Big Red Wins the 10 Ball Division at the Fargo Spring Shootout

By: Erik Hjorliefson

This past weekend Fargo Billiards one of if not the nicest room in North America held their annual Spring Shootout. There was three tournaments on the bill with the prestige event being a 32 player $90 entry 9 foot 10 ball tournament.  Also on the bill was a $60 entry 7 foot 8 ball tournament with $2000 added and an amateur 9 ball tournament limited to players with a rating of 5​5​0 or less in the extensive ​"Fargo Rate" system that has been developed by innovative room owner Mike Page.​  Apparently, we will soon be hearing more about Fargo Ratings, which are chess-like ​ratings for pool that rate players everywhere on the same scale.

Fargo Billiards features fourteen 9​-​foot Gabriels tables, ​6 Gabriels 7​-​foot tables and ​36​ Diamond 7​-​foot tables. The room also features a full service kitchen with endless choices and private function room equipped with lounge seating and po​o​l tables. If you are a fan of the game and are ever in the area this room is an experience that can't be missed.

The 9​-​foot 10 ball tournament began Friday night with the round robin portion of the tournament. The round robin would eliminate half of the field and would seed the remaining 16 players wit​h​ the low seeds playing the high seeds in the single knockout portion of the tournament. The field featured most of the top players from the Northern Midwest and Southern Manitoba. Tournament favourites included Lee Heuwagen, Fargo Billiards house pro Rory Hendrickson, Jesse Engel​, Taylor Anderson, ​ and Danny Olson. Berry Mclean, Felix Beardy, Jeff Clare and Mike Frechette headed up the hopes for North of the border. In the end I was able to come out on top with an 11-5 victory over Jesse Engel in the final.

Big Red

The ​7-foot table 8 ball division started with a healthy field of 64 players​,​ and Lee Heuwagen made a surprising early exit​.​ I spoke with him and he told me he has been spending long hours at work. On the winners side I made my way through to the final to play Midwest bar table legend Rory Hendrickson, Rory went on to claim the hot seat and eventually waited for the winner between myself and young up and comer Danny Olson. Olson advanced with a 5-4 victory and ​followed that by two more 5-4 victories to prevail over Hendrickson.

Results Amateur 9 ball

 ​1st       Darin Meyer    $600
​  2nd    ​ ​Lee Gray   $450
3rd  Dan Gu  $250
4th  Ryan Kingbird $175
5/6  Jimmy Williams, Wade Odegaard​  $100
​



10 ball
1st         Erik Hjorleifson $1400 + Entry to the CSI U.S.Open 10 ball championships
2nd        Jesse Engel         $850
3rd/4th Lee Heuwagen $500
              Danny Olson
5th/8th Jeff Clare            $200
               Rory Hendrickson
               Taylor Anderson
               Mike Frechette

8ball
​Danny Olson $1700 + Entry to the CSI U.S. Open 8 ball Ch​ampions​h​ips
​Rory Hendrickson           $1000
Erik Hjorleifson       $700
Prad   ​Rana              $400
Felix Beardy            $240
​Tyler Perry​ ​                  $240​