Results Chuck Markulis Memoria Hard Times Sac

Tom In Cincy said:

Chuck Markulis Memorial
Hard Times Billiards
October 9th and 10th
Results $7750 Added
$6400 in entry fees.
Total prize fund $14,150 100% payouts

Player auction ($4000+) paid 8 places $1400 for first.

1st $4300 Francisco Bustamante
2nd $2200 Efren Reyes
3rd $1140 Santos Sanbajon Jr.
4th $850 Amar Kang
5th (tie) $550 Ernesto Dominguez and Chris Frangre
7th (tie) $375 Billy Palmer and Dave Hemmah
9th (tie) $250 Gus Briseno, Curtis Johnson, Rafael Martinez and Chong Vang
13th (tie) $200 Greg Harada, Sylver Ochoa, Oscar Dominguez and Bart Mahoney
17th (tie) $150 Frank Bobutz, Ed Ramos, Jim Pierce, Jeff Heath, Tony Annigoni, Frank Nordmann, Butch Barba, George Michaels.
25th (tie) $100 Mark Tiu, Matt Lung, Al Romero, Ken Thomason, Tommy Soria, Fach Garcia, Art Garcia, Deo Alpajora.


Saturday around 6pm there was a power outage. Matches were halted and play resumed with game count and current game started over with original breaker. Play began at 9am Sunday morning.
Losing 8 hours of tournament time with the power outage was going to be a difficult task.
Starting at 9am instead of noon recouped 3 hours and another 5 hours was recouped during the rest of the afternoon. The players cooperation in playing matches without breaks and going from one match directly to another was in a word 'phenomenal'. The players performed well above what was expected and should be recognized for their efforts.

We finished with the Finals starting around 1245 am and Efren and Bustamante in a very festive and crowd pleasing mood.

Everyone had a great time.
Thanks

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Our own Jim Pierce cashed - excellent crowd there! Wish I could have played.

Chris

Chuck Markulis

Tom,
Congrats on an awesome tournament. I wish I could have been there but I did get to watch some on the Live Streaming. Thanks Andy for doing that! From what I heard, it was extremely well ran and everyone had a blast. What a rare treat for us on the West Coast to have two legends in the tourney.

Thanks Tom for all your efforts. Chuck Markulis would be proud.

I just got back from Sacramento about an hour ago. What a great tournament and a remarkable tribute to Chuck Markulis. Chuck was absolutely the best friend a pool player ever had! He helped out virtually EVERY player who ever came into Hard Times. That's how he rolled! And what awesome events we put on both at Hard Times Bellflower and Hard Times Sacramento. To this day, maybe the best pool room tournaments ever held! World Class fields, great prize money and everyone got paid in cash IMMEDIATELY!

Chuck once asked me what it would take to bring the best players to Hard Times. I told him if we add $10,000 to the purse, they will come. He never hesitated saying, "Let's do it!" And we did. I loved that man. If pool only had a few more like him. Fortunately we do have several who reach deep in their pockets to keep professional pool alive in this country. Barry Behrman for one, with the $50,000 Added U.S. Open. Where do you think that money comes from? One clue, the tooth fairy doesn't give it to him. :smile:

And Bob Jewett with his $10,000 added Straight Pool events, and Eric Petersen with his $5,000 added Fatboy Invitationals. And Randy Goldwater and all the room owners who put on $1,000 to $5,000 added events. Thank you all!

I want to publicly thank Tom Suarez and the staff at Hard Times for making all 128 pool players and the fans feel so welcome all weekend. We even had ten names on a waiting list to get in! I think this will become like the Jay Swanson tourney with a full field every year. Kenny Shuman co-directed this event and what a fine TD he is as well. Angel from Fresno also helped out, plus Cici and Claudia from Sacramento, so we were blessed with an abundance of good help to run this massive event.

Even with the devastating brown-out Saturday evening we managed to finish Sunday night (actually 2 AM Monday morn). Efren and Francisco played marvelously all weekend and they deserved to meet in the finals. They played for the hot seat as well, with Efren winning. Francisco had to go to the loser's side and beat countryman Santos Sambajon Jr. The filipino champions swept the top three spots and with it over $10,000 in prize money and calcutta pay outs! Returning hero Amar Kang finished fourth. He had been away from pro pool for over four years but he is looking good already, and still only 31! His best years are ahead of him. I think this tourney will be a very good warm-up for Efren and Francisco, and I look for them to do good at the Open next week. Efren is looking very sharp imo, maybe better than he has in years. I think the recent Predator win revitalized his 9-Ball career.

One last note of thanks to the Markulis clan. Mike and Karen carry on the tradition established by Mike's dad Chuck, and host one of the best events held on the West Coast. And they do it with a smile and a pat on the back for everyone else. Better people you cannot find in this industry!

It was a wonderful tourney, Tom- thank you for all of the hard work you and all of the other HT/tourney personnel did. Even with the power outtage, it really seemed to be very smoothly done.

Wow, nice shooting Chris.

Watched the stream on Saturday until the power outage. I'm still wondering why I didn't even know this was going on until the day of, I'm only an hour and a half away and definitely would have made arrangements to play (or at least be there). Hell, $50 entrance fee gives you a chance to play Efren or Busty. Can't beat that. I also enjoyed watching Efren play a joe-schmoe (Randy something) on Saturday. What a class act. The guy was so nervous he couldn't stay down on a shot or make a ball. In the last rack, Efren ran down to the 8, then started trying crazy shots. He gave the guy over 10 chances to get the rack, until he hung the 9 up, which Efren had no choice but to make. What a guy, wish it could have been me playing him.

Thank you Andy (310shooter) for bringing us this awesome stream. Really nice guy, and the stream quality was amazing. Bonus points for being able to squeeze 2 tables into the frame so we could watch Efren and Kang play simultaneously.

Tom,

I just saw the pics of this tournament you posted on facebook and couldn't resist posting the one of Efren sleeping. I hope you don't mind: http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=205137.

Watching from Colorado, it was awesome. The tournament was really run well and the quality of play was outstanding. You, Jay and Ken did a great job, especially given the power outage.

Thanks,

Dave

Here's another thank-you to everyone involved from my little corner of the pool world. HT Sacto is a world class room. If you are ever in that area it is a must see.

There was one thing I didn't understand and was wondering if anyone can shed some light on this. I was watching the stream until after midnight Sunday night, until shortly after the start of Busty/Santos. There were about 250 viewers and I thought that was odd considering it was mid-day (I think) in the PI. I figured with Busty playing Santos for the right to play Efren in the final, thousands in the PI would be glued to their computer screens. I know that this tournament wasn't exactly promoted that far away but with plenty of forum members living there I figured the word would have gotten around.

I'd also like to acknowledge the players, especially some of the guys that came from places far away, that took the time in the States to come to Sacramento to attend this tournament. I think that indeed says something about Chuck Markulis. It's not like the US Open is being played down the road in Fresno.

jay helfert said:

... Efren and Francisco played marvelously all weekend and they deserved to meet in the finals. ...

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I wish they could have been in two places at once -- California and New Jersey. Too bad they weren't at the Predator World 14.1 event in New Jersey. They both have played some fine 14.1 in the past, including Bustamante's second place in this same event two years ago.

I was at the 3rd Annual Chuck Markulis Memorial Tournament and saw first hand how well the whole event was orchestrated and played out. It was something to see for sure. The whole crew did a fabulous job and thank you Tom Suarez for making this a weekend for all to remember with a smile. :thumbup: