Scott Pankey and Fred “Scooter” Goodman
‘Texas Heat’ Kim Hernandez Pierce wins Natural Born Women’s tournament
The 163 competitors who signed on to last weekend’s (Dec. 20-22) main Deck the Balls Tournament, organized by Jersey Girl Billiards and hosted by JOB Billiards Club in Madison, TN, had to be at least one of three different kinds of people; either so organized that everything they needed to accomplish in the four-three-two days before Christmas was already done so that they could exit the facilities on Sunday night, comfortable in the knowledge that they were good to go for Santa’s arrival on Christmas Eve, or they thrived on the extraordinary reserves of energy and adrenaline that it would take to accomplish everything in the three days (two, actually) before they awoke on Christmas morning, or they were descendants of one Ebenezer Scrooge and none of the holiday preparations were of any significance whatsoever. Technically, the last of these three possibilities would make them folks who had a life-altering, ghosts-visitation change of heart and did absolutely everything on Christmas morning.
As if it weren’t enough to hold a pre-Christmas weekend tournament with 163 entrants, the Jersey Girl Billiards folks (behind the able ‘chief cook and bottle washer’ Chrissy Perlowski) decided to organize a Friday night Mini ‘warm up’ (39 entrants), a Women’s Tournament (16) and a Sunday Second Chance event (16). There were rumors that a tournament arranged around player heights (6 ft. and over, under 6 ft.) was considered, which would have created Tall and Short brackets, but that never made it off the drawing board.
The Jersey Girl Billiards’ tournaments use a hybrid form of handicapping its players. While FargoRates are part of it, there is also a component of what’s ‘known’ about players based on other sources; personal knowledge of a given player’s history/skill level, information derived from other tournament directors/promoters and as with many tournaments, skill levels are subject to change as the event progresses. Someone who starts the tournament as a ‘4,’ for example, and handily defeats higher-ranked opponents will find his/her rank increased from one match to the next. Works the opposite way, as well. A ‘7’ being defeated by ‘5’s, ‘4’s or ‘3,’s may find his/her ‘race to’ figure lowered as an event progresses.
So, here’s what happened.
Scooter (Fred) Goodman went undefeated through seven matches (six opponents), claiming (first) the High Side hot seat (five matches) and then, the hot seat and final of the Final Four bracket. In his first five High Side matches, two went double hill and the other three went what we like to call ‘almost’ double hill (opponent came within a game of double hill).
From the other end of the High Side bracket, Gabe Booth began his trek to the hot seat match with a shutout, before running into the “Hillbilly,” Charlie Bryant, who, though far from idle over the past few years, hasn’t ‘officially’ recorded a win with us here at AZBilliards since he won the 41st Annual Texas Open, 10 years ago. An imposing figure, a ‘mountain’ of a man, with or without a pool cue in his hand, Bryant was racing to 12 in this event. Booth was awarded six ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 12, and he didn’t need any of them, downing Bryant 6-4. Bryant would lose his first loss-side match, double hill, to Kevin Ping, while, three matches later, Booth survived a double-hill challenge from Jamie Barlow to join Goodman in the hot seat match.
Goodman and Booth, already assured spots among the Final Four, battled to double hill. Goodman prevailed to win the High Side Bracket.
It was Scott Pankey and Brent Harris who would emerge from the Low Side bracket to join them among the Final Four. Pankey would arrive at the Low Side hot seat match with an aggregate game score of 26-8. Harris, though not too far off that mark when he arrived to do battle for the Low Side Bracket title (25-10) had to survive two, double-hill matches to get there; his first and the winners’ side semifinal that put him into the Low Side hot seat match. Pankey and Harris had one of those ‘almost’ double-hill matches, which in their case amounted to a 5-3 win and Low Side bracket title for Pankey.
On the loss side of the two brackets, both Harris (Low Side) and Booth (High Side) won their first and only loss-side match; in essence, the semifinals of the two brackets. Booth fought a double-hill, rematch battle against Jamie Barlow, whom he’d sent to the loss side in a winners’ side quarterfinal. Barlow won two in a loss-side row by a 6-5 score, though neither was a double-hill match. He’d defeated Tab Pranee, who was racing to 7 and Jonathan ‘Hennessee from Tennessee’ Pinegar, who was racing to 13. Booth and Barlow battled to double hill before Booth prevailed to join the Final Four.
Harris, racing to 6, faced Justin Godsey, who was racing to 3. Godsey, who would earn the ‘unofficial’ most-matches-played title (12) lost his third-round, winners’ side match, double hill, to Jeremy Jackson and went on an eight-match, loss-side winning streak. He was consistently playing ‘above his weight’ in those eight matches and survived two, double-hill matches, including his last, in the Low Side semifinal against Harris.
