There is an on-going debate in the regional pool tour community about the wisdom of two-day events. On one side of the debate are players who execute a cost/benefit analysis, determine that the prize money offered proves to be considerably less if players have to factor in one, possibly two nights in a motel and thus, prefer to play out a given tournament in a single day. The other side of the debate argues that single-day tournaments that play out in a room with limited tables and large fields of entrants have a way of finishing at 4 a.m. in the morning of Day Two. Expecting the tournament’s final four or so players to be at their best at that time of the day is unrealistic and likely to impact the ‘reward’ end of the equation.
As a player and tour director of the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour since the year began, Briana Miller has attempted to accommodate both sides of this debate, and other debates as well, including the institution of different tournament formats, like a round robin phase, followed by a single-elimination round. Miller has been offering members of the tour the opportunity to do one or the other, or both. The opening event of the season was scheduled for a single day. The second, employing the Round Robin/single-elimination format was a two-day event. The third was a single-day event, as was this past weekend’s (Saturday, June 17) tour stop (#4). According to its DigitalPool record (subject to being recorded when the person doing the data entry actually does it), the semifinals of Stop #4 finished at 2:26 a.m. on Sunday morning. The finals ended at just after 4 a.m.
It's hard to know, of course, an individual’s state of mind as it was at 4 o’clock on a given morning, but the time of day did not appear to affect Miller’s performance at the tables. She lost her third-round match to Emily Duddy on Saturday afternoon and had to win seven on the loss side to face Joanne Mason Parker in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Having reduced the standard, extended-race-to-nine format of the finals into an extended-race-to-eight format, Miller had to win six games before Parker did, which would extend the winner’s necessary total to 8. Miller did that and as it turned out, she and Parker battled to double-hill (7-7) in the final match before Miller closed it out to claim her third 2023 JPNEWT title. The $1,000-added event drew 46 entrants to Bluegrass Billiards in Philadelphia, PA.
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As a player and tour director of the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour since the year began, Briana Miller has attempted to accommodate both sides of this debate, and other debates as well, including the institution of different tournament formats, like a round robin phase, followed by a single-elimination round. Miller has been offering members of the tour the opportunity to do one or the other, or both. The opening event of the season was scheduled for a single day. The second, employing the Round Robin/single-elimination format was a two-day event. The third was a single-day event, as was this past weekend’s (Saturday, June 17) tour stop (#4). According to its DigitalPool record (subject to being recorded when the person doing the data entry actually does it), the semifinals of Stop #4 finished at 2:26 a.m. on Sunday morning. The finals ended at just after 4 a.m.
It's hard to know, of course, an individual’s state of mind as it was at 4 o’clock on a given morning, but the time of day did not appear to affect Miller’s performance at the tables. She lost her third-round match to Emily Duddy on Saturday afternoon and had to win seven on the loss side to face Joanne Mason Parker in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Having reduced the standard, extended-race-to-nine format of the finals into an extended-race-to-eight format, Miller had to win six games before Parker did, which would extend the winner’s necessary total to 8. Miller did that and as it turned out, she and Parker battled to double-hill (7-7) in the final match before Miller closed it out to claim her third 2023 JPNEWT title. The $1,000-added event drew 46 entrants to Bluegrass Billiards in Philadelphia, PA.
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