I am probably not the most qualified person to report on this Q, since I was out of state on business all day on Friday when it started. However, I was there on Saturday and Sunday.
There were 17 eager players that showed up. A correction on the IPT site would show Alain Boutin (Frenchie), Claire Gauthier, and Brady Gollan are from Canada, not the US, along with Mike Vidas.
Teddy Garahan and Mark Trainer showed up from Vegas, and Robb Saez made the trip from the east coast. The Filipinos showed up in force with Santos Sambajon and Gandy Valle (Yung Yung), as well as our local contenders, Raul Abenojar, and Eddie Carrido.
The winners of our mini-Q's, JD and Glen Atwell were in the fray, as well as Harry Platis. Danny Medina and Vladimir Korzinin also traveled to Seattle to participate. The only player I didn't know or meet was Richard Burns.
Mike said the place had about 50 spectators on Friday, even though many others had to work.
It was interesting that Santos had been calling me every day. I believe he arrived on Tuesday into Seattle and wanted me to make sure he was entered into this qualifier. I was on the phone several times long distance in CA while he was in WA.
For some reason, he thought the matches started on Friday morning at 11, when in fact, they started at 10. When he was called for his 10:00 match, he was still in South Seattle. He was given a 10 minute grace period and still did not make it until another 15 minutes after that. So, he started out on the loser's side, a distinct disadvantage!
If anyone has been following the saga of Santos Sambajon, you will recall that he had a spot in the IPT, won the Skins tournament and $71,000, went back to the Philipines to visit his family, and did not get his paperwork back in time to the IPT and forfeited his spot there. He has been unsuccessful in securing a spot since then and has attended every qualifier so far. Whether it is a language barrier or not being computer literate, I really think he needs a manager!
On Saturday, starting at 10am, it was Gandy Valle against Glen Atwell and Rob Saez against Mike Vidas on the A side, and Brady Gollan against Danny Medina and Santos facing off against Mark Trainer on the B side.
Glen played tight against Yung Yung and got out of line frequently, while Gandy was able to move around the table effortlessly. Score - 10-2.
Rob Saez got the 1-2 punch from the Canadians - first dropping to Mike Vidas 10-6, and then losing to Brady by the same margin. There was some controversy over one of his matches, where he confronted the TD, and that is posted on the IIPT website. I know Rob is very vocal, but I also know Tiffany knows how to call the shot. I was not as confident in the other refs there.
Mike Vidas - a young gun who was beating everyone not too long ago, and decided to give up pool to park cars, of all things.
He is certainly a force to be reckoned with! The playoff for the winner of the winner's bracket between him and Gandy was a show of masterful position play and great breaking. This was the only match where I saw Gandy missing and making unforced errors. The score was 10-5 in favor of Vidas.
Brady Gollan, his road partner, lives in Kelowna, CN and wields a mean stick. He has a good solid game and took down Danny Medina, 10-6, which set up his match with Rob. It was great seeing Danny back.
Speaking of Dannys, it was a shame that Dan Louie was not able to participate due to a previous engagement. He did not realize that the tournament would have been over by 6 on both days, or he could have fit in both events.
Meanwhile, Santos fell to Mark Trainer, a sports agent, 10-7. I think it shocked everyone. Mark zigzagged and made some great outs. Many of his outs weren't pretty, but he got the job done. He took a lot of time on each shot.
When Glen Atwell played him the next round, we found it funny that Glen said that Mark took him out of his rhythm, because, well, Glen is no lightning bolt! Glen said he counted 48 strokes before letting go!
At the end of Saturday, it was decided to play the last 2 rounds starting at noon on Sunday. The only matches left were Brady against Mark, and then the winner would face Gandy.
During all this action, 4 names were drawn for Mike to play in the challenge matches. Unlike Grady or Keith who got to play their matches one at a time, Mike had to play his matches 2 at a time. He was wired up on Jillian's strong coffee brew.
His first 2 challengers were Vladimir and Claire. He was running around with his head cut off. By the time he realized he did not have too big of a fight in Vladimir, he was already down 3 games to Claire. He beat Vladimir handily, 10-1 (when it was late in the match at 8-0 he plowed into a huge cluster trying for a low percentage combo, which allowed Vladimir to run out the rack for his only win), then tied it up hill-hill on Claire's table.
