Ernesto Bayaua, "Machine Gun" Mike Alonzo and Chris "Happy Hour" Young
The Tiger Amateur Tour kicked off the season at Bogies Billiards in Houston,Texas on the weekend of January 8-9. The event drew 83 players, and was played down to 16 players on Saturday night. So the final 16 came back on Sunday to fight it out for the cash.
The Final 8 of the winners side entering Sunday along with their match ups and scores were David Owens Jr. vs. Sonny Demetro, Sonny got the nod 11-9, Chris Young squeaked by Roy Payton 11-10, Mike Alonzo bested Bill Fuller 11-5 and Ernesto Bayaua who was seconds away from being late and forfeited rolled thru Sonny Bosshamer 11-4. This now paired Sonny against Chris in a match Sonny was up 9-4, he eventually got sent to the one loss side by a final score of 11-9. On the other side of the board Ernesto squared off against Mike and Ernesto got the nod by an 11-8 score.
The hot seat match saw Chris “Happy Hour” Young against Ernesto Bayaua, this match was a little wild. First it saw Chris at 7-3 ahead miss the most simple 8-ball shot to go up 8-3, so its 7-4 and Chris breaks , makes 5 balls and gets no real look at his shot. Now he makes an amazing cut, but wait, whitey went 3 rails and scratched, now it's 7-5 and Chris is feeling the heat. Ernesto keeps the heat applied and makes the most of this chance. Now on to the end, it gets to hill-hill, Ernesto is breaking and everyone knows how big of a break he has, the best in town. So he calls the 9 on the snap, and guess what, its headed straight for the side pocket and a ball kicks it away from the side, but now towards the corner, Ernesto hollers “onetime” , and the 9 shoots in the corner. So you think it”s over? Nah the crowds screaming and then they look again and whitey is still rolling at pocket speed it drops in the same corner. Wow. Chris has ball in hand and proceeds to run the rack out. It was a thriller of a match.
On the one loss side notable scores from the 13-16 round were Bobby Gonzales over David Mendiola 9-7, Ty Few 9-6 over Jason Bacon, David Taylor 9-1 over Jonathon Madere,Don Bullard 9-5 over Ray Porter. The 9-12 round saw David Owens eliminate Don B. 9-7, Roy over David Taylor 9-5, Bobby G. 9-3 over Bill Fuller, and Sonny B. over Ty Few. The 7-8 round saw Sonny B. eliminate Bobby G. 9-2, and Roy 9-3 over David Jr.. The 5-6 round pitted Mike Alonzo against Roy Payton, no score recorded but Mike got the win, also the battle of the Sonny's, Sonny D. vs Sonny B. and Sonny B escaped by the narrow margin to advance. This set up Sonny to play Mike, and Mike rolled thru 9-5. On to the one loss final and Mike kept the pedal to the medal and got thru Ernesto next 9-3 to get a shot at Chris in the finals. The finals saw Machine Gun come out with his gun fully loaded and did he ever shoot Happy Hour full of holes. Mike won set one 11-4, and the proceeded to win set two 9-1. An impressive feat I must say, congrats to Mike for his win and Chris for his great run.
The Second Chance Event had 19 players and was split between Stefan Slisz, and Brian Rosenbaum. Congrats to the both of them.
We want to thank everyone who came out and played and also just came out to sweat the action. Also we want to thank room owners Bobby and Chris Rone, they always do a superb job. And a super special thanks to all of our sponsors. Tony Kalamdaryan of www.TigerProducts.com , Jay Helfert author of Pool Wars www.JayHelfert.com , Gil Castillo of www.castilloleathergoods.com , Heather Bryant of www.DreamlinePromotions.com , and Terry Russel of www.Htownbilliards.com .
Also thanks to our referee Bob Mcferren, Auctioneer Chuck Adams, and cue repairman Roger Allen.
The cue raffle for the Tiger cue was won by John Linton, known by most as C-Dog.
We hope to see everyone at the next event on Feb. 19-20 at Bigtyme Billiards. For more info you can always check on the website at www.TigerAmateurTour.com
