Youth Reigns at Artistic Pool Master’s

By Brian Pauley

From May 18th through May 20th, Artistic Pool players from all over the US competed in the 2023 Premier Billiards Master’s Artistic Pool Championship at the familiar venue of The Clubhouse Sports Bar and Billiards in Lynchburg, Virginia. The field included veteran tour players as well as returning players. The tournament is broken down into two parts: The Preliminary rounds and the Playoff rounds. During the prelim rounds, players shoot a total of forty shots out of eight different categories or disciplines to seed themselves for the playoff rounds. An event title is awarded to the player who scores the highest in each discipline. The eight disciplines of artistic pool are: Trick & Fancy (set up shots), Special Arts (speed and timing shots), Draw, Follow, Bank/Kick, Stroke, Jump, and Masse. Each discipline has a maximum score of forty points.

Round one consists of Trick & Fancy and Special Arts. Returning player Steve “Philly Flash” Markle scored 39/40 to take the first discipline. Steve Markle is well known in the artistic pool/trickshot community but also has some mainstream fame. Steve was “the man behind the cue” of the famous pool-themed Lincoln Nautilus commercial that starred Matthew McConaughey. Fans remember the scene where Matthew walks past a pool table and then executes an amazing masse shot. The commercial switches between shots of the car handling on the road with shots of the cue ball hooking around an object ball. It was one of the first times that a pool shot was featured in a mainstream commercial since the famous Miller Lite Commercial that Steve Mizerak did in the 70s. The Special Arts discipline was won by veteran player Jimmy “The General” Glanville with a score of 35/40. Jimmy needed overtime to win the discipline title as he tied local player Chris “Tricky Shot” Woodrum. After two sudden death tiebreaker shots, Jimmy prevailed.

Round two consists of the Draw and Follow disciplines. Just like in Special Arts, Draw had a tie for the title. However, three players scored 37/40 this time: Tim “The Dragon” Chin, Steve Markle, and Jamie “The Bayou Bullet” Moody. The initial tiebreaker shot is the ever-daunting “Circular Draw.” Both Steve and Jamie missed the shot on all three attempts. On his final attempt, Tim Chin showed why he is one of the best in the business and drained the dreaded shot. Jamie Moody shot almost perfectly and won the Follow discipline title with a score of 39/40.

Round three consists of Bank/Kick and Stroke disciplines. Former World Bank/ Kick champion Jason “The Michigan Kid” Lynch showed why he is a multi-time World Bank/Kick champion and scored a

38/40 to win the Master’s Bank/Kick title. Former World Stroke discipline champion Tim Chin also proved his skill and won the Master’s Stroke discipline title with a score of 37/40. Day one was coming to a close, with all the standings tightening up. The top three scores after day one were: Jason Lynch (185), Abram “Too Tall” Diaz (181), and Tim Chin (170).

Round four consists of Jump and Masse, and the top three scoring players took to

The Dicispline Winners left to right is: Tim Chin, Jimmy Glanville, Abram Diaz, Jamie Moody, Steve Markle, Jason Lynch. Photo by Brenda Glanville the stream table to showcase their skills. This is the round that everyone wants to see. Tim Chin continued to show that he is one of the best around and fired a perfect 40/40 to capture the Jump discipline title. Masse was not so cut and dry. Abram Diaz and Tim Chin shot 29/40 and went to another discipline tiebreaker. After four tiebreaker shots, Abram emerged as the Master’s Masse discipline champion. This concluded the preliminary round and seeded all 11 players into a single elimination bracket, with the top 5 seeds getting a first-round bye.

The first round saw three matches in a “H.O.R.S.E.” style playoff format where players take turns picking shots. The goal is to score points on your shot and have the opponent miss. The shots still have the same point value, and once a player is mathematically eliminated, the match is over. Chris Woodrum (6) beat Seattle’s Cary “That Trickshot Guy” Wallace (11) 5340. Brian “Superman” Pauley (8) got past Jimmy Glanville (9) 64-45. This match had some history behind it as Brian shot in Jimmy’s group 8 years previous in Brian’s first tournament. Since the player number is smaller than regular pool, sometimes players end up having multiple matches with the same player from tournament to tournament. This was apparent in the match between Jamie Moody (7) and New Jersey’s Andrew “The Driver” Sozio (10). Both players hit the 3-2-1, 1-2-3 shot, which is a ten-point speed shot in Special Arts, on the first try back-to-back, which drew a lot of cheers from the crowd. In the end, though, Jamie Moody bested Andrew 64-51.