Mike made a mistake and it looked like Claire would run out, and then Claire made an error. Mike ran down to the last ball before the 8 and got straight in, so he just cinched it with draw, to leave about a 20 degree cut on the 8 a foot away from the corner pocket. Uncharacteristically, Mike 2 stroked the thing and overcut it, jumping up. I mean, it was so EASY! Of course under that kind of pressure, nothing is ever easy and he kicks himself now every time he thinks about it.
We didn't know if anyone would even be returning on Sunday to play the other 2 challenge matches, so they drew Raul and Danny Medina for the next set. Raul declined and so Teddy Garrahan was put into his spot. Ticked off for missing the 8, Mike started out great with Danny, up 4-1, but Teddy was giving him trouble on the other table and he started concentrating on getting that one back, which allowed Danny to make short work of Mike, 10-5. Mike said he really didn't care if he beat Danny or not...he has a soft spot for Danny although of course, he DID want to win. But he set his sights on Teddy and it went hill-hill with Mike coming out the victor this time. Whew!
It was fantastic that Mike was given the opportunity to play these challenge matches and he was ok with winning $2000, although of course, it should have been $3000.
On Sunday, Mark did not play the same way that got him to where he finished. He made several early errors and Brady was relentless. He was breaking great and just played with precision. Match score was 10-7.
The same could not be said for Brady's play against Valle in the next, deciding set. The pressure was just too much, I guess. He couldn't do anything right and Gandy just made everything look so easy. He faltered in the beginning, but took advantage at every opportunity. The outcome was 10-5, making all 'V' winners of this qualifier...Vidas and Valle.
Gandy Valle - Is he fated for pool history, being named for 2 pool tables???
Kind of like Helena Thornfelt.
After the final match was over, several players got in action. It was good to see Vince Frayne (and Lila) back into the poolroom instead of the cardroom.
Mike played a set of race to 10 with Vladimir, giving Vlad 5 games on the wire. Vladimir certainly played a lot better than he had during his matches, and it got scary, but Mike still won, 10-8 for $500.
I will post pics one at a time, with explanations, so I can take up a lot of bandwidth here, lol. Thanks for hanging in here for the long story!
There were 17 eager players that showed up. A correction on the IPT site would show Alain Boutin (Frenchie), Claire Gauthier, and Brady Gollan are from Canada, not the US, along with Mike Vidas.
Teddy Garahan and Mark Trainer showed up from Vegas, and Robb Saez made the trip from the east coast. The Filipinos showed up in force with Santos Sambajon and Gandy Valle (Yung Yung), as well as our local contenders, Raul Abenojar, and Eddie Carrido.
The winners of our mini-Q's, JD and Glen Atwell were in the fray, as well as Harry Platis. Danny Medina and Vladimir Korzinin also traveled to Seattle to participate. The only player I didn't know or meet was Richard Burns.
Mike said the place had about 50 spectators on Friday, even though many others had to work.
It was interesting that Santos had been calling me every day. I believe he arrived on Tuesday into Seattle and wanted me to make sure he was entered into this qualifier. I was on the phone several times long distance in CA while he was in WA.
For some reason, he thought the matches started on Friday morning at 11, when in fact, they started at 10. When he was called for his 10:00 match, he was still in South Seattle. He was given a 10 minute grace period and still did not make it until another 15 minutes after that. So, he started out on the loser's side, a distinct disadvantage!
If anyone has been following the saga of Santos Sambajon, you will recall that he had a spot in the IPT, won the Skins tournament and $71,000, went back to the Philipines to visit his family, and did not get his paperwork back in time to the IPT and forfeited his spot there. He has been unsuccessful in securing a spot since then and has attended every qualifier so far. Whether it is a language barrier or not being computer literate, I really think he needs a manager!
On Saturday, starting at 10am, it was Gandy Valle against Glen Atwell and Rob Saez against Mike Vidas on the A side, and Brady Gollan against Danny Medina and Santos facing off against Mark Trainer on the B side.
Glen played tight against Yung Yung and got out of line frequently, while Gandy was able to move around the table effortlessly. Score - 10-2.
