The Mezz West State Tour visited Hard Times Billiards in Sacramento, CA for their 8th stop of their 12 stop season this past weekend of December 27-28, 2014. 80 players from all over the west coast along with a few international superstars came west to participate in the $2000 added guarantee event. The Markulis family has been supporting the billiard community for many years as past proprietors of several southern California poolrooms. This event showed why they have one of the premier establishments in the US as they have a beautiful 33 table room with a kitchen and separate "Tournament Room." Some of the special guests from the world pool scene showed up and gave all the locals a treat to their world class play and professionalism which included, Ruben Bautista, Thorsten Hohmann, Rodney Morris, Vilmos Foldes, Attila Bezdan, Danny Gokhul, and local pro Amar Kang.
Sacramento local pro and World Cup of Pool representative for Team India, Amar Kang exploited his home court advantage of the super tight tables of Hard Times by playing world class pool all weekend. Some of his big wins included wins over UK sharpshooter Danny Gokhul, junior national champion Beau Runningen, and Mexican national champion Ruben Bautista. Leading the top half of the bracket was co founder of the Mezz West State Tour, Oscar Dominguez. He had a strong showing with wins over locals Rex Chan and Reid Strensrud before defeating Thorsten Hohmann (9-5), Vilmos Foldes (9-4), and Amar Kang (9-2) to gain the hotseat.
Meanwhile on the B side of the chart, some big hitters were there early including Vilmos Foldes. After a fairly early loss to Dominguez, Vilmos went on a rampage of high powered pool defeating two former Mosconi Cup champions, Rodney Morris (9-5) and Thorsten Hohmann (9-3), followed by Amar Kang (9-5) to make it to the finals to avenge his earlier defeat to Oscar Dominguez.
In the finals, a true double elimination format is utilized to reward the undefeated player. However, after a very intense and closely contested match, Vilmos sucessfully defeated Oscar Dominguez two consecutive sets; (9-7) and (9-8) to take home his second victory on the Mezz West State Tour.
As always, the Mezz West State Tour cannot thank their sponsors enough for their constant support and commitment to bringing pool back to the west coast. Mezz Cues (miki-mezz.com), West State Billiards Supply (weststatebilliards.com), Zan tips (zan-tip.com), AZBilliards.com, NYC Grind, Kurzweil's Country Meats (kurweilscountrymeats.com), POVPool, fast&loose Designs, Turtle Rack, Marty Carey Jump Q, and Virtual Pool 4.
