Grand Masters Explained
The WBCA Grand Master Event from: Mike Jensen Competition Committee Chair
We came up with the idea for the Grand Master event for a couple of reasons, one was to showcase the best players in the Northwest and another was to give some other players an opportunity to place higher in the master event. We have a large pool of master players and create more at each regional event, a high number of lower ability master players play an event or two and don’t return because they don’t feel they have a high chance of placing in the money. We felt that by taking the GM players out of the master division and creating there own division, more master players might attend regional’s. We had eight men on the GM list when we ran the first event for eight ball, at the time three of them were not qualified ( 8 weeks minimum) to come to regional’s. We wanted to do an eight man round robbin event and had five available, We decided the fairest way was to review the highest money winners on the list and invite the other players based on this. We
don’t have records prior to the WBCA split. We thought that the winner of the prior eight ball event should get an invitation also to play. The Team Grand Master Policy states that only one GM is allowed to play on a team, we felt that just because you invite a master to play in the event does not make them a true GM. We decided if a master player plays and places in the top three positions of the GM event he would then become a true GM, which Don Wirtaman did in the first event. We feel invited master players in the GM event should not be penalized for stepping up and playing in the toughest event in the Northwest when they could potentially win more money in the master event and not being a designated GM should not effect there team status. The last event Todd Marsh could not attend, so we invited the next highest money winner to play and he accepted. No player has been invited that turned down the invitation to compete. Now we have eleven men and eleven women listed as true Grand Master players on the WBCA web site. I hope this answers most of your questions and clears up any misconceptions you may have had about picking the GM contestants.
RANDELL WALKS THE PROBABILITY TIGHT-ROPE The first Sunday in April brought a bunch of the usual suspects as well as a few new faces to the monthly 14.1 tournament. Shelby Locati, in her first ever straight pool competition, didn’t make the cut but did have one solid win over Stephen Brees and respectable showings against Aaron Curti and Justin Lilje. Justin and Paul Marquez sailed undefeated through their three qualifying matches, and were seeded first and second into the money round. Darrin Walding with two wins and an exciting 43-50 loss to Paul got the third of the four slots. That fourth slot took an extra
match to decide, though. By the rules of the tournament, the place would go to the player with the most wins; Aubrey Robinson and Dave Randell each had two wins. That tie would be broken by comparing points scored in their losing game; Aubrey and Dave both pocketed 32 balls in their losing game. To break that tie, we went to the longest run scored in the tournament thus far; Dave and Aubrey both had runs of 15. (As a math teacher, I am still trying to figure the odds on that first-ever threelevel symmetrical happening.) This was a rare situation, and we didn’t want to settle it by a
boring coin-toss, so they played a quick race to 50 to see who would sneak in to the elimination round. To make a long story short, Dave edged out Aubrey and proceeded to roll over Justin and Darrin to take home the gold. RESULTS: 1st $60 Dave Randell 2nd $45 Darrin Walding 3rd $30 Paul Marquez 4th $15 Justin Lilje High Run (24) - $10 Sam’s Gift Card Aaron Curti
McDermott Official Cue Sponsor of BCAPL Offers Special BCAPL Collector Cue
CueSports International (CSI) is proud to announce McDermott Cues as the official cue sponsor of the 35th BCAPL National 8-Ball Championships (May 11-22, 2011, Riviera Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada). To celebrate “The Greatest Pool Tournament in the World,” McDermott was commissioned by the BCA Pool League (a division of CSI) to produce the BCAPL-11 cue as an exclusive membership benefit for the 2011-2012 BCAPL year. The cue features Birdseye Maple forearm with 6 Recon Ebony points and Recon Ivory “spear” inlays, Recon Ebony sleeve with 6 Recon Ivory / Zebrawood “spear” inlays, Zebrawood / silver rings, a black and white Irish linen wrap and will include the McDermott high performance G-Core Shaft. The cue will come standard at 19oz with a 13mm shaft. BCAPL members may pre-order the BCAPL 11 cue by May 1st. Upgrade to the McDermott I-Shaft is also available. For more information
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The Break - May 2011
about the commissioned special McDermott BCAPL Pool Cue visit www.playbca.com. For more information about McDermott Cues visit www.mcdermottcue.com. In addition to the commemorative BCAPL 11, McDermott is donating a G1001 cue to CSI to use as a raffle item during the BCAPL national event.
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