The weekend of February 19-20 the Tiger Amateur Tour held stop #2 of the season at Houstons newest billiards room, Big Tyme Billiards. The event had 76 players show up and it was played down to 16 on Saturday, all who would be back Sunday to fight it out for the cash. We had players from all over Texas and a few Cajuns that attended also. We appreciate them all and look forward to seeing them again.
So starting out at noon Sunday we had 8 on the winners side and 8 on the one-loss side, the races were to 11/9, the match results were Ernesto Bayaua over Daniel Herring 11-7, Brian Hickman over Danny Roland in a 11-10 thriller, Ray Porter over Durango Duran 11-8 and Dale Briones bested Victor Rojas 11-6. This set up the winners side final four which pitted Dale Briones against Ray Porter, Dale got the best of this one 11-7 to earn his spot in the hot seat match. His opponent would be Ernesto Bayaua who made a great comeback after being down 7-3 and winning 11-9 over Brian Hickman. So the Hot seat match was set and it was past tour winner Ernesto Bayaua against first time tour player Dale Briones and Ernesto got the nod 11-8.
The one-loss side 13-16 round matches were Bobby Gonzales over Roy Payton 9-1, Rodney Stewart got by Steve Braswell 9-6, Frank Cherry 9-5 over Justin Pena and Richard Rodriguez got by Patrick Hill 9-6. The 9-12 round saw Frank Cherry keep rolling as he ousted Victor Rojas 9-3, Durango Duran squeaked by Richard Rodriguez 9-8, Daniel Herring 9-8 over Bobby G., and Danny Roland over Rodney Stewart. Next was the round of 7-8th, and Daniel Herring took Danny Roland out 9-7 and Durango got the nod over Frank Cherry 9-5. The 5-6th place round saw Durango keep his roll going as he bested Brian Hickman 9-5 and Ray Porter ousted Daniel Herring 9-4. This pitted Ray verse Durango in the final 4 and Durango steam rolled Ray 9-2 in record time. Durango was rolling, so the finals of the one-loss side saw Durango take on Dale Briones, and Dale had seen enough of the Durango tear and Dale sent him packing 9-7, to earn his rematch with Ernesto in the finals. And what a thrill of a finals it was, it kept everyone on edge.
The finals was set and it was a race to 11 between Dale and Ernesto. They stayed close up to 4 , then Ernesto put some space between them reaching the hill first at 10-6, but Dale was not done, he fought and clawed back until it was hill-hill and he finally got the first set nod when it was all set and done 11-10. So on to set #2 we went, and going to 9, Ernesto jumped out quick again, and held a 7-3 lead at one point, as we saw earlier Dale is not one to give up , so he fought and clawed back again, he took the next 5 games to reach the hill first, and on his break it looked as if he was going to run out, but he got alittle straight in on the 4 ball and gave himself a tough angle to get to the 5, so he fires the 4 at warp speed and the pocket was not having it and spit it out, Ernesto jumps up, runs out and what do you know we got another hill hill match. In a thriller of a last game Dale finally got the nod and earned his first Tiger Tour win in his first try. Congrats to the both of them on a great tournament.
Also the Second Chance Event on Sunday had 18 players and it was won by Carl Miranda, second went to Jim Walker, third to Will Felder and fourth to Grady Cooper. They earned 300,150,100, and 75 respectively, congrats to them as well.
We want to thank everyone who came out and played and also just came out to sweat the action. Also we want to thank room owners Bob McFerren, Jim Henry and Mark Avery, and boss man Billy Sharp they did a wonderful job on hosting their first major tournament at their new 24 hour room.
And a super special thanks to all of our sponsors. Tony Kalamdaryan of www.TigerProducts.com , Jay Helfert author of Pool Wars www.JayHelfert.com , Gil Castillo of www.castilloleathergoods.com , Heather Bryant of www.DreamlinePromotions.com , and Terry Russel of www.Htownbilliards.com .
Also thanks to our referee Bob Mcferren, Auctioneer Chuck Adams, and cue repairman Roger Allen.
The cue raffle for the Tiger cue was won by big Joey B.
We hope to see everyone at the next event on March 5-6 at Big Johns sports Bar. For o you can always check on the website at www.TigerAmateurTour.com