The evening of night two saw the final eight players taking to the tables in an effort to get to “Championship Saturday” and a place in the semifinals. Veteran players Jason Lynch (3) and Chris Woodrum (6) got through their match quickly, with Jason winning 53-30. Last round, Jamie matched up with a familiar opponent in Andrew Sozio. In this round, Jamie matched up with another familiar opponent Tim Chin (2). After a back-andforth match, Tim continued his string of wins against Jamie with a score of 4833. The two youngest players of the field, Theo “Bloodshark” Mihellis (5) and Steve Markle (4), exchanged shots on the stream table after both had byes in the first round of the playoffs. Steve struggled to get going, and Theo dispatched the returning player 59-22.

The fourth match of the playoffs saw a barnburner of a match between numberone seed Abram Diaz and Brian Pauley. These two have played in two matches, with Abram winning both. The players traded the lead back and forth early, but Abram got out to a sixteen-point lead. Brian took the sixteen-point lead to eight points in a string of three shots, then tied up, then an eight-point lead. Abram had the last shot of the match and was down eight points. He needed to come up with a high-point shot to either take the lead or tie the match. Abram picked the “Evel Knievel” Shot, a nine-point jump shot where a person jumps over seven balls spaced between the first and third diamonds along the long rail to make a combination/kiss shot that pockets a ball in the side and a ball in the upper corner. Abram missed his first attempt, making his second attempt worth eight points. He needed to make the second attempt to tie the match. If he missed his second attempt, the match would be over. In true Abram Diaz clutch fashion, he made the shot, tying the match at 65-65. Brian would win the match if he made the shot on any attempt. If he missed all three attempts, then the match would go to a sudden-death playoff. Brian connected with the combination on the first attempt but thinned the combo too much, and the upper corner ball did not reach the pocket. Brian lined up again and took his second attempt. He hit the second ball in mid-air and jumped the cue ball off the table. It came down to one last attempt. Calming down and focusing on the task at hand, Brian took aim and delivered the third attempt that made both balls. Brian yelled a loud “YES!!!” as the crowd in the room cheered. The final four were set for the final day of the tournament.

Day three, known as “Championship Saturday,” had the two semi-final matches and the finals. The first semi-final match was Brian Pauley (8) against Theo Mihellis (5). The two players had previously done three exhibition challenge matches, with Theo leading 2-1. This was the first time these two matched up “for real.” The match was close from the beginning. Neither player had more than a ten-point lead until over halfway through the match. This match had conflicting styles, as Brian is known for more precision shots, and Theo has a monster stroke. Both played to their strengths, yielding missed shots from their opponent. Brian failed to capitalize on his first two wild card picks as Theo missed both of Brian’s picks. Theo picked two shots that Brian missed and jumped out to a 48-35 lead. With only three shots left (Theo one and Brian two), Brian needed to come up with something big. Brian picked a ten-point jump shot and made it on his first attempt. This brought the score to 48-45. Theo came up to the table and followed Brian’s first attempt, make with a first attempt make of his own to extend the lead to 58-45. With Theo up thirteen points with only two shots left, he only needed to make an easy six-point shot on the first try to seal the match. Theo picked the popular “1-handed jump shot” and finished off the match 64-45.

The second semi-final match featured Jason Lynch (3) and Tim Chin (2). This was a rematch of the finals of the last artistic pool match held at the Clubhouse, with Tim getting the victory. This matchup was like the match between Brian and Theo, where Jason has the monster stroke with Tim being a more precision player. After three shots, Jason had a 24-0 lead on Tim. Tim is no stranger to coming back from large deficits, and he had plenty of time to mount a comeback. Jason played smart and started shooting lower point shots to guarantee made shots and force Tim to come with big shots. Tim started to slowly chisel away as the match progressed at Jason’s lead. After making a nine-point stroke shot on the first attempt, with Jason missing all three attempts, Tim brought the match to a difference of 9 points. Unfortunately for Tim, that was as close as he could get, and Jason finished the match off 62-47. The stage was set for two power-stroke players to meet in the finals. The finals were everything you could want in a match. Both players started off strong with not a lot of missed shots. The match stayed close, with neither player gaining more than a shot lead for most of the match. The strategy was key in this match since both players have the same style. In Theo’s previous match, he pulled the

“Jump Masse” shot against Brian, knowing Brian struggles with this shot. However, it wouldn’t be the best pick for either Theo or Jason to pick this shot as both of them shoot the “Jump Masse” shot well. Jason chose classic shots from years before in hopes that Theo, who is still a newer player, didn’t know those older shots. That strategy paid off as Jason made “The Kiss and Kick shot,” a ten-point bank/ kick shot on the first attempt, while Theo missed all three attempts. This final match was very evenly matched. Theo got ahead with a ten-point stroke shot called “Open the Gate,” which proved to be a lead Jason could not overcome. Theo took down the match 62-42 and became one of the youngest people to win an artistic pool tournament. The stream matches can be found on the Clubhouse’s Facebook page. This event was sponsored by Premier Billiards, McDermott Cues, Navigator Tips, and Madison County NAPA.