PLAYERS TOUR PRODUCTIONS & STATEWIDE BILLIARDS

One loss Side playing at noon Sunday (Race to 9)

Beko (Wisconsin player) vs Richie Richeson from Muskegon

Final two on winners side playing for the chair:

Adam Smith from Detroit vs Shane Winters from New York

On a special note, Mike Massey also played in this event and finished 9-12th.  He put on a great show and we appreciate him showing support for the tour!  More to follow Sunday evening!

I also want to make special mention of a match between Jason Kirkwood and Bart Goode in the main event in the early matches on Saturday.  Bart had to face Kirkwood again after being blanked for losing a flip when Kirkwood ran out the set to 7 on Goode in the Mini event. 

Goode showed very strong play and heart when he put a 5 pack on Kirkwood  ending Kirkwoods run for the chair with a score of 9-8 Goode!  Nice play by both it was one of the crowd pleasers of the weekend!

Main tournament results are as follows:

1st                                          Prize Money                    Side Pot

Richie Richeson                   $1300.00                         $750.00

2nd

Shane Winters                      $ 800.00                          $450.00

3rd

Adam Smith                          $470.00                           $280.00

4th

Beko                                      $350.00                           $100.00

5th-6th 

John Fields                          $100.00

Jason Kirkwood                  $100.00

Shane Winters played Adam Smith for the chair Saturday evening and took control of the match early on.  Adam started making a come back only to be stopped by Shane and eventually lost the chair to Shane at a score of 9-5.

All Shane had to do now was wait for the winner of the one loss side.  Those match ups were:

Richie Richeson vs Beko

Beko started strong showing great skill and had Richeson 4 -1 before Richeson got to the table and made a strong comeback eventually winning the set 9 to 4. 

The next match was then set.

Adam Smith vs Richie Richeson

Richeson ran out from the break 5 times during this set and showed a power break allowing him to take the set.  Smith shows the crowd how powerful his break is but in this set, he was plagued with pocketing balls on the break but not having a shot afterwards.  This gave Richeson the edge he needed to win the set.

Richeson took the match from Smith at a score of 9-4. 

Richeson then moved on to match up with Shane Winters for the tournament title.  Richeson was the one loss winner so in our true double elimination format, would have to beat Winters twice to take the title.

The first set started off with Richeson showing his talent by playing almost flawless pool only allowing Shane to the table a few times and normally with no shot.

With Richeson at the table and 5 balls left all in front of pockets, Winters concedes the match and flips for the next set.

Richeson wins the first set at a score of 9 to 2 in front of a 40 plus crowd!  The crowd went wild with the display of almost perfect pool yet again by Richeson.

Set two is a bit of a different story with both players showing signs of frustration and fatigue after a long weekend, they play back and forth .

Game 2 - Richeson makes a great kick on the 1 ball pocketing it to leave himself a fairly easy 3-9 combo which he misses.  Winters has a fairly easy shot on the 3 and misses it leaving Richeson a nice table to run.  Richeson runs up to the 6 and leaves himself perfect on the 7 ball, almost straight in he shoots and bobbles hte 7 ball in the pocket leaving Winters the 7 and 9 to shoot for the game. 

Game 8 - Winters breaks and runs making the score 5-3 WInters.

Game 10 - Richeson breaks and pockets the 4 ball but has no shot so elects to push out.  Winters attempts to bank the 1 ball into the 9 ball and misses resulting in Richeson runing the table making the score 5 - 5.

Game 11 - Richeson breaks and pockets the 1 and 4 balls but has no shot so elects to push out. Winters attempts a safe and misses slightly leaving a piece of the 2 ball showing.  RIcheson plays safe leaving Winters a possible rail first hit.  Winters hits the 2 ball missing pocketing it but sends it cross table where it caroms off the 8 ball and into the pocket allowing him to run the table.  Score is now 6-5 Winters.

Game 12 - Winters breaks and scratches in the side pocket.  Richeson takes full advantage and runs the rack making the score 6 - 6.

Game 13 - Richeson breaks dry.  Winters plays a perfect safe leaving the cue ball behind the 3 ball sending the 1 ball down table to line up perfectly on the 9 ball making the 1-9 combo dead in the corner pocket.  Richeson has no way to get a hit or to push the 1 ball away from the 9 ball.  Richeson attempts a masse' kick but isnt close and concedes the game to Winters making the score 7-6 Winters.

Game 14 - Winters scratches in the corner on the break and Richeson runs out making the score 7-7 Richeson.

Game 15 - Richeson makes the 9 ball on the break making the score 8-7 Richeson.

Game 16 - With Richeson on the hill, he apporaches the table with renewed energy and enthusiasm.  He breaks dry leaving Winters a look at the 1 ball.  Winters attempts a safe on the 1 ball but misses it by just enough to allow Richeson to pocket the ball and run out to win the set and the title.  The final score of set 2 was 9 - 7 Richeson!

What an great event we had for this being our first event.  We had some truly exciting matches and had a crowd of approximately 80 people wathcing the mini tournament on Friday and over 40 people watching the final 4 play off!

I look forward to the next event and hopefully I'll be rested up by then! 

Special thanks to Doug Emery and Tim Rogers for volunteering their time to this event to referee.  Also thanks to Steve Elzinga who volunteered his time to video and take pictures throughout the event.  Pictures and video will be posted soon so keep checking back.  Last but not least, thanks to my daughter Amanda who runs a mean tournament board!!

We'll see you folks next month in Holland where we will have another action packed event!!  Dont miss it!  Jason Kirkwood and Richie Richeson are taking on the challenge tables so be sure to come play them a race to 2!! The cost is $10 per race to 2 and if you win you get a shirt saying you kicked their butt.............they also autograph it for you!!  You'll rarely get a chance to play people of this skill level unless you are at our events so take advantage of it and bring your "A" game!!