by Jose Burgos

Shaun “Get Some” Wilkie wreaked revenge on Matt Krah in the double-elimination finals of the Mezz Pro-Am Tour’s July 31 stop to take the title. A field of 31 players participated in the $1,000-added event, which was hosted by Drexeline Billiards in Drexel Hill, PA.

Wilkie wreaked revenge on Matt Krah in the double-elimination finals of the Mezz Pro-Am Tour’s July 31 stop to take the title.

Wilkie led the top half of the bracket, scoring wins over Adbellatif Chamseddine 7-2, Brett Stottlemyer 7-5, Dave Grau 7-1, and Bill McCoy 7-2. Krah took charge of the bottom half, besting Shawn Toni 7-4, Ralph Lake 7-1, Josh Brothers 7-3, and Jose “Amang” Parica7-4. When the two collided, it was Krah who came away with the 7-4 victory, sending Wilkie to the one-loss side.

Awaiting Wilkie was Parica, who had just bested Brothers in the quarterfinal match. In this one-sided match, Wilkie took control from the start and relegated Parica to third place with a 6-0 whitewashing. The double-elimination finals gave Wilkie a chance for revenge for his earlier loss to Krah, and he took it. He won the first set 7-3 and the second set 6-1 to take the title.

Results:
1st Shaun Wilkie $900
2nd Matt Krah $530
3rd Jose Parica $300
4th Josh Brothers $250
5th Dave Grau $150
Bill McCoy
7th Lou Patrikios $100
Joe Hong
9th Mike Veasey $50
Tim Murry
Brett Stottlemyer
Al Waldo

by Jose Burgos

Zion Zvi narrowly escaped a late charge by Frankie Hernandez at the July 10 stop of the Mezz Pro-Am Tour to take top honors. The event was hosted by Raxx Bar and Grill in West Hempstead, NY, and featured a field of 34 players, including Matt Krah, Joey Testa, Oscar Bonilla, Michael Wong, and Ramon Mistica.

Zvi narrowly escaped a late charge by Frankie Hernandez at the July 10 stop of the Mezz Pro-Am Tour to take top honors. Picture Winner Zion Zvi, 2nd Frankie Hernandez, 4th Ramon Mistica, 3rd Daniel Dagotdot, 7th Noel Bensurto

Hernandez suffered a loss to Dan Dagotdot in the third round 7-4, while Dagotdot went on to best Mistica hill-hill to reach the hot seat match. Meeting him there was Zvi, who had scored wins over Samantha Miskevich 7-0, Tony Tjioe 7-3, Bob Madara 7-3, and Bonilla 7-3. Their match turned out to be a one-sided affair, with Zvi taking control of the match from the start and winning easily 7-2.

Awaiting Dagotdot on the one-loss side was Hernandez, who wanted revenge for his earlier loss. This, too, was a lopsided match as Hernandez dominated Dagotdot and won 7-2 to reach the finals. In the true double-elimination format, Hernandez had to best Zvi twice in order to win the event. The first set saw Hernandez triumph 7-4. However, the second match came down to double-hill before Zvi eked out the 7-6 victory.

Results:
1st Zion Zvi $875
2nd Frankie Hernandez $570
3rd Daniel Dagotdot $370
4th Ramon Mistica $200
5th Matt Krah $150
Oscar Bonilla
7th Michael Wong $100
Noel Bensurto

by InsidePOOL Staff

The Diamond Open 10-Ball Professional Players Championship kicked off Thursday morning with a field that was expanded to 72 players. Boasting a $25,000-added prize purse with a whopping $20,000 going to first place, this four-day event is one of the biggest draws of the Super Billiards Expo, held at the Valley Forge Convention Center in King of Prussia, PA.

The Diamond Open 10-Ball Professional Players Championship kicked off Thursday morning with a field that was expanded to 72 players.

With the amended 72-player format, 8 players participated in the first round, notably with Alex “The Lion” Pagulayan moving past Matt Krah hill-hill. In the second round Pagulayan delivered Corey Deuel to the one-loss side 10-8 and will face Earl Strickland, who defeated Jose Parica, in the third.

The second round involved all of the players, including 2010 Player of the Year Darren Appleton. He barely had retrieved his cue stick from the airline when he went up against his first competitor, John “Mr. 400” Schmidt. “Daz” was on fire the entire match and kept Schmidt in his seat for most of it, making his 10-0 victory look easy.

Defending champion Shane Van Boening skated past his opponent, Cary Dunn, 10-4. Van Boening’s next match will be against Mike Dechaine, who just took fourth place last week at the Masters 10-Ball Championship.

Former player of the year Mika Immonen was sent to the west side after his match with Matt Clatterbuck ended with Clatterbuck advancing 10-5. Clatterbuck’s next opponent will be Stevie Moore, who defeated Masafumi Mochizuki in the second round.

Tony Robles faced Thorsten Hohmann in the second round and edged past him 10-8. Robles will play Rodney Morris, who bested Dave Grau, in the third round. Grau and Hohmann play on the one-loss side Friday.

Mike Davis, who just took third place at the Masters 10-Ball, bested former amateur player of the year Scott Tollefson and will next play Shaun Wilkie, who was runner-up at this event in 2008.

