Vilmos Foldes
On the weekend of October 8-9, Hungarian-born, California resident Vilmos Foldes appeared in his first Action Pool Tour (APT) stop at the First Break Cafe, in Sterling, VA – the 10th Annual Bob Stocks Memorial Tournament. He went undefeated through the field of 58, defeating the tour’s (at the time) #2-ranked player, Eric Moore, twice, to claim the event title. Foldes’ first victory on the tour doesn’t move him among the tour’s top-ranked players, because the ranking system is derived from accumulated points. Moore, on the other hand, who has appeared in six of the tour’s eight stops to date, earned enough points as this most recent event’s runner-up to move past the tour’s #1-ranked player, Brandon Shuff, who did not compete.
It was an impressive performance by Foldes, who arrived to compete in a winners’ side semifinal against Brian Deska, having given up only one rack in 29 games played. Foldes shut out his first three opponents, before giving up the single rack to Brian Dietzenbach in a winners’ side quarterfinal. Moore, in the meantime, arrived at his winners’ side semifinal matchup versus Bruce Choyce, having given up 10 racks in 38 games (4, 3, 2 and 1, though not in that order).
Deska, who, back in March, won nine on the loss side to meet and defeat Shuff and claim his first APT title of the year, and then, a month later, won his second APT title, was defeated by Foldes 7-2. Moore, meanwhile, downed Choyce 7-2 to meet Foldes in the hot seat match. Foldes claimed the hot seat 7-3 over Moore, and waited in the hot seat, with his 89% win total, for Moore to return.
On the loss side, Deska picked up Bobby Stovall, who’d fallen to Choyce in a winners’ side quarterfinal and then defeated Christopher Wilburn 6-2 and Kenny Miller 6-1. Choyce drew Dietzenbach, who, following his defeat at the hands of Foldes, shut out Pat Carosi and downed Brett Stottlemyer 6-1.
Almost predictably, two double hill battles ensued, for the right to advance to the quarterfinals. The winners’ side semifinalists (Deska and Choyce) were eliminated by the winners’ side quarterfinalists, Stovall and Dietzenbach. Dietzenbach then stopped Stovall’s run with a shutout in the quarterfinals.
Moore, though, stopped Dietzenbach’s four-match, loss-side streak, which had included two shutouts. Moore earned himself a second shot at Foldes with a 6-3 win over Dietzenbach in the semifinals.
Moore put up a fight in the finals that saw him chalk up as many racks, as all of Foldes’ previous opponents’ combined. Foldes claimed his first APT title with a 9-6 win.
With three events to go, including next month’s VA State 8-Ball Championships (Nov. 12-13 at Diamond Billiards in Midlothian, VA), and airfare to the US Bar Table Championships in Las Vegas at stake (both the top and second-ranked player receive entry to all three divisions of that event, and hotel accommodations), Moore is currently in the top-ranked driver’s seat, with Brandon Shuff right there beside him.
