They certainly do things big in Texas. There are any number of pool tours throughout the country that would sell their souls to the devil to draw 50 entrants on any given weekend. And the ones that do draw that many on average would love to have at least an event per month with 80 entrants. The Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour opened its 2023 season with $2,000-added event at Rusty’s in Arlington, TX that drew 100 entrants. The event paid the eight competitors who finished in the tie for 17th place their entry fee and enough gas money to get some of them home, at least one way, possibly both ways dependent on distance traveled.
Greg Sandifer had to get through eight matches (six opponents) to claim the event title, one of which occurred on the loss side of the bracket. After a bye, Sandifer started strong, giving up only five racks to his first three opponents; Ricky Ferguson (2), Robin Barbour (2) and Anna Weems (1). He then downed Clint Freeman 9-4 and drew Johnny Garcia in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Randy Staggs, in the meantime, destined to face Sandifer three times, got by Steven Thorne (3), Jimmy Fujimori (2), Tony Matthew (4), Don Baker double hill (7-5), and Mark Lawson (5) to draw Telly Shackelford in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Staggs battled Shackelford to double hill before closing it out and advancing to the hot seat match. Sandifer joined him after sending Garcia to the loss side 8-5. Staggs took the first of his three against Sandifer 7-2 and claimed the hot seat.
On the loss side, Shackelford picked up Clint Freeman, who’d followed his loss to Sandifer with a 9-6 victory over Ryan Lane and a shutout versus Brandon Denman. Garcia drew Jeff Sullivan, who’d defeated Tony Top 8-3 and Mark Lawson 8-2 to reach him.
Sullivan advanced to the quarterfinals 8-2 over Garcia and was joined by Shackelford, who’d eliminated Freeman 8-4. In a straight-up race to 8, Shackelford and Sullivan battled to double hill in those quarterfinals before Sullivan advanced to meet Sandifer. Sandifer got a second and necessary third shot at Staggs with an 8-5 semifinal win over Sullivan.
With Sunday night moving into Monday morning, Sandifer took the opening set of the true double elimination final 8-4 over Staggs. He claimed the event title with an 8-2 victory in the second set.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Rusty’s for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Cuetec, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore and Rasson Billiards. The next stop (#2) on the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for the weekend of February 18-19, will be hosted by Tailgaters (formerly Snookered) in Frisco, TX.
Daniel Herring was going to be the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour’s 2022 Tour Champion before the first rack was broken at the tour finale, held this past weekend (Nov. 19-20) at Rusty’s Billiards in Arlington, TX. Though he’d finish in the tie for 17th/24th competing in the finale, Herring was ahead by 350 points in the tour rankings going into it and effectively, couldn’t be caught. As it happened, his closest competitor for the tour champion title, Joshua Paredes, who finished in the tie for 9th/12th in the finale, was able to narrow the points gap down to 45 points (from 350 to 305) and remain in 2nd place in the rankings. Matt Wilson, who was in a tie for 9th place in the tour rankings going in and finished about 35 points behind Paredes for third place in the final rankings, went undefeated in the finale, claiming his second tour stop title. He’d defeated Herring in the finals of April’s stop. The $3,760-added tour finale drew 36 by-invitation-only entrants to Rusty’s.
After being awarded an opening round bye, Wilson’s path went through Curtis Caldwell and Fahad Alrawi (double hill), before running into Joshua Paredes in a winners’ side quarterfinal. He downed Paredes, double hill and faced Mark Lawson in a winners’ side semifinal. At the other end of the bracket, Doug Winnett opened with a 10-2 win over Jennifer Hooten and then locked up into two straight double hill battles against Robbie Smith and Tony Loeper. Winnett won them both to pick up Alberto Nieto Garcia in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Wilson defeated Lawson 5-3 and was joined in the hot seat match by Winnett, who’d sent Garcia to the loss side 7-2. With Winnett racing to 8, Wilson claimed the hot seat 5-5 and waited on Miguel Hernandez, who’d lost a winners’ side quarterfinal to Lawson and was working on a five-match, loss-side winning streak that would take him all the way back to the finals.
On the loss side, Hernandez first ran into Curtis Caldwell, defeating him 6-6 (Caldwell racing to 8) and then, facing Don Baker, who’d arrived with Daniel Herring and Joshua Paredes as notches on his ‘gun belt,’ defeated him 6-3. Hernandez drew Garcia, coming over from the winners’ side semifinal. Lawson picked up Robert Reighter, who’d recently defeated Clint Palaci 7-5 and Tony Loeper 6-5 (Loeper racing to 8).
The two loss-side opponents in the 5th/6th matches advanced; Reighter defeating Lawson 5-3, while Hernandez dispatched Garcia 6-2. Hernandez and Reighter locked up in a double-hill, quarterfinal fight that continued Hernandez’ loss-side run and stopped Reighter’s.
