Bruce Bowers and James Sanders
Haas and Duru split short-field 10-ball tourney on 9 ft. tables
Prior to becoming one of the co-champions of past weekend’s (Jan. 4-5) B & L Billiards’ 575 Max FargoRate, seeded 8-ball tournament, Bruce Bowers, who claimed the event’s hot seat and after losing the opening set of a true double-elimination final, joined negotiations for a split of the top two prizes with James Sanders, had never, to our knowledge, earned a payout in any tournament, anywhere. As has been noted on many previous occasions, our knowledge of individual competitors is only as comprehensive as we are capable of making it. It’s more than just possible that Bowers has cashed in and/or won any number of tournaments, about which we have not been informed. He will likely, as a result of this ‘co-champion’ finish, be given a closer look when his name pops up on a registration list somewhere down the line.
As for James Sanders, his sole ‘claim to fame,’ prior to this weekend (as defined by his appearances in our AZBilliards’ database) was his runner-up finish at last spring’s SuperBilliards Expo. He competed in what he described in a Facebook post at the time “against 251 great players from across the US” in the Super Seniors Division of the Expo Amateur Championships.
“My goal,” he went on to write in the same post “(was to) go back in the lab and train harder for next year’s tournament so that I can come home with the 1st place trophy and money.”
His ‘co-champion’ finish this past weekend can certainly be placed in the category of a promising sign that he’s been working at that goal. Though he lost his opening match, Sanders set out on an eight-match, loss-side winning streak, took the opening set of a true, double-elimination final against Bowers and then joined in the negotiations for the split. With only a few months to go before he takes up that SBE Super Seniors challenge again, he’s certainly getting himself ready. The ‘575 Max FargoRate,’ seeded 8-Ball Tournament drew 32 entrants to The Bank Shot Bar & Grill in Laurel, MD.
Our knowledge regarding the ‘official’ winner of the concurrently-run Open 10-Ball Big Table event, Scott Haas, is much more comprehensive, dating back to 2003. In the 21 years that he’s been reporting cash earnings at the tables, 2024 was his best on-record and included a runner-up finish at last November’s 36th Annual Ocean State (RI) Championships. His would-have-been opponent in the finals, Ates Bora Duru, with whom Haas split the top two prizes is another competitor in our ‘unknown to us’ category, although his FargoRate (640) suggest that there’s unrecorded-by-us history at the tables. The event was designed to accommodate a maximum of 16 entrants. Reportedly, only 11 registered, but in the end, only five showed up. One competitor, Judie Wilson, backed out of her intention to compete in the 8-ball event and became the last of six total entrants.
With Sanders off onto the winners’ side bracket after the opening round, it was Bowers and Hector Hacunda who set out on a collision course for the hot seat match. As designed, the tournament was basically Open; races to 7 or 6 on the (upper bracket) winners’ side and 6 or 5 on the (lower bracket) loss side. Higher and lower-ranked competitors were thus separated initially by the architecture of the bracket itself, narrowing toward two (one from each side) who would face off in the hot seat match.
Bowers almost had his ride to the hot seat match diverted, twice. Working from the upper half of the bracket, he opened against Joe DePascal, who battled him to double hill. Bowers survived that challenge, gave up a single rack to Joe Orla, four to Wilson Cantarero and drew Rob Pistorio in one of the winners’ side semifinals. From the lower half of the bracket, Hacunda, in straight up races to 6 in the early going, started out with a shutout over James (Jimbo) Bareiss, gave four up to William Miller and three to Glenn Thomas. Moving into his winners’ side semifinal, Bowers, now competing as a 7, drew Dennis Canales, also a 7.
Bowers and Pistorio batted to double hill before Bowers prevailed. Hacunda joined him in the hot seat match after sending Canales to the loss side 7-3. Hacunda opened the hot seat match with a single ‘bead on the wire’ in a race to 7. He got close to double hill, but Bowers claimed the seat 7-4.
By the time that the hot seat match was over (according to digitalpool time stamps), James Sanders was in the late stages of his 5th loss-side win, against John Barshaw. He’d had a double-hill ‘ball’ tossed at him by Zachary Peterson in his second, loss-side match, which would prove to be the only time, until the semifinals, that any of his loss-side opponents chalked up that many (4) against him. He defeated Barshaw 5-2 to draw Dennis Canales, over from his winners’ side semifinal loss. Pistorio, also coming over, drew Florian Ancho, who’d lost a winners’ side quarterfinal to Canales and then, defeated David Goodrich and Joe Orla, both 5-3.
Ancho advanced to the quarterfinals 5-1 Pistorio. Sanders joined him after eliminating Canales 6-3. Forty-five minutes later, in something of a ‘statement’ match, with (possibly) Hector Hacunda watching it happen, Sanders had shut out Ancho. With that as a backdrop, Sanders and Hacunda locked up in a double-hill battle that eventually sent Sanders to a final match, possibly two against Bowers. Sanders took the opening set of the true double-elimination final 7-2 and entered the ‘split’ negotiations with Bowers for sharing of the event title.
Scott Haas and Ates Bora Duru
Haas wins three, Duru wins four of nine matches played in 10-Ball on 9 ft. tables tournament
As noted in the interim headline, there were only three matches of the total nine played in the 10-Ball Open event that did not involve either the ‘official’ winner (Scott Haas), the runner-up, Ates Bora Duru, or both of them. Haas downed Rick Miller 11-9, and Judie Wilson 11-3 to get into the hot seat match against Duru, who’d sent Steve Fleming (5), and Ricky Bareiss, Jr. (9) to the loss side. Haas claimed the hot seat 11-5 over Duru.
In the three matches (racing to 9) that comprised the loss side activity without Haas or Duru, Steve Fleming defeated Judy Wilson (3), Rick Miller eliminated Ricky Bareiss, Jr. (1) and in the quarterfinals, Fleming downed Miller 9-7. In what proved to be the last match of the night, Duru defeated Fleming 9-5 in the semifinals. Negotiations got underway for the cash split and Haas was the event’s ‘official’ winner.
Brian Kilgore and Lai Li (the “B” and “L” of B & L Billiards Tournaments) thanked “everyone for making the trip, even with the threat of (bad) weather.” The next event on the B & L calendar, scheduled for this Sunday, Jan. 12, will be the B & L 1100 Long race 9-Ball, which will be hosted by the Bank Shot & Grill in Laurel, MD.
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