Nick Tafoya and Eric Aicinena
For the most part, pool players operate in a kind of “stay in your own lane” environment. Three lanes, basically; amateur, semi-professional and professional, with some lane straddlers in every crowd. Some lane changers at all three levels, in multiple directions, have a way of annoying the players whose lanes they cross into than the ones they encounter in the same lane. Amateurs that could use a shot clock, for example. Semi-pros who ‘pretend’ they’re amateurs to hustle and ‘pros’ who behave like the ‘kids’ they were when they were just starting out.
Handicapped tournaments send lower-ranked competitors a sort of invitation to ‘change lanes’ by offering them already-won games in a matchup (known as ‘beads on the wire’ in a race for both competitors to a determined number). Open tournaments, without ‘beads on the wire,’ make it clear that a player ‘changes lanes’ at their own risk. No thumbs on the balance scale. Changing lanes in a moving-vehicle environment is subject to all kinds of unpleasant consequences and it’s the same with pool tournaments, especially moving from a ‘slower’ lane to a ‘faster’(Open tournament) lane, although the risks are far less dire. Essentially, not earning a dime off your investment in an entry fee, the money it took to get you there and back, and in more than single-day events, the amount you had to pay just to stay there until it’s over.
Of the 16 competitors who were FargoRated in the 400s at last weekend’s (Oct. 26-27) New Mexico Open, only one (Kenneth Archuleta, Jr.) was among the event’s final 12 who went home with a cash prize. Archuleta was also the only 400s FargoRated competitor (at 401, barely out of the 300s) who made it to the winners’ side quarterfinals. Three of the 19 500s (Keitha Nelson, Art Black, and Curtis Henderson) missed prize money by a single match, finishing in the tie for 13th.
The pool players who willingly stick their neck out to make progress in a ‘faster’ (Open tournament) lane are the men and women at work in the equivalent of pro sports minor leagues. It’s not the literally millions of people having a good time playing in nation-wide pool leagues, willingly paying (weekly) for the immeasurably slim chance of winning all they’ve invested to earn a decent cash prize, once a year, at a nationally competitive level. It’s also not the current batch of lower Fargo-rated competitors who’ve convinced tour promoters that putting them in a position where they have to face tougher competition (even with ‘beads on the wire’) is not in their (the promoters) best interest, which has led to the proliferation of over-and-under FargoRated events, with the lower FargoRated events outnumbering the competitors in the higher ones.
So, hats off to the batch of nation-wide competitors who know they could be better and deliberately put themselves into a lane against higher-rated opponents so they can get better. Like Albuquerque, NM’s Nick Tafoya, winner of the New Mexico Open this past weekend, who’s been doing just that sort of thing for years; just about 20 of them, to be precise. So have the other four ‘700’s competitors at the event; Shane McMinn (752, 4th), Eric Aicinena (738, runner-up), Ruben Silva, Jr. (709, 7th/8th) and Brian Begay (703, 9th/12th). Now competing at a 722 FargoRate level, Tafoya and the others got to that level by tossing themselves into the mix of professional Open events like the US Open, Barbox Championships, the Derby City Classic, and assorted, tough-competition regional tours all over the map (some of which offered them ‘beads on the wire’). Tafoya’s undefeated victory at the $1,300-added, New Mexico Open, which drew 61 entrants to Slate Street Billiards in Rio Rancho, NM (about 30 minutes from his hometown in Albuquerque) was, as far as we have been able to determine, his first recorded major event title; it could not be independently confirmed from other sources and Tafoya himself could not be reached for comment.
Tafoya started out with a proverbial ‘bang,’ giving up just a single rack in his first three matches. In races to 7, he gave up none at all to his first two opponents Mike Sprague and Aaron Archuleta, before giving up the one to Art Black. This put him into a winners’ side semifinal against his eventual opponent in the finals, Eric Aicinena, who’d arrived with his own notable, aggregate score of 28-5. Tafoya’s hot-seat-match opponent, Ruis Romero, had a pair of 7-2 wins before giving up four to Curtis Henderson, winning a double-hill match against Alex Acosta and drawing Mike Sauer in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Tafoya downed Aicinena, the first time, 7-3. He was joined in the battle for the hot seat by Romero, who’d sent Sauer off to the 5th/6th matches on the loss side 7-4. Tafoya claimed the hot seat 7-4 over Romero.
Aicinena and Sauer followed their winners’ side semifinal losses by meeting up with two competitors who’d lost their winners’ side quarterfinal matches. Aicinena picked up Alex Acosta, who’d followed his loss to Romero by defeating Jonathan Cardenas 5-2 and shutting out David Tenley II. Sauer drew the rather imposing figure of Shane McMinn, who’s been a veteran winner of multiple regional tours and independent events since before the turn of the century and came into this event with three previous tour wins on his 2024 ‘dance card’ alone (two on the DFW 9-Ball Tour and one on a Dallas 8-Ball League’s 9-Ball event). McMinn had lost 7-1 to Aicinena and on the loss side, defeated Brian Begay and Ruben Silva, Jr., both 5-2.
Both matches for advancement to the quarterfinals went double hill. Aicinena over Acosta and McMinn over Sauer. It had a way of creating a double-hill sort of anticipation about the quarterfinal matchup; an expectation that did not materialize. Aicinena gave up just a single rack to McMinn in that quarterfinal, which, according to digitalpool time stamps, finished 10 minutes before Tafoya had claimed the hot seat and sent Romero to the semifinals.
In a little over 35 minutes, Aicinena punched his ticket to a rematch against Tafoya in the finals by defeating Romero in the semifinals 5-2. In the true double-elimination format of the event, Aicinena would have had to defeat Tafoya twice to claim the title. Tafoya quickly made it apparent that that wasn’t going to happen. He got out in front early in the race to 11, kept adding to that lead and claimed the title with an 11-3 win.
Tour director, Ailea Martinez, thanked the ownership and staff for their hospitality, along with the 61 entrants who competed.
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