GARDNER IS KING OF THE HILL
BY JANIS SESSIONS AND SEBASTIAN DEL MARMOL while there were plenty of run outs and a sampling of kick shots that would have been replayed time-after-time had ESPN cameras crews been at the event.
Jim Gardner outlasted John Ditoro in a late night thriller to win the first 9-ball tournament held at Gold Crown Billiards in Hollywood Sunday, Jan. 15.
Right out of the gates Meglino, Gardner, Eric Shriller, Maurice Bacsit, Kris Glueck, Warren Lee and Allen Dawson won their first round matches, while Ditoro had a bye. Sammy Williams, Rickey Charles, Judd Parker, Paul Bok, Sandy Nicholas, Bobby Scott, and Bob Coehrane started with loses and wound up on the loser side.
Gardner, one of the owners of the pool hall, battled his way through a 15-player field, all of who qualified to play in the final tournament by participating in at least four tournaments throughout the 10-weekly tournaments held Tuesday nights. On Sunday, players were given practice time before the real action got started with Gardner calling out the Calcutta which drew even more interest to the tournament.
In those opening round matches, Meglino and Paul went double hill, with the former pulling out the win. Paul graciously complimented Meglino's beautiful run to give him the final game in the 15-5 match.
The tournament was handicapped with Anthony Meglino having the honor, and challenge, of being the highest rated player. Meglino had to win 15 games to take a match and often had to give up the 7 or 8 ball to his opponents, depending upon their ratings. Ditoro followed Meglino with a handicap of 11 games, while Ricky Charles (AKA "Miami Heat Rick) had to win 10. The rest of the field had to win anywhere from 5 to 8 games to win a match.
In the next round, the number-one seed faced Gardner, with the room owner making his home-court advantage count. Gardner won and continued victorious until he faced Ditoro in the King of the Hill match. Although Gardner lost that initial meeting, the two had to play a second match because it was the room owner's first loss. In the rematch, which started after 1 a.m., Gardner pulled out the victory and took home the tournament win.
Once matches started the room filled quickly Above: Maurice Bacsit; Jim Gardner, Anthony Meglino with many watching the play on tournament and John Ditoro. Photo by Janis Sessions tables, while others enjoyed playing on the Bacsit played strong throughout the day and Below: Jim Gardner filling in the board entertaining Golf Table located at Gold Crown. finished in third place. He even pushed Ditoro Not even the NFL playoffs shown on televisions across the room could to a double-hill match before the latter won out. Meglino finished in a distract spectators from the tournament action. disappointing 6th place and was ousted by Warren Lee. That match as went double-hill with Lee making a ball on his break and leaving the Throughout the tournament the quality of play was high with several 9 hanging in a corner pocket and the 1 in position to combo it in. Lee players snapping in 9s on the break, others hitting combos to sink the 9, finished 5th with Dawson rounding out the top four.
RESULTS
Congratulations to the King of the Hill – Jim Gardner. 1st 2nd 3rd
$318 $150 $100
Jim Gardner John Ditoro Maurice Bacsit
The Calcutta raised a pot of $300 dollars, which was paid out to winning buyers
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February 2012 - Stroke Magazine 5