Home after a glorious nine days at the Derby, so I’ll file this report A) to share my thoughts on what I saw, and B) to give a sense of what it’s like to be there for those who’ve yet to attend. Given how many things I report on from memory, it’s a safe bet I’ll get something wrong - corrections are welcomed.
Friday, 1/25
Got to Louisville in the evening. In what I saw in bank pool, the favorites all seemed to be cruising and the big names weren’t drawing each other. The exception was when Kaci drew and beat Jason Miller.
The Bigfoot got started. I wasn’t there for either Orcullo’s double hill win over Melling or Deuel’s double hill win over Immonen, I saw Bustamante top Morra in a seesaw battle and Josh Filler was too much for Lee Van Cortezza.
The Derby was off and running.
Saturday, 1/26
Slept late but showed up to the tournament room on time to see Jayson Shaw demolish Konrad Juszczyszyn in the Big Foot. Though his level dropped off late in the match, Jayson’s play up to 7-1 was magnificent.
The Bigfoot match between Fedor Gorst and Alex Pagulayan was interesting, a match which was played at a level higher than the Accu-stats suggested. Gorst, after trailing 2-0, won six straight racks with brilliant play and even managed to neutralize a couple of well-executed Pagulayan safeties with superb kicking. Now leading 6-2, Gorst appeared to be running out but made a pattern play error and his miss gave Alex life. Alex won that rack and the next four to grab a 7-6 lead, but Gorst got the next one and after a Pagulayan scratch on the break, Gorst regained the lead. Gorst played well down the stretch for a 11-9 win. His .880 TPA understated the quality of his play.
Banks Round 2 produced two huge upsets. Kaelin Conkright gave 2018 champion Corey Deuel his first loss and Thorsten Hohmann outlasted Jayson Shaw, who came third a year ago. Other noteworthy matches included Scott Frost over Fedor Gorst and SVB over Louis DeMarco. Truman Hogue delighted with his win over Caro Biado. Form held in Banks Round 3, with the best matches being Billy Thorpe over Richie Richeson, Danny Smith over Jason Miller and Evan Lunda over Mike Delawder.
Banks Round 4 opened with a great matchup in which SVB was too much for Jon Pinegar. Frank Tullos then gave 2018 champion Corey Deuel his second loss. Neal Jacobs gave Alex Pagulayan his first loss and Jeremy Jones gave Scott Frost his first loss.
In evening play at the Bigfoot, . I saw little of SVB’s win over Gomez or JL Chang’s win over Kaci.
Sunday 1/27
I didn’t watch that much bank pool, but this was the day on which the contenders emerged. Just James Aranas, Shane Van Boening, Skyler Woodward, Billy Thorpe and Ruslan Chinakhov finished the day undefeated. Still in with a loss were Glenn Rogers, Omar Al Shaheen, Danny Smith, Scott Frost, John Brumback, Francisco Bustamante, Tony Chohan, Josh Roberts, Troy Jones, Chris Melling, Dennis Orcollo, and Jayson Shaw.
My focus on this day was the 10-ball. It opened nondescriptly, with a drubbing of Deuel by Orcullo in which Dennis was not in his peak form and Corey struggled. Next came a match in which Bustamante and Filler both stumbled. While Filler was brilliant in the final half hour of the match, on balance his play was mediocre. Ahhh, but then there was the evening session.
Shaw and Gorst played well, and neither could shake off the other. Not too surprisingly, the match reached double hill and it looked like Shaw would run out for the win. After getting the wrong angle on the seven, Shaw had to settle for less than ideal shape on the eight and had little choice but to run into the nine and ten while pocketing the eight. When Shaw missed the eight, though, Gorst ran out for the win. Despite the anticlimax, it was a superb match.
Then came a clash of titans, featuring players who many consider the two best in the game today. SVB and JL Chang both put on a great show, but Chang’s play was otherworldly. He shot .986 through the first 12 racks, but Shane hung tough and the match remained up for grabs. In rack 18, Chang played one of the finest position shots imaginable to get from the three to the four, a four-rail draw shot. By my reckoning, the cue ball traveled nearly 20 feet on this majestic stroke. Chang went on to score the victory, completing a great evening session at the Bigfoot.
