Eddie Vonderau
There is no sport quite like pool to prove the ancient adage that “there’s no such thing as a sure bet.” Anybody glancing at a (hypothetical) ‘match program’ during this past weekend’s (Aug. 3-4) stop on the Brunswick East Pool Tour, hosted by Janet Atwell’s Brunswick Arena in Bristol, TN, would have noted that the winner and runner-up were miles apart in the experience department, though not all that far apart in their respective FargoRates. Junior competitor (16) Eddie Vondereau came into the event with two years of recorded (cash payout) experience and a Fargo Rate of 668. Eric Roberts, with eight years of (recorded) cash payouts came to the tables with a Fargo Rate of 735. The ‘odds,’ as defined by the FargoRate system, gave Roberts the edge in matches that had Roberts racing to 10 and Vonderau racing to 7; if they played 100 times, Roberts would be expected to win 57.4 matches to Vonderau’s 42.6.
In the absence of a ‘program’ with such details, and the obvious disparity in their experience and to a certain extent, their age, there would be a tendency to assign ‘sure bet’ status to Roberts. It would have worked out for bettors the first time they met, in the winners’ side final of the event’s upper bracket. If, however, those same bettors ‘let it ride’ into the event finals where they met for a second time, the result would have been (was) different. Eddie Vonderau claimed the event title at the $2,500-added event that drew 65 entrants to Atwell’s Borderline Brunswick Arena.
They started out in the event’s upper bracket, which drew the ‘short straw’ of 30 entrants. In races to 10 at one end of that bracket, Roberts gave up only seven racks through his first 37 games, giving up two to Robert Wilkerson, three to Cole Lewis and another two to Chris Stump, which brought him to a winners’ side semifinal versus Austin Reid Vance. Vonderau, in the meantime, racing to 8 early in the event, gave up 10 racks in 44 games (four to Zach Wilson, and three each to Dustin Brown and Daniel Adams) to draw Erik Winchenbach in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Roberts and Vance battled to double hill before Roberts ended the match and advanced to the (upper bracket) hot seat match. Vonderau joined him after sending Winchenbach to the loss side 8-4. Roberts claimed the upper-bracket hot seat, double hill, and moved on to an upper vs. lower bracket hot seat match versus Trystin Denny, who’d claimed the lower-bracket hot seat, for which we’ll pause just a bit to discuss how Denny got there.
Denny’s trip to the lower bracket hot seat went through a bye, Shaunda Denny (0) and, by a score of 5-2, both Dusty Wallace and Damon Soleau, to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Brian Eaton. Michael Mullen, racing to 3, got by Kale Hess (2; Hess, racing to 4), Steve McCall (double hill), Doug McCall (0), and Eric Summers (3; Summers racing to 5) to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal against Carlos Guevara Morales.
Mullen advanced 3-3 to the hot seat match (Summers racing to 5) and was joined by Denny, who’d won a double-hill battle against Eaton. Denny then downed Mullen 5-2, for a shot at Roberts in the (overall event) hot seat match. Roberts became the ‘last (undefeated) man’ standing with a 10-2 victory over Denny.
There was a flurry of matches that followed, pitting varied combinations of upper and lower bracket players, which rounded out the list of combined-bracket finishes. The straight-through story was that after his loss to Roberts, Vonderau picked up and defeated Michael Mullen 8-1, Grayson Vaughn, double hill, in the event quarterfinals and then, shut out Trystin Denny in the event semifinals.
They battled to double hill in the finals and though given their respective Fargo Rates, one couldn’t have accurately assessed Eddie Vonderau as a ‘long shot’ (even though he’d been defeated earlier) or Eric Roberts as a ‘sure bet,’ it might have been fair to have described Roberts as the ‘favorite’ versus Vonderau, as the ‘underdog.’ Vonderau won it to claim his first 2024 title, and in claiming the first-place prize, made the year his best recorded earnings year, to date.
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