The Olhausen Billiards Desert All Around Tour held its sixth event of the season with another all-star filled field of players at Metro Sportz Bar in Northern Phoenix. Nine of the top ten players from the Poker Pool Points List were in attendance looking to separate themselves from the rest of the pack.
New tour point leader Glenn Bond faced the bad luck of the draw as he drew last month's event winner Gus Briseno in the first round. The match could have gone either way. However, it was Bond who with a couple of missed balls at key moments allowed opponent Briseno the openings he needed to win 9-5. Former point leader Doug Hale almost joined Bond on the one loss side early as he trailed Dan Allen 8-5 in the first round. Down but not out though, Hale caught a gear and won four straight games to win the match 9-8.
Another match that couldn't have been closer was between Scott Frost and Mike Pankoff. The score was hill-hill when Pankoff faced the choice between a touchy table run or a 1-9 combo attempt. Pankoff opted for the combo and missed. Frost then fired at a 1-9 carom attempt that while failed to pocket the 9-ball, did succeed in pocketing a ball and opened up the table enough to allow him the run out and stay on the right side of the board. Frost's next faced Jimmy Mendoza. The match also went hill-hill but would not have the same result for Frost as a miss on the 2-ball in the last game allowed Mendoza back to the table where he polished off the rack and sent Frost packing to the left side of the board.
Mendoza next flipped the coin with reigning All Around Champion Terry Osborne, who took a hefty lead 6-1 in a blink of an eye. However, in game 8 it was Mendoza's turn to dominate and steam roll Osborne the next 8 games to a 9-6 victory.
Tournament favorite Scott Frost was not making it easy on himself as he fell behind early in just about every match. His match against Glenn Bond on the one loss side was no exception with Bond taking a 3-0 lead. Trailing Bond 6-3, Frost woke up from his fog winning 6 straight games for a 9-6 victory. Frost continued this dangerous pattern in his next match as he trailed Dennis Orender 4-0, but came back to knot the match at 7-7 and then proceeded to win the last two games for the 9-7 victory.
With all the fireworks on the one loss side, it would have been easy to miss the outstanding play all weekend on the winner's side by Mike Sandoval. Sandoval is always a dangerous opponent but this weekend he played exceptionally well, scoring wins over Tyler Fleishman, Ed Scott and Dennis Orender on Saturday to remain undefeated. Sandoval came back on Sunday to face last month's winner Gus Briseno. Briseno crushed his opponents on Saturday scoring wins over Glenn Bond, Tony Confalone and Tyson Cole by a combined score of 27-12. Sunday was a different story however, as Sandoval took complete control and cruised to a 9-2 win over Briseno.
The other winner's side match on Sunday was between Jimmy Mendoza and Doug Hale. Doug took an early 5-1 lead and held off a charging Mendoza to score a 9-7 win. This set up the Hale/Sandoval match for the hot-seat. Sandoval came out with a quick 3-1 lead, but Hale clawed back to take a 4-3 lead. If Sandoval was intimidated playing "The Hale Storm", it didn't show as he regained the lead and moved ahead 7-5. Hale tied the match at 7-7. A scratch on the break in game fifteen led to an early combo and 8-7 lead for Sandoval, but Hale won a safety battle in rack sixteen and tied the score again at 8-8. Hale watched in horror as the cue ball found the pocket again on his break and Hale was powerless to stop Sandoval from winning the final game and taking the hot-seat.
Meanwhile back on the one loss side, Frost continued falling behind and coming back to eliminate opponents. Frost trailed Jimmy Mendoza 6-2 before scoring a 9-7 win and then trailed Doug Hale in the semi-finals 2-0 before cruising to a 9-5 win.
The final match saw hot-shooting Mike Sandoval take on favorite Scott Frost. In the classic double elimination, Frost needed to win two races to nine. IN the first set, Frost looked to be on his way to an easy victory as he led 8-3, but Sandoval came back to within one game at 8-7 before Frost finally finished off the set to force a second match. The second match started close with Sandoval taking early 1-0 and 2-1 leads but it was vintage Scott Frost for the remainder of the match as he won eight of the next nine games for a 9-3 win.
Frost earned $1680 for first place, while Sandoval settled for $800 in second place prize money. Doug Hale took home $420 for third and regained the lead on the Poker Pool Points List. Mendoza won $200 for 4th place and moved into a tie with Glenn Bond for second position on the points list.
The next tour stop will be September 16th and 17th at On The Snap Bar in Prescott. The format is 8-Ball on 7-foot barbox tables.
The Olhausen Billiards Desert All Around Tour is sponsored by Olhausen Billiards ("The Best in Billiards"), as well as Poker Pool, Tiger Products, OnQ Cases, Whisler Custom Cues, Bebob Publishing, Joe Tucker, Billiards Digest, Pool and Billiard Magazine, Tom Simpson, Tim "The Monk" Miller and 9ballpoker.com.
Complete Results:
1st Scott Frost $1680
2nd Mike Sandoval $800
3rd Doug Hale $420
4th Jimmy Mendoza $200
5th/6th Mike Pankoff, Gus Briseno $125
7th/8th Terry Osborne, Dan Allen $75