Finally, one pocket got under way, but I didn’t watch even one match.
Monday, 1/28
Monday at the Derby is one of my favorite days, as banks plays down to the last few and the Bigfoot title is awarded in the evening.
In the afternoon Bigfoot session, Filler found his A-game against a rock-solid Orcullo, shooting over .950 to advance to the final. Gorst was unable to duplicate the level he’d shown against Shaw, and JL Chang won with relative ease to reach the final. Chang beat Filler in a hotly contested final.
One pocket plodded ahead through the early stages, but I was too busy watching the bank pool to catch any of it.
Most of this day was about bank pool, and obvious threats such as John Brumback, SVB, Jayson Shaw, and Dennis Orcullo failed to survive the day and reach the final four. Monday’s matches set up the final stages of bank pooL, with Billy Thorpe, Skyler Woodward, Josh Roberts, and Omar Al Shaheen the last ones standing. Billy finished the day undefeated after topping Skyler in Banks Round 12.
Finally, in the last attempt of the day in straight pool, Chris Melling set the Derby City record run of 244. Wow!
Tuesday, 1/29
The one-pocket event moved on and the big names started to draw each other. The match of the day was surely Frost over Orcullo in which Frost was magnificent, closing the deal with a two-railer leading 2-1 in racks. Another fine match was James Aranas’ blowout win over Jayson Shaw, a match in which Aranas gambled on a couple of super-difficult shots along the way and, impressively, made them. The nail biter of them all was Skyler Woodward vs Chris Melling, a double hill affair in which Melling had a 4 to -1 lead in the case rack, but a brutal defensive error gave Skyler life and Skyler quickly took a 6-4 lead. After outplaying Melling in the end game, Skyler prevailed.
Bank pool reached its final stages. In one semi, Billy Thorpe didn’t bring his best but neither did Skyler and Billy prevailed easily to reach the final undefeated. In the other semi, Omar Al Shaheen easily took out Josh Roberts. Omar faced the task of beating Thorpe twice for the title. Billy, again not at his best, won the first set 3-2 to win the event. With one pocket coming up, Billy, the 2017 DCC One Pocket champion, finished the day well placed for Master of the Table.
Straight pool produced incredible play and by afternoon, to be in the top 8, you had to have run 159 or better. Through Tuesday, the eight poised to qualify were Chris Melling (244), John Schmidt (216), Josh Filler (198), SVB (198), Orcullo (190), Niels Feijen (179), Jayson Shaw (168) and Mika Immonen (159). One day left of qualifying, but the standard has never been higher. Simply amazing!
Wednesday, 1/30
On the day that the nine-ball started, I saw few matches, but a couple of giants drew each other. Specifically, JL Chang topped Alex Pagulayan and Johnny Archer easily beat 2018 runner-up in the DCC nine-ball John Morra.
The one pocket event moved into the more significant rounds and the contenders for the title started to make their statements. At day’s end, the undefated players left were SVB, Thorsten Hohmann, Robbie Langford, Justin Bergman, Omar Al Shaheen, Fedor Gorst, Francisco Bustamante, Kevin Cheng, Tony Chohan, Corey Deuel, Scott Frost, Roberto Gomez, Evan Lunda, Skyler Woodward, and Alex Pagulayan.
Significantly, Billy Thorpe was eliminated in Round 7, a major blow to his Master of the Table hopes.
Surely this was to be the day when common sense returned the straight pool, but the runfest continued. Melling’s 244 Derby City record fell when Orcullo managed a 260 and Filler then ran a 285. Immonen managed a 201, too. At midnight, with about three hours of qualifying remaining, the qualifiers were Filler, Orcullo, Melling, Schmidt, Immonen, SVB, Lee Van Cortezza and Niels Feijen. The minimum qualifying run was 179.
