Oscar Dominguez and his girl Desiree have done an excellent job of putting together a regional tour for West Coast players. There are maybe two or three tournaments a month for several months much like the Joss Northeast tour. Each one has a guaranteed $2,000 added and the entry fee is a very reasonable $65. The tournaments are well run by Oscar and Desiree and the two days don't run too late, so players have a chance to get home in time for work on Monday.
I played my first one this weekend at On Cue Billiards in San Diego. I drove down with Tang Hoa on Saturday morning, and checked into a Motel Six for one night. There were 96 players which kind of surprised me. This brand new tour is attracting large fields of players. That means they are doing something right. They played down to 24 players, all in the money, coming back on Sunday. I got lucky and won a couple of matches and made it into the money. Tang did well also, beating the tourney favorite Edgar Geronimo in a hill-hill match to make it to Sunday.
I lost to Dave Hemmah on the winners side and Dave ? on the losers side to go out 17-24th, and got back $100. I was thrilled just to cash. It was my first tournament in five years! Tang did a little better, finishing 9-12th. He lost to Vilmos Foldes, a strong European player visiting the U.S. for several months.
The best players like Edgar ("Edgie"), Vilmos and Santos go to nine, the next best players (Tang, Hemmah, Victor Castro) go to eight and the rest of us go to seven. Oscar's handicapping works pretty good.
I wish I could play in more but it looks like the only other stop I can make will be at Gary's Billiards in Victorville, CA. early in January. They had players come in from Phoenix, Vegas, L.A., Bakersfield, Fresno and even one guy from Lake Tahoe. Kudos to Oscar and Desiree and thanks for putting this together. West State Billiards in Los Angeles contributes $500 to the purse in each event. The winner gets $1,500, second $1,000 and third $700. Not a bad deal for a weekend event.
I played my first one this weekend at On Cue Billiards in San Diego. I drove down with Tang Hoa on Saturday morning, and checked into a Motel Six for one night. There were 96 players which kind of surprised me. This brand new tour is attracting large fields of players. That means they are doing something right. They played down to 24 players, all in the money, coming back on Sunday. I got lucky and won a couple of matches and made it into the money. Tang did well also, beating the tourney favorite Edgar Geronimo in a hill-hill match to make it to Sunday.
I lost to Dave Hemmah on the winners side and Dave ? on the losers side to go out 17-24th, and got back $100. I was thrilled just to cash. It was my first tournament in five years! Tang did a little better, finishing 9-12th. He lost to Vilmos Foldes, a strong European player visiting the U.S. for several months.
The best players like Edgar ("Edgie"), Vilmos and Santos go to nine, the next best players (Tang, Hemmah, Victor Castro) go to eight and the rest of us go to seven. Oscar's handicapping works pretty good.
I wish I could play in more but it looks like the only other stop I can make will be at Gary's Billiards in Victorville, CA. early in January. They had players come in from Phoenix, Vegas, L.A., Bakersfield, Fresno and even one guy from Lake Tahoe. Kudos to Oscar and Desiree and thanks for putting this together. West State Billiards in Los Angeles contributes $500 to the purse in each event. The winner gets $1,500, second $1,000 and third $700. Not a bad deal for a weekend event.
