We had our tournament in Pelham, AL last week at the Blue Collar Bar & Grill. It was 8 ball open, $1,500 added, $100 entry fee. We had 22 entries. At first I was disappointed, however in retrospect, I think if we would have had a full field, it would have been chaos given our lack of experience.
I was pleased overall with how things went. People appeared to be enjoying themselves, we had zero complaints from the players and got lots of positive feedback. What we lacked in volume was made up for by quality. Stevie Moore took first place in a sudden death ahead by 2 playoff. Bruce Knoll (Stevie Moore told me he knew this fellow as Stevie Knoll and knew he was a strong player) out of FL took second place, he beat Stevie 11-10 and then lost a close sudden death playoff 2-0. Jason Hill, a very strong local took third. David Rowell, whom I was told has won the Amateur 8 ball National Championship and owns a local pool room (Bumpers) was 4th. Bill Eisenhard and Tim Baron took 5th and 6th respectively. The payouts, in order, was $1,488, $930, $558, $372, $186 and $186. Another local young gun, Brandon Davenport, lost to Bruce Eisenhard 9 - 8 despite running 7 of the 8 racks he broke in that match. JoeyA showed up, played well but was outed in the third round. I was able to chat with Joey quite some time. He is ever bit as nice a gentleman in person as he is here on line. Rumor has it he went over to another pool room and demolished a local 1 pocket player 9-2 for several hundred dollars.
I was very impressed by the attitude and sportsmanship of all players. Stevie really struggled with his break the last 4 matches or it wouldn't have been as close as it was. The competition was close, most of the matches among the last 8 players went hill-hill, lots of incredible pool being played.
Our plans are to have another similar tournament within the next 6 months. We will be ready this time for a larger field. We used the InGen Bracket Software, it was great! There are a number of other features in this software we didn't know how to use but will incorporate the next go around.
The last 4 competitors were REALLY strong players. The Knoll fellow from FL might be the mentally toughest guy I've seen play. He refused to ever quit and just kept grinding, grinding and grinding more. I believe his last 4 matches all went hill-hill. He had Stevie down 7-1 in the final when Stevie broke dry the first 4 racks. Stevie hit another level and came back to tie 8-8. At 10-9, Stevie got a bit of bad roll, Knoll ran out and then broke and ran to win the match. Knoll came through the losers bracket so this resulted in an ahead by 2 sudden death. Bruce broke, ran down to 2 balls, missed a near table length 1/8 ball cut that paused in the pocket. Stevie ran out, broke and ran, tournament to Stevie.
My thanks for all the players who were the ones really responsible for making this an excellent tournament and a lot of fun for me personally. We're also grateful to our sponsors Ozone Billiards, RG Billiards and BumperNets.
I'll post a few pictures following.
I was pleased overall with how things went. People appeared to be enjoying themselves, we had zero complaints from the players and got lots of positive feedback. What we lacked in volume was made up for by quality. Stevie Moore took first place in a sudden death ahead by 2 playoff. Bruce Knoll (Stevie Moore told me he knew this fellow as Stevie Knoll and knew he was a strong player) out of FL took second place, he beat Stevie 11-10 and then lost a close sudden death playoff 2-0. Jason Hill, a very strong local took third. David Rowell, whom I was told has won the Amateur 8 ball National Championship and owns a local pool room (Bumpers) was 4th. Bill Eisenhard and Tim Baron took 5th and 6th respectively. The payouts, in order, was $1,488, $930, $558, $372, $186 and $186. Another local young gun, Brandon Davenport, lost to Bruce Eisenhard 9 - 8 despite running 7 of the 8 racks he broke in that match. JoeyA showed up, played well but was outed in the third round. I was able to chat with Joey quite some time. He is ever bit as nice a gentleman in person as he is here on line. Rumor has it he went over to another pool room and demolished a local 1 pocket player 9-2 for several hundred dollars.
I was very impressed by the attitude and sportsmanship of all players. Stevie really struggled with his break the last 4 matches or it wouldn't have been as close as it was. The competition was close, most of the matches among the last 8 players went hill-hill, lots of incredible pool being played.
Our plans are to have another similar tournament within the next 6 months. We will be ready this time for a larger field. We used the InGen Bracket Software, it was great! There are a number of other features in this software we didn't know how to use but will incorporate the next go around.
The last 4 competitors were REALLY strong players. The Knoll fellow from FL might be the mentally toughest guy I've seen play. He refused to ever quit and just kept grinding, grinding and grinding more. I believe his last 4 matches all went hill-hill. He had Stevie down 7-1 in the final when Stevie broke dry the first 4 racks. Stevie hit another level and came back to tie 8-8. At 10-9, Stevie got a bit of bad roll, Knoll ran out and then broke and ran to win the match. Knoll came through the losers bracket so this resulted in an ahead by 2 sudden death. Bruce broke, ran down to 2 balls, missed a near table length 1/8 ball cut that paused in the pocket. Stevie ran out, broke and ran, tournament to Stevie.
My thanks for all the players who were the ones really responsible for making this an excellent tournament and a lot of fun for me personally. We're also grateful to our sponsors Ozone Billiards, RG Billiards and BumperNets.
I'll post a few pictures following.
