Final Tour Stop of UPA Begins Today

Final Tour Stop of UPA Begins Today By Hilary Morse, InsidePOOL Magazine The UPA started its ninth and final stop of the 2003 season with an elite banquet and mini-tournament that featured the players and poolroom sponsors from Riverside to Los Angeles, including Jay Helfert of Jay's Billiards and Brook Thomason of Hardtimes Bellflower. The players were announced and walked the stage to the music of Eminem's "Lose Yourself" and Queen's "We Are the Champions," with Rodney Morris coming on stage with his hands above his head and local player Lori Deleon running on stage like a boxing champion.The draw was done Tuesday night, and play started at 10 a.m. Wednesday morning. A total of 62 players showed up, with Johnny Archer and Jose Parica receiving the two byes. The rules are Texas Express, winner break, race to 11. The 9 ball is racked on the spot, the 2 ball in the back of the rack, and the players break from the box. The final tour stop includes 9 of the top 15 moneymakers of the year with three members of the BCA Hall of Fame.
The morning session featured many exciting matches including a hill-hill match with Sweden's Marcus Chamat defeating recent winner of the Sands Regency’s Reno Open Mike Davis, local Corey Harper bestingIsmael "Morro" Paez, Max Eberle defeating New York's Ian Costello 11-5, Mika Immonen defeating L.A. player Tang Hoa, and an exciting match between Ernesto Dominguez and Jimmy Wetch.Dominguez started the match down 7-2, but in the tenth rack, he massed the 2 ball and then made a tough cut on the 3 to start his comeback. At 7-6, Dominguez and Wetch got into a safety war that Dominguez ended up winning to tie the score at 7 apiece. The next rack, Dominguez came up dry on his break, and Wetch ran out to the 4 and hooked himself behind the 6 ball, leaving himself no shot on the 5. Wetch kicked and left Dominguez with a wide-open table to run out the rack and make the score 8-7. Dominguez only allowed his opponent two more games before winning the match by the final score of 11-9.The evening session features many exciting matches, including match-ups between Tony “The Silent Assassin” Robles and Rafael Martinez, former U.S. Open champion Ralf Souquet versus Neil Fujiwara, and Tony "The Sniper" Crosby against Alex "The Lion" Pagalayan.Visit InsidePOOL for the latest news from the sport of billiards and pool.

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