Brian Kilgore, Joseph Wright, Jr., Jimmy Varias and Lai Li.
Burtell and Kedia split top two prizes at concurrent 575 & Under Fargo event
This past weekend (Sun., Feb 5), B & L Tournaments held its inaugural Senior Open at Bank Shot Bar & Grill in Laurel, MD. Potential competitors were ‘carded’ to determine whether they had reached the qualifying age of 50, and according to Brian Kilgore (the ‘B’ in B & L), there was at least one person who was turned away because he would not be 50 until days after the start of the tournament. The event drew 46 entrants and requests for more of them, as well as requests to arrange for a similar Super Seniors event in the future.
Joseph Wright, Jr. joined the AZBilliards database for the first time as the undefeated winner of the inaugural event. Jimmy Varias, who’s been recording entries in his database on the site for a decade, was the event runner-up.
The single-day event was run concurrently with a Fargo Rate ‘575 and below’ event which drew 23 entrants and saw Danny Burtell and Harshit Kedia split the top two prizes. As the undefeated occupant of the hot seat at the time, Burtell became that event’s official winner.
The Senior Open was conducted on 16, 7 ft. Diamond tables, while the ‘575 and below’ tournament played out on the room’s three 9 ft. Diamonds.
Wright and Varias would meet twice on Wright’s path to the winners’ circle, which was almost sidetracked in his opening round, when Bruce Krumrine battled him to double hill. Wright survived and advanced through Scott Hurley, Steve Johnson and Paul Oh to arrive at his first meeting against Varias in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Wes Ormrod, in the meantime, received an opening round bye before sending Richard Davidson, Craig Rineman (double hill), Lou Wehage to draw Andy Lincoln in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Both battles for advancement to the hot seat match went double hill; Wright over Varias and Ormrod over Lincoln. Wright claimed the hot seat 7-4 over Ormrod and waited on the return of Varias.
On the loss side, Varias met and defeated Curtis Fleshman 6-4. Lincoln drew Scott Hurley, who was working on a seven-match, loss-side winning streak and chalked up his sixth with a 6-3 win over Lincoln. Varias put a stop to Hurley’s loss-side streak in the quarterfinals, defeating him 6-1 and then, eliminating Ormrod in the semifinals 6-2.
Varias came within a game of making it a double hill match in what proved to be the only set necessary in a true double elimination final. Wright edged out in front to win it and claim the B & L’s 1st Annual Senior Open.
Danny Burtell and Harshit Kedia.
Kedia wins eight on the loss side for right to face Burtell in a final that didn’t happen
Harshit Kedia played twice as many matches as Danny Burtell in the ‘575 and below’ event, occurring concurrently with the Senior Open. He lost his second-round match and went on an eight-match, loss-side winning streak that concluded when he and Burtell agreed to a split of the top two prizes. Had it not been for Kedia, the semifinals might have been a match between the ‘L’ in B & L (Lai Li) and the son of the ‘B’ in B & L, Lucas Kilgore (14). The ‘B’ and the ‘L’ of B & L faced each other, while the ‘L’ faced father and son, back to back.
It was Burtell and Li who ended up facing each other in the hot seat. Burtell got by Chris Dietrich and Mark Somers to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal versus Niranjan Rayamajhi. Li downed Karlene Goodrich and Joshua Mohammed before running into ‘B’ (Brian Kilgore) in a winners’ side quarterfinal. The two battled to double hill before Li prevailed to face his son in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Burtell and Rayamajhi battled to double hill before Burtell advanced to the hot seat match. Li downed Lucas Kilgore 4-1 to join him. Burtell sent Li to the semifinals 4-1 and claimed the hot seat.
On the loss side, Harshit Kedia, with three notches already on his loss-side belt, met up with Brian Kilgore. A double hill match ensued, eventually advancing Kedia to wins over Judie Wilson and (for advancement to the quarterfinals) Rayamajhi, both 4-1. Lucas Kilgore drew Francis Cabalza, who’d defeated Greg Roberts and Joshua Mohammed, both double hill, to reach him. He eliminated Cabalza 3-3 (Cabalza racing to 4) to join Hedia in the quarterfinals.
Kedia chalked up his seventh loss-side win, eliminating Kilgore in a double hill battle and then played what proved to be the event’s final match, the semifinals. That went double hill as well, eventually leaving Lai Li in third place. The arrangement was made to split the top two prizes and the B & L’s double-event day was over.
