Van Boening & Roberts Make It Look Easy

Buffalo’s Billiards is rapidly becoming the destination of choice for pool players as they swooped in for House Pro Tony Chohan’s Predator Big Easy Classic.

Held just outside of New Orleans in Jefferson, LA, this $25,000 added event featured three divisions – one pocket, big table nine ball and bar table nine ball.

Presented by Predator, promoted by Tony Chohan and streamed by PoolActionTV.com, other sponsors included JB Cases, Aramith, Simonis, Savage Billiards, Jefferson (LA) Parish, Cb Prime, attorney Joseph J. Long, Buffalo’s Billiards, PoolActionTV.com, realtor Michelle L. Griffin of Schuler Bauer in Elizabethtown, KY, Capitol Wellness Solutions of Baton Rouge, LA and Fort Worth Billiards Superstore of Fort Worth, TX.

Players from all over showed up to play in this event including BCA Hall of Famer Francisco Bustamante, current Skinny Bob’s Nineball Classic champ Vitaliy Patsura and reigning Buffalo’s Pro One Pocket champ Roberto Gomez. Shane Van Boening – to be inducted into this year’s BCA Hall of Fame and 2023 Buffalo’s Pro Classic One Pocket champ, Evan Lunda, were joined by Tony Chohan – winner of three one pocket events just this year. Newly minted Buffalo’s House Pro Sergio Rivas was there as well as last year’s Buffalo Pro Classic Open Nine Ball champ Alex Calderon, 2022 Iron City Open One Pocket winner Josh Roberts, Robb Saez, Louis DeMarco, Mitch Ellerman, Chris Reinhold, Joey Aguzin & rising star Lukas Fracasso-Verner – winner of this year’s Buffalo Pro Classic Open Nine Ball Championship.

The tournament began with the $10,000 added One Pocket division. Eleven players posted a $1,000 entry to play in this double elimination event. Racing to four on the winners side and three on the one loss side, the final match was an extended race to five.

After the players auction, meeting and draw, play began on Monday evening.

In the upper portion of the bracket, Gomez shot out of the gate with victories over DeMarco 4-1, Rivas 4-0 and Roberts 4-1. In the lower portion of the chart, Chohan survived a 4-3 match with Calderon and then smoked both Zach Marquardt and Van Boening 4-0.

Reaching the hot seat match, it was Tony’s turn to get blitzed as Roberto won the match 4-0 and advanced undefeated to the finals.

After being unceremoniously dumped into the losers bracket, Van Boening took dead aim and annihilated Rivas, Bustamante and Chohan – all 3-0!

As mentioned previously, the finals was one extended race to five. And, what a match it was! Gomez won the lag and after a long safety battle, Van Boening broke serve and claimed the first game 8-0. The second game was closer but Shane won that one too – score 8-6.

Roberto finally got on the board with an 8-0 shutout followed by an 8-1 win and then another 8-2! Three in a row!

Taking dead aim, Van Boening won the next game 8-0 and leveled the score at three apiece! Then winning the next game 8-2, Shane reached the hill first.

However, Gomez answered with an 8-2 victory of his own and tied it up at 4-4! One game for it all!

Roberto broke the balls and the final game was a lot closer. Gomez inched out 2-0 and then gave a ball to Van Boening to make it 2-1. After a short safety battle, Shane was left with a straight back to his hole and hit it poorly.

When looking back on this match, he got the roll that may have won him the tournament! He missed it so badly, it caromed off another ball by the stack and limped into the pocket! All Roberto could do was laugh and shake his head.

From there, Van Boening moved out to a 5-2 lead. Then it was 6-3, 7-4, 7-5 and finally, 8-4 for the game, match & title! What a match!

The $10,000 added Big Table Nineball division began on Thursday night. Featuring 25 players who posted a $330 entry fee, the tournament was was double elimination, race to eight with winner break until down to the final eight players. From there it was races to nine and one extended final race to eleven.

After the player auction, meeting and draw, play began.

Bustamante, Ellerman, Van Boening and Calderon all raced to the final four on the winners side.

Bustamante had defeated Jimmy Randolph and DeMarco with identical scores of 8-3 and then escaped with an 8-7 win over Chohan. Ellerman beat Ricky Evans 8-5, Isaiah Arellao and Saez – both 8-2. Van Boening had wins over Zach Marquardt 8-0, Gomez 8-4 and Patsura 8-1. After drawing a first round bye, Calderon had victories over Rivas 8-4 and Chris Kimball 8-5.

Now racing to nine, Bustamante skunked Ellerman 9-0 and Van Boening defeated Calderon 9-4.

Bustamante and Van Boening then moved into the hot seat match and it was neck and neck until Shane pulled away to win the match 9-6 and lock up his seat in the finals.

Over on the one loss side, Rivas eliminated Patsura 9-4 only to be knocked out by Bustamante – same score – 9-4. Patsura finished fourth and Rivas came in third.

Now back in the finals, Bustamante stayed neck and neck until Shane pulled away at the end to win the match 9-6 and take another title!

Saturday at high noon saw the start of the final event of the Big Easy Classic – the $5,000 added Bar Table Nineball Championship.

This double elimination event had 56 players. Each paid an entry fee of $150 to compete in this double elimination event with races to 7/7 and alternate breaks. The final match was one extended race to nine. And, as always, play began after the players auction, meeting and draw.

Louisiana transplant Robb Saez cut through the field with wins over Aguzin 7-0, Mohammad Alshammari 7-2, Marquardt 7-3 and Dallas Brousssard 7-3. Chohan showed he wasn’t just a one pocket player as he beat Bernell Dartez 7-1, Isaiah Arellano 7-1, Reinhold 7-5 and Evans 7-2. He and Saez then battled it out with Chohan notching the win – score 7-2.

In the lower portion of the bracket, Frank Diaz made his way through Jeremy Shaw 7-4, Kevin Frauenberger 7-5, Josh Roberts 7-1 and Ellerman 7-3. Rivas beat Todd Babin 7-3, won a forfeit over Jonathan LaRocca, defeated Chris Patterson 7-1 and sent Calderon packing 7-5.

So, after making their way to the winners side final four, Diaz defeated Rivas 7-5 and Chohan beat Saez 7-2. Next was the hot seat match with Diaz locking up his seat in the finals over Chohan 7-5. Tony headed west to await an opponent.

In dead punch after eliminating Gomez 7-2, Rivas 7-5 and Saez 7-0, Chohan was no match for Roberts as he was eliminated 7-3. Tony finished in third place.

Roberts moved into the finals against Diaz. Frank led the match 4-1 but Josh answered by evening it up to four apiece. Tied again, Josh finally pulled away to reach the hill first with an 8-6 score. Diaz was unable to keep Roberts from winning that last game and the title 9-6.

Congratulations to Shane Van Boening for taking both the one pocket and big table nine ball titles and Josh Roberts for winning the bar table nine ball!

Tournament Director Eric Kintzer and commentators Jeremy Jones, Larry Schwartz and Ray Hansen did a great job throughout the entire event.

Thanks to James Leone (“Buffalo”), General Manager Steve Tesvich (“Bullseye”) and their staff for showing both players and fans the Big Easy spirit. We look forward to returning next year!

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