Thursday 1/31
Another day of chaos at the Derby! Nine ball crawled forward and through two days of play Round 3 was still playing! The most noteworthy result of the day in my view was James Aranas’ 9-2 win over Jayson Shaw.
In one pocket, this was the day that the contenders had to make their statements, and most, but not all of them, did. By day’s end, we’d lost Scott Frost, Tony Chohan, Danny Smith and Justin Bergman. Through Round 11, just seven were still in the mix. Only Alex Pagulayan remained undefeated, and still in with one loss were Francisco Bustamante, Fedor Gorst, Corey Deuel, Roberto Gomez, SVB and Dennis Orcullo. After a thrilling double hill win over SVB in Round 11, Alex looked poised to win it.
The knockout stage of straight pool began. Two of the quarterfinal matches took place, and it was Feijen over Filler and Immonen over Schmidt. The other two quarterfinals, Orcullo vs Van Cortezza and SVB vs Melling, had to wait because Shane and Dennis were busy playing one pocket all night.
Friday, 2/1
This was the day of reckoning for the one pocket contenders. After the field was narrowed to four, Pagulayan retaining his buy back, the general feeling among most was that Alex would surely win the title. Deuel’s win over Alex, however, turned the one pocket tournament upside down, as Bustamante dismissed Orcullo in the other Round 13 match. That left three players each with as loss. Deuel drew the bye, leaving Bustamante and Pagulayan to play for a shot at Deuel in the final, and Bustamante won. The final was very competitive, but Bustamante won his second straight Derby City One Pocket title and took the lead for the all-around.
It was a busy day in the nine-ball event, and there were a lot of rounds left to play on Saturday. The most interesting matches of the day were Jayson Shaw’s win over Filler, Josh Roberts’ win over SVB, Dennis Orcullo’s win in a nailbiter with Mike Dechaine and Niels Feijen topping JL Chang. Finishing the day undefeated were Danny Olson, Skyler Woodward, Dennis Orcullo, Maksim Dudanets, Tim DeRuyter, Kevin Cheng, James Aranas, Lee Van Cortezza, Niels Feijen and Chris Melling. Filler was eliminated by Melling and JL Chang was eliminated by Feijen, which made them available for a graveyard shift action matchup in which Filler, with simply brilliant play, prevailed 17-14 in 10-ball.
In straight pool, Immonen advanced to the final after topping Feijen. Van Boening ran 125 and out against Melling and will play Van Cortezza for a shot at Immonen.
Late evening fare was the Banks ring game, and the early stages of the event were played poorly. Billy Thorpe, the first player to find some form, led until Skyler ran a six, and Skyler and Billy were the last two. Skyler ran seven and out to end it. Pretty fancy stuff from Skyler.
Saturday, 2/2
The buzz I’ve always felt on the Derby’s final day is hard to put into words. It’s a day that has always delivered. One pocket, banks, and 10-ball are all in the rear view mirror, and this is the day on which the nine ball and straight pool champions are crowned. It’s also the day on which the Master of the Table is awarded.
For the second year in a row, straight pool fell apart, and the last matches were not played at all.
Nine-ball built to a crescendo and in Round 11, Woodward clinched Master of the Table by eliminating Orcullo. The last three standing were Woodward, Gorst and Aranas. Woodward drew the bye and Aranas topped Gorst to reach the final, facing the challenging task of double dipping Skyler for the title. Aranas won the first set, so Skyler bought back. The second set, which just about put me to sleep, resulted in a Skyler victory at 3:15 AM.
The Derby was finished. JL Chang won the 10-ball, Thorpe won the banks and Bustamante won the 1-pocket. Skyler Woodward was the story of the week, though, winning the Bank Pool Ring Game, the 9-ball and the Master of the Table. Well played, Skyler. For the second consecutive year, the straight pool champion is …. nobody.
Conclusion
If you made it to the end of this post, congratulations. If you were at the Derby, I hope you enjoyed reliving it. If I had the chance to see and greet you, I’m glad I had the opportunity. If you were there and I missed you, I regret it. If you weren’t there, I hope you got a sense of what it was like to be there. If you’ve never been, I hope I made you curious enough to consider going in the future.
