Juan Pena and Ron Lichtenberger
Two of Juan Pena’s five entries into his AZBilliards profile have been victories on the Garden State Pool Tour, at stops hosted by Shooters Family Billiards in Wayne, NJ. The first (recorded) entry and first regional tour win for Pena followed an undefeated run on the tour’s 2023 season opener in January. The second came this past weekend (Oct. 12-13) when he lost the hot seat match to Ron Lichtenberger, Jr. and came back to win the double-elimination final. The Garden State Pool Tour’s 8-ball event, the last before two season-ending championship events scheduled in December, drew 27 entrants.
Racing to 7 in his first two matches, Pena downed Peter Franco 7-5 and Sheng Ronnie Xu 7-4. In his third match, with a single ‘bead on the wire’ in a race to 7, Pena defeated Ryan Buczkowski 6-2 and drew Jason Halpin in one of the winners’ side semifinals. From the other end of the bracket, Lichtenberger, looking for his first (recorded) cash payout in seven years, got by Shonda Evans 8-1 and Pat Mareno 7-5 before running into a pair of seasoned tour veterans. He got by Jaydev Zaveri 5-5 (Zaveri racing to 9) to draw Pascal Dufresne in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Pena, with two ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 8, got the 6 he needed to win 6-6 over Halpin, who’d defeated his first three opponents by an aggregate game score of 30-1. Lichtenberger, with five ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 9, battled Dufresne to double hill before closing the deal at 4-8. ‘Beads on the wire’ had a hand in the hot seat match that followed, as well. With four of them in a race to 9, Lichtenberger claimed the hot seat 5-7.
On the loss side, Michelle Brotons, who’d lost her opening-round match (racing to 6) to Fernando Ruiz 8-4, embarked on a four-match winning streak that started, with her racing to 4, with a defeat of Levie Lampaan, racing to 10, 4-2. She backed that up with a double-hill win over Pat Mareno, leapfrogged over a forfeit and downed Peter Franco (racing to 9) 4-6, picking up Pascal Dufresne, coming over from the winners’ side semifinal. Halpin drew Zaveri, who’d followed his winners’ side quarterfinal loss to Lichtenberger with a double-hill win over Sheng Ronnie Xu and a 7-4 victory over Julian Tierney.
Under normal circumstances, a match tied at 3-2 wouldn’t raise any eyebrows. However, in a race that allotted Brotons six ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 10, 3-2 put her on the hill against Dufresne. To his credit, Dufresne kept dropping balls and winning games, one at a time, until he, too, was on the hill. He finished it, advancing to the quarterfinals. Zaveri joined him after eliminating Halpin 6-4.
In a straight-up, race-to-7 battle between two competitors who would, in almost any scenario, been labeled as the event’s favorites, Dufresne defeated Zaveri 7-5 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals that followed, with Pena in possession of a single ‘bead on the wire’ in a race to 7, Pena eliminated Dufresne 6-3.
In a double-elimination battle pitting two competitors with a total of only five (recorded) cash payouts between them in their AZBilliards’ profiles, Juan Pena. racing to 9, took the opening set against Lichtenberger (racing to 5) 9-2. In a second set, touched by a mutual ‘who wants it more’ vibe, Pena and Lichtenberger battled to double hill. Pena dropped the last 8-ball to claim his second regional tour title, almost one year after the first, at the same location.
Tour director Dave Fitzpatrick thanked Shooters Family Billiards’ owner Kris Kemp and his employee, Nikki Loveland (who ‘worked’ the entire event) for their hospitality, along with sponsors Billiard Engineering, Off the Rail Apparel. World Beaters Apparel, JFlower Cues & Cases, Kamui, Outsville, John Bender Cues, Brutal Game Gear, and In the Box.
The two season-ending ‘championship’ events have been scheduled. The first, with its location to-be-announced, will be the Grand Amateur Invitational Championships, set for the weekend of Dec. 14-15. The second, to be hosted by Shooters Family Billiards, will be the Grand Open Championships, scheduled for the last weekend of 2024 (Dec. 28-29).
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