MARSH STUNS FAVORITE MARTINEZ IN THRILLER AT CITY LIGHTS
By Stephen Spivack, Tournament Manager citylightstournaments@yahoo.com
TACOMA, WA
City Lights proudly hosted the first stop of the Rainier 9-Ball Tour, June 16th and 17th, the field was full of champions, including Rafael Martinez, Dan Loule, Todd Marsh, Hsin Huang, Kyoto Sone and many more, 30 players in all showed up to compete for a $1700 total purse. The races were set to 7/7, BCA, cue ball foul only rules.
Early on this tournament belonged to Rafael Martinez, taking out Canada’s own Alan Ima in truly stunning form (7-0), in just under 9 minutes. Mike Zimmerman knocked off women’s champion Hsin Huang (7-1), Jeff “Hill-Hill” Jimenez showed us why he earns that nickname, knocking off the tour’s director, Junior Tolentino (7-6), then Junior Sardoncillo (7-6), but truly all eyes were on the top of the bracket as Rafael continued to dominate and destroy every challenger he faced, his race to the point, brought every great challenger to their threshold, he took on Eddie Mataya, and won (7-1), he then played Japan’s Naoki Wakimoto and he too was sent packing (7-1), his race to the point was everyone’s envy, Arlo Walsman, had chances but, missed a tough cut 9 ball to lose, (7-2), playing for the point in a winning record total of (28-4), Rafael cut down the ever so surging Todd Marsh (7-1).
The one-loss side was filled with the onslaught of destruction from Rafael’s path, Dan Louie, whose short-ended loss to Mike Zimmerman, put him on the 17th -24th spots, only Z-Man’s trip on the winner side was short-lived, getting defeated by the kid, Arlo Walsman, (7-5), on an incredible, no thought gotta make behind the back jump shot, Zimmeman’s dreams were dashed just like that. Alan Ima, who early on suffered a loss on the winner’s side to Rafael, proved what a strong player he really is, coming back from the bottom of the bracket, to win seven straight matches to wait in the third spot while Martinez, sent Todd Marsh packing to the 3rd place match with Alan who had wins over Gary Garvin (7-1), Michael Jensen of Beaverton, OR (7-3), Pat Vice, (7-6), Tim Paget (7-2), Mike Shannon (7-3), Arlo Walsman (7-3), and Raul Abenojar, (7-4).
The other side of the one loss bracket was run by local favorite Raul Abenojar, early on he suffered a hill-hill loss to Junior Sardoncillo, only to come back in full force winning his next six matches, putting Junior Toletino to rest (7-1), Joe Chun back to some one-hole (7-3), Eddie Mataya back to the drawing board (7-4), Mike Zimmerman back home early to Linda(7-5), including a rare 9 ball snap, and Jeff Jimenez (7-4), only to face-off with the also surging Alan Ima and in a strongly controlled match, Raul was back home with 4th place, while Alan moved handily on to face Todd Marsh.
This match-up was one for the ages, each player trading rack after rack, but in the end it was just a scratch on the 8 that broke Alan’s back and left Todd, the ball in hand that he needed to win.
The finals set at one race to 11 was all Todd Marsh needed to strike over Rafael, early on taking a commanding 8-2 lead, only after a scratch Rafael eventually hammered the match out to 8-8, but in true Marsh-mallow fashion, Todd, with his hammer breaks and mastery of play, pulled away to capture the Rainier 9-Ball 1st Stop Tour Victory (11-8).
OASIS BILLIARDS presents THE RAINIER 9-BALL TOUR 1st STOP
TACOMA’S CITY LIGHTS BILLIARDS
JUNE 16TH AND 17TH 2007
30 players X $40 Entry = $1200, plus Tour Add $250, City Lights add $250
$1700 total purse
1ST Todd Marsh $600.00
2nd Rafael Martinez $330.00
3rd Alan Ima $200.00
4th Raul Abenojar $160.00
5th Jeff Jimenez $100.00
Arlo Walsman
7th Mike Shannon $70.00
Naoki Wakimoto
Top Woman
Hsin Huang $70.00
By Stephen Spivack, Tournament Manager citylightstournaments@yahoo.com
TACOMA, WA
City Lights proudly hosted the first stop of the Rainier 9-Ball Tour, June 16th and 17th, the field was full of champions, including Rafael Martinez, Dan Loule, Todd Marsh, Hsin Huang, Kyoto Sone and many more, 30 players in all showed up to compete for a $1700 total purse. The races were set to 7/7, BCA, cue ball foul only rules.