Next up on the B & L Billiards Tournaments calendar will be the second in its 10-Ball Mini Series, at which players throughout the year will be amassing points for qualification to a Series Final in December, competing in a no-entry-fee event with a prize fund of $3,000, with a $1,000 prize fund for a consolation event. Stop #2 in the series is scheduled for this Sunday (Feb. 12) at Bank Shot Bar & Grill in Laurel, MD. In recognition of the fact that the event will play out during Super Bowl LVII, B & L is billing the event as the B & L 10-Ball Series Football Block Fundraiser. The event will help in raising funds for the end-of-season, no-entry-fee event. They’ve created a Super Bowl Block board with $20 numbers. Instant payouts will be awarded to winners at the end of each quarter. A live number draw for the chart will be held as soon as the block is full and all spots are paid for. Further information and links the board are available on B & L Billiards Tournaments’ Facebook page.
It’s been a good year for Mike Davis, Jr., who’d already chalked up his best (recorded) earnings year since 2016, when he travelled to Maryland this past Thanksgiving Day weekend (Nov. 26-27) and competed in the MD State Bar Box 10-Ball Championships. He got sent to the loss side by his eventual opponent in the double elimination final, Tom Zippler, and defeated him twice in the double elimination final to claim the title. The $3,750-added event drew 86 entrants to Brews & Cues on the Boulevard in Glen Burnie, MD.
The battle for this title was, by close-match standards, fierce; 38% of the tournament’s last 18 matches (7) went double hill, including the hot seat match, semifinal and first set of the true double elimination final. Mike Davis’ campaign opened up with a double hill battle that he won over Scott Haas. Davis followed up with wins over Clint Clayton (4), Mike Saleh (4) and Steve Fleming (5), to arrive at his first match against Zippler, in one of the a winners’ side semifinals. Zippler’s path started out easy enough, with a shutout over Matt Broz, but grew increasingly competitive as he got by Tony Manning (2), Michael Miller (3), Roger Haldar (4) and then, had to battle Brett Stottlemeyer to double hill in a winners’ side quarterfinal that did send him (Zippler) to that first battle with Davis. In the meantime, Kevin West, working at the other end of the bracket, sent Garrett Vaughan (1), Steve Johnson (2), Bobby Pacheco (double hill) and Grayson Vaughan (4) to the loss side and drew Brandon Shuff in the other winners’ side semifinal.
West and Shuff locked up in a double hill battle that eventually did advance West to the hot seat match. He was joined by Zippler, who’d won his first (and, as it turned out, last) match against Davis 7-3. Zippler and West fought to double hill in that hot seat match, with Zippler prevailing and waiting in the hot seat for Davis’ return.
On the loss side, Davis would play three matches against three of the mid-Atlantic region’s (country’s) toughest competitors; in order, Shaun Wilkie, BJ Ussery, Jr. and then, Kevin West. Upon arrival, Davis faced Wilkie, who’d lost a winners’ side quarterfinal to Brandon Shuff and then defeated Matt Krah 7-5 and Jeff Abernathy, double hill. Shuff drew BJ Ussery, who didn’t give up a rack through his first two winners’ side matches and then, was defeated by Thomas Haas 7-5. Ussery went on a six-match, loss-side winning streak to get to Shuff, which included the most recent eliminations of Steve Fleming, by shutout, and, junior competitor Nathan Childress, double hill.
Davis defeated Wilkie 7-4 and in the quarterfinals, faced Ussery, who’d given up just a single rack to Shuff. Davis ended Ussery’s loss-side streak at seven, downing him 7-2 in the quarterfinals before he and West locked up in the second-to-last double hill battle of the tournament, struggling for a seat in the finals.
Davis prevailed and walked right into the last double hill battle of the weekend in the opening set of the true double elimination final against Zippler. He won it and then, came within a game of a second double hill match, before getting out ahead and finishing it 7-5.
It should be noted that the event was attended by a number of female competitors, veterans of the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour, most of them, including its tour director, Linda Shea, who went 2-2, finishing in the tie for 25th. The two highest female finishers were Tina Malm, who won three on the loss side before encountering Brett Stottlemeyer in the winners’ side fourth round, battling him to double hill before being sent to the loss side and finishing in the tie for 17th with a 3-2 record. And Bethany Sykes, who finished in the same position; sent to the loss side in the second round and winning two there, before being eliminated. Eugenia Gyftopoulos and Stefanie Manning also competed.
