ROBERTS TOPPLES OLINGER IN MEMPHIS!!!

from left to right, Josh Roberts, Tony Chohan, Alex Olinger.

By Mary Kenniston

Thirty players made their way to Tracy Whitney’s High Pockets in Memphis, TN for the latest iteration of Tony Chohan’s Taom Tips Ten Ball Tour. After the players meeting and auction, the games began with Jonathan Frey and Alex Olinger claiming the two byes.

First round action saw Josh Roberts and Jason Klatt duking it out with Josh prevailing and last week’s Taom Tips Tour finalists Ramil Gallego and Antonio Lining matching up with Antonio again taking it down.

Second round action saw Justin Hall unable to prevent Josh from moving on, Jeremy Jones over Shane McMinn and Shane Winters couldn’t keep Antonio back either.
Third round highlights saw Josh advancing over Ronnie Wiseman, Antonio beat Derek Garner, Alex defeated Danny Smith and Jeremy Jones took down Billy Thorpe.

By the fourth round, play had been whittled down to four players on the winners side. Josh defeated Antonio for one of the berths in the hot seat match while Alex secured the other sending Jeremy over to the west side.

Today’s action saw Alex go undefeated and secure his place in the finals sending Josh over to wait for someone to emerge from the pack. Jeremy defeated Shane McMinn while Shane Winters defeated Antonio – leaving them in a tie for 5-6th place. They each received $500 for their efforts. Winters beat Jones 8-6 – leaving him in fourth. Jeremy received $800 in prize money with an additional $1000 from the player auction.

That left Roberts and Winters to duke it out for the other seat in the finals. The young guns squared off and saw a determined Josh Roberts claim a rematch with Alex 8-3. Shane finished in third place receiving $1200 in prize money plus $1400 auction cash.

Since this was true double elimination, Josh would have to defeat Alex twice. Both players started strong battling to a 3-3 tie. Then, Josh pulled away & never looked back. He claimed the first set 8-5 and forced a final race to 8 for the title. Alex drew first blood again and play went back and forth for the first few games. Josh jumped out to a 5-2 lead and finally winning 8-3 for all the marbles.
Congratulations to “The Beast” for adding another title to his resume and first prize cash of $3000 plus an additional $3000 in auction money. Alex pocketed $2000 prize money plus another $2000 from the auction in a fine runner-up finish. Great job, Alex!

Everyone is looking forward to returning to The Carom Room in Beloit, WI for the next stop on the Taom Tips Tour – December 16-18. Mark it on your calendars and try to win some Christmas cash!
Again, thanks to Tracy & his entire staff at High Pockets for pulling out all the stops for this event!

As always, PoolActionTV.com would like to thank our sponsors – Tony Chohans’ GameTight Apparel and Taom Tips 10 Ball Tour, Lomax Custom Cues, Andy Cloth, EnrivoAssessments.com, Aramith, Diveney Custom Cues, GoPlayPool.com, Durbin Custom Cues, Kamui, Hanshew Custom Cues and Club Billiards of Wichita, KS. And thanks to all the players and fans!

PoolActionTV’s heading back to Lafayette, Louisiana next weekend – November 18-20th. The destination: White Diamond Billiards with the Chris Miller Show handling the calcutta action. The game: nine ball on the bar box! See you there!!!

Alex Kazakis Won the Kremlin Cup !

WPA-Press Release 

Alex Kazakis won the Kremlin Cup (10-Ball division) today in Moscow defeating former world champion Thortsen Hohmann 9-6 in the final. Early in the match and trailing 2/3, Kazakis missed an easy 1 ball leaving Hohmann a relatively simple run-out and extend his lead to 4/2. It was thought that losing that rack would be mentally disturbing to Kazakis, but he made the best of any opportunity thereafter and won the remaining racks 7/2. 

After recouping the deficit, the scores remained even to 6/6, then Kazakis edged away and won the the next three racks. Fair to say that Kazakis enjoyed a good run of the balls, where on the other hand Hohmann couldn’t get a shot at the 1 ball after his break, and each time needed to play a safety. The crunch really came when trailing 6/7, Hohmann played a fantastic shot on the 3 ball only to see the cue ball travel around the table and scratch in the side pocket. Kazakis with ball in hand, cleared up to reach the hill, then gave Hohmann no chance in the final rack to collect a thoroughly deserved first place prize. 

A total of 445 players competed at the Kremlin Cup, 101 of those in the 10-Ball pool division. The stadium venue is huge, some 5,500 sq metres and was built for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. 16 Diamond Pool tables and 20 Dynamic Pyramid, plus a pool table and pyramid table in the televised arena were used. The area was beautifully presented and congratulations must be acknowledged to the organizers, International Pyramid Confederation. Winners of the Kremlin Cup are;

Pyramid men, Dimitri Belozorov - Ukraine; Pyramid women Diana Mironova - Russia; 10-Ball Alex Kazakis - Greece

Archer Wins Tennessee State 8 Ball Open Championship

Taken from Johnny Archer's Facebook Page. 

By: Erik Hjorleifson

The weekend Octobre 29-30 the Chattanooga billiard club one of the most iconic rooms in Tennessee played host to the Tennessee state 8 ball championships. This was a $150 entry fee with five thousand added guaranteed, the tournament aimed to draw 64 players and ended up with 60 including top guns Johnny Archer, Antonio Lining, Ramil Gallego, Jeremy Jones and Jason Klatt. Play for this tournament was on the unusually sized four by eight tables. It was a double knockout race to 6 on both sides.

As play progressed Johnny Archer who is known for his 8 ball prowess made his way through the winners side undefeated. After Losing to Jeremy Jones in the winners side semi final match Jason Klatt came all the way back getting his revenge on Jones in the third place to match to face Archer in the finals. In this true double elimination format Klatt was able to take the first set 6-5 and after trailing 4 1 in the second set he pulled back to take a 5 4 lead. It was not to be though for Klatt as Archer took the last two and went in to win his most notable tournament of 2016.

At this time I would like to acknowledge the interesting dynamic that has formed between Team High Pockets members Jason Klatt, Robb Saez and Shane McMinn. With Saez taking the fourth place spot in the tournament we once again saw two of the members from this crew finishing in the top 4. This has happened on many occasions in 2016 and on a couple occasions they have actually finished 1 2 and 3. Sponsored by Tracy Whitney owner of High Pockets billiards in Memphis, Tennessee this group has found great success since coming together in early 2016. For those who are friends with any of them on facebook we are able to get an occasional glimpse of their life on the road through videos taken by candid cameraman Jason Klatt. It is clear that the three have formed a great friendship and the support and camaraderie has been a nice formula for success for all three of them. Best of luck to all of them going forward.

Payouts

1st Johnny Archer $3750

2nd Jason Klatt      $2400

3rd Jeremy Jones   $1600

4th Robb Saez        $1150

Players Auction $10 000 total