Stan Tourangeau (Photo courtesy of Andy Chen)
The 19th annual US Bar Table Championships are in full swing at the new location in the spacious Grand Sierra Hotel & Casino located in Reno, Nevada. The new location provides a substantial amount of additional space for this annual event and will easily accommodate anticipated future growth. The new location has been well received by everyone involved, including the players, vendors and the tournament directors. Additionally, the Grand Sierra has provided super low room rates for everyone, making it more affordable to come and play in all the events and providing a more enjoyable overall experience. CSI is very excited with these new changes and is looking forward to making this event better and better every year. The USTBC runs from February 13th thru February 20th.
This year the event had 128 entries in the Men's Open 9 ball and 28 entries in the Women's 9 Ball. CSI has added over $25,000 to the prize fund, resulting in over $70,000 being handed out to the players in total prize money. There is also a All Around Bonus of $4,250 that was added for the top points leaders in the 3 divisions.
Stan Tourangeau went undefeated in the 9 ball division to take 1st place and $4700. Stan sent Shane Van Boening to the losers bracket on the TAR TV table in a hill-hill match. Shane locked Stan up on the 4 ball and forced Stan to go up and down the table to hit the 4 ball near the end rail. Stan made a good hit and left Shane few options on a tough cut shot on the 4 near the rail. Shane had to put a little inside on it, due to him being blocked from a clean hit on it. Shane missed and left Stan an easy out from there.
Stan had to jump into the fire with Oscar Dominguez, who is having a very good year, in the hot seat match. Stan didn't have as much trouble with Oscar, winning 9-5. Stan was then able to take a break and wait for the others to battle it out to see who would have to beat him twice.
Glenn Atwell knocked Shane Van Boening out and then knocked out Jesse Engle. That left Oscar Dominguez and Glenn to battle it out to see who would get a shot at Stan and the Championship. Glenn sent Oscar packing with a 9-7 victory and then geared up for a battle with Stan that would require him to win 2 sets. Stan jumped out to a lead but Glenn would catch up and they would trade games near the end of the set. Stan had made a 9 ball on the break earlier in the set, which would spur Glenn to start checking out Stan's rack, even though they were using the Magic Rack. Stan got to the hill first at 8-7, then Glenn won the next game. Just as in the 10 ball, the finals were determined by someone needing to win 2 sets and both divisions went hill-hill in the first set, with the victor being the one that only needed one set. It was Stan's break and Glenn inspected the rack and nodded ok, they shook hands, then Stan proceeded to make the 9 ball on the break. Congratulations to Stan Tourangeau on his 1st place finish, and Glenn on his 2nd place finish. Stan picked up $4700 for 1st and Glenn pocketed $3150 for 2nd.
In the Women's 9 Ball division, Rebecca Wagner once again won the hot seat match. Melissa Little, after being knocked to the losers bracket in the 3rd round, would plow her way to the finals. Melissa would need to beat Rebecca twice and started off by winning the 1st set. Rebecca picked up her game though, and finished off Melissa to win her 2nd Division title. Congratulatons to Rebecca on her strong showing and Melissa for grinding out the long road to the finals from the losers bracket. Rebecca picked up $825 for 1st and Melissa pocketed $500 for 2nd.
The 8 ball is in full swing Saturday, with both the Men's and Women's division, and also a WorldPPA 9 Ball tournament being ran alongside it. They will battle all day with the Men's final scheduled for Sunday at 7:00 pm Pacific and the women's at 3:30 Pacific.
TAR is providing daily live streaming, thanks to the fine folks at OB Cues, along with Kamui Tips and AZBiliards. Brackets can be found at the CTS (Cuesports Tournament System) website, located at www.ctsondemand.com . Thanks also to Bad Boys Productions for running this fantastic Tournament.
