Roberto Gomez and Tony Chohan (Courtesy Pool Action TV)
Owners Rich Kuntz & Tammy Frampton welcomed both players & fans to the legendary Brass Tap & Billiards in Raleigh, NC for the $20,000 added Beasley Open. Featuring both one pocket and nine ball divisions, this World Nineball Tour event allowed players to add their finishes to the nine ball world rankings.
Doug Beasley Custom Cues & Meucci joined the Brass Tap & PoolActionTV.com in sponsoring this WNT ranking event. Diamond Billiard Products, Inc. & Ray Hansen supplied a table for the one pocket event.
Names spotted around the room included defending champ Alex Calderon – he swept both the One Pocket & Nine Ball divisions! BCA Hall of Famer Rodney Morris was there plus reigning Bayou State One Pocket Classic winner Tony Chohan & Buffalo’s Pro One Pocket champ Roberto Gomez. Billy Thorpe, current Bayou State Classic 9-Ball titleist & winner of the Bank Pool Showdown as well as the Virginia Barbox 9-Ball champ, Mike Davis Jr. were seen. 2024 Derby City Classic Banks Ring Game victor Mike DeLawder was there as well as North Carolina State 9-Ball champ, BJ Ussery.
Foreign entries included Spain’s Jonas Souto Comino, fresh off a win at the Seattle Nineball Open & last year’s Mosconi Cup team member plus Space City Open One Pocket Champ, Mickey Krause of Denmark. Current Canadian Nine & Ten Ball champ John Morra was there as well as Bulgaria’s Georgi Georgiev – last year’s Seattle Nineball Open winner.
Others seen around the room were Johnathan (“Hennessee”) Pinegar, Ike Runnels, Brandon Shuff, Danny Smith, Josh Roberts, Nathan Childress, Devin Poteet & trying to shake off the rust after a long layoff, Teddy Garrahan.
2024 Buffalo’s Pro Classic Open 9-Ball champ Lukas Fracasso-Verner & Joey Tate, winner of the Q City 9-Ball Tour Championship, led other young guns including 2023 Mosconi Cup team member Shane Wolford & Eric Roberts.
The tournament began with the $7,500 added one pocket division. Thirty nine players paid a $300 entry fee to compete in this double elimination event. All races were 3/3 with the final match a race to four.
Play began on Wednesday evening & in the upper portion of the bracket, Chohan & Smith prevailed. Chohan drew a first round bye followed by shut outs over Cadelario Lopez, Childress & Shuff. Smith had it a bit tougher with wins over Tyler Kraven (0), Joey Buoniconti (1), Yash Ajmera (1) & Norris Brady (1).
The Chohan-Smith match went down to the wire 3-2 & Tony advanced to the hot seat match – Smith headed west.
In the lower portion of the chart, Gomez also drew a first round bye & went on to defeat Brad Shearer (1), Josh Roberts (0) & Fracasso-Verner (1). Calderon beat John Braud (1), Corey Sykes (2), DeLawder (0) & Poteet (0).
On fire, Gomez defeated Calderon 3-0 – Alex went to the one loss side.
The hot seat match went down to the wire with Chohan defeating Gomez 3-2 & locking up his seat in the finals.
Gomez would await an opponent to emerge from the one loss side.
After losing his fourth round match, Shuff got busy dismantling his opponents. Down went DeLawder (2), Brady (1), Calderon (2) & Smith (0).
Finally, he arrived at the match to put him in the finals but it was not to be. Battling down to the case game, Gomez took the match 3-2 & would go on to face Chohan in the finals. Shuff finished in third place.
The finals was all Chohan as he marched to a 4-1 victory & the title.
The $12,500 added Open WNT event began on Thursday evening. This division had sixty five players paying a $300 entry fee to play in this winner breaks event. It had two stages: Stage 1 was double elimination with races to 8/8 & was played down to the final sixteen players. Stage 2 was single elimination with races to nine & the finals a race to thirteen.
The final sixteen was Paul Song over Kraus (2), Fracasso-Verner over McBride (6), Childress over Oliver Ruuger (3), Thorpe over DeLawder (5), Morra over Ussery (5), Gomez over Wolford (4) , Georgiev over Tate (6) & Souto Comino over Jason Rogers (1).
The next round saw Fracasso-Verner over Song (4), Thorpe over Childress (3), Gomez over Morra (7) & Souto Comino over Georgiev (3).
Down to the final four, Gomez defeated Souto Comino (3) & Fracasso-Verner edged out Thorpe (8).
The finals was all Gomez as he cruised to a 13-6 victory over Fracasso-Verner.
Congratulations to both Tony Chohan & Roberto Gomez for becoming this year’s Beasley Open champs!
