Roland Garcia
Owners Kory & Trena Wolford and proud parents of “Champagne Shane” Wolford welcomed players and fans to Wolf’s Den Billiards for their $35,000 added Inaugural Battle of the Bull.
Presented by Bull Carbon & Wolf’s Den Billiards and located in Roanoke, VA, this event featured a $10,000 added One Pocket division and a $25,000 added Nineball division. The Nineball championship was also a Matchroom Mosconi Cup points qualifying event to complete this year’s Mosconi Cup teams.
Local sponsors included Awful Arthur’s, Pollard 107 South, Magic Rack, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore, Simonis, Aramith, Diamond Billiard Products, Savage Billiards, PoolActionTV.com, Wolf’s Den Billiards and Wes and Jamie Bond’s Bull Carbon.
After an auction, players meeting and draw, the event kicked off on Monday evening with the One Pocket division. Featuring 26 players, the entry fee was $300 with the three foul rule in play. The tournament was races to three in the double elimination portion until down to the final eight players. From there, it was single elimination and races to four.
Jam packed with well known names, it was young gun Lukas Fracasso-Verner, Roland Garcia, Sky Woodward, Billy Thorpe, Josh Roberts, Alex Pagulayan, Shane Van Boening and Roberto Gomez who advanced to the knockout round.
Woodward then edged out Van Boening 4-3 while Thorpe beat Pagulayan, Gomez eliminated Fracasso-Verner and Garcia defeated Roberts – all 4-2.
From there, it was Woodward over Thorpe 4-1 and Garcia over Gomez 4-2. Both Sky and Roland advanced to the finals where Garcia defeated Woodward for the title – 4-1.
Aloysius Yapp and Fedor Gorst
While the one pocket was going on, the room was filling up with players from all over the planet for the nine ball event. Names like Chang Jung-Lin, Alex Kazakis, Denis Grabe, Vitaliy Patsura and Aloysius Yapp joined WPA World Eight Ball champ Shane Van Boening as well as Texas Open Nine Ball champ Tyler Styer, Fedor Gorst, John Morra, Oscar Dominguez, Max Eberle, veteran CJ Wiley, Jesus Atencio, Joven Bustamante and Kristina Tkach.
On Wednesday evening, ninety one players joined the fray after posting their $300 entry fees. Players would be seeded according to the nine ball world rankings. The format was double elimination with winners breaking out of the box. The nine was racked on the spot with races to eight. Once down to sixteen players, it was single elimination with races to nine with the finals were an extended race to thirteen. After an auction, players meeting and draw, play began.
Thirty seven players received the coveted bye. Notable knockouts from the double elimination round included John Morra, Tony Chohan, Billy Thorpe, Rodney Morris, Josh Roberts, Vitaliy Patsura, Oscar Dominguez, Max Eberle, CJ Wiley, Shane Wolford, Jesus Atencio, Louis DeMarco, Raymond Linares, Max Adams, Lukas Francasso-Verner and Jeremy Seaman.
The final sixteen saw Van Boening thump Ussery 9-2, Chang over Pagulayan 9-6, Yapp beat Gomez 9-6, Woodward edged out Grabe 9-8, Kazakis pounded Bustamante 9-2, Styer over Gerson Martinez Boza 9-7, Garcia defeated young gun Eric Roberts and Fedor Gorst beat Mark Estiola – both 9-4.
Next round saw Chang go down to Van Boening 9-6, Yapp over Woodward 9-7, Garcia pummelled by Gorst 9-2 and Styer escaped Kazakis with a 9-8 victory.
The final four was Van Boening/Yapp and Gorst/Styer. Van Boening was eliminated 9-6 and Styer went down 9-2. Gorst and Yapp advanced to the finals.
As previously mentioned, the finals was an extended race to thirteen. A close match all the way, the score was knotted at five games apiece, then 10-10 and 11-11 until Yapp took down the match and the title. Final score – 13-11.
And, USA’s Mosconi Cup team is – drumroll – Shane Van Boening, Sky Woodward, Fedor Gorst, Tyler Styer and Shane Wolford! Coached by Jeremy Jones, this year’s Cup should be exceptional!
PoolActionTV.com would again like to thank owners Kory and Trena Wolford and their staff for rolling out the red carpet for all the players and fans. Huge props to Baton Rouge attorney, Joe Long, for adding $1500 to the one pocket prize fund. We’d also like to thank Tournament Director Jason Hill for doing a great job.
In addition, we’d like to thank Larry Schwartz, Jeremy Jones, Tony Chohan, Tyler Styer, Raymond Linares, Hunter White and Ray Hansen for their topnotch commentary.
PoolActionTV.com would also like to thank Terry Hanna as well as our sponsors and fans. Our sponsors include JB Cases, Joseph J Long, Attorney at Law, Aramith, Simonis, Hanshew Jump Cues, Diamond Billiard Products, Durbin Custom Cues, Savage Billiards, Lomax Custom Cues, Wolf’s Den Billiards, Bull Carbon, the Action Palace of Dayton, OH and the Fort Worth Billiards Superstore of Fort Worth, TX.
Our next stop is the $5,000 Buffalo’s Open One Pocket Championship in Jefferson, LA. Dates are November 16th-19th – hope to see you there!
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