TJ Thetford, Greg Sandifer and Gus Briseno
He waited a while, but he got back to the winners’ circle this past weekend (Aug. 19-20). Greg Sandifer won the opening stop on the 2023 Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour back in January. He didn’t compete in stops 2, 4, 6 or 7, while finishing way out of the money in March at Stop #3 and in the tie for 5th/6th back in May’s Stop #5. He came into the weekend’s event at #6 in the tour’s standings. Sandifer’s opponent in the double-elimination finals at Stop #8, Gus Briseno, missed the tour’s first two stops and with a single win in April, came into Stop #8 in 2nd place in the tour’s standings behind Tim Larson, who did not compete in Stop #8. When the dust settled on Sunday evening in Fort Worth, TX, it was Briseno sitting atop the standings, now ahead of Larson, with Sandifer, a scant 15 points behind Larson.
What a difference a day, or in this case, a weekend can make. Eight stops down, three to go in the Cuetec DFW-Ball Tour’s 2023 season and with 250 points separating 1st and 5th place in the standings (200 points for a win, 160 for runner-up and 125 for 3rd place), the tour championship title is pretty much up for grabs. The $2,000-added Stop #8 drew 51 entrants to Rusty’s Billiards in Fort Worth.
Sandifer lost a single match in his trek to the win; the opening set of the true double-elimination final against Briseno. Briseno took home the ‘Most Matches Played’ title, by a lot; 12, to be exact. Sandifer was runner-up in that category with eight, one more than the number of matches Briseno won on the loss side. Briseno won 49 more games than Sandifer (106-57) and lost nine more, too (42-33).
It was Jonathan Rawlins, who came in to and left the event at #4 in the tour standings, who sent Briseno to the loss side, double hill, in the third winners’ side round. Meanwhile, Sandifer and TJ Thetford set out on a collision course to the hot seat match. Sandifer got by Trent Stith, David White, Manny Martinez and Daniel Herring to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Joshua Paredes (lurking just outside the tour’s top five at #7). Thetford’s path went through Jourdan Herzog, Jeff Williams, Tara Williams and Mike Stankiewicz to set himself up against Blake Kamiab in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Sandifer got into the hot seat match with an 8-4 win over Paredes, and was joined by Thetford, who’d sent Kamiab west 7-3. Sandifer claimed the hot seat 8-2 and waited on the return of Briseno.
On the loss side, packed with potential spoilers for the eventual Sandifer/Briseno final, Paredes arrived to pick up Briseno, four matches into his loss-side streak, having recently eliminated Mark Johnson 9-2 and Shane McMinn 9-7. Kamiab drew Daniel Herring, who’d followed his winners’ side quarterfinal loss to Sandifer with victories over Eric Aicinena 8-6 and Clint Palaci 9-3.
With Herring racing to 9, Kamiab advanced to the quarterfinals over him 7-7. Briseno joined him following a commanding 9-1 victory over Paredes.
Briseno sent Kamiab home 9-2 in those quarterfinals and then, picking up speed, dropped Thetford 9-1 in the semifinals, about an hour and a half after Sandifer had claimed the hot seat.
Briseno took full advantage of the oft-underestimated contribution of momentum to take the opening set of the double-elimination final 9-2. The second set was a different story altogether. With Briseno giving Sandifer a single ‘bead on the wire’ in the race to 9, Sandifer cashed in on the handicap, getting the match to double hill at 7-8 and winning the 16th match to claim the event title.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Rusty’s Billiards for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor, Cuetec and Fort Worth Billiards Superstore. The next stop on the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour (#9), scheduled for the weekend of Sept. 23-24, will be hosted by Jeffro’s in Canton, TX.
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