Rob Saez got the 1-2 punch from the Canadians - first dropping to Mike Vidas 10-6, and then losing to Brady by the same margin. There was some controversy over one of his matches, where he confronted the TD, and that is posted on the IIPT website. I know Rob is very vocal, but I also know Tiffany knows how to call the shot. I was not as confident in the other refs there.
Mike Vidas - a young gun who was beating everyone not too long ago, and decided to give up pool to park cars, of all things.
He is certainly a force to be reckoned with! The playoff for the winner of the winner's bracket between him and Gandy was a show of masterful position play and great breaking. This was the only match where I saw Gandy missing and making unforced errors. The score was 10-5 in favor of Vidas.Brady Gollan, his road partner, lives in Kelowna, CN and wields a mean stick. He has a good solid game and took down Danny Medina, 10-6, which set up his match with Rob. It was great seeing Danny back.
Speaking of Dannys, it was a shame that Dan Louie was not able to participate due to a previous engagement. He did not realize that the tournament would have been over by 6 on both days, or he could have fit in both events.
Meanwhile, Santos fell to Mark Trainer, a sports agent, 10-7. I think it shocked everyone. Mark zigzagged and made some great outs. Many of his outs weren't pretty, but he got the job done. He took a lot of time on each shot.
When Glen Atwell played him the next round, we found it funny that Glen said that Mark took him out of his rhythm, because, well, Glen is no lightning bolt! Glen said he counted 48 strokes before letting go!
At the end of Saturday, it was decided to play the last 2 rounds starting at noon on Sunday. The only matches left were Brady against Mark, and then the winner would face Gandy.
During all this action, 4 names were drawn for Mike to play in the challenge matches. Unlike Grady or Keith who got to play their matches one at a time, Mike had to play his matches 2 at a time. He was wired up on Jillian's strong coffee brew.
His first 2 challengers were Vladimir and Claire. He was running around with his head cut off. By the time he realized he did not have too big of a fight in Vladimir, he was already down 3 games to Claire. He beat Vladimir handily, 10-1 (when it was late in the match at 8-0 he plowed into a huge cluster trying for a low percentage combo, which allowed Vladimir to run out the rack for his only win), then tied it up hill-hill on Claire's table.
Mike made a mistake and it looked like Claire would run out, and then Claire made an error. Mike ran down to the last ball before the 8 and got straight in, so he just cinched it with draw, to leave about a 20 degree cut on the 8 a foot away from the corner pocket. Uncharacteristically, Mike 2 stroked the thing and overcut it, jumping up.
I mean, it was so EASY! Of course under that kind of pressure, nothing is ever easy and he kicks himself now every time he thinks about it. We didn't know if anyone would even be returning on Sunday to play the other 2 challenge matches, so they drew Raul and Danny Medina for the next set. Raul declined and so Teddy Garrahan was put into his spot. Ticked off for missing the 8, Mike started out great with Danny, up 4-1, but Teddy was giving him trouble on the other table and he started concentrating on getting that one back, which allowed Danny to make short work of Mike, 10-5. Mike said he really didn't care if he beat Danny or not...he has a soft spot for Danny although of course, he DID want to win. But he set his sights on Teddy and it went hill-hill with Mike coming out the victor this time. Whew!
It was fantastic that Mike was given the opportunity to play these challenge matches and he was ok with winning $2000, although of course, it should have been $3000.
On Sunday, Mark did not play the same way that got him to where he finished. He made several early errors and Brady was relentless. He was breaking great and just played with precision. Match score was 10-7.
The same could not be said for Brady's play against Valle in the next, deciding set. The pressure was just too much, I guess. He couldn't do anything right and Gandy just made everything look so easy. He faltered in the beginning, but took advantage at every opportunity. The outcome was 10-5, making all 'V' winners of this qualifier...Vidas and Valle.
Gandy Valle - Is he fated for pool history, being named for 2 pool tables???
Kind of like Helena Thornfelt.After the final match was over, several players got in action. It was good to see Vince Frayne (and Lila) back into the poolroom instead of the cardroom.
Mike played a set of race to 10 with Vladimir, giving Vlad 5 games on the wire. Vladimir certainly played a lot better than he had during his matches, and it got scary, but Mike still won, 10-8 for $500.
I will post pics one at a time, with explanations, so I can take up a lot of bandwidth here, lol. Thanks for hanging in here for the long story!