Dennis Hatch, another former champion of this event, is present and won his first match over Robert Hart. His next match will be against Dee Adkins, who bested Chris Orme.

View the Super Billiards Expo tournament brackets

In the elimination round Deuel ousted Jonathan Smith 10-6 and will play Parica next. Scott Tollefson was eliminated by Matt Krah 10-2, and Schmidt eked out a tight 10-8 win over Robert Krull.

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The first round of the Masters had some familiar names in play. Earl Strickland plowed under Eddie Richards 8-1 and Josh Ulrich fared even better with an 8-0 win over Lary Phlegar. Eddie Abraham played a fine round against Ralf Souquet. leading at one point 5-3 and then 6-4 before Souquet, suffering from a nagging upper respiratory problem, finally found his stick and won 8-6. Randy LaBonte and Hunter Lombardo went to hill-hill before Lombardo managed to three-foul LaBonte for the 8-7 win and Eric Moore eluded Matt Krah 8-6. The Accu-Stats table featured a very close set between Jundel Mazon and Shaun WIlkie that had Mazon prevail 8-6. Jesse Engel took Nigel Francis out 8-4 and our last match found Chris Loar coming out ahead of Dave Grau 8-6.

Strickland posted an 8-1 victory over Eddie Richards in the first round of the Masters in Chesapeake, VA.

The second round of the day began with Warren Kiamco taking a forfeit from Jim Smith. Mike Dechaine whitewashed Gary Creasy 8-0 in a match where he barely set a foot wrong. The Accu-Stats match found Shane Van Boening taking care of business 8-4 over Michael Fuller while Scott Tollefson had his way 8-2 over Marc Vidal. Brandon Shuff is nursing a very sore ankle but still managed an easy win over Mike Harvey 8-2. Chris Orme defeated Ozzy Reynolds 8-4 and an hour later Shane Winters edged Jeremy Sossei 8-7 to finally finish the round.

The third round found us with another forfeit. Jose Parica failed to show for his match with Alex Pagulayan so the Lion got an easy progression to the next round. Charlie Williams showed his strength as he passed Bill Dunsmore 8-4 and Sam Monday pushed Cary Dunn aside 8-3. Rob Leeper defeated Tim Colvin 8-6 and Tommy Kennedy showed his stuff on the TV table by controlling Dave Bollman 8-6. Brian Brekke struggled early on against Jerome Rockwell but prevailed in the end 8-5.

The final round of the day found a few rollovers. Johnny Archer dumped Masafumi Mochizuki 8-3 and Shawn Putnam wrecked So Shaw 8-1. Mike Davis ruined Randy WHitehead’s day 8-1and Chris Futrell won over Aymen Neyaz 8-4. John Morra had a bit of a battle with Bill Duggan that he won 8-6 and our final match to end saw Stevie Moore taking down John Mitcheltree 8-4.

Some feature matches to look forward to on Tuesday include Warren Kiamco (who just won the all-around title at the US Bar Table Championships in Reno) facing the ever-strong Dennis Hatch and Shane Van Boening going up against Brandon Shuff.

by Jose Burgos

Brett Stottlemyer escaped a determined Manny Chau in the finals of the Mezz Pro-Am Championships to take the title. The event was hosted by Atlantic City Billiard Club in Egg Harbor, NJ, January 15-16, where a field of 53 came out to play.

Stottlemyer escaped a determined Chau in the finals of the Mezz Pro-Am Championships to take the title.

Stottlemyer went undefeated to the final match, notching victories over Marty Ciccia 9-2, Randy Schwager 9-5, Soner Bulut 9-2, Joey Testa, 9-4, and Phil Wines 9-7. Tearing through the bottom half of the bracket was Chau, with wins over Bill Smith Jr. 9-5, Michael Prasents 9-6, Jim O’Hara 9-4, Rob Pole 9-7, and Eddie Abraham 9-6.

The hot seat match between Stottlemyer and Chau went double-hill, but it was Stottlemyer who advanced 9-8, sending Chau to the west side of the chart. Meeting Chau in the semifinals was Matt Krah, who recovered from a first-round loss to Bruce Nagle 9-6 by eliminating Randy Schwager 7-6, Joe Hong 7-3, Jim O’Hara 7-1, Jeremy Sossei 7-5, Josh Brothers 7-5, Testa 7-5, Abraham 7-6, and Pole 7-2. This turned out to be a one-sided match, as Chau quickly won 7-3 to reach the finals.

Chau had to defeat Stottlemyer twice to take the title, and he almost pulled it off. He scored a 9-5 victory in the first set, but Stottlemyer recovered in the second and won by a narrow 7-5 margin to take top honors. The top three finishers also received spots into the 2011 U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships.

Results:
1st Brett Stottlemyer $1,450
2nd Manny Chau $1,000
3rd Matt Krah $430
4th Rob Pole $300
5th Phil Wines $200
Eddie Abraham
7th Joey Testa $150
Sean Morgan
9th Wali Muhammad $100
Josh Brothers
Bruce Nagle
OscarBonilla