Thanks to all at Diamond for putting on such a magnificent show.
Friday, 1/25
Got to Louisville in the evening. In what I saw in bank pool, the favorites all seemed to be cruising and the big names weren’t drawing each other. The exception was when Kaci drew and beat Jason Miller.
The Bigfoot got started. I wasn’t there for either Orcullo’s double hill win over Melling or Deuel’s double hill win over Immonen, I saw Bustamante top Morra in a seesaw battle and Josh Filler was too much for Lee Van Cortezza.
The Derby was off and running.
Saturday, 1/26
Slept late but showed up to the tournament room on time to see Jayson Shaw demolish Konrad Juszczyszyn in the Big Foot. Though his level dropped off late in the match, Jayson’s play up to 7-1 was magnificent.
The Bigfoot match between Fedor Gorst and Alex Pagulayan was interesting, a match which was played at a level higher than the Accu-stats suggested. Gorst, after trailing 2-0, won six straight racks with brilliant play and even managed to neutralize a couple of well-executed Pagulayan safeties with superb kicking. Now leading 6-2, Gorst appeared to be running out but made a pattern play error and his miss gave Alex life. Alex won that rack and the next four to grab a 7-6 lead, but Gorst got the next one and after a Pagulayan scratch on the break, Gorst regained the lead. Gorst played well down the stretch for a 11-9 win. His .880 TPA understated the quality of his play.
Banks Round 2 produced two huge upsets. Kaelin Conkright gave 2018 champion Corey Deuel his first loss and Thorsten Hohmann outlasted Jayson Shaw, who came third a year ago. Other noteworthy matches included Scott Frost over Fedor Gorst and SVB over Louis DeMarco. Truman Hogue delighted with his win over Caro Biado. Form held in Banks Round 3, with the best matches being Billy Thorpe over Richie Richeson, Danny Smith over Jason Miller and Evan Lunda over Mike Delawder.
Banks Round 4 opened with a great matchup in which SVB was too much for Jon Pinegar. Frank Tullos then gave 2018 champion Corey Deuel his second loss. Neal Jacobs gave Alex Pagulayan his first loss and Jeremy Jones gave Scott Frost his first loss.
In evening play at the Bigfoot, . I saw little of SVB’s win over Gomez or JL Chang’s win over Kaci.
Sunday 1/27
I didn’t watch that much bank pool, but this was the day on which the contenders emerged. Just James Aranas, Shane Van Boening, Skyler Woodward, Billy Thorpe and Ruslan Chinakhov finished the day undefeated. Still in with a loss were Glenn Rogers, Omar Al Shaheen, Danny Smith, Scott Frost, John Brumback, Francisco Bustamante, Tony Chohan, Josh Roberts, Troy Jones, Chris Melling, Dennis Orcollo, and Jayson Shaw.
My focus on this day was the 10-ball. It opened nondescriptly, with a drubbing of Deuel by Orcullo in which Dennis was not in his peak form and Corey struggled. Next came a match in which Bustamante and Filler both stumbled. While Filler was brilliant in the final half hour of the match, on balance his play was mediocre. Ahhh, but then there was the evening session.
Shaw and Gorst played well, and neither could shake off the other. Not too surprisingly, the match reached double hill and it looked like Shaw would run out for the win. After getting the wrong angle on the seven, Shaw had to settle for less than ideal shape on the eight and had little choice but to run into the nine and ten while pocketing the eight. When Shaw missed the eight, though, Gorst ran out for the win. Despite the anticlimax, it was a superb match.
Then came a clash of titans, featuring players who many consider the two best in the game today. SVB and JL Chang both put on a great show, but Chang’s play was otherworldly. He shot .986 through the first 12 racks, but Shane hung tough and the match remained up for grabs. In rack 18, Chang played one of the finest position shots imaginable to get from the three to the four, a four-rail draw shot. By my reckoning, the cue ball traveled nearly 20 feet on this majestic stroke. Chang went on to score the victory, completing a great evening session at the Bigfoot.