Match progress moved to the Final Four, with Goodman and Panky squaring off in the event’s overall hot seat match. In a match befitting the length of their individual battles to get there, Goodman and Panky battled to double hill before Goodman claimed the seat. Meanwhile Harris and Booth squared off on the loss side in another double-hill battle, with Harris advancing to the loss-side’s semifinal against Panky.
Panky defeated Harris in that semifinal in one of those ‘almost’ double-hill battles (5-3) and earned a second shot against Goodman. They, too, battled to ‘almost’ double hill 7-3 (Panky racing to 5) before Goodman prevailed to become the Jersey Girl Billiards’ inaugural Deck the Balls champion.
Kim Hernandez Pierce
‘Texas Heat’ Kim Hernandez Pierce claims second Natural Born Women’s title
Kim Hernandez Pierce, aka Texas Heat, would ultimately win the third (her second) of the Jersey Girl Billiards’ Natural Born Women’s Tournaments. She’d won the previous tournament at Tiff’s Bar & Grill in Owensboro, KY back in October and captured the title of this past weekend’s event after going undefeated to the hot seat and winning the second set of the tourney’s double-elimination final. Pierce, racing to 6 throughout, went undefeated to the hot seat in this most recent event, though she’d be the first to tell you that it wasn’t a ‘walk in the park,’ as they say. She had to get by three opponents to compete in the hot seat match and each of them – JC Schiager, Pam Kelly (who would come back to face her in the final) and in the winners’ side semifinal, Amanda Huff – fought her to double hill before Pierce could advance.
Meanwhile, from the other end of the 16-player bracket, Roxanne Pope (racing to 3) chalked up every possible score against her first three opponents to challenge Pierce for the hot seat. She shut out Allison Hardwick for starters, battled to double hill in her second match (prevailing 3-2 over Leslie Stewart) and then gave up just a single rack to Rita Griffith.
In the battle for the hot seat, Pierce allowed Pope only a single rack. She claimed the seat 6-1 and waited for Pam Kelly to complete her five-match, loss-side winning streak.
On the loss side, Kelly had followed her loss to Pierce with victories over Hardwick (2) and Briana Laine (0), before going back-to-back with double hill wins over Rita Griffith and in the quarterfinals, Amanda Huff. Kelly advanced to give up just a single rack to Roxanne Pope in the semifinals, earning her shot at Pierce, waiting for her in the hot seat.
Pierce began the double-elimination final versus Kelly with a single ‘bead on the wire’ in a race to 6. Kelly took the opener 6-2. In the second set, Pierce was able to use that ‘bead on the wire’ to her advantage, as the two of them fought to double hill before Pierce closed it out 5-5.
John Maikke wins Friday night ‘Warm Up’ and splits prizes in Second Chance with Lannom
John Maikke went undefeated to the hot seat in both the Deck The Balls, Friday night ‘Warm Up’ Tournament (39 entrants) and the Sunday Second Chance Tournament (16 entrants). He claimed title to the Warm Up, downing Tab Pranee 2-1 in the finals. He split the top two prizes in the Second Chance with Dale Lannom.
There were, of course, only two possible scores in the race-to-2 matches featured in the Warm Up tournament. Maikke evenly split the six matches that he played in that Warm Up between shutouts and double hill, downing Tab Pranee 2-1 in the finals.
In the normally-handicapped Second Chance, Maikke, racing to 5 throughout, survived a double-hill match in his opener against Anthony DeLorenzo and shut Amanda Huff out in his second. He downed Bobby Rowe 5-3 to get into the hot seat versus Kevin Ping and defeated Ping 5-4 to claim the seat (Ping racing to 6). In the semifinals, Ping awarded Lannom four ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 6. Lannom used them all to earn a shot against Maikke in the finals which didn’t happen. Maikke and Lannom split the top two prizes to conclude the Jersey Girl Billiards’ Deck the Balls event.
‘Jersey Girl’ Chrissy Berlowski thanked the ownership and staff at JOB Billiards for their hospitality, along with all of the competitors who signed on to compete in the four-three-two days before Christmas. The next stop on the Jersey Girl Billiards calendar, scheduled for the weekend of Feb. 7-9, will include a main tournament, along with the next Natural Born Women’s Tournament, and will be hosted, once again, by JOB Billiards Club in Madison, TN. In addition, Scott Frost will be on-hand for a clinic, scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 6 and will be commenting on the matches throughout the weekend.
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