Mike Gann
Mike Gann cashed in an event on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour last month. The last weekend in May at Peyton’s Place in Knoxville, TN, when he was runner-up to Daniel Autry. Before that, you gotta go back two years (to find any events recorded in which he cashed), almost as if 2020 didn’t happen, to the Music City Classic Open Division, in the winter of 2019, when he finished fourth behind Alex Pagulayan, John Gabriel and Jamie Baraks. This past weekend (June 26-27), he reappeared on the tour at a stop, hosted by Jac’s All-American Billiards in Newport, TN, where he came from the loss side to claim his first event title on the tour. The event drew 15 entrants.
Gann was among the last four standing on the winners’ side of the bracket, facing Jimmy Hightower. Steve Dye faced Brian Bagwell. Dye defeated Bagwell 5-3 and Hightower sent Gann packing 7-7 (Gann racing to 9). With Hightower racing to 7, Dye edged him out in the battle for the hot seat, double hill, 5-6.
On the loss side, Gann ran into Keith Roberts, who’d beaten Rodney Huskey and Sammy Manley, both 5-3. Bagwell picked up Kevin Ping, who’d just concluded a two-match aggregate score of 14-1, downing Ricky Bingham (0) and Billy Fowler (1). Bagwell then defeated Ping 7-5, advancing to the quarterfinals against Gann, who’d eliminated Roberts, double hill (9-4).
On a bit of a literal and figurative roll at this point, Gann shut Bagwell out in the quarterfinals. He defeated Hightower in the semifinals 9-3.
In the true double elimination final, requiring Gann to win twice, Steve Dye started both sets with four beads on the wire in a race to 9. Gann allowed him only one rack in that opening set. In the second, Dye scrapped to double hill, before Gann finally finished it at 9-4 to claim his first (recorded) event title.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Jac’s All-American Billiards for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, BarPoolTables.net, Dirty South Grind Apparel Co., Diamond Brat, Federal Savings Bank’s Mortgage Division and AZBilliards. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for the July 4th weekend, will be a $500-added event, hosted by a new venue for the tour, Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC.
