Tony Sulsar, Daniel Herring and Devin Poteet
On the weekend of January 9-10, the Omega Billiards Tour Season Finale was hosted by Rusty’s Billiards in Arlington, Texas. The staff and owners treated the players well with great service and an amazing atmosphere, and they took care of all us all weekend long covering very long hours and we very much appreciate each and every one of them!
We were able to extend the field to 97 players! Highest number so far on the Tour, and it was a great way to open the 2016 Omega Billiards Tour Season!
Always a top contender Daniel Herring had a heck of a tourney with wins over Trent Stith 7-2, Gary Pope 7-0, Thomas Barrington 7-1, Phillip Palmer 7-6, Tony Matthew 7-4, and Friday Abismo 7-2 to make it to the hotseat match. Tony Sulsar was making strides on the top half of the board with wins over Shane Minihan 8-6, Casey Dawson 8-0, a hill-hill thriller match over 18-year-old Devin Poteet 8-7, Eric Hsu 8-2, Larry Land 8-1, and Mike Voelkering 8-3.
The young gun Devin made a tear on the one-loss side after he lost hill-hill against Tony Sulsar. He defeated Noreen Moy 8-0, Jamie Welch 8-4, Nick Conner 8-5, Curtis Cardwell 8-4, Chris Ferguson 8-5, Crispian Ng 8-5, and Friday Abismo 8-4. Mike Voelkering would have a GREAT finish - he played with a lot of focus all weekend and placed an impressive 4th after a tough loss against Devin 8-5.
In the hotseat match Tony Sulsar and Daniel Herring were battling it out Daniel came on top 7-2. This meant rematch for Devin and Tony in the semi-final match and it was another nail biter and close match with Tony inching out the win 8-6. Congrats to Devin for his fantastic 3rd place!
Tony then got another chance at Daniel Herring in the finals. Tony would need to defeat Daniel twice, and twice he did, 8-2 and 8-4. BIG congrats for a hard fight to Daniel for placing an impressive 2nd place! And also to Tony Sulsar who made up for his lack of high finishes last year to start the season out with the FIRST PLACE title!
Congrats also to Friday and Greg Sandifer for 5th/6th place, and Tony Matthew and Crispian Ng for 7th/8th places.
Congrats to ALL the players and fans for a great event!
A HUGE thank you goes out to our sponsors Omega Billiards Supply, Predator Cues, BCAPL/CSI, and OB Cues. We would also like to give a big thanks to our additional sponsors, Irving Ink and Thread, AZBilliards.com, Pool School, and BilliardsPress.com.
This year OB Cues is our Ranking sponsor and will be donating three OB Cues to the top ranked 3 players at the end of the year! BCAPL/CSI has joined again and will be giving away 5 BCAPL free entry fees the 2017 BCAPL Nationals.
Tournament Director Melinda Bailey would like to thank Rusty’s Billiards owners and staff for their awesome hospitality all weekend! She would also like to thank her fabulous team: Heather Farr and Dana Speed.
A big thank you also goes out to Michael Hoang, main sponsor of the Tour and owner of Omega Billiards Supply in Hurst, TX. Michael and Omega Billiards Supply are well known for the huge booths at many large tournaments across the country.
The next stop will be held Feb 20-21 at The Billiard Den in Richardson, Texas. $1,500 added and limited to the first 80 PAID players (already full). We will have ten stops total again in 2016. Pool is alive and thriving in Texas!
Check out the website for more details: http://www.omegabilliardstour.com/
And follow the brackets live online at: http://omegatour.challonge.com/