Finally, one pocket got under way, but I didn’t watch even one match.
Monday, 1/28
Monday at the Derby is one of my favorite days, as banks plays down to the last few and the Bigfoot title is awarded in the evening.
In the afternoon Bigfoot session, Filler found his A-game against a rock-solid Orcullo, shooting over .950 to advance to the final. Gorst was unable to duplicate the level he’d shown against Shaw, and JL Chang won with relative ease to reach the final. Chang beat Filler in a hotly contested final.
One pocket plodded ahead through the early stages, but I was too busy watching the bank pool to catch any of it.
Most of this day was about bank pool, and obvious threats such as John Brumback, SVB, Jayson Shaw, and Dennis Orcullo failed to survive the day and reach the final four. Monday’s matches set up the final stages of bank pooL, with Billy Thorpe, Skyler Woodward, Josh Roberts, and Omar Al Shaheen the last ones standing. Billy finished the day undefeated after topping Skyler in Banks Round 12.
Finally, in the last attempt of the day in straight pool, Chris Melling set the Derby City record run of 244. Wow!
Tuesday, 1/29
The one-pocket event moved on and the big names started to draw each other. The match of the day was surely Frost over Orcullo in which Frost was magnificent, closing the deal with a two-railer leading 2-1 in racks. Another fine match was James Aranas’ blowout win over Jayson Shaw, a match in which Aranas gambled on a couple of super-difficult shots along the way and, impressively, made them. The nail biter of them all was Skyler Woodward vs Chris Melling, a double hill affair in which Melling had a 4 to -1 lead in the case rack, but a brutal defensive error gave Skyler life and Skyler quickly took a 6-4 lead. After outplaying Melling in the end game, Skyler prevailed.
Bank pool reached its final stages. In one semi, Billy Thorpe didn’t bring his best but neither did Skyler and Billy prevailed easily to reach the final undefeated. In the other semi, Omar Al Shaheen easily took out Josh Roberts. Omar faced the task of beating Thorpe twice for the title. Billy, again not at his best, won the first set 3-2 to win the event. With one pocket coming up, Billy, the 2017 DCC One Pocket champion, finished the day well placed for Master of the Table.
Straight pool produced incredible play and by afternoon, to be in the top 8, you had to have run 159 or better. Through Tuesday, the eight poised to qualify were Chris Melling (244), John Schmidt (216), Josh Filler (198), SVB (198), Orcullo (190), Niels Feijen (179), Jayson Shaw (168) and Mika Immonen (159). One day left of qualifying, but the standard has never been higher. Simply amazing!
Wednesday, 1/30
On the day that the nine-ball started, I saw few matches, but a couple of giants drew each other. Specifically, JL Chang topped Alex Pagulayan and Johnny Archer easily beat 2018 runner-up in the DCC nine-ball John Morra.
The one pocket event moved into the more significant rounds and the contenders for the title started to make their statements. At day’s end, the undefated players left were SVB, Thorsten Hohmann, Robbie Langford, Justin Bergman, Omar Al Shaheen, Fedor Gorst, Francisco Bustamante, Kevin Cheng, Tony Chohan, Corey Deuel, Scott Frost, Roberto Gomez, Evan Lunda, Skyler Woodward, and Alex Pagulayan.
Significantly, Billy Thorpe was eliminated in Round 7, a major blow to his Master of the Table hopes.
Surely this was to be the day when common sense returned the straight pool, but the runfest continued. Melling’s 244 Derby City record fell when Orcullo managed a 260 and Filler then ran a 285. Immonen managed a 201, too. At midnight, with about three hours of qualifying remaining, the qualifiers were Filler, Orcullo, Melling, Schmidt, Immonen, SVB, Lee Van Cortezza and Niels Feijen. The minimum qualifying run was 179.
Thursday 1/31
Another day of chaos at the Derby! Nine ball crawled forward and through two days of play Round 3 was still playing! The most noteworthy result of the day in my view was James Aranas’ 9-2 win over Jayson Shaw.