The event also featured a few junior competitors, among them Nathan Childress, who finished in the tie for 7th/8th, Brent Worth (25th) and Garrett Vaughan (33rd).
Tour director Loye Bolyard thanked the ownership and staff at Brews & Cues for their hospitality, as well as sponsors AlleyKat Cue Sports, Bull Carbon, AZBilliards, Aramith Balls, Simonis Cloth, TAP Chesapeake Bay Region, Safe Harbor Retirement Planners and Whyte Carbon Fiber Cue Shafts.
Delaware’s Josh Brothers and Kevin West made their first appearances in the AZBilliards database about three months apart, 22 years ago. They were both playing on the Planet Pool Tour at the time and while West beat Brothers to the database by those three months by finishing in the tie for 9th on the tour’s first stop in 2000, Brothers joined at Stop #5 in April, finishing in the tie for 13th place. West finished in the tie for 7th that weekend, one of a dozen times that he chalked up a cash finish on the tour that year. This past weekend, June 25-26, they went head-to-head twice at the 1st Annual Delaware State Bar Box 8-Ball Championships. Brothers, with a Fargo Rate one point higher than West (701/700) won both matches to claim title to the event that drew 45 entrants to Milford Billiards in Milford, DE.
Brothers got by Tom Kozloski, Chris Jenkins and Joe Scott by an aggregate score of 18-6 to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Maryland State’s 2022 8-Ball Champion Steve Johnson. West, in the meantime, played one more match than Brothers to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal, opening up with an 18-2 run against Donnie Keith, Orlando Huertas (2) and Sean Mason. He then faced his first serious challenge – a double hill battle versus Eric Brobst – which he won to pick up Dave Barnes in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Brothers sent Johnson to the loss side 6-2, as West was doing likewise to Barnes 6-1. Brothers took their first match 6-3 to claim the hot seat.
On the loss side, Shaun Wilkie, among the top vote-getters to win this event, had, after being sent over by Barnes in a double-hill, third-round match, defeated four opponents by an aggregate score of 20-4, recently eliminating Don Painter (3) and Joey Bean (1) in the process. He picked up his no-doubt sought for rematch against Barnes, with Brothers in the hot seat, hearing his footsteps. Johnson drew Joe Stem, who’d lost his opening round match, double hill to Chris Jenkins and embarked on a seven-match, loss-side winning streak that would take him as far as the quarterfinals. He’d recently eliminated tour director Tarek Elmalla 5-3 and survived a double hill battle against Rick Winpigler.
Wilkie won his rematch against Barnes 5-1 and in the quarterfinals, drew Stem who’d shut out Johnson. Wilkie then stopped Stem’s loss-side streak at seven with a 5-2 win in those quarterfinals.
Now there were only two pairs of footsteps left, neither one of them calculated to provide Brothers with any sort of comfort. Wilkie and West battled to double hill before West prevailed to earn his rematch against Brothers. In a repeat of their hot seat match, Brothers claimed the event title 6-3.
Tour director Elmalla thanked Leo and Sherrie Weigand and their Milford Billiards staff for their ongoing support and hospitality, along with Travis Parker for the stream and commentary, Ray Netta for remote support, Tuff Cuts, Ran Ji for “being on top of the bracket,” Andrea Thomas and Joe Norton.
“He’s short,” said Loye Bolyard, co-tour director of On the Hill Productions’ Maryland State Championship events, “and people were always busting on him about it.”
Over the years, Steve Johnson has good-naturedly absorbed an expected array of potential nicknames related to his height; “Shorty,” of course, being the most common. Until one day, he corrected someone by suggesting that they refer to him as the “Munchkin.” It’s stuck, if not before, certainly now, as the “Munchkin” just completed a successful run through a field of 50 entrants at this past weekend’s (March 12-13) MD State 8-Ball Championships. According to Bolyard, while Johnson’s been a regular competitor on the MD State series of events, as well as a cash winner at any number of small, venue-specific tournaments, it’s the first time that the “Munchkin” has recorded a major (recorded) tournament payout and it was a win. The event drew its 50 entrants to Brews & Cues on the Boulevard in Glen Burnie, MD.
