Ellerman Three-Peats on Diamond Tour

The Diamond Pool Tour returned to Pockets Billiards in Tucson on October 1st - 2nd, for stop #7, with a field of 43 players playing 9-Ball on the 9’ tables. Although the top Tucson players put up a fight, it was Mitch Ellerman turning in his third straight tour stop win. 

 

The “A” bracket only held 14 players, and it was Ellerman and Tucson’s Chris Paradowski making their way through the winner’s bracket to meet up for the “A” bracket hot-seat. That match would go to Ellerman 9-6. Tim Daniel had lost his first match of the event, but scored an impressive run through the one loss side with dominating wins over AJ Jones, Tonee Allin, Jeff Webb and George Teyechea to face off with Paradowski in the semi-final match. Paradowski did the Tucson fans proud though, with a 9-6 win over Daniel. 

 

The “B” bracket consisted of 29 players with the Tucson players showing that they were more than ready to take on Phoenix’s best. The “B” bracket hot-seat came down to two Tucsonians with Eric Beeler defeating John Polaski in a hard fought 9-7 match. On the one loss side, Manny Luevano was proving that his 9-2 loss to Jack Murray in the first round was just a fluke. Luevano then went on a seven match winning streak that included notable wins over Rick Schmitz, 2015 “B” player of the year Joey Barrera, 2016 “B” Player of the year candidate Oscar Avila Sr. and Polaski in the semi final match. 

 

The 7th place finish by Avila was made possible by the come-back match of the weekend on Saturday night. Trailing Tim Christopher 8-2, Avila then proceeded to win seven straight games for the 9-8 win to earn him his spot in the Sunday bracket. 

 

When the brackets came together, Ellerman made quick work of Beeler for the overall hot-seat 9-3. On the one loss side though, Luevano was having fun defeating Tucson players and he kept the string going with a 9-7 win over Paradowski. Luevano wasn’t even done then, as he went on to eliminate Beeler in third place 9-4. That left Luevano with the unenviable task of having to beat Ellerman twice in the finals. He put up a fight, but it was Ellerman winning the first set 9-5 for first place and his third straight win. 

 

With the tournament win, Ellerman locked down the “A” player points list, with an insurmountable lead over Scott Frost. The “B” player points list sees Avila at the top, with a 115 point lead over Karloz Chavez. It would take a very high finish in the final stop of the year for Chavez to catch Avila on the list. 

 

Tour staff expressed their thanks to Curtis Johnson and his staff for taking care of the players all weekend. Rick Schmitz once again proved why he is the best billiards photographer in Arizona, with a selection of great player shots. 

 

The Diamond Pool Tour wasn’t done for the month though, as they held their final regular tour stop of the season three weeks later at Skip and Jan’s in Gilbert. 

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