Gomez, Francasso-Verner and Chohan take on Buffalo’s – News

Roberto Gomez and Sky Woodward (Desi Williams)

Players from around the world made the world-famous Buffalo’s Billiards their destination last week. Located in Jefferson, LA – just outside of New Orleans – owner James Leone (“Buff”) has been working around the clock for the past two months to prepare the newly expanded venue – Buffalo’s 2 – for the event of the year. Fifteen Diamond tables have been added! Buff’s partner, Joey Painter, was busy running Buffalo’s 3 in Chalmette, LA. So everyone had their hands full!

This year’s event was the 9th annual Buffalo Pro Classic with $31,000 added to three tournaments – One Ball One Pocket, Open 9 Ball and the main event – ​​the Pro One Pocket Championship. Promoted by Ray Hansen and joining Buffalo’s and PoolActionTV.com, special local sponsors included attorney Joseph P. Long, Lanier & Associates Consulting, ArtCo, Lomax Custom Cues, Aramith, Simonis, Savage Billiards, Diamond Billiard Products, Inc., CR’s Sports Bar. of Minneapolis, MN and the Fort Worth Billiards Superstore of Fort Worth, TX.

The room was filled with players including reigning champion Evan Lunda, 2021 and 2022 champion and Buffalo’s House Pro Tony Chohan, 2018 champion Justin Hall, reigning Bayou State Classic One Pocket champion Billy Thorpe, One Pocket Hall of Famer and current McDermott Classic One Pocket Champion. Scott Frost, Bustamante, 2023 Battle of the Bull One Pocket winner Roland Garcia, this year’s Derby City Classic One Pocket champion Fedor Gorst, last year’s Midwest Billiards One Pocket champion Sky Woodward, and Alex Calderon, last year’s Buffalo’s Pro Classic Open 9 Ball champion. as a member of the BCA Hall of Fame and Francisco Bustamante, winner of the 2018 and 2019 Derby City Classic.

The field also included Roberto Gomez – winner of eleven one pocket majors in recent years, BCA Hall of Famer and six-time Derby City Classic One Pocket champion Efren Reyes, 2022 Big Tyme Classic One Pocket champion Robert Frost, Iron City 2022. One Ball and One Pocket Champion Josh Roberts and 2013 City Classic One Pocket Derby Champion Corey Deuel.

Also spotted were Ukrainian Vitaliy Patsura, Dane Mickey Krause and Filipino Jeffrey de Luna, BCA Hall of Famer Johnny Archer, Ike Runnels, Chip Compton, Robb Saez, Joey Aguzin, Jason Brown, Jonathan Pinegar (“Hennessee”), Hunter White, Chris Reinhold, Danny Olson, Mitch Ellerman, Sergio Rivas, Lukas Fracasso-Verner and Mike DeLawder.

Tuesday evening opened with a player auction, meeting and One Ball One Pocket event drawing for an additional $1,000. A total of $34,100 was raised and added to the $11,200 fund. Fifty-one players posted their $200 entry fee to compete in this race to four single-elimination tournaments. It was Tony Chohan and Josh Roberts going head-to-head, with Tony taking first place.

Wednesday night was the start of the main event – ​​the $20,000 added-on Pro One Pocket Classic. Thirty-two players paid a $2,000 entry fee to compete in this double-elimination race to five tournaments. With PoolActionTV.com’s Ray Hansen running the player bidding, the first blind bid came in at $45,000 – Tony Chohan was chosen. The second blind bid was $43,000 and Fedor Gorst was selected. When all the players were auctioned off, the total came to $314,800!

The first round saw Compton defeat Chohan, Woodward defeat Hall, and Gomez defeat Lunda – all with a score of 5-4. Other notable matches were Gorst vs. Hennessee 5-1, Krause beat Brown 5-3, Thorpe beat Runnels 5-2 and Calderon dispatched Reyes west 5-1.

Francisco Bustamante

A break in the action Thursday night featured the induction of Francisco Bustamante into the One Pocket Hall of Fame. He and Alex Pagulayan were chosen in 2020, but Covid-19 and visa issues prevented them from being inducted that year. Alex was also unable to attend this year but was inducted in his absence. Attorney Joe P. Long introduced Francisco and OnePocket.org founder Steve Booth presented the plaque. Congratulations to Francisco and Alex!

The second round saw several 5-4 matches – Frost vs. Rivas, Bustamante beat Compton and Deuel edged out de Luna. Gomez beat Calderon, Seaman beat White, Woodward smoked Roberts and Forst blasted Krause – all 5-1. Garcia sent Thorpe packing 5-3.

In the next round and in the upper part of the draw, Bustamante beat Deuel 5-0, Gorst edged Woodward 5-4, as did Garcia against Seaman and Frost fell to Gomez 5-1 in the lower part of the draw.

With four on the winning side, Gorst scored a victory over Bustamante 5-4 while Gomez defeated Garcia 5-0. Both Gorst and Gomez qualified for the hot seat match.

Roberto won the match on the hot seat 5-2 and secured his place in the final while Fedor headed to the losing team to wait for an opponent.

Now down to four on the west side of the standings, Woodward dispatched Garcia 5-3 while Seaman scored an upset over Bustamante 5-4. Seaman then lost 5-2 and finally, Woodward beat Gorst 5-4 to reach the final.

As this was a true double elimination, Sky would need to defeat Roberto twice to win the tournament.

The first set was neck and neck and at four games apiece, Gomez had a chance to win the title – and missed! Case play continued for a few more minutes until Woodward finally pocketed the game point and forced a second set.

However, Sky’s hopes were dashed when Roberto hit the mark and cruised to another 5-0 pocket title – this one is the biggest of them all!

Tony Chohan and Lukas Fracasso-Verner

Saturday was the opening day of the $10,000 Added Open 9 Ball Championship. A full field of 128 players paid their $100 entry fee for this double elimination, races to seven, alternate break event. Once reduced to sixteen players, a single elimination ensued with a race to nine. $63,160 was raised at the players’ auction and added to the fund of $22,800.

The final four of this event saw Chohan defeat Calderon 9-3 and Fracasso-Verner defeat de Luna 9-4. The final match was all Lukas’s as he won the tournament against Tony 9-3.

Congratulations to our three 2024 champions and for breaking the record with a total of $118,000 in tournament cash and $412,060 in auction money. Grand total $530,060!

Tournament directors Jason Hill did a great job putting on a well-organized event. We would also like to thank Scott Rabon, Larry Schwartz, Jeremy Jones, Billy Incardona, Scott Frost, Eddie Brown, and Ray Hansen for their excellent comments.

Special thanks go to attorney Joseph P. Long as well as Steve Lomax of Lomax Custom Cues for donating two $4,000 cues and John Barton for donating several JB cases for the fundraiser .

PoolActionTV.com would like to thank James Leone, General Manager Steve Tesvich and their team for going the extra mile to show players and fans the Big Easy spirit. We can’t wait to go back next year!

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