Mike Davis
“Iron Mike” Davis became the undefeated ‘official winner’ of this past weekend’s (Sat., Mar 2) event on The Pool Series, earning a negotiated portion of the top two prizes and first place in the dual headline, but it was runner-up, Runal Bhatt, who, in search of his first recorded event victory anywhere, earned more than just a few raised eyebrows. The $500-added event of The Pool Series drew 32 entrants to The Smokin’ Cue in Charlotte, NC.
In his quest for that oft-elusive first win in a cash-prize pool tournament (of six recorded cash finishes in the past two years), Bhatt battled two competitors who, combined, have won 11 North Carolina State Pool Championships in both 8-ball and 9-ball. BJ Ussery, Jr., who claimed three of those titles and was ‘in the discussion’ as a potential member of the most recent Mosconi Cup team, was defeated twice by Bhatt, including the event semifinal. Though in the battle for the hot seat, Bhatt faced and lost his only match versus Davis (five-time 9-ball and three-time 8-ball NC champion), Bhatt did manage to force a double-hill match in the second set of the two-set, race-to-3 matches that governed the entire tournament.
That two-set, race-to-three format yields only two possible scores, 2-0 or 2-1. Those numbers, however, represent the culmination of two ‘sets’ of action, each of which yields three possible scores; 3-0, 3-1 or 3-2. The individual match scores within a set were not recorded on the DigitalPool bracket that was utilized, although we did seek out those scores in the Davis/Bhatt hot seat match and the Bhatt/Ussery semifinals.
Davis went undefeated in sets through the entire tournament, downing Aaron Hancock, Brian Kurzel, and Javier Olu to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Brian Francis. With one exception, Bhatt went undefeated in sets to become the runner-up. He got by Todd Milan 2-0 before, in the second round, running into Ussery, who chalked up a set against him (2-1). Bhatt continued his single-exception, undefeated-set run with a victory over Eddie Little and drew David Anderson in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Davis and Bhatt went 2-0 versus Francis and Anderson, respectively, and came together for what would prove to be their only match. Davis finished his ‘day’ (more or less) with a 3-1, 3-2 pair of matches that put him in the hot seat.
Ussery, who was working on what would be a six-match winning streak that would end in the semifinals, went undefeated in loss-side sets to draw Anderson, including recent victories over Javier Olu and Rico Gonzalez. Eddie Little followed his loss to Bhatt with a 2-1 victory over Kris Brower and a 2-0 win over Todd Milan to draw Francis.
Francis gave up a set to Little before advancing to the quarterfinals. Ussery chalked up set-shutout win #5 against Anderson and joined him. Ussery took the quarterfinal match 2-1 and then, though he fought to double hill in a second set, was defeated by Bhatt in the semifinals.
It was over. Davis and Bhatt agreed to a split of the top two cash prizes, negotiated its terms and called it a day. Davis, as the undefeated occupant of the hot seat, became the event’s official winner.
The Pool Series will return to Smokin’ Cue in Charlotte for a $500-added, 9-ball event, scheduled for April 6.
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