In one pocket, this was the day that the contenders had to make their statements, and most, but not all of them, did. By day’s end, we’d lost Scott Frost, Tony Chohan, Danny Smith and Justin Bergman. Through Round 11, just seven were still in the mix. Only Alex Pagulayan remained undefeated, and still in with one loss were Francisco Bustamante, Fedor Gorst, Corey Deuel, Roberto Gomez, SVB and Dennis Orcullo. After a thrilling double hill win over SVB in Round 11, Alex looked poised to win it.
The knockout stage of straight pool began. Two of the quarterfinal matches took place, and it was Feijen over Filler and Immonen over Schmidt. The other two quarterfinals, Orcullo vs Van Cortezza and SVB vs Melling, had to wait because Shane and Dennis were busy playing one pocket all night.
Friday, 2/1
This was the day of reckoning for the one pocket contenders. After the field was narrowed to four, Pagulayan retaining his buy back, the general feeling among most was that Alex would surely win the title. Deuel’s win over Alex, however, turned the one pocket tournament upside down, as Bustamante dismissed Orcullo in the other Round 13 match. That left three players each with as loss. Deuel drew the bye, leaving Bustamante and Pagulayan to play for a shot at Deuel in the final, and Bustamante won. The final was very competitive, but Bustamante won his second straight Derby City One Pocket title and took the lead for the all-around.
It was a busy day in the nine-ball event, and there were a lot of rounds left to play on Saturday. The most interesting matches of the day were Jayson Shaw’s win over Filler, Josh Roberts’ win over SVB, Dennis Orcullo’s win in a nailbiter with Mike Dechaine and Niels Feijen topping JL Chang. Finishing the day undefeated were Danny Olson, Skyler Woodward, Dennis Orcullo, Maksim Dudanets, Tim DeRuyter, Kevin Cheng, James Aranas, Lee Van Cortezza, Niels Feijen and Chris Melling. Filler was eliminated by Melling and JL Chang was eliminated by Feijen, which made them available for a graveyard shift action matchup in which Filler, with simply brilliant play, prevailed 17-14 in 10-ball.
In straight pool, Immonen advanced to the final after topping Feijen. Van Boening ran 125 and out against Melling and will play Van Cortezza for a shot at Immonen.
Late evening fare was the Banks ring game, and the early stages of the event were played poorly. Billy Thorpe, the first player to find some form, led until Skyler ran a six, and Skyler and Billy were the last two. Skyler ran seven and out to end it. Pretty fancy stuff from Skyler.
Saturday, 2/2
The buzz I’ve always felt on the Derby’s final day is hard to put into words. It’s a day that has always delivered. One pocket, banks, and 10-ball are all in the rear view mirror, and this is the day on which the nine ball and straight pool champions are crowned. It’s also the day on which the Master of the Table is awarded.
For the second year in a row, straight pool fell apart, and the last matches were not played at all.
Nine-ball built to a crescendo and in Round 11, Woodward clinched Master of the Table by eliminating Orcullo. The last three standing were Woodward, Gorst and Aranas. Woodward drew the bye and Aranas topped Gorst to reach the final, facing the challenging task of double dipping Skyler for the title. Aranas won the first set, so Skyler bought back. The second set, which just about put me to sleep, resulted in a Skyler victory at 3:15 AM.
The Derby was finished. JL Chang won the 10-ball, Thorpe won the banks and Bustamante won the 1-pocket. Skyler Woodward was the story of the week, though, winning the Bank Pool Ring Game, the 9-ball and the Master of the Table. Well played, Skyler. For the second consecutive year, the straight pool champion is …. nobody.
Conclusion
If you made it to the end of this post, congratulations. If you were at the Derby, I hope you enjoyed reliving it. If I had the chance to see and greet you, I’m glad I had the opportunity. If you were there and I missed you, I regret it. If you weren’t there, I hope you got a sense of what it was like to be there. If you’ve never been, I hope I made you curious enough to consider going in the future.
Thanks to all at Diamond for putting on such a magnificent show.
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