Mike Davis
Davis splits cash with BJ Ussery in 10-Ball, 8-Ball, wins two shortened races for title and trophy
They came in as the favorites in two of the three events and, had BJ Ussery. Jr. signed on to compete in One Pocket, he and Mike Davis, Jr. might well have been favored in that one, too. Though replete with ‘entirely possible’ candidates, all three events of the inaugural Port City Pool Open Championships in One Pocket, 10-Ball and 8-Ball were won by Mike Davis, Jr. this past weekend (July 7-10). Davis and Ussery were winner and runner-up in both 10-Ball and 8-Ball, while it was Larry Pierce taking home the runner-up prize in One Pocket.
It was not a traditional ending to either the 10-Ball or 8-Ball events. When Davis and Ussery came to the finals in both (the 8-Ball final began in the early hours of Monday morning), they decided to split the top two cash prizes. They did, however, play a race-to-3 set in 10-Ball and a single game of 8-Ball for the official title and trophy for each. Davis won both to collect the plaque trophies and a customized quarter dispenser (from Quarter King) of which Davis now has two; one identifying him as Port City Pool’s 10-Ball champion and the other as the 8-Ball champion.
It was a first-time event for its tour director, Wilmington, NC’s Joey Buoniconti and in addition to conceiving, organizing and running the event throughout the weekend, he managed to win back $100 when he finished in the tie for 9/12th in his own 8-ball tournament. Asked why he opted to organize three separate events in his first effort as a tour director, Buoniconti indicated that it was a hoped-for marriage between players and the venue; Breaktime Billiards in Wilmington.
“I wanted to bring good players to Wilmington, great players,” he said. “We have a great venue here at Breaktime Billiards. It has the largest number of tables I’ve seen in this area and there haven’t been a lot of big tournaments here.”
As a first-time effort, it was not without a few expected glitches. Based on input from a number of players (Davis and Ussery, included) and positive feedback from many others, Buoniconti’s first ‘rodeo’ as a tour director went well.
“I’m not going to grade myself too high, but I don’t think it was sub-par either,” he said. “I wouldn’t give myself an ‘A,’ because I prepared two or three months for this. Tried to have everything in line. Worked out the things that I thought were going to be a problem. Next time, I’ll be more prepared.”
“I’d give myself a B, B+,” he added.
Based on some of the commentary from a variety of those in attendance, there’ll be changes the next time. First up will be the registration process, which, according to Buoniconti, will be all pre-registration, with no money back next time because at this first event, a lot of pre-registered people failed to show up. The other change will be in the event selection and format. Buoniconti is considering a reduction in the One Pocket ‘races,’ from ‘4’ at this inaugural event, to ‘3.’ He has also considering separating One Pocket from the 8-Ball and 10-Ball; give it its own weekend and run the 8-Ball and 10-Ball tournaments separately.
For obvious reasons, the triple winner, Mike Davis had no complaints. A few things caught him by surprise and he had zero expectations that it would turn out the way it did.
“Yeah, I definitely didn’t expect that to happen,” he said of his three event victories, in which he lost only a single match. “The competition wasn’t as strong as I thought it was going to be for a tournament that size, but there were some really good players. I mean, BJ did beat me in the 10-ball hot seat match,” he added, “and Wendell (Thompkins) played real strong against me in that semifinal match (and later) in the 8-ball hot seat match.”
“Larry Pierce (who battled him in a winners’ side semifinal and finals of the One Pocket) played really well against me, too,” he added.
Davis concurred, and in fact, may have been the first person to suggest to Buoniconti that the One Pocket races be reduced in future events, though he disagreed with the separation of One Pocket for placement in an event on its own in a single weekend.
“The three events on the one weekend makes for a good tournament,” he said, adding that in addition to the worthy competition and his own three wins at this one, “that Gail (Stafford, who ably and graciously ran the tournament’s front desk) and Joey (Buoniconti) were real nice and there were a lot of good people.”
