(l to r): Mike Davis & Chris Bruner
While it conjures images of pool tables lined up along a sandy beach somewhere, with players in bathing suits, the Action Pool Tour’s 5th stop on the 2019 tour referenced the town’s name, not the beaches that are admittedly nearby. The tour stop, held on the weekend of May 18-19, drew 31 entrants to Q Master Billiards in Virginia Beach, VA. Mike Davis, making his first appearance on the 2019 tour, went undefeated to claim the title, but not before being challenged in the finals by Chris Bruner, who’d been sent to the loss side in the second round of play and won seven in a row for the right to face Davis.
As the event progressed from its opening rounds, Davis’ opponents kept getting closer and closer. Davis opened with an 8-1 victory over Anthony Vigliotti, an 8-3 win over Jimmy Bird, and an 8-5 win over Scott Haas to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Bernard Andico. Nilbert Lim, in the meantime, got by Ron Zampko 8-3, Keith Bennett 8-5 and survived a double hill match against Mark Lacson to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal match against Kelly Farrar. Farrar, on her way to the matchup against Lim, was responsible for sending Chris Bruner to the loss side, and had also defeated the tour’s #3-ranked player, Steve Fleming.
Lim sent Farrar to the loss side and an immediate rematch against Bruner with an 8-3 win, as Davis sent Andico over 8-5. In the battle for the hot seat, Lim was able to chalk up more racks against him than any of his previous opponents, Davis prevailed to claim the hot seat 8-6.
On the loss side, Farrar ran into Bruner, four matches into his seven-match, loss-side streak, which had most recently resulted in the elimination of JR Avery 7-3 and Scott Haas 7-5. Andico picked up the tour’s #2-ranked competitor RJ Carmona, who, like Bruner had been defeated in the second round of play (by Scott Haas) and was in the midst of his own five-match, loss-side winning streak. Bruner and Carmona were about to meet in the quarterfinals.
Carmona got there with a 7-2 win over Andico and was joined by Bruner, who’d ended Farrar’s weekend 7-4. Bruner then ended Carmona’s loss-side streak 7-5 in that quarterfinal match.
Bruner completed his loss-side run with a 7-3 win over Lim in the semifinals. Davis completed his undefeated run with a 10-5 victory over Bruner in the finals.
A Second Chance drew eight entrants. It was won by Kelly Cox, who defeated Steve Fleming in the finals 7-5.
Tour directors Kris Wylie and Tiger Baker thanked the ownership and staff at Q Master Billiards, as well as sponsors Predator Cues, Viking Cues, Simonis, Aramith, Kamui, Diamond Billiard Products, Cue Sports International (CSI), Chix Cabinets Direct, Grant Wylie (professional photographer), Brown’s Mechanical, LLC, and George Hammerbacher Advanced Pool Instructor. The next stop on the APT, scheduled for the weekend of June 15-16, will be the Brown’s Mechanical 9-Ball Open, hosted by Diamond Billiards in Midlothian, VA.
