Dave Schuil, Nick Torraca and Jason Halpin
He wasn’t the lowest Fargo-rated competitor at this past weekend’s (Sept. 16) Open handicapped stop on the Garden State Pool Tour, but David Schuil (499) came into a 24-entrant field that had an average Fargo rate of 522, played three of his four matches against a higher-rated opponent and snatched the hot seat from the highest Fargo-rated competitor in the field, Jason Halpin (641). Halpin moved to the loss side and won the event semifinal, at which point he and Schuil opted out of a final match and split the top two prizes. As the undefeated occupant of the hot seat, Schuil was the event’s official winner and claimed his first (recorded) regional tour title. The $200-added event was hosted by Players Billiards in Eatontown, NJ.
After being awarded a bye, Schuil opened up against Ed Helm (544), downing him 5-3 before facing the Garden State Pool Tour’s lower-bracket points leader, Mike Strassberg (461). Schuil sent him to the loss side 6-4 and picked up Nic Torraca (548) in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Halpin, in the meantime, played his first two matches needing to win twice as many games as his lower-rated opponents to win the match. He got by Jack Ho and Donald Henriquez by winning four times as many games; 8-2 in both matches. He then defeated Noe Videz 7-3 to draw David Marchant in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Schuill held Torraca, racing to 6, to a single rack and advanced to the hot seat 5-1. Halpin joined him after a 6-3 win over Marchant. With their Fargo rates separated by 142 points, Schuil began the hot seat match with four ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 8. He won what turned out to be his last match and claimed the hot seat 4-4.
Torraca moved west and picked up Alex Vangelov, who’d lost a winners’ side quarterfinal to Marchant and on the loss side, defeated Thomas MacManamon 7-3 and Noe Videz 5-5 (Videz racing to 7). Marchant drew a rematch against Aurelio Chickie Romero, whom he’d defeated in the second round 6-2. Romero won four straight on the loss side, including recent wins over Strassberg 7-3 and Eliomar Lima, double hill.
Marchant defeated Romero a second time, 6-3 and was joined in the quarterfinals by Torraca, who’d eliminated Vangelov 6-1. With Marchant racing to 7, Torraca took the quarterfinal match 5-3, but had his short, loss-side winning streak stopped at two when Halpin defeated him in the semifinals 7-1.
They opted out of the final, split the top two cash prizes and called it a night.
Tour director Dave Fitzpatrick thanked Bill Hill and his Players Billiards’ staff for their hospitality, as well as Billiards Engineering, JFlowers Cues & Cases, John Bender, Kamui, Off the Rail Apparel, In the Bx, Outsville, World Beaters Apparel, and Brutal. The next stop on the Garden State Pool Tour, scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 1 will be a ‘600 & lower’ Fargo Rate event, hosted by Side Pocket Billiards in Howell, NJ.
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