Ruben Bautista
For the second year in a row, Ruben Bautista and Mike Banks, Jr. battled in the finals to claim title to the Stevie Chan Memorial in Aurora, CO. Last year, they played three matches, in a winners’ side semifinal and twice in the double-elimination final. This year, they met for the first time in the finals and again, played twice.
Both times, Bautista went undefeated to the hot seat. Both times, Banks lost a winners’ side semifinal. Last year, Banks came back from the loss side, defeating Donivan Pedroncelli in the semifinal, and then won two straight double-hill matches in the final to claim the inaugural Stevie Chan Memorial. This year, Banks was again defeated in a winners’ side semifinal, this time by Sergio Rivas, who advanced to be defeated by Bautista in the hot seat match. Rivas lost his semifinal rematch against Banks, who went on to win the opening set of the true double-elimination final against Bautista. Bautista took the second set to claim title to the 2nd Annual Stevie Chan Memorial.
This year’s $5,000-added event drew 123 entrants to Piazza’s Italian Restaurant and Sports Bar in Aurora; a 28% increase over the inaugural event, which drew 96. The second event drew 45% of the event’s inaugural field of 96 (43 total) to this year’s event, which amounted to 35% of the 2024 field. Among those attending both, in addition to Bautista and the father/son team of Mike Banks, Jr. and Sr., were Donovan Pedroncelli, Mark Vidal Claramunt, Sharik Sayed, Tom D’Alfonso and Nick Tofoya. Some notable additions to this year’s field were Rivas and Tony Chohan.
It’s been something of a slow year for Bautista, who recorded his best recorded earnings year with us here at AZBilliards in 2023. His victory at this event was only his second, recorded cash payout in 2024, his first being his 17th place finish at The Americas’ Heyball Mens Championships this past June. As he stepped to the tables in his quest to win the Stevie Chan Memorial, it certainly didn’t seem like he’d been away from the tables for very long. In races to 7 through his first five matches, he didn’t give up more than two racks. He opened by giving up two to Joe Campana and followed up with victories over Trevor Seale (0), Joe Tsirlin (1), Bill Hellner (2) and Rich Chan (2), to draw Tom D’Alfonso in one of the winners’ side semfinals.
Banks, in the meantime, was doing almost as well in the early going. He gave up only five racks in four of his first five matches, though he would give up five in the fifth. He got by John Collins (1), Andres DeHerrera (2) and Dustin Sterling (2), before Mike Hellmer chalked up five against him. Banks advanced to shut out Bill Skinner and draw Sergio Rivas in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Rivas had faced a few challenges in his five-match march to the winners’ side semifinal during which he gave up a total of 15 racks over 35 games. He’d started out promisingly enough with a shutout over Phil Morishige, who came into the event with a FargoRate 266 points lower than his (743/477). Rivas advanced and gave up three to Ryan Henry before encountering Sharik Sayed, who put up a double-hill fight. Rivas advanced to meet Kiko Ibarra who chalked up five against him. He advanced through ‘calmer waters,’ to a winners’ side quarterfinal, giving up just a single rack to Jordan Niles Holman to draw Banks.
Banks and Rivas battled to double hill before Rivas advanced to the hot seat match. Bautista joined him after a 7-3 victory over D’Alfonso. The hot seat match would prove to be Rivas’ third, double-hill match of seven played. Bautista would win it and claim the hot seat.
On the loss side, Tony Chohan (not for nothing, known as “T Rex”) had followed his somewhat surprising loss to Holman with four straight, which he’d won by an underwhelming aggregate score of 28-19, for a game-winning average over that stretch of just percentage points less than 60%. He’d recently survived a double-hill challenge by Andrew Pettenger and eliminated Ruben Silva, Jr. 7-5 to draw Banks. D’Alfonso came over from the winners’ side and picked up Sayed, who’d followed his double-hill loss to Rivas with six straight on the loss side, including recent wins over Bill Skinner (3) and Holman (4).
Banks edged out in front near the end to defeat Chohan by two 7-5. He was joined in the quarterfinal by Sayed, who’d stretched his loss-side streak to 7 with a 7-4 win over D’Alfonso.
There was likely some ‘glancing ahead’ to a potential rematch as they squared up in the quarterfinal; Banks and Sayed both looking for the ‘scoundrel’ who’d sent them to loss side, Sergio Rivas. Banks earned the shot, downing Sayed 7-3.
Evenly matched, with FargoRates six points apart, and both, likely not to have forgotten their earlier double-hill match, Banks (749) and Rivas (743) went at it to see who’d take on the 2nd Annual Stevie Chan Memorial’s defending hot seat occupant. Ripe double-hill territory as it might have been, it didn’t turn out that way. Banks downed Rivas 7-4, advancing for his fourth and (hopefully, for him) fifth match against Bautista in the two Stevie Chan memorial events.
Not something that either of them would necessarily focus on as they settled in to the déjà vu of it, but clearly, their two double-hill matches at the conclusion of last year’s tournament was somewhere in their minds, with them trying to keep it on a back shelf. The déjà vu really kicked in during the early stages of the first set of the final, as they approached but did not reach double hill. But Banks did, for a second time, win the opening set, this time 7-5.
The second set did go double hill. This time, though, it was Bautista going on to win it, claiming title to the 2nd Annual Stevie Chan Memorial and his first 2024 win.
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