Daniel Herring, Denny Sneed, Friday Abismo and David Gutierrez
Back in June, after a somewhat protracted absence from the pool scene, Houston’s David Gutierrez returned to the fold, so to speak, to win the sixth stop on the Omega Billiard Tour, going undefeated through a field of 85. Two and a half months later, on the weekend of September 9-10, at the ninth stop on the tour, Gutierrez rebounded from a loss on the winners’ side to challenge Friday Abismo in a true double elimination final. They battled to double hill, twice, with Gutierrez winning the first set and Abismo winning the second to claim the event title. The $1,700-added event drew 92 entrants to Speed’s Billiards & Games in Arlington, TX.
Abismo navigated his way through five winners’ side matches against Jesse Wilcoxson, Kiengchay Phoutthavong, Mark Szabo, Viet My and Steve Raynes to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal match against Daniel Herring. Gutierrez, in the meantime, won three winners’ side matches, against James Thorpe, Robin Barbour and Tony Top before being sent to the loss side 5-5 by Charley Elders (Gutierrez racing to 9). Elders followed him over when he was defeated by Juan Parra, who moved into the other winners’ side semifinal against Denny Sneed.
Abismo defeated Herring 7-2, as Sneed sent Parra west 7-1. Abismo claimed the hot seat 7-4 over Sneed and waited for Gutierrez to complete the seven-match, loss-side winning streak that would put him into the finals against Abismo.
On the loss side, it was Parra who drew Gutierrez, four matches into his sloss-side streak, having most recently downed Jersey Jack Lynch 9-5 and Oscar Araujo 9-3. Herring picked up Carl Bodeker, who’d been sent to the loss side by Sneed in a winners’ side quarterfinal and defeated Viet My 7-5 and Tony Sulsar 7-4.
Gutierrez defeated Parra 9-4, and in the quarterfinals met up with Herring, who’d eliminated Bodeker 8-5. Gutierrez was gaining momentum at this juncture, and took the quarterfinal match 9-3 over Herring. He got his shot at Abismo in the hot seat with a 9-2 win over Sneed in the semifinals.
Abismo was granted two games on the wire in each of the two matches against Gutierrez in races to 9 for the double elimination final. Both matches went double hill, with Gutierrez winning the opener 9-8. Abismo kept battling and took the second set 9-8 to claim the event title.
Tour director Melinda Bailey thanked the ownership and staff at Speed’s for their hospitality, along with sponsors Michael Hoang of OMEGA Billiards Supply, FargoRate.com and OB Cues. The next stop on the Omega Billiard Tour, scheduled for October 14-15, will be a $1,700-added event, hosted by The Hideaway in Dallas, TX.
On the weekend of September 17-18, the Omega Billiards Tour was hosted by Speed’s Billiards in Arlington, Texas. The staff and owners treated the players well with great service and an amazing atmosphere. Fourteen tables allowed us to open the field up to 89 players!
Rick Stanley, a tough player with a great attitude, made his way to the hotseat match with wins over Larry Land 8-1, Stephen Hansen 8-3, Mike Rountree 8-2, Robert Kempf 8-2, and Walt Anderson 8-2. Local pro CJ Wiley had wins over Vincent Tovar 9-3, Crispian Ng 9-6, Phillip Palmer 9-1 , JD Wordlaw 9-1 and Joey Barnes hill-hill to meet Rick Stanley in the hotseat match.
The always-tough Danny Williams had wins over Gale Gladden 7-0, Viet My 7-6, and Mike Nagaki 7-6 before losing to Robbie Cleland 6-7. Danny then made his way through the one-loss side with wins over Vincent Tovar 7-1, Cory Anderson 7-2, Brandon Sizemore 7-4, Doug Winnett 7-3, Joey Barnes 7-6 and Walt Anderson 7-3.
In the hostseat match it was anyone’s game between top players Rick Stanley and CJ Wiley, and Rick Stanley came out on top with a close score of 8-7.
Then CJ Wiley played Danny Williams in the semi-final match and it was another close score with great play for the fans and Danny edged the win 6-7.
The finals match was then set between Rick Stanley and Danny Williams. The fans were really enjoying the great runs and safeties by the players. Danny Williams would win the first set in this true-double elimination tournament 7-5 which forced a second set. The second set went hill-hill! And then Danny Williams would win the last game of the tournament to capture first place and the Omega Tour title!
Big congrats to Danny Williams for his 1st place finish! Congrats to Rick Stanley for a hard-fought 2nd place and also to CJ Wiley for his great 3rd place finish. Shout-out to 78-year-old Walt Anderson for placing 4th! Wow!
5th/6th places were filled by Joey Barnes and Steve Sheppard, and 7th/8th places were filled by Paul Guernsey and Doug Winnett.
