Ryan Hogans
For the second time in just a little over two months, Jersey Girl Billiards has put together a tournament that’s drawn 190 entrants. Their Nashville Cash Bash in June drew exactly 190 entrants to JOB Billiards in Madison, TN, while this past Labor Day weekend’s (Aug. 31-Sept. 1), Stars and Stripes event drew 192 to the same location. There wasn’t any money-added to either event and the $100 entry (which included ‘green fees’) wouldn’t seem like a figure that would attract large numbers of mid-range pool players, especially if getting there entailed a long trip and lodgings. If the formula for that sort of attendance success could be bottled and sold, regional tour or independent event directors would likely stand in line for it.
Initially divided into two separate ‘High Side/Low Side,’ double-elimination brackets, the event utilized a hybrid handicapping system that used FargoRate and other sources to assign handicaps. The two brackets operated independently until both the 64-entrant High Side and the 128-entrant Low Side came down to four players each. The last two players on the winners’ side and loss side of both brackets became a Final Eight, which continued double-elimination play. The last two standing on the winners’ side of the High Side bracket and the last two standing from the winners’ side of the Low Side bracket became the event’s two winners’ side semifinals. The final two on the loss side of each bracket met in the event’s 7th/8th matches. And the double-elimination bracket played out through to the final from there.
Emerging from the field to face each other in the final were two relatively unknown competitors. Fort Wayne, IN’s Ryan Hogans, who appears in our AZBilliards database for the first time, went undefeated to claim the event title. Kevin Carron, Sr., who challenged Hogans in the final, came to the table with (as far as we know) only two, previous 9th place finishes on separate Midwest 9-Ball Tour stops in 2013.
Hogans’ five-match, upper bracket run to be among the final eight saw him face three opponents in straight-up races to six. In one of those, getting things started, he downed Jamie Barlow 6-3 and then, with a single ‘bead on the wire’ in a race to 7, he defeated Jeremiah Brown 6-4. He gave up just a single rack to Greg Thatcher in his second straight-up race to 6 and in his third, was challenged, double hill, by John Maikke. He advanced to pick up six ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 12 against Brandon Shuff. Hogans’ absence from our AZBilliards database, signifying that he was en route to his first cash payout anywhere, belies the fact that he entered the tournament with a 667 FargoRate (he’s apparently been playing in events that weren’t recorded with AZBilliards). Shuff entered his match versus Hogans with a 743 FargoRate. Had it been a straight-up race to 6, it would have been a double-hill match, but Shuff fell seven racks short of the 12 he needed to win and in effect, it advanced Hogans to the final eight.
Hogans was joined in the advancement parade by fellow upper bracket, winners’ side player Josh Burton. On the loss side of the upper bracket, Shuff, who’d come over to meet and (racing to 13) defeat Zach Mellott (racing to 6) 13-2, advanced to the Final Eight, along with Jerry Clayman.
Meanwhile, in the lower bracket, Kevin Carron, Sr. was at work on a run that would take him within a single match of advancement to the final eight from the winners’ side. Racing to 5 in all but his opening match, in which he raced to 6 against Ross Evola and shut him out, he then defeated Thomas Ervin (2), before running into a double-hill battle against Cody Kean in the third round. Kean began the match with two ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to five and added two more game-winning beads before Carron chalked up the five he needed to advance. Carron got a bit of a respite with a 5-1 victory over Mike Barnick (racing to 4), before he was challenged, double hill, a second time, by Josh Miller. Miller started with a single ‘bead on the wire,’ racing to 5 and added three before Carron closed it out. In a straight-up race to 5, Carron lost the last, winners’ side qualifying round to Joel Rains 5-3.
Rains advanced to the Final Eight and was joined from the winners’ side by Jasper Dunn. On the loss side, Carron faced and defeated Brent Harris 5-3, advancing to the Final Eight from the loss side of the bracket, along with Judson Godsey, who had just eliminated Tommy Counts, Sr. 3-2 (Counts racing to 5).
Final Eight includes competitors in two, loss-side ‘play in’ rounds
To keep the High Side and Low Side brackets separated until the very end so that the final match would feature one player from each of the two original brackets, there was (for want of a better explanation) a loss-side ‘play in’ round. The four competitors who played in the first round on the winners’ side of the Final Eight (essentially, a winners’ side semifinal) were going to produce two winners, who would advance to the overall event’s hot seat match.
Normally, on the loss side of a double-elimination bracket, the two winners of the loss side’s final four advance to the quarterfinals. In this case, the two winners of the loss side’s opening round among the Final Eight, advanced to meet the losers of the two winners’ side semifinals, essentially creating a Final Six; two playing the hot seat match and four competing for advancement to the event quarterfinals.
If, by the way, this all seems a little confusing to you, you’re in good company. Digitalpool.com, that was running the tournament brackets, had to create the final eight bracket in a way that would accommodate the extra ‘play-in’ round that keeping the High and Low brackets separated made necessary. Their existing, tournament-running programs had no way of doing that, although according to Zach Goldsmith (head of DigitalPool and the listed Tournament Director for the event), the availability of such a ‘fix’ is a work in progress. You’ll note, if you can access the brackets on digitalpool.com, that the Final Eight bracket for the event actually features slots for six matches on the winners’ side (making for a mythical Final Twelve). Four of those winners’ side’s six matches (the first round on the winners’ side of the final) are blank.
So, we pick it up from there, with Ryan Hogans facing Josh Burton, and Jasper Dunn playing Joel Rains at the top. At the bottom (loss side of the Final Eight), eventual runner-up Kevin Carron, Sr. squared off against Justin Godsey, while Jerry Clayman and Brandon Shuff met in the other match.
Hogans got into the event’s hot seat match with a 6-3 win over Burton, as Dunn was busy defeating Rains 4-1 Hogans claimed the hot seat 6-1.
On the loss side, after Carron and Clayman shut out Godsey and Shuff, respectively, Carron picked up Rains, while Clayman drew Burton. Carron advanced to the quarterfinals 5-3 over Rains, while Burton joined him after eliminating Clayman 6-5 (Clayman racing to 7).
Carron and Burton battled to double hill in those quarterfinals before Carron prevailed to pick up Dunn in the event semifinals. Both looking for a shot, and by necessity, two against Hogans, Carron and Dunn fought back and forth to double hill, as well. Racing to 4, Dunn got three of them, but Carron dropped the last 9-ball to chalk up his fifth rack and advanced to meet Hogans.
It became a single set final, which Carron began with a single ‘bead on the wire’ in a race to 6. Hogans claimed the title 6-2.
Jersey Girl Billiards’ Chrissy Perlowski thanked the ownership and staff at JOB Billiards for their hospitality, along with sponsor Seyberts. The next stop on the Jersey Girl Billiards scheduled, slated for the weekend of Sept. 27-29, will be its Bayou Bash, hosted by Buffalo’s Billiards in Jefferson, LA.
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