When you talk about Arizona the weather is always a 'hot' topic. But something else that was on the 'burners' this past weekend, April 16th, 2011, was the BCAPL Warm-Up Tournament for the National Championships just a few weeks away. Stingers once again held this event to get players the best environment to be as prepared as possible going into Nationals which is held at the Riviera Casino & Resort from May 11th - 22nd.
This first warm-up event was for 8-ball Singles. Usually this event runs both a Men's Event and a Women's Event, but the two were combined together this year as the AWBT (Arizona Women's Billiards Tour) was running their first event just down the street. 3 ladies still decided to show to play with the men. A Women's Open player would race to 4 games, Women's Advanced would be equal to a Men's Open player and they both would race to 5, A Women's Master would be equal to a Men's Advanced and they both would race to 6 and a Masters Men's player would race to 7 games.
There were two Masters Men's players that signed up to play, John Smith and Mitch Ellerman, along with one Women's Advanced Player, Sophia Morquecho. Chuck "The Mailman" Evans also showed up but decided not to play as he's listed as a National Masters Player and didn't feel he could do well going to 7 games. Being a Warm-up Event, the event used the same tables and the same rules that they would be using in Las Vegas. Players also were able to use the Magic Ball Rack in all of their matches if they so chose to do as this will be allowed at Nationals. One of the major changes to the BCAPL Rules this year is that all Scratches, including on the Break, will result in Ball in Hand anywhere on the table. This was enforced along with the banning of any Phenolic Break Cue Tips.
Play got underway and some tough 1st round matches were drawn. One of which was Jose Gonzalez vs Jerry Stuckart. Jerry jumped out to a 4-1 lead only to have Jose fight back to hill-hill. Jerry Advanced to face Burt Balancad in another hill-hill win. Sophia drew John Smith with John winning 7-1, Ken Gouso blanked Milt David from Prescott 5-0. In Round 2 John Cowan beat Todd Rowitz, Ken Gouso beat Larry Olson, Mitch Ellerman beat Jimmy Brewer, Chad Barber beat Will Sexton, Timber beat Barry Dire, Vilene Stuteman beat Brenda Ashley and Alan Ashley beat John Smith. Mitch, Chad, Jerry and Vilene advanced to the final 4 of the winners side.
Over on the other side of the board John Smith was on a mission to get in the money with wins over Milt David and Brenda Ashley before getting knocked out by John Cowan. Jose Gonzalez was also on the tough road and was able to dispatch Todd Rowitz, Will Sexton and Alan Ashley before losing out one before the money to Jimmy Brewer.
In the final 4 of the winners side, Mitch made quick work of Chad 7 - 0 and Jerry escaped a close match with Vilene 5 - 3 to advance to the hotseat match. Vilene lost again in her next match to one of Jerry's National Teammates Ken Gouso to finish in 5th/6th place. Joining Vilene was Jimmy Brewer as Chad was able to win a lopsided 5-1 match. Jimmy and Vilene each received $45.
Ken and Chad are teammates on the Wednesday Night In-house BCA League at Stingers along with Jerry. Ken and Chad had to face off against each other in the 4th place match at the same time as Mitch was cruising to another dominating win 7 - 1 over Jerry. Chad won his match sending Ken home in 4th place by a score of 5 - 3 and $100. In the next battle of Stinger's Venom players, Chad and Jerry fought to a 3 - 3 score before Jerry secured the final 2 racks to advance to the finals. Chad received $155 for his 3rd place effort.
In the Finals Mitch didn't face the same Jerry as he did in the hotseat match. Mitch broke and ran the 1st rack only to watch Jerry do the same right back to him. Mitch then pushed ahead 3 - 1 and Jerry ran out a couple racks and soon got to the hill at 4 - 4. Mitch broke and ran his 4th rack of the finals to take the lead 5 - 4. Jerry tried to close out the first set of the finals, but came up 3 inches too long on shape of his last ball and couldn't find a pocket for it. Mitch ran out the remaining balls of that game and then broke and ran his 5th rack of the finals to take the win 7 - 4 and the first place cash. Jerry finished in 2nd place and took home $260 including sidepots and Mitch pocketed $510 which included the $20 Winner Take All side pot.
Stingers was a great host to this event with some very talented wait staff, excellent tables and a great pool players environment with plenty of seating at every table. The event also included a $10 Greens Fee and Open tables for the entire event. The Next BCA Warm-up is coming up in 2 weeks for BCA Warm-up TEAMS on April 30th and May 1st.