Forty players showed up the weekend of May 2 & 3rd at Clicks Billiards in San Antonio, TX to play in the third stop of 2015 on the OB Cues Ladies Tour.  Top players from throughout the Texas area and one player from San Diego were vying for the $775 first place prize in this event.  

 

On Saturday, forty players were reduced to twelve ladies that would be returning on returning on Sunday morning. The final four in the winners bracket returning were Sophia Lopez vs Tara Williams and Belinda Lee vs Tina Malm.  The eight ladies returning on the one loss side were Jennifer Kraber vs Barbara Wisdom, Helen Hayes vs Tracie Voelkering, Natalie Mans vs Gail Roles, and Kim Pierce vs Michelle Yim. 

 

9th-12th finishers were Barbara Wisdom, Tracie Voelkering, Natalie Mans, and Kim Pierce. 7th-8th place went to Jennifer Kraber and Gail Roles (her highest finish to date!); 5th-6th places went to Sophia Lopez and Belinda Lee. 4th place went to Helen Hayes and 3rd place went to Michelle Yim. 

 

Tara Williams made her way through Saturday with wins over Krystal West (7-6), Terry Petrosino (7-2), and Michelle Yim (7-1).  On Sunday, she continued her undefeated run and to earn a spot at the hot seat with another win over Sophia Lopez (7-4).  On the other side of the winner’s bracket, Tina Malm was making her way through her Saturday matches without much opposition.  She posted wins over Angela Garza (7-1), Monica Anderson (7-0), Natalie Mans (7-1) and Tracie Voelkering (7-3).  On Sunday morning, she continued her run besting Belinda Lee (7-2) for her spot in the hot seat match.   In the hot seat match, both players showed the reason that they made it through their brackets with the tough field that was in attendance this May weekend.  After trading racks until tied a four games apiece, a missed safety by Tina after the break allowed Tara a run out to pull ahead 5-4.  With the alternate break format, Tara broke and ran the next rack to reach the hill, and then Tina answered back with her own break and run to set the score at 6-5.  On the final rack, Tara once again broke and ran to take the hot seat and wait for her opponent.

 

For the 3rd place match, Tina quickly got a lead over Michelle Yim and didn’t look back, earning a spot in the finals with a 7-1 win.  In the finals, in the true double elimination format, Tina would need to beat Tara twice in order to win the event.  It was not to be though; both players struggled early on to find the level of play that had allowed them to make their finals appearance.  After a few back and forth racks, there nerves settled down, but Tina was already down 4 games by the time she was able to make it on the board.  Tara was able to finish out a few racks when up 5-2 to win the event in one set with a final score of 7-2.  Congratulations to both ladies for a great tournament!  With this third win in 2015 for Tara, she makes only the third player to ever win three consecutive events; Lisa Marr was the first player to complete this feat in 2002 and Leslie Anne Rogers completed this feat in 2004.  Congratulations on an awesome accomplishment Tara!

 

January 28th-29th weekend was the 1st Tour stop for the OB Cues Ladies Tour and 51 ladies were anxious to start the New Year with some high spirited competition, fun and as some players call it, OBCLT therapy.  It was great to see many, many new faces as well as familiar OBCLT family faces.  A special welcome to Shar Vanderstyne who came to play on our tour all the way from San Diego, California.  Thank You Ladies for keeping our tour #1 in the country.

Rusty’s in Arlington, Texas was our host site for this weekend and it was indeed a welcome to have their fantastic staff and management host us once again.  Special thanks to Hutch, Jeff, Tracie, and all the other Rusty’s staff and organization for a job well done.