With Winnett racing to 7 in the semifinals, Hernandez took another step. He defeated Winnett 6-5 and got a shot at the event title versus Wilson, waiting for him in the hot seat.
In a straight-up race to 6, the ‘570’ (Fargo Rate, Hernandez) faced the ‘536’(Wilson), Hernandez needing to win two matches to claim the title. Wilson took the first and only set to complete his undefeated run and claim the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour’s season finale title.
Tour directors thanked the ownership and staff at Rusty’s Billiards, as well as title sponsor Cuetec, and associate sponsor, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore.
The Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour’s 2023 schedule is, at the moment, a work in progress. The schedule is expected to be posted ‘sometime in December,’ according to tour representatives.
Previously on the Cuetec DFW 9 Ball Tour: In securing the top spot on the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour’s rankings, Donald Weathersby went undefeated on the tour’s season opener in January, thwarting an 11-match, loss-side run by Tony Top in the finals. Daniel Herring, who’d sent Top on his loss-side run in the second round, joined him after falling to Weathersby in a winners’ side semifinal and then, running into Top a second time on the loss side, had his loss-side run stopped before it even got started to finish in the tie for 5th place. On the tour’s second stop last month, Tony Top became the designated, randomly bracket-chosen competitor to derail the efforts of one Aloysius Yapp (runner-up in the 2021 US Open 9-Ball Championships) which he did, twice, downing him in a winners’ side semifinal and later, the semifinals. Herring, however, downed Top twice (hot seat and finals) to claim his first 2022 Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour title. Top’s two runner-up finishes kept him atop the early-going of the tour rankings, ahead of Herring by 40, Weathersby (who did not compete in Stop #2) by 120, Clint Palaci by 165 and Yapp (who did not compete in the season opener) by 195 points.
After a short commercial break for Cuetec cues and the Fort Worth Billiards Superstore, our story shifts to this past weekend (March 19-20), where last month’s top three finishers were once again prepared to do battle on Stop #3. Thanks, in part, to some handicap-matchup assistance provided to his opponents, Yapp only played twice, losing his opening match (to Paul Sifuentes, who would go on to finish 4th) and then, double hill, his first match on the loss side, to Doug Winnett. Palaci played six times, losing his third winners’ side match before being ousted by Miguel Hernandez in his third, loss-side matchup. With Weathersby, once again, absent from competition, Herring and Top were in position to battle for the top spot in the tournament and the tour rankings at the $1,750-added event that drew 79 entrants to Snookered Billiards in Frisco, TX.
Odds-makers, looking for a final matchup between Herring and Top, were disappointed early (as they no doubt were with the US Open 9-Ball runner-up finishing 25th). Top lost his opening match to Neil Saidawi 6-5 (Top racing to 8) and five on the loss side (including a forfeit) before finishing in the tie for 13th place. Herring, on the other hand, went on an undefeated, seven-match run to claim the title and, for now, the top spot in the tour’s rankings.
Herring got by Matt Dickson, Robbie Cleland, Brandon Clark (double hill) and Matt Devance (shutout) to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Joel Nabia. In the meantime, Don Baker, who, prior to this past weekend, had only recorded one previous payout to the AZBilliards’ database, five years ago (9th at a stop on the Omega Tour), went on a six-match tear to the hot seat match, getting by Eric Hammond, Chance Willis, Joshua Paredes, Pedro Mungia and in a winners’ side quarterfinal, Sharik Sayed. With Sayed racing to 10, Baker downed him 4-7 (Sayed racing to 10) and advanced to his winners’ side semifinal against Paul Sifuentes.
Baker got into his first (known) hot seat match with a 6-3 win over Sifuentes and was joined by Herring, who’d defeated Nabia 8-4. Baker got three of the five he needed to claim his first hot seat, but Herring got all nine he needed first to claim it.
On the loss side, Nabia ran into Sayed, who’d followed his loss to Baker with victories over Samuel Escalona 10-3 (Escalona had previously eliminated Top), and Jesus Sorto 9-5. Sifuentes picked up Matt Devance, who’d moved on from his loss to Herring to eliminate Doug Winnett, double hill, and Nando Benavides 8-3.
Sifuentes advanced to the quarterfinals 6-4 over Devance. With Nabia racing to 5, Sayed narrowly defeated him 9-4.
Apparently, impatient with all of this. . . back and forth, Sayed went on a rampage to the finals. He shut out both Sifuentes in the quarterfinals and Baker in their semifinal rematch. Herring didn’t get the ‘rampage’ memo and downed Sayed 6-3 in the finals to claim his second straight Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour title in a row and the top spot in the tour rankings.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Snookered Billiards, as well as title sponsor Cuetec and the Fort Worth Billiards Superstore. Next time on the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour: A $1,750-added event, scheduled for April 23-24, to be hosted by Rusty’s Billiards in Arlington, TX.
