About 14 years ago (Feb. 7-8, 2009), Florida’s Tony Pete recorded his first event victory with us here at AZBilliards. In a 75-entrant field on the Florida-based KF Cues Pool Tour, he was sent to the loss side and won five straight matches to face and defeat the competitor who’d sent him there, Mark Wathen, in a single match final. Pete won a second KF Cues Pool Tour event in March that year and then went into a protracted dry spell, until he finished as runner-up to Mike Davis, Jr. at the season opener of the Capital City Pool Tour in Cary, NC last year. This past weekend (Feb. 11-12), Pete chalked up his third recorded event victory and as he did 14 years ago to start his (recorded) pool career off, he came from the loss-side to do it. At a $250-added event on the PremierBilliards.com Q City 9-Ball Tour that drew 26 entrants to Bennie’s Billiards (formerly Buck’s Billiards) in Raleigh, NC, Pete won eight on the loss side and then double-dipped P.J. Schmidt to claim the event title.
Unlike 14 years ago, Pete did not complete his title run this time by downing the player who’d sent him to the loss side. The opportunity to vanquish an earlier opponent might have happened in the quarterfinals, but didn’t. The player that sent Pete over was Jason Rogers, who advanced beyond his victory over Pete to draw the tour’s 2022 tour champion, Larry Hughes, in one of the winners’ side semifinals. P.J. Schmidt squared off against Greg Taylor in the other one.
Schmidt downed Taylor 5-6 (Taylor racing to 8) and was joined in the hot seat match by Hughes, who’d sent Rogers off to a possible rematch against Pete 6-4. With Hughes racing to 6, Schmidt claimed the hot seat 5-4 and waited for Pete to complete his loss-side run.
With three loss-side wins behind him, Pete defeated Steve Page and Chris Petoletti, both 7-4, to draw Taylor. Rogers drew Justin Knuckles, who’d eliminated Charles Caudle 7-1 and Travis Shelton, double hill, to reach him. Pete got into the quarterfinals on the heels of a 7-2 win over Taylor, but Knuckles jumped right into those quarterfinals when Rogers forfeited.
Pete and Knuckles battled to double hill in those quarterfinals before Pete advanced to meet and defeat Hughes in the semifinals 7-2. Pete completed his title run with a 7-3 victory in the opening set of the true double elimination final and a 7-2 win in the second.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Bennie’s Billiards for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor PremierBilliards.com, Breaktime Billiards (Winston-Salem, NC), BarPoolTables.net, Dirty South Grind Apparel Co., Realty One Group Results, Diamond Brat, AZBilliards.com, Federal Savings Bank Mortgage Division and TKO Custom Cues. The next stop on the PremierBilliards.com Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (Feb. 18-19), will be a $250-added event, hosted by Mickey Milligan’s in New Bern, NC. The following weekend (Feb. 25-26), the tour will host the $1,000-added NC State Open and the $250-added NC State Ladies Open at Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC.
The Brass Tap & Billiards of Raleigh, NC has a long history of hosting tournaments and this year was no exception. After a layoff since 2019 due to the pandemic, owner Richard Kuntz welcomed players and fans back to the $15,000 added Beasley Open.
Presented by Doug Beasley of Beasley Custom Cues and special sponsors PoolActionTV.com and Brass Tap & Billiards, this year’s tournament had two events – One Pocket and Open 9 Ball.
Posting their $200 entry fees, the $5,000 added double elimination One Pocket division drew 48 players. Played on Diamond tables and racing to three, the finals would be one extended race to four. After the players auction and draw, the matches began.
With twelve players receiving a first round bye, Josh Roberts and Can Salim were not so fortunate. Josh survived that match 3-1 and went on to defeat Asad Khan 3-0, Justin Hall 3-1 and Brandon Shuff 3-2. On a similar path, John Morra had wins over Francesco Candela 3-1, Larry Pierce 3-2, Hunter White 3-1 and Corey Sykes 3-0. Then, in a hard fought match to reach the hot seat, Morra prevailed over Roberts 3-2.
Meanwhile, in the other portion of the bracket, Alex Pagulayan and Tony Chohan were on the march to the hot seat. After drawing a first round bye, Alex defeated Carlo Biado 3-2, Tony Pete 3-0 and Shane Wolford 3-1. Tony was the victor over Jesse Gilbert 3-2 and then skunked Robbie House 3-0, Brady Norris 3-0 and Omar Al Shaheen 3-0. He then received his own 3-0 thumping by Alex!
The hot seat match was all Pagulayan as he beat back Morra – also 3-0. John headed west and Alex moved to the finals.
Morra watched as Chohan edged out Biado 3-2 only to be relegated to third place 3-0. Looking for revenge, Tony went to the finals.
