The Mezz West State Tour kicked off its second stop of the season at Hard Times Billiards in Sacramento, CA. The beautiful room of 31 pool tables offered a premium setting for players along with bleacher seating for spectators. A big thank you goes out to Mike and Karen Markulis and their entire staff for supporting our sport and having one of the premier rooms in the country.
After a successful first stop in Los Angeles, the energy and excitement of the tour went north garnering a very strong field of 68 players who played on the very tight equipment Hard Times Sacramento had to offer. The top half of the field was littered with strong players such as returning winner of stop number one, Rodrigo Geronimo of the Philippines. San Francisco bay area resident, Jaynard Orque had a very impressive showing of smooth play with wins over Nick Callado, Oscar Dominguez, Jeff Gregory, John Henderson, before he stumbled to Ernesto Dominguez in the semis. The 59 year old Ernesto had a 1985 flashback winning matches with excellent safety play and decision making. Ernesto won the hot seat over the always dangerous Los Angeles player, Ramin Bakhtiari.
Once on the losers side, Jaynard Orque showed his shot making ability on the table defeating Amar Kang, Oscar Dominguez, and Ramin Bakhtiari consecutively in very close matches to get another chance at Ernesto waiting in the hotseat. In the true double elimination format, Jaynard easily ran away with the first set and defeated Ernesto hill-hill in a tense battle in set number two. The Filipino young gun demonstrated a solid game on extremely challenging equipment and earned $1400 for his efforts. Ernesto settled for $1000.
The top female prize was split between two strong female players from California, MaryAnn Starkey and Barbara Lee.
Oscar and Desiree of the Mezz West State Tour would like to thank all our sponsors: Mezz Cues, West State Billiard Supply, ZAN tips, Turtle Rack, Fast&Loose designs, and our media sponsors; AZBilliards, NYCGrind, and POV Pool. Also, a very special thank you to Chris Kurzweils of Kurzweils Country Meats who donated snacks and jerky to the players and spectators of Hard Times Billiards.
Next stop on the tour schedule is Diamond Billiards in Fresno, CA. For more information please the contact us tab at mezzweststatetour.com or visit our Mezz West State Tour Facebook page. We thank you for your support and look forward to bringing pool back to the West!
