15-year-old Demarco Tran goes undefeated to win lower bracket of MVP Tour event

Demarco Tran

Vergara and Lam split lower bracket

At a 9-Ball stop on Mhet Vergara’s ProAM Tour (MVP) this past weekend (Jan. 24-25), two sets of competitors were separated into lower and higher (rated) brackets. The event drew a total of 74 entrants to Carom Billiards in Flushing (Queens), NY; 47 in the lower bracket with FargoRates that ranged from 379 to 558 and 27 in the higher bracket with a range from a high of 690, down to 566 (seven of them had that 566 rate). This time out, as opposed to the growing number of other ways of doing the same kind of ‘split bracket’ event, the two sets of competitors played in their respective brackets and earned prize money, based on how they performed in their own bracket. No Final Four competition with two from each bracket, no single, final match between the winners of the two individual brackets.

Teenager Demarco Tran went undefeated to claim the lower bracket title, while Charls Darwin Vergara and Duc Lam split the top two prizes at stake in the upper bracket. Payouts were apportioned across the two separate brackets.

Tran’s undefeated trip to the lower bracket title wasn’t just a job, it was an adventure. Based on a FargoRate formula for matchups, Tran was racing, at various times throughout the event, to 5 (twice), 6 (three times) and 7 (twice), sometimes being awarded ‘beads on the wire,’ other times awarding them to opponents. In the two matches that he was awarded two ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 7, he didn’t need them, downing both Joseph Sarreal (second round) and Siddhant Patel (winners’ side semifinal) 5-2. Competing in straight-up races to 7, he allowed those two opponents (Erika Alban and Jubert Balisi, 3rd and 4th round) to draw within a game of double hill, winning 7-5. In two of the three matches in which he was awarded a single “bead on the wire” in a race to 7 (opening match against Johnny Fernandez and his hot seat match), he didn’t need them either. 

Meanwhile, emerging from the opposite end of the lower bracket, Brian Vasquez headed out for a double-date with destiny (hot seat and finals). He would race to 7 in all but one of his matches and played straight-up races to 7 in his first two, downing Paul Santos (5) and Mark Antonetti (4). He gave two ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 7 to Jonathan Damian in a winners’ side quarterfinal and won it 7-2 to draw Amir Uddin, who gave him a single “bead on the wire” in a race to 7, which he didn’t end up needing.

So, Tran over Sarreal 5-2, put him into the hot seat match against Vazquez, who’d defeated Uddin 6-4. Tran claimed the hot seat 6-4.

Uddin picked up Jubert Balisi, who’d followed his loss to Tran with a shutout over Jacob Shomstein and a 5-3 win over Erick Edgardo Garcia Molina (Molina racing to 7). Patel drew Erika Alban, who was working on a four-match, loss-side winning streak that had recently eliminated Noel Estrada 5-5 (Estrada racing to 7) and Jonathan Damian 6-3. 

Balisi extended his loss-side streak to three, downing Uddin 5-4 (Udin racing to 7), as Patel and Alban locked up in a double-hill fight that ended Alban’s loss-side streak. In the quarterfinals that followed Balisi didn’t end up needing either of the two “beads on the wire” he’d been awarded to down Patel 5-3. Balisi got a single “bead on the wire” in a race to 6 against Vasquez in the semifinals and could have used a few more of them, as the single ‘bead’ proved to be all that he’d get, as Vasquez earned a second shot against Tran.

Same race parameters as the hot seat match (Tran with a “bead on the wire” in a race to 7). Tran gave up four racks in the earlier match, but cut that in half in the final, claiming the low bracket title 6-2.

Vergara starts with shutouts, finishes with double-hill win and split of the top two prizes

When a competitor starts a tournament with two straight shutouts, opponents who might ‘see’ him coming on their personal event (match) horizon, should probably not overvalue the skill set that led to the shutouts as much as they should consider the confidence boost that the shutouts provided. In the case of Charls Darwin Vergara, in the upper bracket, they might have. After defeating Kamal Alzanam and Max Watanabe (7-0, 5-0), Paul Wrangpetch, with a single ‘bead on the wire’ in a race to 7, put up a fight that almost went double hill. Vergara prevailed, advancing to a winners’ side semifinal against Edgardo Agulay, who had just sent the eventual runner-up, Duc Lam, to the loss side.

Leo Zhang, in the meantime, also bound for the hot seat, took a different approach. He got the ‘tough stuff’ out of the way first, surviving two almost-double hill matches at the start, against Jorge Vivanco 5-6 (Vivanco racing to 8) and David Callaghan 7-4 (Callaghan racing to 6). He gave up only two in a straight-up race to 7 against Adan Romero and drew Chris Derewonski in the other winners’ side semifinal.

Vergara sent Agulay to the loss side 7-3 and was joined in the hot seat match by Zhang, who put his shutout into the mix, sending Derewonski west. In what would prove to be Vergara’s last match, he and Zhang, in a straight-up race to 7, battled to double hill before Vergara claimed the seat. 

Over on the loss side, Lam got off to a bit of a shaky start when he (first off) awarded a ‘bead on the wire’ to Kamal Alzanam in a race to 6. Alzanam promptly used it to his advantage to reach double hill. Lam survived to down Jason Hugh Sam 7-3 and draw Derewonski. Algulay picked up Max Watanabe, who, like Algulay, had been dispatched to the loss side by Vergara. Watanabe did quite well on the loss side, arriving to meet Algulay on the heels of four straight wins, an aggregate game score of 28-7 and recent wins over Adan Romero 7-3 and Ron Gabia 7-1.

Watanabe and Agulay battled to double hill before Agulay advanced to the quarterfinals. Lam defeated Derewonski 5-3 to join him. Lam defeated Agulay in the quarterfinals 6-2 and then, in the semifinals that proved to be the last match of the night, Lam eliminated Zhang 6-2.

Tour director Mhet Vergara thanked Michael Khang and his Carom Café staff for their hospitality, along with sponsors INTHEBX (apparel), NARA Construction and Peri Cues.

The next stop on the MVP Tour will be an Open 10-Ball event, scheduled for this weekend (Feb. 1-2), and hosted by Cue Bar in Queens, NY.  

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