Early on this tournament belonged to Rafael Martinez, taking out Canada’s own Alan Ima in truly stunning form (7-0), in just under 9 minutes. Mike Zimmerman knocked off women’s champion Hsin Huang (7-1), Jeff “Hill-Hill” Jimenez showed us why he earns that nickname, knocking off the tour’s director, Junior Tolentino (7-6), then Junior Sardoncillo (7-6), but truly all eyes were on the top of the bracket as Rafael continued to dominate and destroy every challenger he faced, his race to the point, brought every great challenger to their threshold, he took on Eddie Mataya, and won (7-1), he then played Japan’s Naoki Wakimoto and he too was sent packing (7-1), his race to the point was everyone’s envy, Arlo Walsman, had chances but, missed a tough cut 9 ball to lose, (7-2), playing for the point in a winning record total of (28-4), Rafael cut down the ever so surging Todd Marsh (7-1).
The one-loss side was filled with the onslaught of destruction from Rafael’s path, Dan Louie, whose short-ended loss to Mike Zimmerman, put him on the 17th -24th spots, only Z-Man’s trip on the winner side was short-lived, getting defeated by the kid, Arlo Walsman, (7-5), on an incredible, no thought gotta make behind the back jump shot, Zimmeman’s dreams were dashed just like that. Alan Ima, who early on suffered a loss on the winner’s side to Rafael, proved what a strong player he really is, coming back from the bottom of the bracket, to win seven straight matches to wait in the third spot while Martinez, sent Todd Marsh packing to the 3rd place match with Alan who had wins over Gary Garvin (7-1), Michael Jensen of Beaverton, OR (7-3), Pat Vice, (7-6), Tim Paget (7-2), Mike Shannon (7-3), Arlo Walsman (7-3), and Raul Abenojar, (7-4).
The other side of the one loss bracket was run by local favorite Raul Abenojar, early on he suffered a hill-hill loss to Junior Sardoncillo, only to come back in full force winning his next six matches, putting Junior Toletino to rest (7-1), Joe Chun back to some one-hole (7-3), Eddie Mataya back to the drawing board (7-4), Mike Zimmerman back home early to Linda(7-5), including a rare 9 ball snap, and Jeff Jimenez (7-4), only to face-off with the also surging Alan Ima and in a strongly controlled match, Raul was back home with 4th place, while Alan moved handily on to face Todd Marsh.
This match-up was one for the ages, each player trading rack after rack, but in the end it was just a scratch on the 8 that broke Alan’s back and left Todd, the ball in hand that he needed to win.
The finals set at one race to 11 was all Todd Marsh needed to strike over Rafael, early on taking a commanding 8-2 lead, only after a scratch Rafael eventually hammered the match out to 8-8, but in true Marsh-mallow fashion, Todd, with his hammer breaks and mastery of play, pulled away to capture the Rainier 9-Ball 1st Stop Tour Victory (11-8).
OASIS BILLIARDS presents THE RAINIER 9-BALL TOUR 1st STOP
TACOMA’S CITY LIGHTS BILLIARDS
JUNE 16TH AND 17TH 2007
30 players X $40 Entry = $1200, plus Tour Add $250, City Lights add $250
$1700 total purse
1ST Todd Marsh $600.00
2nd Rafael Martinez $330.00
3rd Alan Ima $200.00
4th Raul Abenojar $160.00
5th Jeff Jimenez $100.00
Arlo Walsman
7th Mike Shannon $70.00
Naoki Wakimoto
Top Woman
Hsin Huang $70.00