Jeff Phillips
Once again, Jersey Girl Billiards has run a tournament that drew over 100+ entrants and featured a final match between two competitors with almost no (known) history at the tables. Last month (Aug. 31-Sept. 1), it was Ryan Hogans and Kevin Carron, Sr. in the Nashville Cash Bash, who came to the tables with a total of only two previous (recorded) cash payouts in a tournament anywhere (Carron had finished 9th in two separate stops on the Midwest 9-Ball Tour in 2013). This past weekend (Sept. 28-29), at the Bayou Bash, which drew 107 entrants to Buffalo’s Billiards in Jefferson, LA, it was Jeff Phillips (the undefeated winner) and Jose Loera (runner-up), who came to the tables with just one (recorded) cash payout between them; Loera finished 13th at the 37th Midwest Bar Table Classic in 2017.
This is rare, but not totally unheard of. There are any number of pool players in the US and many more in other parts of the world who play pool competitively (for cash payouts) that we don’t know about for the simple reason that the tournaments in which they compete and either win or just take home the cash do not report the results to us here at AZBilliards. Or, another possibility – apparent newcomers (who may have competed in recorded-by-us tournaments, but never cashed) have suddenly elevated their game, although that rarely moves from ‘unheard of’ to the winners’ circle of a 100+-entrant tournament. Especially in Jefferson, LA on the north side of a sharp, horseshoe bend in the Mississippi river, just west of downtown New Orleans. The venue plays host to the Buffalo’s Pro Classic every year, while the area is home to a robust and active APA league and holds state championships in multiple pool disciplines every year.
Though Phillips and Loera were relative unknowns in terms of their presence in our AZBilliards database and by extension, to others, it was not so with some of the other Bayou Bash competitors, like Robb Saez, Chris Reinhold, Sergio Rivas, Joey Aguzin, Mike Saleh and Gary Lutman (to name just a few), all of whom played in the event’s initial ‘High Side’ bracket, including Phillips. Sergio Rivas was the only one of that group that finished ‘in the Bayou Bash money.’
As is the custom, Jersey Girl Billiards’ Bayou Bash separated players at the beginning into ‘High Side’ and ‘Low Side’ brackets, which drew 40 and 71 entrants, respectively. They were kept separate until there were four players left on each side of the two brackets; the final two on the winners’ and losers’ side brackets. This has a way of confusing normal bracket procedure, which tends to start mixing the ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ much earlier.
Racing to 8 (first match) and 7 thereafter, Phillips’ ‘High Side’ path to the winners’ circle went through Kevin Morgan (5), Chris McCreary (1), Jonathan Tedder (2), Montezuma Hernandez (2) and Dwight Connie (1) to arrive at what would have been the hot seat match of the High Side bracket against Clarence Moore, but was also the winners’ side semifinal of the overall event. Racing to 8 against Moore, he defeated him 8-2 to be the ‘last man standing’ from the High Side bracket.
Jose Loera
Meanwhile, Keith Kennedy was running the same sort of route from the Low Side bracket, alternating between races to 6 (first two and fifth match) and 5 in the rest, he shut out Sergeant Schultz, defeated Christy Love (1), Brian Whittington (2), Darryl Warrick (1) and Grace Garretson (1). This set Kennedy up in the Low Side hot seat match against Klumor Toro, which Kennedy won 5-2.
Klumor moved over to the loss side, where, instead of playing in a semifinal (having lost the Low Side hot seat match), he found himself in the overall event quarterfinal against Jose Loera, who’d lost his second (High Side) match, won six in a row on the loss side and moved into contention with a loss-side forfeit that put him into the event quarterfinal versus Loera.
Now, there were 103 down and four to go. Phillips vs. Kennedy, both still undefeated, and on the loss side, Loera against Toro.
Kennedy grabbed his second hot seat, which followed his first, competing against Clarence Moore on the High Side bracket. He defeated Keith Kennedy 7-4 and became the only undefeated competitor left.
Meanwhile, Loera first shut out Toro in the quarterfinal and then advanced to face Kennedy in the semifinals. Loera defeated him 6-4 and advanced again to battle Phillips in the finals.
Though within 29 FargoRate points of each other, Loera (647) began the final match against Phillips (676) with two ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 8. A FargoRate odds calculation (taking into account the ‘beads on the wire’) gave Loera the ‘edge,’ a 69.5% chance of claiming the Bayou Bash title.
Though Loera would put up a double-hill fight in the final match, it was Phillips who claimed the title, winning the eight racks he needed before Loera chalked up only five of the six he needed. It was Phillips’ first (recorded) regional tour win and cash payout, which will create a profile of him in the AZBilliards database that will include his name, home state (Mississippi) and his Bayou Bash victory.
Jersey Girl Billiards, in the person of Chrissy Perlowski, thanked the ownership and staff at Buffalo’s Billiards for their hospitality, along with sponsors Off The Rail Apparel, Dr. V’s Custom Shop, Omega Billiards, Digitalpool.com, and Outsville. The next Jersey Girl Billiards event, a mid-week tournament scheduled for Oct. 22-25th, will be hosted by The Renaissance Resort at 500 South Legacy Trail in St. Augustine, FL. The event will coincide with Pat Fleming’s five-event, 2024 International Open at the same location.
Further information about this next event, including registration procedures, can be found on the Jersey Girl Billiards Web site (http://www.jerseygirlbilliards.com). Information regarding the varied events of Pat Fleming’s International Open can be found on their Web site at https://www.intlopen.com.
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