Special Thanks to our main tour sponsor OB Cues and new co-sponsor Pool300.  The tour is now starting our 18th year in existence and we are proud to claim the status as the largest women’s amateur regional tour in the world.  Thank you OB Cues and Pool300 for all that you do for us.  Thank you for allowing us to continue to pursue our pool dreams and seeing our tour friends, fans, supporters and sharing in our journey along the way.  Be sure to check out our sponsors at www.obcues.com and www.pool300.com 

Many top ranked players from 2011 were part of the action.  Some marquee names included Lisa Marr, Amanda Lampert, Tara Williams, Ming Ng and Orietta Strickland, to name a few.  And by the end of play on Saturday, only one of these marquee players was still on the winner’s side of the bracket.  Top 12 players continuing in the Main Event on Sunday were winner side matches featuring Kim Pierce vs. Melinda Bailey and Ming Ng vs. Terry Petrosino.  On the one loss side, it was Lisa Marr vs. Jennifer Kraber, Amanda Lampert vs. Angie Payne, Michelle Cortez vs. Julie Stephenson, and Monica Anderson vs. Orietta Strickland. 

Finishing 9th/12th was Jennifer, Angie, Michelle and Monica.  In 7th/8th it was Amanda and Orietta, and 5th/6th was Julie and Melinda.  Great shooting and awesome tournament, ladies!

4-time OBCLT Regional Tour Champion Lisa Marr finished 4th.  The semi-finals matchup was between Terry Petrosino and Kim Pierce.  Terry always a contender with her playing consistency and strong shooting skills finished 3rd giving Kim a rematch with Ming who won the hot seat match between herself and Kim earlier in the day.  Kim, having an awesome tournament, had some extra special motivation as she was celebrating her birthday weekend, as well as achieving her highest tour stop finish ever.  Although Kim was shooting strong in the finals match, Ming, always a tough opponent and champion through and through, emerged as the victor in the one-set finals match with a score of 7-5.  Fantastic finish to both ladies! 

Main Event Tournament Payouts – $2000 added monies

1st – Ming Ng – $750

2nd – Kim Pierce – $570

3rd – Terry Petrosino – $410

4th – Lisa Marr – $275

5th/6th – Julie Stephenson, Melinda Bailey – $160

7th/8th – Amanda Lampert, Orietta Strickland – $105

9th/12th – Monica Anderson, Jennifer Kraber, Angie Payne, Michelle Cortez – $85 

13th/16th – Teresa Garland, Deedra Trammell, Shar Vanderstyne, Diana Cardona – $50

17th/24th – Tara Williams, Janea Taylor, Kim Nguyen, Mindy Williams, Snowy Belt, Belinda Lee, Yvette Reyes, Tera Saunders – $25

Second Chance Event – 19 players – $200 added monies – $390 total

1st – Shar Vanderstyne – $130

2nd – Teresa Garland – $90

3rd – Janea Taylor – $60

4th – Yvette Reyes – $40

5th/6th – Tracie Voelkering, Robyn Petrosino – $25

7th/8th – Kathy Knuth, Snowy Belt – $10

Other tournament winners:

The Monk DVD – (courtesy of OBCLT long-time supporter Samiel) – Teresa Garland

(2) Free tournament entry – $30 refund (1 courtesy of the OBCLT & the other courtesy of long-time supporter Samiel – Deedra Trammell & Terry Petrosino

(3) Mobile Gas Cards – (courtesy of OBCLT long-time supporter Carter) – Tracie Voelkering, Kim Nguyen, Kim Pierce

(3) Starbucks Gift Cards – (courtesy of OBCLT long-time supporter Carter) – Rebecca Arcangeli, Veronica Perez, Snowy Belt

Magic Rack – (courtesy of long-time OBCLT supporter Samiel) – Julie Enzensperger

Stroke – Novel by OBCLT long-time supporter Carl Miller – Monica Anderson

PoolDawg 9-ball Key Chain – Yvette Reyes

Reindeer Games Pool Rack Christmas Ornament – Tina Koester

OB Cues Raffle Winners – Rusty’s customer Buddy Beggs & Mike Voelkering

Next Tour Stop:  St. Patrick’s Day Weekend – March 17th/18th – The Billiard Den, Richardson, Texas

Visit www.obcuestour.com for more information.                 Good Pool, Good Friends, Good Times!!!

