Roland Garcia
Grand Rapids, MI – home of legendary BCA Hall of Famer Harold Worst and World Straight Pool champ, Straight Pool Hall of Famer and custom cuemaker Bob Hunter – was the destination of choice for 105 players this past weekend.
Hosted by Rich and Nicole Williams at their beautiful room, Eastside Billiards, this was the debut of the $10,000 added Michigan Fall Classic. Local sponsors included Break Shot Billiards, Emerald Spas & Billiards, Don Bass of the Glover Agency, Divine Flooring Installation, Justin Mulder of LakeState Mortgage, Simonis, Aramith, JB Cases, the West Michigan BCA Pool League, Savage Billiards and Fort Worth Billiards Superstore of Fort Worth, TX.
Played on Diamond bar tables, the format was double elimination, alternate breaks and used a template rack to rack your own with the 9 ball on the spot – races were 9/7.
There was no dearth of talent at this event. Names like Filipino stars Roberto Gomez, Roland Garcia, Joven Bustamante as well as Canadians Erik Horleifson and Shawn Miller, the field also saw Jayme Goodwin, Jason Kirkwood, Jeremy Seaman, Jonathan Pinegar (Hennessee), Louis Demarco and Derek Pogirski joining the action.
The action began on Friday evening with a players meeting and players auction with the first round starting at 10 PM CST. By Saturday night, there were eight undefeated players – Hennessee/Demarco and Jordan Davis/Roland Garcia in the upper portion of the bracket. Bustamante and Shawn Buchholz as well as Brandon Thomas and Stu MacTaggart were in the lower portion.
It was all Hennessee as he defeated Demarco 9-4 while Garcia won his match with Davis 9-6. After a surprising upset of Gomez by Bustamante earlier in the tournament, Joven was sent to the one loss side by Shawn Buchholz 9-6 and MacTaggart lost to Thomas 9-5.
Now down to four players on the winners side, Hennessee succumbed to Garcia and Thomas sent Buchholz west – both scores 9-6.
This pitted Garcia and Thomas in the hot seat match – Garcia locked up his seat in the finals 9-4. Thomas headed to the one loss side and cooled his heels while waiting for an opponent.
After losing to Bustamante, Gomez put his head down and barrelled through his opponents. Dave Miedel, George Kieselat Jr, Demarco and Jeremy Seaman all went down 7-2. He then skunked Shawn Buchholz 9-0 until he lost in a nailbiter to Nathan Wallace 7-6. Roberto finished in fourth place.
After drawing a first round bye, Nathan Wallace was unceremoniously dumped in the losers bracket by Jason Kirkwood 9-6. Once there, he also went on a tear and won eleven matches in a row eliminating Pat O’Connor 7-0, both Abe Devrles and Edward Zych 7-2, Mark Osman 7-1, John Skofic 7-5, Derrick Balze 7-2, Bustamante 7-3, MacTaggart 7-1, Hennessee 7-5 until squeaking by Gomez and Thomas 7-6. Thomas finished in third place and Wallace advanced to the finals.
Since this tournament was true double elimination, Wallace would have to defeat Garcia twice to take the title. Not in the cards, Roland won the set 9-6 leaving Nathan with a well-deserved runner-up finish!
PoolActionTV.com would like to thank owners Rich & Nicole Williams as well as their staff for going the extra mile to make both players and fans comfortable. In addition, Rich & Nicole were the Tournament Directors and did a great job!
We’d also like to thank Larry Schwartz, Ray Hansen and Mary Kenniston for providing color commentary for this event.
And finally, we’d like to thank Terry Hanna, our fans and sponsors. Our sponsors include JB Cases, Aramith, Simonis, Hanshew Jump Cues, Diamond Billiard Products, Durbin Custom Cues, Savage Billiards, Lomax Custom Cues, Eastside Billiards, The Action Palace of Dayton, OH and Fort Worth Billiards Superstore of Fort Worth, TX.
Next stop is the 8th Annual Senior One Pocket at Bogies in Houston, TX. Dates are September 21st-24th. I’m going – hope to see you there!
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