Jimmy Bird and Daniel Adams
If you can’t beat ‘em, the saying goes, join ‘em (together). Not content with the number of competitors that could be drawn to events that featured wide-open handicap ranges, regional tours began to host double brackets, initially separating higher and lower handicaps which would only merge near the end of a given event. It gave the lower-handicapped competitors an opportunity to get their feet wet (in the ‘pool,’ so to speak) before tackling higher-ranked competitors. That worked for a while until some lower-ranked competitors began to get a little discouraged by their ongoing inability to compete effectively in the latter stages of a tournament against their higher-ranked opponents.
Regional tours began to address this by scheduling individual events for specific ranges of handicaps (in FargoRate terms, like 620 and above, or 519 and below). This didn’t play out as well as they might have wished, because the lower handicap range always seemed to draw the larger crowds, which worked out okay for the tours, while the higher handicaps events drew less, which didn’t work out as well for the tours and didn’t please the higher handicap folks either; smaller prize funds, more time spent battling players at a similar skill level.
What to do? The second option offered the most likely opportunity, but only if they offered separate events for different handicap levels on the same weekend. And then, why not toss in a Ladies tournament to make it a tournament three-fer at a single location on one weekend? One can only hope that players appreciate the lengths to which tour directors are going to accommodate players at all skill levels while working their collective butts off to keep everybody playing.
Take, for example, Tiger Baker, part of the Baker/Kris Wylie team that runs the Virginia-based Tiger Pool Tour which, this past weekend (March 23) held its second three-fer of their 11-event 2024 season. The three events drew a total of 102 competitors, with no crossovers. As expected, the $300-added, lower-handicapped event (Division 2 for 525 and under FargoRate/APA 7 & under) drew the largest number of entrants (55), while 31 competitors signed to the (also) $300-added tournament for the 526 and above, 650 maximum FargoRate/APA 8 & 9 (Division 1). The $200 Ladies tournament drew 18 entrants and they all came together (as they had in January) at Q Master Billiards in Virginia Beach, VA for a chance at an over $4,000 (total) prize fund.
The contention that Baker and Wylie ‘work their butts off’ to make their events happen was granted an extra measure of truth this past weekend, when Baker returned from two weeks of recuperation from his fourth heart attack in a month; two before the non-smoking, rarely-drinking Baker headed out to Las Vegas for the BCA Nationals, where he would finish as runner-up in the 9-Ball Singles Silver Division. He had another one while he was there and a fourth when he got home that laid him out for two weeks prior to this past weekend’s three-fer. One of them, based on the severity of the attack, is generally known in medical circles as a Widow Maker. The others weren’t a lot of fun either but Baker, who spoke after his long weekend on Tuesday night, as he was competing in a local Virginia Beach area pool league, talked about his four heart attacks as though he’d just been involved in a fender bender in a parking lot. He presided over the Tiger Pool Tour’s single-day three-fer with three permanent stents in his heart and as he described it “a whole new outlook on life.”
And now, before we give the man a fifth heart attack, we should get on with reporting on the events that he took the time and trouble to run for 102 pool players, in a single day. First up, the one with the largest entrant field (55), the Division 2, lower-handicap tournament. It was the only one of the three that yielded an undefeated winner, Kenny Marple.
Kenneth Marple and Mitt Mittendorff
Racing to 6 in all but one of his six matches, Marple had to award his second-round opponent, Austin Tyndall, six ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 9. Tyndall almost sidetracked Marple’s trip to the winners’ circle by battling him to double hill. Marple prevailed to draw and defeat Austin Tyndall’s father, Kenneth Tyndall 6-2. Marple drew and then defeated Matthew Thompson 6-4 in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Facing each other in the other winners’ side semifinal were Marple’s hot seat and finals opponent; Reagan Wallace (who would also compete in the Women’s event) and Mitt Mittendorff. Wallace sent Mittendorff to the loss side 6-4. Marple claimed the hot seat 6-4 over Wallace.
Mittendorff moved over, defeated Jalen May 6-4, Shane Sullivan in the quarterfinals 4-3 (Sullivan racing to 5) and Wallace 4-1 in the semifinals. Marple completed his undefeated run with a double-hill final victory over Mittendorff.
Two come from the loss side to win Division 1 and Ladies event
Daniel Adams took the top prize in the higher-handicapped Division 1 tournament. He went undefeated to the hot seat match, though he was challenged, double hill, in his opening round against Scott Guschel and later, in a winners’ side semifinal against Reno Villanueva. Jimmy Bird, in the meantime, navigated his way through three opponents before meeting and defeating Bruce Reed 8-3 in the other winners’ side semifinal and then, defeating Adams 6-2 to claim the hot seat.
Reed and Villanueva defeated their first opponents on the loss side and met in the quarterfinal. Reed prevailed 6-1 before locking up in a double-hill fight versus Adams in the semifinal. Adams won and earned his second shot against Bird in the final. In his second straight double-hill match, Adams claimed the Division 1 title.
Courtney Hairfield and Iris Cabatit
Courtney Hairfield, who turned 18 just last month, was a frequent competitor on the Junior International Championships’ (JIC) series of events in its 18 & Under Girls’ division. She finished her 2023 JIC season second, overall, in the 18 & Under Girls rankings behind Skylar Hess. Earlier this year, on the Tiger Pool Tour’s season opener, she finished as runner-up to Iris Cabatit.
For the second time in a row on the tour, Hairfield and Cabatit battled for the Ladies’ title. They’d competed twice in January, hot seat and finals, but only once this past weekend, in the finals. Hairfield won three matches at the start, two of them double hill, to reach a winners’ side semifinal versus Soo Emmett. With an opening-round bye, Cabatit won two by an aggregate score of 14-2 to reach her winners’ side semifinal versus HJ Kim.
Both winners’ side semifinals went double hill. Hairfield lost her third double-hill match to Emmett, as Cabatit was busy defeating Kim 6-2. Cabatit sent Emmett to the semifinals 6-2 and claimed the hot seat.
Hairfield would play three matches on the loss side, giving up only three racks in 19 games. She shut out Kaley Sullivan, gave up two racks to Kim in the quarterfinals and one rack to Emmett in the semifinals.
The first time out, in January, it had been Hairfield claiming the hot seat and Cabatit returning from the semifinals to defeat her, double hill in the event final. Hairfield apparently had no desire to repeat that double-hill finish and closed out her match against Cabatit 5-2 to claim the Tiger Pool Tour’s second 2024 Ladies title.
All competitors on the tour are competing for ranking points in their respective divisions. At the end of the year, the ‘points’ winners in each division will be awarded transportation, lodgings and an entry fee to the 2024 BCA Nationals.
Tour directors Tiger Baker and Kris Wylie thanked the ownership and staff at Q Master Billiards, along with title sponsor Tiger Products. They also extended their gratitude to Justin Paige, whose VIPER Productions donated streaming services. The next stop on the Tiger Pool Tour, scheduled for Saturday, April 20, will be the VA State 10-Ball Championships, hosted by Diamond Billiards in Midlothian, VA.
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