Day one at the Andy Mercer Memorial was a pretty good illustration of just what makes this tournament so special.
In an early first round match, Frank “The Barber” Almanza Blistered Local Lee Harvey, who didn’t really play poorly, 6 to 0 in a blast from the past, showing that the older generation can still play lights out sometimes. Lee really never got a chance to get rolling as Frank made him pay for almost every miss.
In another first round match, Local Las Vegas player Randy Kukla slowly and methodically went about beating recent Swanee champion Brian Parks, pushing one of the favorites to the one loss side and showing just how difficult it is to navigate through this field.
Josh Roberts and John Staten put on a good show with both players making very few mistakes, but Josh found his break stroke and put together a couple of fine break and runs late in the match to close it out 6/3.
Most of the first round went about as expected, with the exception of a couple of other minor upsets. Oscar Dominguez showed up in top form, getting through his first match with little resistance, while his father Ernesto had to fight a little harder to come back from 4/2 to win 6/5. The alternate breaks format makes those kinds of come backs difficult here, but experience is playing a big roll in many of the early matches.
As Day two begins, the tournament will take better shape. There will be a mix of winner side and one loss side matches today, and by Saturday evening, the players who will put on the show on Sunday will start to come into focus.
