Joey Tate
It was the end of a new Open tour’s first year in business. Herman Parker, tour director of the handicapped, PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour since 2012, had been fielding requests for an Open (non-handicapped) tour almost from the beginning. And though he’d ‘tested the waters’ with individual Open events here and there, he jumped into it solidly this past year, mounting nine events on the Premierbilliards.com’s TOP (The Open Players) Tour, including this past weekend’s (Dec. 2-3) inaugural, season-ending TOP Tour Open Championships.
“The tour averaged 42 players per event” he noted in a Facebook post, “and I feel good about the future of the tour.”
“I will be expanding the area of the tour,” he added, “bringing events to more locations in 2024.”
For his inaugural Open Championships, Parker returned to a room that has been a supporter of the Q City 9-Ball Tour and the Open tour since it launched earlier this year, Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC. The $2,000-added event drew 36 entrants there this past weekend and featured some of the more recognizable mid-Atlantic names in the sport, including (in finish order) Joey Tate, Josh Roberts, BJ Ussery, Jr., and Mike Davis, Jr.
It’s hard to be surprised by events that materialize around a pool table, although the idea that a recent junior competitor like Joey Tate would come from the loss side of an Open event and on his way to the winners’ circle, get by (in order) Davis, Ussery and in the finals, Roberts, was. . . relatively unexpected? But it happened, although in the end, after Tate took the opening set of the true double-elimination final, he and Roberts opted out of a second set and in a discussion after deciding to split the top two prizes, allowed Tate to become the event’s official winner.
In races to 7 on the winners’ side, Tate got by Sahil Patel (2), Derek Leonard (double hill) and Jose Irizarry (5) before running into Ussery for the first time in a winners’ side semifinal. Ussery had arrived with an aggregate game score of 28-8, downing Jacob Blake (2), Jas Makhani (2; son of Breaktime Billiards’ owner, Sundeep Makhani), Jonathan Ailstock (1) and Davis (3). Roberts opened with wins over Scott Roberts (no relation; 2), Eddie Little (4), Ron Frank (5) and Chris Turner (1) to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal against Gregorio Sanchez.
Roberts advanced to the hot seat match 7-2 over Sanchez. Ussery joined him after sending Tate to the loss side 7-5. In something of a predictable hot seat match, Roberts and Ussery battled to an unsurprising, double-hill juncture before Roberts prevailed to claim the seat.
On the loss side (races to 6), Tate opened up against Kelly Farrar, who’d lost a winners’ side quarterfinal to Sanchez and then defeated two Eddies, Little (double hill) and Vondereau (6-2). Sanchez picked up Davis, who’d followed his loss to Ussery with wins over Travis Summerlin (4) and Irizarry (1).
Davis earned his way into the quarterfinals 6-2 over Sanchez. Tate almost had his ‘title’ train derailed by Farrar. The match went double-hill before Tate prevailed to jump from one hands-full situation to another, meeting Davis in the quarterfinals.
That quarterfinal went double hill, too, but again, Tate survived and picked up Ussery in the semifinals. As almost any pool player will tell you, short races (to 6, being an example) in an alternate break format are particularly tricky because one or two fortunate rolls for your opponent, on your break, can find you in a hole, quickly. Just ask Ussery. He found himself behind 0-4 to Tate, who, by all accounts, had been playing well right along, so it wasn’t as if some rank amateur, still learning how to stroke was at the table. The kid was shooting well and earned his spot in the double-elimination final with a 6-0 win over Ussery.
But his day wasn’t over and it was a new day at that, early on Sunday morning. The semifinals, according to the digitalpool time stamp, concluded just ahead of 4 a.m. There was some talk between Tate and Roberts about splitting the top two prizes that came to an agreement and then a mind change. They ‘geared up’ and broke for the opening set of a true double elimination final.
Tate took the opening set and discussions were renewed with Roberts about calling it a night, dawn still being about two hours away. This time, the discussions were initiated at a time when both players had lost one match, so equal footing. They agreed to a split and after a brief discussion, they informed tour director Herman Parker that Tate would be the event’s official winner.
Parker thanked Sundeep Makhani and his Breaktime Billiards staff for their hospitality, along with title sponsor PremierBilliards.com (Chris England), BarPoolTables.net (Randy Tate), TKO Custom Cues and Realty One Group results (Kirk Overcash, who also contributed trophies), Dirty South Grind Apparel (Angela Harlan-Parker), Federal Savings Bank (Alex Narod), Diamond Brat (Tonya Crosby) and AZBilliards.
Next up will be a stop on the PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for this weekend (Dec. 9-10). The $500-added event will be hosted by The Big Orange (reflecting the school colors of the University of TN at Knoxville) in Knoxville, TN.
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