TOURNAMENTS
McMINN SHOWS ’EM
Pros slowly returning to action with bar table events taking center stage.
IN AN event that is most remembered for what took place after the competition, Shane McMinn bested Jonathon Hennessee in back-to-back matches to earn top honors in competition at last month’s Show Me Classic at Smokin’ Aces Barbecue in Poplar Bluff, Mo. The victory was second consecutive for McMinn at Smokin’ Aces, who also defeated Hennessee at the facility’s November event last year. McMinn opened the 36-player, double-elimination event with a 13-3 defeat of Reece Lindley, cruised past Jeremiah Tice, 13-5, then easily defeated Chris Esker, 13-3. After defeating Joey Evola, 13-5 and surviving 13-10 against Chuck Raulston, McMinn suffered his lone loss in the event to Hennessee, 13-9. Now playing on the one-loss side of the bracket, he gutted out a hill-hill match against Jesse Engel, rematched against the unbeaten Hennessee, whom he defeated 13-6. Since it was the Tennessean’s first loss in the event, the two competitors matched up again, which McMinn survived, 13-9. Runner-up Hennessee won five consecutive matches on the winner’s side of the bracket, including a second round 13-11 defeat of Team USA Mosconi Cup team member Skyler Woodward and 13-7 decision against Johnny Archer, before falling to McMinn in back-toback matches. Engel, who has a handful of top-10 finishes at the United States Bar Table Championships in the last decade, sustained an early defeat then made a charge through the one-loss side of the bracket to finish third. After a hill-hill victory against Tommy Greer, Engel fell to K.C. Massey, 13-11. He then rattled off six consecutive victories on the oneloss side of the bracket, including a 13-6
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PHOTO BY JP PARMENTIER
Show Me Classic Smokin’ Aces Bar & Grill Poplar Bluff, Mo.
McMinn rebounded from a loss to Hennessee to twice defeat him in the finals.
decision against BCA Hall of Famer Archer, before falling to McMinn, 13-12.
POLISH DUO CAPTURES PREDATOR ONE DOUBLES Predator One Pool Championship Online Event
Rising young Polish superstars Mieszko Fortunski and Konrad Juszczyszyn used solid breaks and even more solid pattern play to claim the doubles championship in the first Predator One Pool event of the new year, defeating Spaniards David Alcaide and Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz in the two-inning championship match. After breezing through their firstround match against Melih Dagas and Ferdi Ozdemir and quarterfinal contest with Aloysius Yapp and Sharik Sayed undefeated, the Polish duo faced
its toughest test of the event in Filipinos Elijah Alvarez and Aivhan Maluto. The two teams played a nip-and-tuck 10-inning first set, with Alvarez using a break-and-run in the final frame to best Juszczyszyn’s run out with ball-in-hand, 105-101. After the Polish pair failed to run out twice and broke without pocketing a ball once in the second set’s early stages, the Filipinos used two breaks and runs paired with two run outs to build a 50-26 edge. After Maluto failed to run out in the third inning and Alvarez failed to pocket a ball on back-toback breaks, Fortunski and Juszczyszyn tied the match at 67 points and played the Filipinos even down the stretch to force a sudden death deciding set. The Filipino team built a 15-6 advantage in the first inning of overtime, but Juszczyszyn had a chance to close out the match with a run out of his own but failed to pocket the game-winning
March 2021
2/23/21 9:23 AM