It’s rare to the point of being remarkable that a player with almost no known history of success at the tables can break through at a tournament featuring a number of better-known and presumably, better players. Not completely unheard of, but certainly rare enough to gain ‘remarkable’ status. And while the game was 8-ball, known to offer players more kinds of opportunities to frustrate opponent plans, and he wasn’t up against the likes of Jayson Shaw, Shane Van Boening or Fedor Gorst, the “Munchkin” didn’t get a lot of luck from the bracket draws. He had to get by (among others) the likes of Matt Krah, Jimmy Rivera, Scott Haas and eventually, had to double dip Brett Stottlemeyer in the finals to claim his first event title.
“We don’t know what happened,” said Bolyard. “He’d won one of those weekly tournaments the Friday before and he just kept his nerves under control. He was really calm all the way through.”
“He kept his composure together and everything just clicked for him,” he added. “He was able (in the finals) to put Brett in some lockdowns; good ones that stopped runouts. He had him 4-0 in that first set.”
It started well for the “Munchkin.” He opened with a shutout over Tim Metter and then got by Christie Hurdel and Joseph Wright, Jr. before encountering Matt Krah in a winners’ side quarterfinal. They fought the proverbial ‘tooth and nail’ to 5-5 before Johnson picked up ‘6,’ advancing to a winners’ side semifinal against Jimmy Rivera. Like Johnson, Stottlemeyer opened with a shutout (over Bruce Brunnell) before facing his own ‘rogue’s gallery’ of familiar combatants, any one of whom could have derailed his trip to the hot seat; Rick Miller, Steve Fleming and, in a winners’ side quarterfinal, Scott Haas. Going into the winners’ side quarterfinals, there was a potential father/son battle for the hot seat looming on the event horizon. But while Thomas did his part, downing Thomas Zippler 6-3, Stottlemeyer sent his Dad to the loss side in a double hill fight and picked up son Thomas in the other winners’ side semifinal. This shifted the potential father/son battle to the loss side, where they eventually met in the quarterfinals.
Stottlemeyer made short work of son Thomas Haas 6-1, as Johnson was dispatching Rivera to the loss side 6-4. In the first of their three matches, Stottlemeyer dominated, for the second time in a row giving up only a single rack. He sat in the hot seat, one would assume, fairly confident that he’d be chalking up the one win he needed to claim the title.
On the loss side, the Haas family was at work, looking to match up in the quarterfinals. Dad had followed his loss to Stottlemeyer with victories over Bryan Jones 6-2 and Zippler 6-1 to draw Rivera. Son Thomas picked up Eric Lyons, who was working on a modest four-match, loss-side streak that had recently eliminated Matt Krah 6-4 and co-tour director Rick Scarlato, Jr. 6-1.
Father and son downed their respective opponents, Rivera and Lyons, by the same 6-3 score and the quarterfinal family fight was on. Oddly enough, it was won by the same 6-3 score that had made the match happen. It was Dad Scott who advanced to the semifinals against the “Munchkin.”
The reportedly “calm” and “composed” Johnson kept the ‘cool’ going in the face of a double hill challenge from the last Haas standing. He weathered that storm, eliminating Haas to put an even more daunting challenge on his ‘dance card;’ the necessary two-step tango to pry Brett Stottlemeyer from his perch in the hot seat.
The “Munchkin” grabbed the first set 6-3, which almost certainly had a way of boosting his confidence, while on the other side of the table, the pressure was suddenly on. Johnson won the second set 6-4 to claim MD State’s 8-Ball Championships and earn his first payout entry into AZBilliards’ database.
On the Hill Productions’ Bolyard and Rick Scarlato, Jr. thanked the ownership and staff at Brews & Cues on the Boulevard, as well as sponsors AlleyKat Cue Sports, AZBilliards.com, Aramith Balls, Bull Carbon, Simonis Cloth, TAP Chesapeake Bay Region, Safe Harbor Retirement Planners, Whyte Carbon Fiber Cue Shafts, OB Cues and MB Cues.
On the Hill Productions will be back at Brews & Cues on the Boulevard for its next three events. Its first, a 10-Ball Scotch Doubles event for teams with a combined FargoRate of 1200 or under, scheduled for the weekend of March 26-27, will be #3 in its Bar Box Bonanza series. April will bring two events, blending into May. The MD State Bar Table 9-Ball Championships (April 9-10) and #4 in the Bar Box Bonanza Series, a FargoRate 8-Ball tournament (April 30-May 1).
