USBTC 8-Ball Champion, Jeff Beckley, at work in the TAR arena
CSI's 19th Annual US Bar Table Championships concluded Sunday, with Jeff Beckley going undefeated in the 8-Ball Division. The first year for the USTBC at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino was a rousing success. It's been a fantastic week of championship caliber pool, with outstanding performances in all three divisions: 10-Ball, 9-Ball and 8-Ball.
The 8-Ball Division kicked off on Friday, with 189 entries in the Men's Division and 46 entries in the Women's Division. All tables were in play, as there were three tournaments being contested simultaneously, the Men's and Women's USTBC 8-Ball, and a WorldPPA handicapped 9-Ball Tournament.
Jeff Beckley, who hails from Indiana, had an impressive tournament run. Jeff finished undefeated, and notched wins over notable players such as Jose Parica, Larry Nevel, Francisco Bustamante and Robb Saez. His win/loss totals were an impressive 45-18.
Jeff started out the final day, with a hotseat match with Francisco Bustamante. Jeff played solid and capitalized on a few uncharacteristic mistakes from Francisco. Francisco was a favorite going in, as he had a very impressive run on Saturday. Jeff sent Francisco to the losers bracket with a 5-3 win and then went back to his room to relax until his 7:00 match.
Meanwhile, Robb Saez was all business on Sunday. His eyes were set on Jeff Beckley, but he would have to beat a host of champions to get there. Robb started off by knocking out Rodney Morris 5-2, then sent Larry Nevel packing with a 5-0 win. Next up for Robb was Oscar Dominguez, who was having a great tournament himself.
Oscar was sent to the losers side late Saturday night by Francisco Bustamante, in a match where Oscar would get only two shots. Francisco broke and ran the first game. When Oscar broke the next game, the cue ball got kicked in and Francisco ran out. Then, Francisco broke and ran out. When Oscar broke the next game, the cue ball was kicked in again, and Francisco ran out. Francisco then broke and ran the final game, for a 5-0 win. In all, Oscar had only two shots in the match, both break shots.
Oscar would give Robb all he could handle though on Sunday, and they went hill-hill with Robb needing to bank his last solid cross side and draw his cueball into the 8-ball, which was tied up on another ball. It was a do or die shot, where any part of the shot going wrong would result in an easy out and a win for Oscar. Undaunted, Robb drilled the bank and drew softly into the 8-ball, freeing it up for an easy shot to win the set.
Up next for Robb, was Francisco Bustamante. Robb had everything rolling for him though at this point, and great play and a few rolls allowed him to move on to the finals with a 5-4 victory over "Django."
The finals got underway at 7:00 pm with Robb Saez needing to beat Jeff Beckley twice. Up until this point, it seemed destiny was on Robb's side, but Jeff was not going to be denied. First Jeff got an early lead at 3-0, then Robb crept back with a couple of games. Jeff got to the hill first, and had a few opportunities to close out the match, but couldn't cash in on them. Jeff would need to keep his composure and put his missed opportunities behind him, if he wanted to end this in one set. Jeff would keep it together, and with a straight in 8-ball down the rail, he won his first USBTC 8-Ball Title.
Congratulations to Jeff Beckley with his 1st place finish and Robb Saez for finishing 2nd. Francisco Bustamante finished 3rd and Oscar Dominguez came in 4th. First paid $5700, 2nd paid $3300, 3rd paid $2000 and 4th paid 1200.
On the Women's side, Stacy Allsup went undefeated and matched up with Melissa Little in the finals. Melissa would need to beat Stacy two sets to come out on top, but fell short, losing the first set 4-2. Congratulations to Stacy Allsup on her 1st place finish pocketing $875, and Melissa Little on her 2nd place finish and a $550 prize.
In the All Around Bonus, there was a three way tie for 1st place, between Shane Van Boening, Glenn Atwell and Jeff Beckley. They split $3500 in added Bonus money provided by CSI. On the Women's side, Rebecca Wagner took home an additional $500 for 1st place and Stacy Allsup took home $250.
CSI would like to thank the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino for providing a perfect venue for the USBTC Championship. Thanks to Ric, Bonnie and Ken Jones with Bad Boys Billiard Productions for all they do in setting up and running this great event. Bad Boys would like to thank Bret Baker and Janet Okomoto for volunteering their time to assist them. CSI would like to thank Bill Stock for assisting Bad Boys on the Tournament Directors staff and the long hours he's had this year at DCC, Swanee and USBTC.
CSI would like to recognize Justin Collett and TAR for providing daily live streaming of the event with the high quality production we all have come to expect from them.
TAR would like to thank OB Cues for sponsoring the live streaming and Kamui Tips and AZBilliards for their additional support. Also, Ken Shuman for his professional commentating all week on the live stream. Special thanks to Andy Chen & Greg Koch ("CaliRed") for their long hours running cameras for the live stream.
Most of all, CSI would like to thank the players, the fans, and the pool community for making this event a success. CSI would especially like to thank their own CSI family at the home office, who put in all the hard work behind the scenes, that are required to put together these large tournaments. On behalf of Mark Griffin and the entire CSI Staff, thanks to all of you for another successful and entertaining event.
