Sometimes the hard work that a player puts in for one event pays dividends in other events. That was the case for Joey Barrera as his preparation for this year’s Saguaro Cup helped him score an undefeated win at the Diamond Pool Tour’s 3rd stop of the season at Freezer’s Ice House on June 9th – 10th.
Barrera’s 604 rating saw him giving up spots to some players that sounded impossible on paper. His first match of the event saw him giving up five games in a race to eight to Brandon Jewell. To make matters worse, Jewell broke and ran the first rack. Barrera is not known for ever giving up though and he bore down to win eight of the next nine racks for a hill-hill victory. “That win definitely gave me motivation for the rest of the event” said Barrera.
The field of 73 players held a fair share of players competing in their first tour stop of the season, and that lead to a number of players enjoying their first tour cashes of the season including David Friedel, Bryan Bach, Scott Vogelsberg, Jose Gonzalez, Dave Mark, Bill Vander Weyst and Guerra.
Dave Mark dropped a match to Tim Daniel late on Saturday night, but bounced back with wins over Brian Long, Josh Murphy and Vander Weyst to earn another shot at Daniel on the one loss side. Mark would settle for 4th after dropping that match to Daniel 9-5. Daniel would then go on eliminate Guerra 9-5 to earn another shot at Barrera in the finals.
Daniel had lost to Barrera 7-3 on the winner’s side and knew the 9-7 race in the finals would be a tough one. Barrera came out quick and took a 2-0 lead, but Daniel came back to win the next five racks. The players traded the next six racks for a 8-5 Daniel lead but Daniel would get no farther as Barrera won the next two racks for the hill-hill win and first place.
Barrera’s #1 fan, Cheryl Timmonen, felt that all of the practice for Saguaro Cup had certainly helped Barrera bring his ‘A-Game’ on this weekend. “He has been putting in an average of 25 hours of practice a week, on top of a full-time job” she said.
Daniel’s second place finish (his second in two events) was more than enough to keep him in first place on the tour points list, and Barrera’s win moved him to second place. Stop 2 winner, AJ Jones, holds third place on the list with Nick De Leon and Tom Dilorenzo filling out the top five spots.
The fourth season of the Diamond Pool Tour kicked off with new sponsors and a new format. The tournaments are now one big bracket with full Fargo races based on the higher rated player’s rating.
As expected, this led to top players being forced to bring their “A Game” each and every match as they were giving up huge spots to lower rated players. Even with those spots, the tournament came down to some of the top Fargo rated players in the event.
A prime example of the spot in this event was Nick De Leon’s first match against Joshua Murphy, 171 Fargo points led to De Leon giving up six games for a 10-4 race. He would be pushed to the hill by Murphy before scoring the 10-3 win. De Leon’s journey through the winner’s side didn’t get any easier with wins over “The voice of the Diamond Pool Tour” George Teyechea, Nick Cipiti, Gil Franco and Rick Armbrust to get to the hot-seat match.
De Leon’s hot-seat opponent also had a tough path to the hot-seat match, as Tom Dilorenzo (who still doesn’t think his game is better than 75% of his current speed) scored notable wins over Scott Chadwick, James Main, Todd Dilley and Kurt Siebels.
The hot-seat match saw De Leon forced to give DiLorenzo three racks for a 10-7 race. DiLorenzo has probably been playing pool longer than his opponent has been alive, and he gave De Leon all he could handle before De Leon came out on top of the match 10-6.
In the past six months, After dropping the match to De Leon on the winner’s side, Rick Armbrust had wins on the left side of the board over Bret Huth and Jason Sweet (with neither win taking advantage of any handicap). Armbrust finally fell to DiLorenzo 9-6 in the semi-final match.
After their hill-hill battle for the hot-seat, fans in attendance were expecting another great match, and they weren’t disappointed as the two players battled to another hill-hill score before De Leon pocketed the final 9-ball for first place.
Michelle Jiang, 16, Harvard, Mass., winner of the Women’s 8-Ball Singles Platinum Division
The 8-Ball divisions at the 2017 BCAPL National Championships are wrapping up and more champions have been crowned! The 41st BCAPL National Championships started July 19 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. More than 5,000 players are participating in this year’s event, which has more than 40 divisions.