The Tiger Amateur Tour held its Season Finale Event this past weekend at Deep Pockets Billiards in Alvin,Texas. This event had $3,000 added to it, $2,500 in the main event and $500 in the Second Chance. The event kicked off Friday Night at 7, with the auction, and we also held a 16 man winner take all single elimination race to 7 mini tournament. There was a full field of 128 entered into the main event but we ended up with 124 after a few late defections that couldn’t make it out on time. So after the auction of 3 hours we kicked off the main event and played half of the first round on Friday night, and started them back up at 11 on Saturday Morning. On Saturday we played it down to the final 32 whom would come back Sunday to battle it out for all the money.

 

So Sunday kicked off and we had 32 players in the main event left and we had 32 show back up for the $500 added Second Chance Event. I don’t have the match scores as the bracket was left on Deep Pockets wall, but I do have the top 32 finishers names for you, they will be on the payout link on the bottom.

 

This event had a total payout of $22,700. The breakdown is as follows $800 in the winner take all mini tourney, $1,200 in the Second Chance Event, and $20,070 in the main event ($13,850 auction and $6,220 in the tourney).

 

The winner take all event was won by Forest Boyd out of Dallas, Texas. Forest defeated Dale Briones, Daniel “Lil D” McKenney , Roman Bayda, and Moses Herrera in the finals. Congrats to Forest on the win.

 

The Second Chance Event on Sunday saw Ricki Casper take it down, she was one of the five women entered out of the 32 players. And she represented the women well, as she had victories over Tesfa McGregor, Courtney Peters, Anthony Gepayo, Marc Whitt, then Drew McCoy in the hot seat match. Drew would go on to defeat David Parker on the loss side to get another shot at Ricki and the victory. Drew was victorious in the first set to 7, but Ricki won the second set of the true double elimination event to win the Second Chance Event and the $400 prize for first. Congrats Casper.

 

The main event had 124 players and paid out the top 32, full results of the event are below in the payout link. The season started off with the first 5 events being won from the player coming from the one loss side to double dip the hot seat player and this event was no different. Sonny Bosshamer whom with winning the hot seat over Jason Pearce became the season points winner would be double dipped in the end by Jason. Both players shot great and had a great run thru the field. Congrats to Sonny on becoming the season points champion, and also congrats to Jason on winning this event which was a great one.

 

The auction paid out 12 spots and the payouts were as follows: 1st- $4,400. 2nd-$3,000. 3rd-$2,000. 4th-$1,100. 5/6th-$685. 7/8th-$480. 9/12th-$280. Thanks to all whom participated in the auction.

 

The season points champ Sonny Bosshamer will receive free entries into all 12 Tiger Tour Stops in 2012. Runner-up Ernesto Bayaua will receive a Tiger Cue. And 3rd place finisher David Parker will receive a gift bag of Tiger Products and other stuff. All prizes will be handed out at the 1st event of the season at Big Tyme Billiards on Jan. 21-22, 2012.

 

A special thanks to Yvette Reyes for running this event as Tour Director Brent Thomas played in it.

 

Also a very special thanks to Deep Pockets owners Jr. and Cindy Moore for having the Season Finale Event and adding the money. All the players love playing at this venue on the Diamond Bar Boxes.

 

We would like to thank all of the rooms that let us have events during the year and also thank any and everyone that helped us during those events.

 

We would also like to thank all the sponsors for the season, we appreciate everything. Tiger Products, Htownbilliards.com, Mueller Products, Jay Helfert, Mark Griffin of CSI, and Dreamline Promotions.

 

The 2012 Schedule is posted already on the websitewww.TigerAmateurTour.com, we look forward to seeing everyone in January at Big Tyme Billiards. There will be some changes in the 2012 season so stay tuned to the website for it.

The final stop of the OB Cues Ladies Tour for 2011 was more exciting than ever based on three important factors.  For the 1st time in the tour’s history, the last event of the year was $3,000 added monies, $1K more than the normal added dollars.  Secondly, the OB Cues Tour Champion spot was up for grabs as several contenders were vying to unseat 3-time Tour Champion Lisa Marr.   And finally a new award of Best Sportsman would be voted by the players out of four nominated players.  

