Kyle Nelson
He sort of slipped into his first (recorded) victory on a regional tour. Mark Bolton went undefeated to the hot seat at this past weekend’s (Sat., Aug. 3) stop on the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour, but it was Bolton who initiated the discussions about not competing in a final against Kyle Nelson. The two agreed to a split of the top two prizes, which included an agreement that Nelson would be the official winner.
And so it was. The $500-added event drew 20 entrants to Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC.
Son of Breaktime Billiards owner Sundeep Makhani, Jas Makhani, finished in third place, after being defeated in double-hill battles versus (first) Bolton, in the third winners’ side round and later, by Nelson in the event semifinal.
Nelson opened his (sort of) campaign for his first regional tour win in a double-hill match versus Malek Haj Hussein before settling in to give up one rack each to Doug Knighton and Jamie Hackney. He advanced to face Daniel Jones in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Bolton, in the meantime, followed an opening round bye with a 6-4 victory over Justin Mawyin and a 6-3 win over Thomas Sansone to draw Jas Makhani in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Nelson downed Jones 6-3, while Bolton and Makhani battled to double hill before Bolton dropped the final 9-ball and advanced to face Nelson in the hot seat match. Bolton grabbed that hot seat 6-3 in what would prove to be his last match of the night.
After dropping a double-hill, winners’ side quarterfinal battle to Daniel Jones, Christy Norris went on a short, roller-coaster ride of a loss-side trip in which she shut out her first opponent (Travis Guerra) and then had to battle to double hill against Chris Woodrum before advancing to draw Makhani. Daniel Jones drew Melvis Shelton, who’d lost a double-hill battle against Mawyin in the opening round of play and went on what would become a six-match, loss-side winning streak. He won loss-side match #3 against Barry Mashburn 6-5 (Mashburn racing to 9) and then shut out Brad Burton to draw Jones.
Shelton chalked up his fifth, loss-side win, downing Jones 6-3 and advancing to the quarterfinals. Makhani and Norris, in the meantime, each locked up in their second straight, double-hill match. Makhani came out on top and advanced to the quarterfinals for his third straight double-hill match, this time against Shelton, looking for a sixth, loss-side win.
Makhani won that quarterfinal 8-5 (Shelton racing to 6) and walked right into his fourth double-hill match. He came out on the losing end to Nelson in the semifinals 6-4 (Makhani racing to 5 at that point). Negotiations got underway for the two-way split and Nelson’s status as the event’s official (*) winner.
Tour director Herman Parker thanked Sundeep Makhani and his Breaktime Billiards staff for their hospitality, along with title sponsor PremierBilliards.com, BarPoolTables.net (Randy Tate), Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC, TKO Custom Cues and Realty One Group results (Kirk Overcash), Dirty South Grind Apparel (Angela Harlan-Parker), Federal Savings Bank (Alex Narod), CHC Underground (Chris Clary), Run Racks Worldwide Apparel (Wanderer Kelly) and AZBilliards.
The next stop on the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour was yet to be determined at the time of this posting. Parker recommended that interested players check in to the tour’s Facebook page, where information about this coming weekend’s event will be posted as soon as it is available.
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