Here are the top finishers in the divisions that have concluded:
The Diamond Pool Tour wrapped up their 2016 with a four-day season finale at Casino Del Sol Resort and Casino in Tucson on November 17th – 20th.
Day one of the event was about tour prizes and the “Big Dog” 9-Ball event. Casino Del Sol provided a great dinner for all of the players in attendance as Mitch Ellerman and Oscar Avila Sr. were presented with their tour point list prizes from tour sponsors Volturi Cases and Hanshew Custom Cues. Both players will also receive custom cues from tour sponsor QB Custom Cues. The drawing was also held for the pool table from tour sponsor Diamond Billiard Products. Players had earned entries in the drawing by playing in each event during the season. Proving that maybe he should be buying lottery tickets, Tucson’s Mike Hamman won the table drawing for the second straight year. Congrats to Mike, and good luck finding room for those tables.
Thursday night also saw eight players toss $100 into the ring to compete in a single elimination 10-ball mini tourney. Proving they had no fears about stepping up against the big boys, last year’s top junior Nick Kline and up and coming young gun Sam Lenschow both competed in this event. While neither won a match, it would be far from the last that the players would see of Lenschow at this event. The tourney came down to New Mexico’s Brian Begay and Gus Briseno. Briseno held an 8-6 lead in the final match, but Begay came back to score a 9-8 win for first place. Begay earned $800 for first, while Briseno settled for $400.
The main event kicked off early Friday evening with 48 players all playing at least one match across both “A” and “B” divisions.
Nineteen players made up the “A” bracket with the biggest Friday upset Mitch Ellerman’s early trip to the one loss side, courtesy of Brian Begay.
The “B” bracket saw twenty-nine players in action. The biggest surprise on day one wasn’t a result, as much as a score as JR Ascension scored a dominating 9-2 win over Junior Flores.
Saturday play saw each bracket whittled down to eight players each. The “A” bracket saw Scott Frost, Gus Briseno and Bret Huth joined by Tucson’s Kevin Peterson on the right side of the board. The one loss side was a dogfight all day, with Ellerman scoring wins over George Teyechea and Tom Dilorenzo to keep his tournament hopes alive. Begay bounced back from a 9-2 beatdown from Frost to eliminate Tonee Allin and qualify for the final day. Ellerman and Begay were joined by Mickey Provencio and Steve Peterman on the one loss side.
The “B” bracket saw Casino Del Sol’s own Paul Feltman Jr. cruise through the winner's side to stay undefeated. Feltman was joined on the winner’s side by Oscar Avila Sr., Todd Rowitz and Al Terpstra. The one loss side saw Sam Lenschow put on a show. Lenschow eked by Kent Bybee 9-8, but then defeated Mike Howerton 9-5 and Eric Beeler 9-6. Lenschow would be joined by JR Ascension, Adam Kroll and Steve Stowers.
Sunday play saw tournament favorite Scott Frost shown to the one loss side, courtesy of Brian Begay, 9-6. Peterson sent Bret Huth to the left side of the board by the same 9-6 score. Briseno would then go on to take the “A” bracket hot-seat with a 9-4 win over Peterson. Ellerman would be unstoppable on the left side with wins over Provencio, Frost, Huth and Peterson.
The “B” bracket hot-seat was taken by Feltman Jr. with wins over Avila and Rowitz. Lenschow would keep knocking down players on the left side of the board with wins over Terpstra and Stowers. He would finally fall to Todd Rowitz 9-5 and settle for a very impressive 5th place finish.
When the brackets came together, the “A” players did their jobs with Briseno sending Feltman to the left side 9-6, and Ellerman eliminating Rowitz 9-3. With the finish line in sight, Ellerman then sent Feltman Jr. back to his office with a 9-1 scoreline.
The final match would only go one set, with Briseno displaying his “A” game and grinding out a hill-hill win over Ellerman in the first set.
With the second season in the books, plans are underway for season three with changes already being planned. Stay tuned in early 2017 for announcements regarding those changes.
