Cascade Pool League ANNUAL MID-SEASON POOL TOURNAMENT
BY KURT HAMM
Cascade Pool League’s Annual Mid-Season tournament was held at a more central location this year and it paid off with a great turnout! Milwaukie’s River Road House owner and CPL player, Brian Essig, added $520 to the three-division December event. The Road House, which came into the league in 2009, drew players in to play handicapped 9-ball singles, 8-ball singles, and 8-ball scotch doubles over two weekends. The Mid-Season event has long provided CPL players with a high stakes weekend tournament experience and the handicap requires top players to spot games and play at their best to win. Saturday Dec 10th 9 am: Players began to arrive to warm up on the 6 Diamond pool tables for the 10 am start of 9-Ball Singles. The entry fees for the single events were determined by skill level. Open B players paid $8, Open A players $10, and Master players $12. All players also paid a one-time green fee of $5 for all three events. The brackets were drawn up for players and, “Let the games begin!” was announced by Tournament Director Kurt Hamm. In the 1st rounds all the favorite players advanced to the second round. The 1st upset was Open Woman Linda Smith, aka Smitty. She went hill/hill with “tournament player junkie” Ron “the big O” and won the final game, drilling in the 9-ball to advance to the 3rd round. There Smitty met up with Master Shelby Locati. Smitty had to focus to take down this proven player and Shelby showed Smitty that the best defense is not to let her back to the table. Shelby made an extremely difficult cut shot and proceeded to run out the hill/hill game to advance to the 4th round on the winner’s side. Shelby was playing her best at this event and seemed the favorite in this format. Master Andrew Monstis won his 1st match 6-3 against Master Ray Galli, advancing to the next round against the manager of the River Road House, Open A Phil Bremer. Andrew prevailed over Phil Bremer, 6-1. Local Road House favorite, Open A Mike Carpenter, then defeated Andrew 5-2, advancing to the point match against undefeated Shelby Locati. Shelby was still in command as she sent Mike to the Loser’s Bracket 5-3 and won the point. On the Loser’s side, Andrew defeated Ray Galli again 6-2, then beat Tony Dunlap 6-1, and in a revenge match against Mike Carpenter, went hill/hill and won to go into the finals against Shelby for all the bragging rights. At that point it was getting late and both players agreed they were exhausted, so they split the pot, Shelby getting top honors. Payouts were as follows: 1st place Shelby Locati, 2nd place Andrew Monstis, splitting $195. 3rd place Mike Carpenter $45. 4th place Tony Dunlap $27. 5th place Aaron Curti $15. 6th place Ray Galli $15 and Top Skill Level players not in the money were Master Steve Copher, Open A Mike Norris, Open B Tommy Millhollin and Woman B player Cherish Carpenter. Each won their entry fees back. The tournament was a huge success and everyone said to thank Road House owner Brian Essig for adding $520 for all three events.
12 The Break - February 2012
Sunday morning players woke to a cold, crisp, but very sunny day in Portland. They scrambled to get their showers and coffee fix to make the Road House for 10 am start of the 2nd event, 8-Ball singles. Some focused on the breakfast special, while others practiced for the long day of competition. In the 26 player field, Round 1 saw Open A Mike Carpenter upset Master Steve Tune 6-2. Mike then beat Open B Steve Doidge in the 2nd round 4-2. Mike’s 3rd round match was Master John Lewis, a 5-4 race, but that did not stop Mike and he won hill/hill. Mike advanced again, beating strong Open B Steve Farley 4-1, advancing to the point match against his own teammate, Phil Bremer. Phil handed Mike his 1st loss 4-2, but Mike bounced right back from the Losers Bracket to face Phil in the Finals. As it was late, both agreed to flip for the win. Check the photo to see who is holding the money! Results for 8-Ball singles: 1st place Phil Bremer $125. 2nd place Mike Carpenter $75. 3rd place Ron Van Dyke $50. 4th place Steve Farley $30. 5th place Steve Grimes $20. 6th place Aaron Curti $20. 7th place Brock Brisby $15. 8th place Kim Allen $15. Top Skill Level players not in the money were Master Ray Galli, Open A Chris Gattman, Open B Don Morse, and Open Woman Jenny Lewis. Each of those players got their entry fees paid back for their efforts. Signups continued to pour in for the December 17th Scotch 8-Ball event, with 14 teams signed facing off at the 10 am start. The $20 buy-in and the $220 Road House add made the pot $500. The races were determined by skill level as follows: Open Women players 2 pts, Open Men B players 3 pts, Open Men A players and Master Women players 4 pts, and Master Men players 5 pts. The Tournament Director added points of both players and each match race was determined by the difference between both teams. There were two teams with one Master Men and one Open A Men players and their race was 7 games. There were 3 teams with one Open Women and One
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Open Men B players and their race was 3 games. There were 4 teams of Open Men A players racing to 6 games, 3 teams of two Open Men B players racing to 4 games, and one team of one Open Men A and one Open Men B players racing to 5 games. In the 1st round the 4-time 8-Ball Scotch Champions from prior years showed the field why they were seeded #1. Their 1st opponents were Jennifer Windell (soon to be Smith) and her fiancé Jeff Smith. The 7-3 race for the #1 seeded team Master player Steve Copher & open A player Tony Dunlap was a perfect match. The race did not seem to bother either player as they won the match 7-0. Their next match was the same 7-3 race playing Linda (Smitty) Smith and her partner Glen Graves from Don’s Dugout Tavern. This time though, Steve and Tony had their work cut out for them as it went hill/hill. Smitty missed a difficult cut shot, giving Steve & Tony the opening they needed to close out the match 7-2. In the 3rd round though, Steve & Tony were given a rude awakening! Two open A players Phil Bremer and Mike Carpenter did not care about the champions’ past record. They showed them that there were new kids on the block by crushing the pair 6-1, sending them to unfamiliar territory -- the dreaded Losers Bracket! Mike & Phil then faced another strong team in Master player Steve Tune and Open A player Terry Erdman. They traded games back and forth in a close match, but finally broke and ran winning 6-5 and getting to the point undefeated. Steve and Terry were not to go away so easily though, as they won the Losers Bracket and the Finals were set. You could see the Eye of the Tiger in Steve Tune & Terry Erdman as they played with focus and won the 1st match 7-4. The second match was even closer with each team trading games. Finally the bartender came over and said the match was over due to time. The teams were shocked that it was 2:30 am already. The match ended up a tie at 3 to 3 and it was decided to split the pot and for the 1st time in CPL history 1st place went to both teams! Congratulations to both teams and you can be sure they will be back next year to defend their crowns. Tournament Director Kurt Hamm thanks the River Road House for putting on an excellent tournament both weekends and adding $520 into the pot. The final results are listed below and until next year, “Thank you!” to the CPL pool players for making this another fun event for everyone to enjoy! 1st Place Teams $330: Co-Champions Phil Bremer & Mike Carpenter and Steve Tune & Terry Erdman!!! 3rd Place Team $100: David Avegio & Steve Farley! 4th Place Team $70: Steve Copher & Tony Dunlap! CPL is currently taking signups for its final session of the year, Spring 9-Ball 3-person teams. This will start mid-March. Contact your Division Manager to sign up by February 25 to guarantee your team entry! As always, prior same-format session teams get first dibs.