 and took down the tournament!

PoolActionTV.com would like to thank Big Tyme’s owners Billy Sharp, Mark Avery and Jim Henry and their staff for doing, as always, a great job taking care of all the players and fans!

We’d also like to thank Tournament Director Teresa Garland for doing a great job running the various events.

In addition, thanks go out to Larry Schwartz, Brian Butler and Ray Hansen for their excellent commentary.

And finally, PoolActionTV.com would like to thank our fans and sponsors. Our sponsors included attorney Joseph J. Long, JB Cases, Aramith, Simonis, Lomax Custom Cues, Diamond Billiard Products, Hanshew Jump Cues, Savage Billiards, Durbin Custom Cues, Bull Carbon, the Action Palace of Dayton, OH and the Fort Worth Billiards Superstore of Fort Worth, TX.

Our next event is the 7^th Annual Scotty Townsend Memorial held at Arena Billiards in West Monroe, LA. The dates are May 3rd-5th! Hope to see you there!

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Amit Advances with Come from Behind Victory in The World Games First Round

July 15th, 2022 | azhousepro | Uncategorized

Rubilen Amit and Pia Filler

WOMEN’S POOL
Rubilen Amit 9-8 Pia Filler

When Rubilen Amit missed a 9-ball in the corner pocket in the 14^th game and allowed her opponent, Germany’s Pia Filler, to snatch the rack and build an 8-6 lead, it appeared her chances to advance to the quarterfinals of the World Games were all but gone.

“I just it seemed as if I lost hope of winning,” she said after the match. “That was actually a crucial shot.”

Thankfully for her, a small group of Filipinos from the Birmingham area were in attendance encouraging her to keep fighting – which she did, using safety exchanges mixed with a little bit of luck to win three straight racks and defeat Filler, 9-8, Thursday night.

“I’m very grateful for them because they kept the energy for me, because there were times where my energy was quite low and I was kind of down,” she said.

Amit missed the 1 ball in the 16^th rack but watched as the cue ball rolled into an accidental safety, which allowed her to regain control of the table, clear the rack and pull within one game. She would add on another win when her opponent scratched while attempting to kick at the 7 ball. With the score now tied,

Amit broke open the rack and left the 1 ball perfectly nestled in the jaws of the far corner pocket.

There was just one issue: the cue ball did not have a path to the object ball, instead blocked by a nearby 3 and 7 ball. Amit opted to use the “push out” rule, allowing her to push the cue ball anywhere on the table and offer the shot to her opponent, who can then either take it or decline.

When Filler declined the shot, Amit soon realized she’d pushed the ball into an area of table that the vertically-challenged women could not reach, ultimately kicking at and failing to contact the object ball.

“When Pia returned a shot back to me, I was like smiling because I couldn’t reach the shot,” said Amit. “But then I was still quite still quite hopeful because the rack isn’t that easy to clear.”
Which is exactly what happened, as the German scratched after missing a sharp cut shot on the 3 ball. Amit the cleared the table to secure the win, as her newfound crowd of supporters erupted. “Their cheering was what was what kept me on was what kept me in the game,” said Amit.

Veronika Ivanovskaia 9-1 Soledad Ayala 

Fellow German Veronika Ivanovskaia jumped out to an early 4-0 advantage and cruised to an easily 9-1 victory over Argentina’s Soledad Ayala in the opening match of the evening session of Thursday night’s round-of-16 competition.

“I played quite solid I would say,” said Ivanovskaia. “I made the right shots and stood calm. All in all, I would say it was a good performance.”

The German experimented with her break during the match due to the cue ball reacting differently on the left side of the table in comparison to the opposite side, ultimately finding a spot which worked for her down the stretch.

After climbing onto the scoreboard in the fifth rack, the Argentinian continued to battle throughout the match but was unable to capitalize on many opportunities.

Ivanovskaia will now face Amit in the quarterfinals on Friday.

MEN’S POOL
Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz 11-8 Ko Ping-Chung

Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz produced six break and runs as he defeated Ko Ping-Chung 11-8 to reach the quarter-finals of Men’s Pool at The World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.

The Spaniard is enjoying the most fruitful year of his career to date and produced a confident display to overcome a tough opponent in what was a tricky first-round draw.

It wasn’t until the 10th game that either player pulled more than one ahead of his opponent, and it was Sanchez-Ruiz who went 6-4 ahead before extending that lead to 7-4, benefitting from a little luck along with the way. Ko fought back to 7-6 but Sanchez-Ruiz arrived on the hill with a 10-7 lead.

Ko took the next game on his break, but Sanchez-Ruiz came up with his sixth runout of the match – the most by one player so far at The World Games – to complete the victory.

“It was an exciting match and I think I played really well but I had some luck in the middle of the match; I made two flukes,” said Sanchez-Ruiz. “I always take it round-by-round and I know Ko Ping-Chung is a champion so I stayed focused.

“A medal at The World Games would be like a dream, this tournament is so important for me. In the first half of the year I have won the Derby City Classic and a few weeks ago won the biggest title of my career [The World Cup of Pool] with my partner David Alcaide. I give 100 percent to every tournament and have played a lot, so I have to stay focused but I will keep trying my best.”

Sanchez-Ruiz has been taking advantage of the chance to compete alongside fellow Spaniard and three-time carom Gold medalist Dani Sanchez. “I learn a lot from Dani, he is one of the best players in the world. You have all disciplines here, lots of sports, and I am really happy to be here.”

Aloysius Yapp 11-3 Matt Edwards

Aloysius Yapp will form Sanchez-Ruiz’s opposition in the quarter-finals after an 11-3 win over New Zealand’s Matt Edwards. Yapp moved into a quick 3-0 lead before Edwards was on the board, but three games later Singapore’s Yapp was 6-1 ahead.

Edwards, struggling to get balls on the break, pulled himself back to 6-3 but Yapp took advantage of the New Zealander’s struggles and put five games together to complete a comfortable victory.

“Yapp is always a tough opponent,” said Edwards. “It’s the second time I have played him and he got revenge on me because I won last time. He is getting a lot of good results at the moment and I struggled a lot with the break. I was down early on and it is very difficult to comeback. I knew going down early on and him breaking quite well and shooting well would make it difficult to come back, so it was difficult to stay in the match.

“Without the break you have very little opportunity and when you do get one, a player like Yapp can play very good safety shots. I think he missed one ball but still hooked me, so it is frustrating when you’re not breaking well and then can’t execute the few opportunities you do get.”

The Olympic Channel is live streaming The World Games and billiards will feature on July 16 and July 17 when the finals take place. A full streaming schedule and links are at https://www.theworldgames.org/pages/twg2022streaming. The match schedule, results, and live scores are at esnooker.pl

Follow @wcbsbilliards on social media for full coverage of the billiards program from our team in Birmingham, Alabama.

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