Hightide Billiards ran yet another monster event Feb 28th & Mar 1st in Houma, La. It contained players such as Gary Abood, John Schmidt, Mike Black, Jamie Farrell, Ricky P, Josh Hillard, Jason Lafluer and many others.
It kicked off with a monster calcutta which featured four blind bids and each player seeded in the brackets. Gary Abood, John Schmidt, Josh Hillard and Jason Lafluer went in the blinds. The event was a race to 7 with alternate breaks on the barbox and a true double elimination final.
As the brackets were drawn the seeded blinds saw Schmidt & Hillard in the top half with Abood & Lafluer in the bottom. This would be a long road for anyone considering the alternate break short race format. It was truly open for the taking.
Play started and saw Schmidt and Hillard winning their first four matches. Mike Black winning his first four matches, and Gary Abood squeaking by his fourth match win against Ricky P. by a score of 7-6. Ricky P. was playing well but got unlucky to back cut the 9 ball in only to scratch double hill.
This left only 4 players in the winners side. John Schmidt vs Josh Hillard -- Mike Black vs Gary Abood.
Next round matches were called and Hillard played a perfect match against John to win by a score of 7-2. Mike Black proceeded to play some fine pool in his match and took down Gary with a final score 7-4. It would be Hillard vs Black for the hot seat and a predictable Schmidt vs Abood match for 3rd-4th place.
John and Gary would both win their next two matches to meet up. It started out with John winning the first two games and looking like he may run away with it, but Gary spoke back winning the next three games with some fantastic shooting. Gary, Now breaking 3-2 his way would come up dry on the break. That would be all John needed. He went on to win the next five games leaving Gary in 4th place and just out of the cash.
For the hot seat Mike Black jumped out to a 3-0 lead but Hillard would come back to tie it up 3-3. Trading games back and forth, It was Hillard breaking at 4-4 but came up dry which turned out to be very costly. Mike would make two 9 ball combinations from there along with a break and run on the hill to seal the hot seat up 7-4.
Mike now waiting for his final opponent watched Schmidt and Hillard play for the second time. It appeared to be a repeat of the first time they played. Hillard playing well and jumping out to a 5-1 lead. An unexpected scratch by Josh in rack seven would allow John to get back in the set and tie the score up 5-5. Another error came in the next rack allowing John to take the lead 6-5 and get on the hill first. Rack twelve would see a few safeties with John winning the battle for ball in hand and the set 7-5 leaving Hillard in 3rd place.
John Schmidt would have to defeat Mike two races to seven in this true double elimination event. The first set was all John as he would win it by a score of 7-3, but could he pull it off once more? The coin flips and John came out on fire. Looking much like the first set, Schmidt would jump out to a 6-1 lead.
Running out for the win, He missed an unexpected 6 ball in the corner. This allowed Mike to win that game along with a break and run the next for a score of 6-3. Unfortunately for Mike, This alternate break format would allow John to break perfect and complete the run in rack ten to win the set along with first place.
Congrats to John for the win and Mike Black for his second place finish. Payout's include calcutta.
1st. John Schmidt $9160
2nd. Mike Black $4350
3rd. Josh Hillard $2280
