Cypress, CA – The Pechauer West Coast tour made its way down south to the Los Angeles area for the 7th stop of the season. The best players were in attendance as expected, except for a handful of Mexicans who were taking a shot at winning the chance to represent their country at the World Championships. Word is, Ismael “Morro” Paez was the victor and we wish him success this summer.

Anyhow, Dante, the owner of Hot Shots Billiards was ready for us and prepared his staff to take care of the players and welcome them into his establishment. Service was first class, as was the equipment, and the matches naturally followed suit.

Early on Saturday, Alex Laoingco had a close call in his match with Melissa Herndon, who he reportedly said should have won the match. “She is a great player and should have won the match,” he said shaking his head after the match, “she let me off the hook, I was very fortunate!” Tour favorite Dave Hemmah also dodged a couple bullets on his road to Sunday, and his buddy, Lorry DeLeon, played solid to advance on the bottom half of the same side. Corey Harper and Jeff Meaux were also busy fending off tough competitors.

In his first match Sunday, Corey ousted a player who always seems to be favored by the crowd, Santos Sambajon. In the meantime, Lorry DeLeon and Dave Hemmah advanced in their brackets to meet each other in the hot seat. It was Hemmah who came out on top, sending DeLeon back to the one-loss side to face Alex Laoingco. DeLeon was storming through his match against Laoingco when a lapse in concentration drove an 8-ball in to the rail, leaving his opponent the easy out. A score that should have been 8-3, was now 7-4, and when Laoingco dropped a nine on the break and broke to an easy 2-9 combo, DeLeon was forced to sweat it out and hope that he got another chance at the table, which luckily for him, he did. DeLeon wasted no time taking full advantage of his next opportunity and closed out the match as quickly as possible!

In the final match, a single race to 13, both players came out looking strong, but Hemmah forged a lead and hung on tight. DeLeon didn’t display the same ferocity as in the prior match, but the crowd played witness to awesome pool playing just the same!

We appreciate Hot Shots Billiards for hosting the Pechauer Tour and adding a generous $2000 to the prize purse. We look forward to returning to the Los Angeles area and visiting Shooter’s in Riverside! Stay tuned to On The Wire for complete details, or visit onthewirebilliards.com or azbilliards.com for up-to-date scheduling information.