Congrats to ALL the players and fans and sponsors for another great event!
A HUGE thank you goes out to our sponsors Omega Billiards Supply, OB Cues, and BCAPL/CSI. We would also like to give a big thanks to our additional sponsors, Irving Ink and Thread, AZBilliards.com, Pool School, and BilliardsPress.com.
This year OB Cues is our Ranking sponsor and will be donating OB Cues to the top ranked 3 players at the end of the year! BCAPL/CSI has joined again and will be giving away 5 BCAPL free entry fees the 2017 BCAPL Nationals. After 8 stops, Tony Sulsar leads the Rankings with 665 points, CJ Wiley moved up to second place with 635 points, and Crispian Ng is third with 560 points. Only one more stop to go for ranking points before the Finale!
Tournament Director Melinda Bailey would like to thank Speeds owners and staff for their awesome hospitality all weekend! She would also like to thank co-Director Heather Farr – couldn’t have done this without you!
A big thank you also goes out to Michael Hoang, main sponsor of the Tour and owner of Omega Billiards Supply in Hurst, TX. Michael and Omega Billiards Supply are well known for the huge booths at many large tournaments across the country.
The next stop will be held October 15-16 at Clicks in Arlington, Texas. $1,500 added and already full with 85 players. We have ten stops total in 2016. Pool is alive and thriving in Texas!
Check out the website for more details: http://www.omegabilliardstour.com/
And follow the brackets live online at: http://omegatour.challonge.com/8speeds17
On the weekend of January 11-12th, Jeff Franklin from Sherman, Texas claimed the top prize on the 2014 Season Opener of the Omega Billiards Tour at Rusty’s Billiards in Arlington, TX. Jeff captured that first place spot by going undefeated through a field of 80 players!
Over $9,500 was given out in monies and prizes this weekend! (Tourney payouts + prizes + player’s auction.)
After a bye, Jeff defeated Don Denman and then got by 2014 Tour Champion Tony Sulsar 8-6. On Sunday, Jeff defeated Jerrell Eason 8-4, Viet My 8-5, and then slid by Daniel Herring hill-hill to have a spot in the hot-seat. Jeff would defeat Steve Raynes 8-3 in the hot-seat match before waiting to see who he would play in the finals.
Mike Voelkering started out with a bye on Saturday morning and then defeated Nick Conner and Carl Bodeker to last until Sunday on the winner’s side. On Sunday morning, Mike sent Robert Reighter west along with Chad Walker before barely losing to Steve Raynes hill-hill.
Mike then worked his magic on the one-loss side, taking care of John Plumlee 7-1, then prevailing in a hill-hill match against Daniel Herring to get another shot at Steve Raynes. Mike would win 7-5 to secure his spot in the finals against Jeff. Jeff was still on fire though and even though Mike put up a great fight, Jeff prevailed with great play with a score of 8-5 to win his first Omega Tour stop!!
Jeff earned $925 for First Place and Mike earned $530 for Second Place (his second time in a year!). Steve had another fantastic tourney placing 3rd place again (just in the Season Finale a month before) and earned $400, Daniel Herring rounded out the top 4 with $340 for his great play (payouts do not reflect the Player Auction).
Congratulations to ALL of the players for their fine play and great finishes!
This event was the Omega Billiards Tour’s Season Opener with $1,500 added with 80 players!! The Predator Player Tracker is back on and the top three players at the end of the year will win a plethora of Predator Prizes! Six more stops to see who gets all the Predator products! Further, fourth through eighth places at the end of the year rankings will each receive a free entry into the 2015 BCAPL Nationals!
A HUGE thank you goes out to Predator Cues, BCAPL/CSI, and Lucasi and Players Cues. We would also like to give a big thanks to our additional sponsors, OB Cues, Irving Ink and Thread, Pro Billiard Service, Wallace Custom Cues, AZBilliards.com, and BilliardsPress.com.
Tour Director Melinda Bailey would like to thank Rusty’s Billiards and their awesome staff for their great hospitality all weekend! A big thank you also goes out to Michael Hoang, main sponsor of the Tour and owner of Omega Billiards Supply in Hurst, TX. Michael and Omega Billiards Supply are well known for the huge booths at many of the large tournaments across the country.
The 2014 Omega Billiards Tour calendar is already set with 6 more stops and a Season Finale. The second stop will be held at the Billiard Den in Richardson, Texas February 22-23, 2014! Each stop is limited to 80 players (an increase from 64) and the monies guaranteed added has increased to $1,500 for each stop!! Pool is alive and thriving in Texas!!
The 2014 Schedule is online and payments can be received via the Omega Tour website.
