Gus Briseno, Shane McMinn and Mark Johnson
The last time Shane McMinn and Gus Briseno met in the final of a stop on the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour was this past September when Briseno fought back through nine, loss-side matches to make it possible. McMinn defeated Briseno in the final to claim the event title. Two months later, in the tour’s 2023 season finale, Briseno would go undefeated, twice defeating Doug Winnett, who’d defeated McMinn in the opening round of play. Points accumulated throughout the year made Briseno the 2023 Tour Champion, with McMinn in 2nd place.
Briseno and McMinn are back at it again this year. McMinn chalked up a win in the 2024 DFW 9-Ball’s season opener in January and skipped February’s Stop #2, won by Jay Grant. Briseno finished fourth in the opener and third last month, as once again, he won nine on the loss side, only to fall short in the semifinals versus Dan Bowman. This time, at Stop #3, which drew 51 entrants to the $1,000-added event, hosted by Rusty’s in Fort Worth, TX, McMinn and Briseno met twice, hot seat and finals, with McMinn winning both times to claim the event title.
Racing to 10, McMinn’s path to the hot seat match went through four opponents who seemed to be gaining on him as the matches progressed. He defeated Robert Kempf (2), Greg Sandifer (3), Gavin Matthew (4) and Neil Sidawi (4) to draw Mark Johnson in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Briseno faced what appeared to be sharper challenges to get to the same place. In races to 9, Briseno downed Shawn Morris (7) and Ivan Jimenez (4), before running into two straight 9-6 matches that he won versus Cameron Cummings and Brandon Denman. This set Briseno up to face Jimmy Davis in the other winners’ side semifinal.
McMinn got into the hot seat match after sending Johnson to the loss side 10-6. Briseno joined him after downing Davis 9-5. McMinn took his first of two against Briseno 10-5 and claimed the hot seat.
On the loss side, where, with a little awareness of the recent past to think about, competitors might have been forgiven for looking over their shoulders to see whether Briseno was getting closer, Johnson picked up Clint Freeman, who was working on a four-match, loss-side streak that had recently eliminated Brandon Denman, double hill, and Ramon Rodriguez 9-3. Davis drew Jason Gladden, who was working on a six-match streak and had recently survived a double-hill challenge from Neil Sidawi before sending Jon Rawlins home 6-3. Gladden would go on to claim the unofficial ‘most matches played’ title with nine.
Davis defeated Gladden 7-3, as Johnson and Freeman battled to double hill before Johnson downed Freeman, double hill, and advanced to the quarterfinal against Davis. In his second straight, double-hill match, Johnson defeated Davis, after which, right in front of him was Briseno, who allowed him only a single rack in their semifinal match.
McMinn made good use of his 754-to-722 FargoRate advantage, which gave him a 60/40 chance of winning the final. Briseno managed to get a rack closer than the five he’d recorded in the hot seat match, but McMinn won it 10-6 to claim his second 2024 DFW 9-Ball Title.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Rusty’s Billiards for their hospitality, along with title sponsor Cuetec and Associate Title Sponsor, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore (Albert Trujillo). The next stop on the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for the weekend of April 20-21, will be hosted by the VFW in Sherman, TX.
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