“Overall,” said Buoniconti,” it’s been a great experience and I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback.”
To the particulars. . .
The One Pocket event drew 24 entrants on opening night, Friday, as Davis got by Henry Wallace, Joshua Greer, BJ Hucks (double hill) and in a winners’ side semifinal, Larry Pierce, whom he defeated 4-2 to get into the hot seat match against Greg Spano. A shutout in that match allowed Davis to claim his first of two weekend hot seats.
Spano moved to the semifinals and ran into Pierce, who’d followed his loss to Davis with wins over Marty Free (shutout), BJ Hucks in a double-hill quarterfinal and then, defeated Spano 3-1 in those semifinals. Davis claimed his first weekend title with an extended-race 5-3 defeat of Pierce in the finals.
As the One Pocket event spilled into Saturday, the 10-Ball tournament with 56 entrants got underway, with Davis running through Robert Perez, Richard Winpigler, Jordan Baker and in a winners’ side quarterfinal, won another double-hill match against BJ Hucks. He downed Barry Mashburn in a winners’ side semifinal and faced BJ Ussery in the hot seat match. Davis then lost his only match all weekend, getting sent off to the semifinals by Ussery 7-1.
Davis played in his only semifinal against his (later) 8-ball opponent, Wendell Thompkins, who’d shut out Mashburn and downed BJ Hucks in the quarterfinals. Davis eliminated Thompkins 5-3 and moved into the shortened race-to-3 final that he and Ussery had decided upon, after agreeing to split the top two cash prizes. Davis claimed his second title, winning the truncated match, double hill.
Saturday spilled into Sunday during the final matches of the 10-ball event and the 49-entrant 8-ball event got underway. Davis’ path to that undefeated winners’ circle went through Al Fricano, Ed Williams, Reene Driskill, Keno Patel and in a winners’ side semifinal Michael Rabon 5-3. Wendell Thompkins, in the meantime, was awarded an opening round bye and then defeated Michael Panzarellas 5-3 before running into two straight double-hill matches, against Terry Brumble and Donnie Stewart. He survived that double frying pan to end up in the fire of BJ Ussery in the other winners’ side semifinal and came out on top 5-1 to face Davis in the hot seat.
Davis claimed his last hot seat, downing Thompkins 5-2. Over on the loss side, Ussery picked up Richard Winpigler, who was working on a four-match winning streak that was about to end. Rabon drew Donnie Stewart, who was working on a four-match, loss-side streak, too, but that would be extended by a single match.
Stewart downed Rabon 4-2 and in the quarterfinals, met up with Ussery, who’d survived a double-hill fight against Winpigler. Ussery then stopped Stewart’s loss-side run 4-2 and gave up only a single rack to Thompkins in the semifinals. By now, it was nearing 2 a.m. on Monday morning, so Davis and Ussery agreed to their second split of the top two prizes and played their single game for the title and trophy. Davis won to claim his third event title.
Tour director Joey Buoniconti had the proverbial boatload of people to thank for the things that went right at his first tournament as a director, beginning with Ten Pin Alley Breaktime Billiards’ owners Margaret and Jim Grago for hosting the event and the money they added to the ‘pot.’ He offered special thanks to Gail Stafford, who, as he put it, “worked her butt off (at the tournament front desk, womaning the computers and fielding questions) to help make the event run smoothly.” He also thanked his Mom, Patricia, who sat beside Gail for most of the weekend and helped with the 50/50 and Jacoby Cue raffles.
“A special thanks also,” he added, “to Quarter King, Diamond Brat and Breaktime for sponsoring the last 16 players in the 10-ball and 8-ball events with free table time.” Buoniconti thanked them as the event tour director and one of its players. He also thanked Laura George for making the winners’ trophies and AZBilliards for their coverage of the event. “Be on the lookout for more events coming soon,” he added.
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