Gus Briseno, Mohammed Alrawi and Tony Loeper
Gus Briseno is in the midst of a promising start to his 2023 campaign at the tables. After finishing as runner-up to Jerry Calderon at the second stop of the On the Snap Tour and 4th at Stop #3 on the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour (both in March), his undefeated run through a field of 65 at Stop #4 on the tour this past weekend (April 22-23) has elevated his (recorded) earnings at this point to a level exceeding previous years dating back to 2017. The $2,000-added event this past weekend drew its 65 entrants to a new tour venue; VFW Post 2772 in Sherman, TX.
The presence of Jeremy Jones at this event, stopping by for his second visit to the tour, might have given Briseno pause as he considered the potential for another meeting. He’d been defeated by Jones in a winners’ side semifinal at Stop #3 and eliminated by Tim Larson in the quarterfinals. It turned out not to be a concern. They faced each other in the 2nd round of play and Briseno sent Jones to the loss side 9-5. Any realistic concerns that Briseno had that Jones might come back at some point to haunt him, were dispelled by Joshua Paredes, who defeated Jones 6-8 (Jones racing to 10) in the first loss-side round. With that out of the way, Briseno moved on.
Briseno then downed Chris Rickman and Juan Parra, both 9-4, and sent Johnny Garcia to the loss side 9-5 to draw Steve Langston in one of the winners’ side semifinals. In the meantime, his eventual hot seat and finals opponent, Mohammed Alrawi, was busy sending Tony Blankenship 7-2, Chris Wages 7-1, Mike Gianino 7-3 and Carlos Aleman 7-6 (Aleman racing to 8) to the loss side. Alrawi drew Tony Loeper in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Alrawi and Loeper battled to a double-hill 13th game, before Alrawi got the last word in and advanced to the hot seat match. Seven minutes later, Briseno concluded a 9-1 victory over Langston and joined him. Briseno and Alrawi engaged in a somewhat predictable double-hill battle for the hot seat, which, just shy of two hours later, Briseno won.
On the loss side, Langston picked up TJ Davis, who was working on a five-match, loss-side streak that had just eliminated Carlos Aleman, double hill, and Mark Johnson 9-4. Loeper drew Johnny Garcia, who’d followed his loss versus Briseno with victories over Jonathan Rawlins 8-4 and Mike Gianino 8-5.
Loeper gave up only a single rack to Garcia and in the quarterfinals, faced Davis, who’d chalked up what proved to be his last loss-side win 9-6 versus Langston. Loeper stopped that streak at five with a 7-7 win over Davis (Davis racing to 9).
In a straight-up race to 7, Alrawi ended Loeper’s short loss-side trip 7-3 in the semifinals. In their second match, Briseno and Alrawi came within a game of double hill, as Briseno closed out his undefeated run with a 9-5 victory in the finals (Alrawi racing to 7).
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at VFW Post 2772 for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Cuetec and Associate sponsor, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore. The next stop on the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour (#4), scheduled for the weekend of May 20-21, will be hosted by Rusty’s in Arlington, TX.
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