The Season 3 Opener of the Mezz LA 9 Ball Series started out with a tough field of SoCal pool players, with Joseph Leon (589) taking down his VERY FIRST tournament win in the series! Joseph had a great run, going undefeated all 6 rounds and meeting Abet Ng (547) in the final, and winning convincingly 8-3 in a single 8/7 race.
New handicaps have been implemented at the main events that put the pressure back on the stronger players, while still giving those strong players the overall advantage. Many of the tournament favorites were defeated by very close margins due to the heavier handicaps, including Season 1’s 9 Ball King of LA Chris Wedekind (637), Josh Farris (693), Rhino Lay (620), Jerry Lazzareschi (640), Jamal Oussi (621) and Jose G Centeno (646). Players in the 600s will need to step up their game and overcome the new handicaps that replaced the one-sided handicaps in seasons 1 & 2 if they expect to make it to the winners’ circle in upcoming tournaments.
Having to give up a handicap in 3 of his 6 matches, Joseph Leon came out victorious as he started out with 3 close matches in succession: 7-5 over San Diego’s Tim Traver (566), 7-5 over Filipino sharp shooter Dexter Villapando (540), and 6-5 over veteran Cody Gragg (635). With all the confidence of those 3 wins, Joseph took down one of the tournament favorites in Keegan “K9” Badour (636), 6-1, before capturing the hot seat with a strong 7-3 win against Abet.
Abet had a great run as well, coming in hot out the gate with a powerful 6-1 win against Jamal Oussi, followed by a very close 5-5 win over Jerry Lazzareschi. From here, Abet stepped on the gas and ran right through Jose G Centeno with a 5-1 victory and a 7-4 victory over Michael Hansen (543) before being sent to the one-loss side against Joseph. From there, Abet took a strong lead over Michael Hansen in the one-loss final, who made a great comeback but ultimately fell short to Abet hill-hill.
Congrats as well to all those below that cashed, including newcomer Rey Braga (493) for going undefeated in our very first $100 Devil’s Table Challenge! Rey defeated Johnny Tang (586) in a close hill-hill final.
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