Jeff Franklin, Jay White and Gus Briseno
There are people in this world who step up to a pool table for the first time and after some basic training in the goals of a given game, can pick up the most essential components of being good at it, immediately; the approach, the shot decision, the accurate determination of the angles involved, the aim and the clean, uncluttered stroke that puts a target ball in a hole. In other words, they don’t, like many, start the learning process by picking up bad habits, which will eventually have to be unlearned, in order to learn all of it properly.
This learning-curve process of abandoning ingrained bad habits and substituting them for better, more consistently successful habits can not only take weeks, months, years even, but in that process, a player can actually get worse before they get better. It involves abandoning a deeply entrenched amount of bad-habit muscle memories that have governed a given player’s attempts to succeed for so long, that attempts to put them in a ‘rearview mirror’ and establish new patterns of muscle memory are inevitably plagued by falling in and out of the bad habits.
We’re going to take a wild stab at this, based on limited information, but Jay White’s undefeated run through a field of 64 entrants at the $1,000-added Stop #3 on the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour, hosted by VFW Post 2772 in Sherman, TX this past weekend (March 22-23), leads us to believe that this man has started his career at the tables in command of some good habits. White’s history with us here at AZBilliards began about two months ago when he finished in the tie for 9th place on the tour’s season opener (Jan. 18-19) and thus, established a profile on our site.
As far as we know, it was his first recorded cash payout anywhere, although common sense dictates that no one shows up at his (or her) first regional-tour pool tournament with absolutely no experience playing the game and finishes 9th in a field of 64. That said, to go from a 9th place finish in one’s first (recorded) outing and follow up (two months later) with an undefeated run through another field of 64 seems to suggest that this man has ‘something on the ball,’ so to speak.
Granted, while all six of White’s opponents, who recorded a total of only 11 appearances on the tour last year (none finishing ‘in the money’), combined with the fact that White didn’t have to face last year’s tour champion (Gus Briseno, who did compete, finishing 3rd), last year’s runner-up in standings (Mark Johnson) or any of a number of others on hand for this event, like Jon Rawlins (4th last year), Shane McMinn (7th), or the youngster Gavin Mathew (3rd last year), one might draw the conclusion that White won the event because he got lucky with the bracket draw.
It didn’t hurt that the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour employed a ‘split bracket’ at this event. With White advanced to the hot seat match from the lower bracket, sporting an established FargoRate of 546 (the highest allowed in the lower bracket). He didn’t face a higher-rated competitor until he got there. He faced his closest FargoRated opponent in the second round (Matt Dickson; 514) and in a straight-up race to 6, shut him out.
What he did have to face was a 668 FargoRated opponent who had not reported a cash finish in a tournament in two years (9th at a DFW Tour stop, also at VFW Post 2772), but with an AZBilliards’ history dating back 20 years to a time when he finished third at the Houston Open in 2005. White met Jeff Franklin twice, hot seat and finals. Aided and abetted by three “beads on the wire” in a race to 8, both times, White battled Franklin to double hill in the hot seat match, then won and completed his undefeated run with a 5-6 win in the final.
Just sayin,’ while it’s a bit too soon to define White as a bona fide, up-and-coming ‘superstar,’ his second-ever, cash-winning, undefeated performance at this past weekend’s stop on the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour is certainly enough evidence to peg him as someone who’s developed some good pool habits. And when his name pops up on the registered competitor list at a tournament anytime in the future, as a pool player, you might want to pay attention.
White’s path to the winners’ circle took him past Amy Jones 6-4, Dickson (double hill), Jarrod Merchant 6-1 and Eli Bomsburger 6-2, which set him up in one of the winners’ side semifinals against Michelle Adams. Franklin in the meantime, sent Fahad Alrawi (7-2), Don Bullard (8-2), Gus Briseno (7-5), and Doug Winnett (7-5) to the loss side and drew Steve Langston in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Franklin and Langston battled to double hill before Franklin prevailed, advancing to the hot seat match. White joined him after downing Adams 9-1 (Adams racing to 3). The first White/Franklin matchup was the aforementioned double-hill win that left White in the seat.
When the four competitors who’d lost their winners’ side quarterfinal showed up on the loss side, they engaged in matches that would determine who finished in the four-way tie for 9th place. The eight competitors had an average Fargo Rate of 590, with Gus Briseno (721) at the top of the list and a 506 (Eli Bomsburger) at the bottom. White, at the time, wasn’t even in the hot seat yet.
In his third loss-side match, Briseno downed Robert Reighter 9-1 and then, eliminated Bret Clifton 9-3 to draw Steve Langston, recently arrived from the winners’ side semifinals. Michelle Adams showed up and drew Don Bullard, who’d lost his second-round match to Franklin and was in the midst of a seven-match winning streak that had recently eliminated Muhammad Gomar, double hill, and Payton Bernard 6-4.
It was Briseno and Bullard who advanced to face each other in the quarterfinals; Briseno over Langston, double hill, as Bullard was giving up just a single rack to Adams. Briseno chalked up loss-side win #6 with a 9-3 victory over Bullard.
FargoRate odds gave Jeff Franklin a 1 in 4 chance of downing Briseno in the semifinals that followed. Franklin beat those odds. In a straight-up race to 7, he eliminated Briseno 7-5.
For the second time, now occupying the hot seat, Jay White was awarded three ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 8 against Franklin. The opening, and as it turned out, only set of the true double-elimination final fell a rack short of duplicating the score of the hot seat match. Franklin accounted for the shortfall, as White completed his undefeated run 5-6, claiming his first (recorded) regional tour win.
Though it’s not likely to happen overnight, White will likely be losing some of his ‘beads on the wire’ for future handicapped events, but the confidence boost of this past weekend and his first major title will have a way of compensating for any future matchups in which he might have to win an extra game or two. That said, the good habits he’s developed at the tables should see him through any boost in his ratings, so again, barring any major setbacks, you’re likely to be hearing about him again, soon and often.
Tour representatives thanked VFW Post 2772 for their hospitality, along with Fort Worth Billiard Superstore, Granite Guyz, Dallas 8-Ball League, Rasson Billiards and DFW Pool TV. The next stop on the Cuetec DFW 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for the weekend of April 26-27, will be hosted by Stixx & Stones in Lewisville, TX.
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