As this last stop was $3000 added monies, a special player’s eligibility requirement was needed to play in this event at one of our favorite host site, Casper’s in San Leon, Texas.  Players had to play in at least 3 events throughout this tour year and 28 ladies ventured down south Texas way to participate in all the year end festivities.  First and foremost, we would like to thank Don Owen and Royce Bunnell, as our main tour sponsors.  Year after year they have provided customer service, pool products and unwavering support and friendship for both tour players and host site partners.  Thank you for all that you do and believing in us and keeping our dreams alive.  Be sure to check out our sponsor at www.obcues.com and www.pool300.com 

Also special thanks to Kathy and Roy Robinson, who are frequent hosts on the ladies tour.  They have one of the most fabulous and unique pool and restaurant establishments on our tour calendar and we greatly appreciate your down home hospitality displayed by your staff, customers and fans everywhere.  Casper’s is a must see pool establishment.  If you are ever down south Texas, be sure to look them up. 

Four players were chosen by the board for the 2011 Sportsmanship Award.  Becky Jones from Arkansas, Kathy Knuth from Dallas, Shirley Fields from Arkansas, and Tracie Voelkering from Fort Worth were nominated by players over the course of 2011 and picked by the board members for their exemplary behavior both on and off the table.  It was a close race between the nominees as players submitted their votes and it came down to a tie between Shirley and Tracie.  The players were asked to re-vote for only these 2 players and it was one vote away from a tie again, with Tracie edging out Shirley for the award.  Congratulations Tracie!  Your display of sportsmanship both on and off the table makes you very deserving of this award.

The 2011 Most Improved player was voted on by the board based on player performance and ranking for 2011 against prior years.  One player really stood out from the pack in the increase in rankings for the past two years, but based on her position on the board, she asked to be removed from contention.   After review of her movement from 20th in 2009, to 9th in 2010, and to 6th for the season in 2011, it was no contest to the remaining board members who should take this award.  With her left out of the vote, the board selected Julie Stephenson as the most improved player.  She credits her participation in Pool 300 league to her overall improvement at the sport.

For the 2011 Tour Champion, it was a tight race with four potential players that had the ability to seize the title.  Orietta Strickland was the tour point’s leader going into this last stop with Lisa Marr 110 points behind.   Based on the outcome of the tournament, Tara Williams and Ming Ng could also be contenders or spoilers for the tour champion spot.  But with all the pressure on Orietta to maintain her position as point’s leader, she would also need help from others to keep Lisa at bay.  Unfortunately by the end of tournament play on Saturday, 8 players would return for the Main Event and Orietta was not one of them.  Winner side matches would include Lisa Marr vs. Ming Ng and Tara Williams vs. Ricki Lee Casper.  One loss side matches would include Belinda Lee vs. Jennifer Kraber and Amanda Lampert vs. Yvette Reyes.

Finishing 7th/8th was Yvette Reyes and Belinda Lee; 5th/6th was Jennifer Kraber and Ming Ng.  4th place would go to Ricki Lee Casper, her highest tour finish ever; always a contender and strong player who we are sure she will continue with her winning ways.  3rd place was Amanda Lampert who sought her revenge win against Ricki who put her on the one loss side.  

In the finals match, it was a replay of the hot seat with Lisa Marr and Tara Williams.  Both ladies were not only vying for the win, but the tournament winner would also be crowned the tour champion in the close point race.  Tara would have to beat Lisa twice for the win, but it would not happen, Lisa bested Tara in one set with a score of 7-5.  Tara Williams finished in 2nd place her last 3 tour events, including this stop, for the 2011 year, showing very consistent shooting and strong year end finish to boot.   With this 1st place finish, Lisa went on to become tour champion for the 4th time in a row.  Lisa went through some challenges this year while enduring shoulder surgery which caused her to not finish as high as she would have wanted.  But always the fighter and her ‘never quit’ attitude, she was able to overcome all obstacles and prevail once again as the tour champion.  Congratulations to all tour players for an excellent tour year.