Danny Ramirez
RK Tournaments making plans for Feb. “Vampire Night,” to commence at 3 a.m.
“We kind of randomly rolled the dice and sent a message to Shane Van Boening.”
That, from David Bartosiak, owner of Classic Billiards in Lauderhill, FL, was how ARK Tournaments got started, as an idea this past September and a charity tournament in December, featuring Shane Van Boening, that raised over $10,000 for two charities – Women in Distress, a battered women’s shelter in Broward County and the Lupus Research Alliance.
Fast forward to last weekend (Jan. 18-19) to the second ARK Tournaments event, the first in a planned series of Sunday Fundays at Classic Billiards; a 9-ball, double-elimination tournament on 7 ft. Diamonds that drew 54 entrants. Danny Ramirez went undefeated, downing Mark Jaramillo in the hot seat match and finals to claim the first Sunday Funday title.
Rewinding, the independent tournament organization (ARK Billiards) got its name from the three individuals who, in collaboration with Bartosiak, were instrumental in putting it together. Until he was approached by A, R & K, Anthony McGuire, Ricky Miller and Kat(herine) Coyne, Classic Billiards had never hosted tournaments before.
“We’d hosted 9-Ball APA Tournaments before, but nothing on our own,” said Bartosiak. “I knew Ricky from our APA League and he was the one who approached me with the idea.”
“Ricky’s idea was about an event, and we were thinking of a Grand Opening Party,” he added, “which I didn’t want to do until we were ready. I’ve owned Classic Billiards for three years, and we were remodeling, everything, including the addition of six 9ft. and eight 7ft. Diamond tables along with one Brunswick Gold Crown.”
As plans for that Grand Opening Party were being formulated, ARK and Bartosiak got the idea of mounting a charity event in the meantime and ‘rolled the dice,’ as he put it, reaching out to Van Boening in September. “What would it take,” he reportedly asked him, “to get you to come down here?” Van Boening told him, they agreed on terms and six days since he’d last stepped into the Mosconi Cup arena (Day 4) with Skyler Woodward to face and ultimately be defeated by Mickey Krause and Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz, SVB was in Lauderhill, FL helping to collect money for charity. That money was donated by local players who (among other things) signed on to compete against the South Dakota Kid, while others purchased raffle tickets for a Cuetec cue that made the trip. So, four months from ‘let’s do this’ to ‘done’ and while he was hoping for 30 people interested in stepping up to face Van Boening in a game of pool, he got 54.
“There was a ‘vibe’ to the event,” he said, adding that while his room wasn’t “a library, (it wasn’t) Buffalo Wild Wings either.”
“How,” he wondered, “can we bring this atmosphere to a Sunday afternoon?”
Sunday Fundays was ARK’s eventual answer and last weekend’s event launched the series. The SVB charity event was such a success that ARK looked for ways to duplicate it.
“Fedor Gorst was looking for sponsorships,” said Bartosiak, noting that those among you who are blessed with Jayson Shaw’s ‘eagle eye’ may have noticed a Classic Billiards logo on his left sleeve during the Mosconi Cup. “Later this year, we’re going to do a similar charity event with Gorst and in April, Spain’s David Alcaide.”
Before that happens, Classic Billiards will be hosting a “Vampire Night,” scheduled for Feb. 15, which will start at 3 a.m., though registration will get underway just ahead of midnight on the 15th. More on that a little later, as we accommodate those with a need to know and turn our attention to this past weekend’s inaugural (and handicapped) Sunday Funday.
As noted earlier, Danny Ramirez went undefeated through the 54-entrant field, downing six opponents, one of them – Mark Jaramillo – twice. His trip was a ‘nail biter,’ for a while at least. Racing to 5, Ramirez faced three opponents at the start (Victor Perez, Bernardo Rodriguez and Linda Vasquez) who were racing to 3 and all three of them forced him into a 7th, double-hill game. He survived all of them 5-2 to take on Carlos Alberto Gomez, the first opponent who was racing to a higher number (4) and he brought him to the brink of a trip to the loss side, too. It’s ‘been a minute’ since we’ve reported on a competitor who survived four straight double-hill, winners’ side challenges to open a tournament run. Ramirez advanced to pick up Keith McKune in one of the winners’ side semifinals.
It would appear that Jaramillo, in the meantime, hardly broke a sweat as his first three opponents (Doug Cooke, Norlan Lara, and Bob Zide) each chalked up just a single rack against him. Jaramillo drew Erick Poveda in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Ramirez was apparently done with double hill, shut out McKune and advanced to the hot seat match. Jaramillo joined him after sending Poveda to the loss side 3-2 (Poveda racing to 4). Apparently liking the whole shutout ‘vibe,’ Ramirez did it again, shutting out Jaramillo to claim the hot seat.
It was a ‘short race’ loss side. McKune came over, picked up and defeated Todd McKinney, Jr. 3-1 and advanced to the quarterfinals. Poveda drew Doug Cooke, who’d followed his loss to Jaramillo with four in a row on the loss side (and a forfeit), all double hill before shutting out Carlos Alberto Gomez and then stopping Poveda’s short visit to the loss side with yet another double-hill win 2-2 (Poveda racing to 3). One can only assume that the Classic Billiards’ bartender was being approached and asked for an order of whatever it was that had put Ramirez in the hot seat and Cooke into the quarterfinals.
McKune ended Cooke’s seven-match, loss-side run 3-1 in those quarterfinals and then, not wanting to appear as if he hadn’t received the ‘double-hill’ memo, Jaramillo eliminated McKune, double hill, for a second shot at Ramirez, waiting for him in the hot seat.
Ramirez though, who’d created the event’s ‘shutout’ memo, executed it for the third straight time, downing Jaramillo with it a second time and claiming title to ARK Billiards’ inaugural event of its Sunday Funday series.
So, one more thing . . . this upcoming “Vampire Night,” scheduled for next month (Feb. 16), with its 3 a.m. start time. We opted out of asking what might possibly be on the drinks menu, although one might surmise a ‘special’ on Bloody Marys.
“Our Vampire sessions are by invitation only,” said Bartosiak, which led us to wonder (though not actually ask) just how many vampires from what distance might be on the list. “We do these things every once in a while, because our manager is kind of nocturnal.”
“We play 9-ball on the 7 ft. tables and 8-ball on the 9 fts,” he added. “After we close, our (invited) ‘regulars’ stay and play all night. We lock the doors and are stuck until 10 a.m. the next morning.”
Not sure (and again, opted out of asking) what the vampires are going to do in the locked facility when the sun comes up, but clever beasts that they are, we’re sure they’ll think of something.
“We’ve done three or four of them, so far,” said Bartosiak, “and they’re so much fun.”
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