Matt Krah, who's been a regular top ten finisher on the Mezz Pro Am Tour, showed up to join 57 other entrants for the inaugural stop of the East coast-based Action Pool Tour, on the weekend of June 11-12. A 10-ball event, it was hosted by the Top Hat Cue Club in Parkville, MD. He went undefeated through the field, defeating Shawn Wilkie twice, to become the tour's first champion.
According to Tour Director Ozzy Reynolds, this tour, currently with three scheduled events through September, and a TBA (to be announced) warm-up to the US Open in October, will not be conducted in what has become a standardized 'money-added' format, that "asks venue owners to contribute money to an event at which they don't make any money." Instead, he said, the arrangements will be made with the venues, on a case-by-case basis that will be private between the tour and venue owner.
Krah's path to the winners' side final four took him through four opponents, and included a double hill victory in the second round over Dave Grebe. His fifth opponent was Rick Moliniero. Wilkie's path began with an opening round bye and two (out of three) double hill matches that led him to the winners' side final four and a matchup versus Brett Stottlemyer. Krah got into the hot seat match with an 8-2 victory over Moliniero, and faced Wilkie, who'd downed Stottlemyer 8-3.
In the hot seat match that followed, their first of two meetings, Wilkie found himself embroiled in his third double hill matchup. This one, though, resulted in his trip to the semifinals on the one-loss side. Krah sat in the hot seat and waited for him to return.
Meanwhile, on the one-loss side, Stottlemyer and Moliniero took their opening matches to face each other in the quarterfinals. Stottlemyer had defeated Alvin Thomas 8-2; Thomas, having met up with him after victories over tour director Ozzy Reynolds 8-5 and a double hill win over Mark Ford. Moliniero had drawn Alan Duty, who'd defeated Michael Wong 8-6 and Kevin West 8-4 to reach him. Moliniero defeated Duty 8-5.
It was Moliniero advancing to the semifinals against Wilkie, with an 8-3 victory over Stottlemyer. Wilkie then downed Moliniero 8-2 for a second chance at Krah. Krah did unto Wilkie, as Wilkie had done unto Moliniero; defeating him 8-2 in the opening, and only set of the true double elimination final.