Still on a tear, Tony sliced through Alex in under an hour winning four gamesstraight to claim the title. Congratulations, Tony! Good tournament, Alex!
Johann Chua and Bader Al Awadhi
The $10,000 added Nine Ball Open began on Friday night following the players auction and draw. Ninety six players posted their $150 entry fees to play. The format was alternate breaks, rack your own with the nine on the spot and the two in the back, no soft breaks and races to 9/7.
Racing across the top half of the bracket was Johann Chua and Chia-Chen Hsieh. Playing to get to the hot seat match, Chua spanked Hsieh 9-1. The bottom portion of the bracket saw Bader Alawadhi win over John Morra 9-5.
Hot seat action again was all Chua as he locked up his seat in the finals 9-1. Bader went to the one loss side to await an opponent. Morra defeated Roberts 7-5 and then was eliminated by the same score leaving John with another third place finish.
The finals were one extended race to thirteen. Chua rocketed out to a 7-1 lead until Alawadhi caught a gear and tied the match at eight games each! Johann finally won the next two games to reach 10-8. Bader fought back to win a couple more until his opponent pulled away to win the match 13-10. Congratulations, Johann! Good shooting, Bader!
PoolActionTV.com would like to thank Richard Kuntz and his staff for another fantastic event.
In addition, we’d like to thank our fans and sponsors. Our sponsors include JB Cases, Hanshew Jump Cues, Diamond Billiard Products, Lomax Custom Cues, Simonis, Aramith, Durbin Custom Cues, Savage Billiard Apparel, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore of Fort Worth, TX and the Action Palace of Dayton, OH.
Our next event is the 4th Annual $7,500 added Big Boi Classic at Peyton’s Place in Knoxville, TN. The dates are November 18th-20th – hope to see you there!
Mike Davis, Jr. chalked up his first 2022 tour win last weekend (Feb. 19), although the win picked up a half-asterisk (for which we have yet to discovery a keyboard symbol) because in a finals race to 10, his opponent, Tony Pete, down 8-0, forfeited the remainder of the match. Davis went undefeated through the event’s maximum field of 32 at the $500-added, Capital City Pool Tour’s Stop #1, hosted by Break Time Billiards and Sports Café in Cary, NC.
Davis got by Tony Pete twice (counting the half-asterisk forfeit in the finals). After getting by Kevin Williams, Kyle Webber and Robert West with an aggregate score of 30-6, Davis faced Pete for the first time in a winners’ side semifinal. In the meantime, Jason Rogers, who’d sent Allison Tilley, Justin Knuckles and Barry Mashburn to the loss side, faced Solomon Pope.
Davis downed Pete 10-2, as Rogers defeated Pope 8-5. With three on the wire in a race to 10, Rogers battled to double hill (9-7) before Davis claimed the hot seat.
On the loss side, Pete picked up Mashburn, who, after his loss to Rogers, had defeated Yogi Liu 9-4 and Jesse Gilbert 9-3. Pope drew Christy Norris, who would be the event’s top female finisher. Norris dropped her opening match to Mark Bolton and then embarked on a five-match, loss-side streak that started with three matches in which she gave up only five racks (21-5). Then, Robert West chalked up five on his own against her and Justin Knuckles battled her to double hill before she prevailed.
Pope ended Norris’ streak 7-4 and advanced to the quarterfinals. With two on the wire at the start of race to 9, Pete was able to join Pope in the quarterfinals, once he had successfully navigated a double hill match versus Mashburn. In a straight-up race to 7, Pete then eliminated Pope 7-3 in those quarterfinals.
With one on the wire in a race to 8, Pete downed Rogers 8-5. The finals began, but didn’t last as long as they might have, when, at 8-0, Pete opted out of continuing. Davis claimed the event title.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Break Time Billiards and Café for their hospitality. For further information about upcoming stops on the tour, visit Capital City Pool Tour’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ccpooltour/
About 14 years ago (Feb. 7-8, 2009), Florida’s Tony Pete recorded his first event victory with us here at AZBilliards. In a 75-entrant field on the Florida-based KF Cues Pool Tour, he was sent to the loss side and won five straight matches to face and defeat the competitor who’d sent him there, Mark Wathen, in a single match final. Pete won a second KF Cues Pool Tour event in March that year and then went into a protracted dry spell, until he finished as runner-up to Mike Davis, Jr. at the season opener of the Capital City Pool Tour in Cary, NC last year. This past weekend (Feb. 11-12), Pete chalked up his third recorded event victory and as he did 14 years ago to start his (recorded) pool career off, he came from the loss-side to do it. At a $250-added event on the PremierBilliards.com Q City 9-Ball Tour that drew 26 entrants to Bennie’s Billiards (formerly Buck’s Billiards) in Raleigh, NC, Pete won eight on the loss side and then double-dipped P.J. Schmidt to claim the event title.
