The
Pechauer Tour rolled back into San Francisco the weekend of February 12th
and 13th. Francisco and Myrna Murcia offered up their room, the Billiard
Palacade,
for the 5th stop of the season and the players were treated like guests
in their home! Francisco made sure doughnuts were set out each morning
and bought the players pizza on Saturday and the entire house sandwiches
on Sunday. Esteemed table mechanic Ernesto Dominguez worked all week to
make
sure the tables were in great condition for the tournament, and the Murcia’s
brought newly to-be inducted Hall of Fame member Mike Massey in to town to
treat customers to a world class exhibition!
Play started on time Saturday afternoon with some heavy-duty match ups. Billy Palmer stubbed his toe in the first round losing to ‘King Kong’ Bernardo Chavez; while Ernesto Dominguez survived a tough quarter-draw that included Max Eberle and George Michaels. Another Los Angeles area player, UPA pro Corey Harper, emerged on the front side and would face Dominguez as one of the final four front runners on Sunday. The other contenders were predictable Tony Chohan who has been on fire lately, and the dark horse Alberto Ramirez who originally wasn’t even planning on entering the event! Ramirez stepped in to the spot after his brother overslept!
Harper and Ramirez lost to their respective opponents Sunday morning, which
set up a much anticipated match between Tony Chohan and Ernesto Dominguez.
Eberle and Palmer worked their way through the backside while spectators
did their job speculating on who would win the Dominguez/Chohan match up.
Dominguez
was clearly the house favorite, but as many of us know, when you have a job
and still try to compete it is a challenge to maintain that sharp edge. Chohan
played a little lackadaisical at times, but what appears to be near boredom
with his game is amazingly impressive to watch. The ease with which he plays
such a high level of pool is seemingly impossible to the average player.
Dominguez fell to Chohan in the hot seat match and would face Max Eberle
for a chance
at the finals after Eberle manhandled Palmer on the backside trying to forge
his way to the finals as well. The Dominguez fans were appeased as he made
quick work of Eberle to move on to that second shot at Chohan.
With nearly 200 fans and sweaters, the finals would prove to be an exciting event! The match ended up being a case of follow the leader. Chohan would take a lead and Dominguez would push to catch up. Visibly fatigued, Dominguez felt the pressure of nearly all the fans in the room. Young Chohan, who people seem to love to hate, proved that he didn’t need the support of the crowd; that in fact, he could do just fine without the crowd’s favor. Chohan pulled away to finish off Dominguez with a final score of 13-8.
As classy as Ernesto Dominguez is, it was nice to see him vindicate his loss in a post-tournament race to 13 in a hill-hill heart stopper!
The Billiard Palacade has already booked dates for a second stop and we look forward to returning in late June.
On The Wire would like to thank our tour sponsors: Pechauer Custom Cues, Creative Inventions – the tour’s official cue case, Simonis 860 tournament felt, Aramith Super Pro balls, Tiger Products featuring the Tiger X-shaft, Silver Cup Chalk, Billiards Press publishing the Play Your Best Pool series, Accu-Stats video productions, and azbilliards.com. We are proud to work with the best companies in the industry and encourage you to support them in your billiard purchases whenever possible!
Play started on time Saturday afternoon with some heavy-duty match ups. Billy Palmer stubbed his toe in the first round losing to ‘King Kong’ Bernardo Chavez; while Ernesto Dominguez survived a tough quarter-draw that included Max Eberle and George Michaels. Another Los Angeles area player, UPA pro Corey Harper, emerged on the front side and would face Dominguez as one of the final four front runners on Sunday. The other contenders were predictable Tony Chohan who has been on fire lately, and the dark horse Alberto Ramirez who originally wasn’t even planning on entering the event! Ramirez stepped in to the spot after his brother overslept!
Harper and Ramirez lost to their respective opponents Sunday morning, which
set up a much anticipated match between Tony Chohan and Ernesto Dominguez.
Eberle and Palmer worked their way through the backside while spectators
did their job speculating on who would win the Dominguez/Chohan match up.
Dominguez
was clearly the house favorite, but as many of us know, when you have a job
and still try to compete it is a challenge to maintain that sharp edge. Chohan
played a little lackadaisical at times, but what appears to be near boredom
with his game is amazingly impressive to watch. The ease with which he plays
such a high level of pool is seemingly impossible to the average player.
Dominguez fell to Chohan in the hot seat match and would face Max Eberle
for a chance
at the finals after Eberle manhandled Palmer on the backside trying to forge
his way to the finals as well. The Dominguez fans were appeased as he made
quick work of Eberle to move on to that second shot at Chohan.With nearly 200 fans and sweaters, the finals would prove to be an exciting event! The match ended up being a case of follow the leader. Chohan would take a lead and Dominguez would push to catch up. Visibly fatigued, Dominguez felt the pressure of nearly all the fans in the room. Young Chohan, who people seem to love to hate, proved that he didn’t need the support of the crowd; that in fact, he could do just fine without the crowd’s favor. Chohan pulled away to finish off Dominguez with a final score of 13-8.
As classy as Ernesto Dominguez is, it was nice to see him vindicate his loss in a post-tournament race to 13 in a hill-hill heart stopper!
The Billiard Palacade has already booked dates for a second stop and we look forward to returning in late June.
On The Wire would like to thank our tour sponsors: Pechauer Custom Cues, Creative Inventions – the tour’s official cue case, Simonis 860 tournament felt, Aramith Super Pro balls, Tiger Products featuring the Tiger X-shaft, Silver Cup Chalk, Billiards Press publishing the Play Your Best Pool series, Accu-Stats video productions, and azbilliards.com. We are proud to work with the best companies in the industry and encourage you to support them in your billiard purchases whenever possible!
