by Carissa Biggs

San Francisco, CA, October 23-24 – Family Billiards saw 58 hopefuls turn out Saturday afternoon for their chance at a slice of the $2000 added pie! The tournament began on time and ran smoothly throughout the day under the direction of Carissa Biggs from On The Wire, as well as Anthony, Ryan and the rest of the attentive staff at the poolroom. Owner Delbert Wong had no worries as he cruised all the way through the winner’s bracket on Saturday before suffering his first loss to Chris MacDonald late Saturday night, which dropped him into the money rounds on the backside to return Sunday morning. Cousins Amar Kang and Tony Chohan met at the same place on the board as Chris and Delbert, but the crowd witnessed no family love in this match! Amar trailed the entire match, but pulled it together to drive the match to a hill-hill showdown. Tony had control of the last game and after pocketing the 8-ball, arrogantly went over to shake Amar’s hand pushing him to concede the easy 9-ball. Amar said “No way, you gotta shoot the 9”, and when Tony did so, the 9 caught and rattled inside the legendary tight “trick” pocket on table 1! The crowd gasped! As if the 9-ball was playing a cruel joke on Amar, it dropped in the hole at the last second giving Tony the victory!

Sunday’s matches were no less exciting! Chris MacDonald faced Morro Paez in the first match of the day on the winner’s side. Chris played exceptionally well, while Morro shook off the sleepy cobwebs. The match stayed neck-in-neck all the way down to the final game in the hill-hill match. Morro was fortunate to sneak the match out from under Chris when it probably should have never reached the hill-hill scenario. Young Jonny Warren gave Tony Chohan all the hurt he could muster in the same position on the winner’s side, falling short by a score of 5-9; while Oscar Dominguez, Lance Salazar, Amar Kang and George Michaels advanced over Ed Ames, Delbert Wong, Ernesto Dominguez and Wei Ni respectively in the loser’s bracket. Young Oscar Dominguez gave the crowd a lesson in concentration and tough play closing out Lance Salazar, while at the same time Amar Kang stayed calm, collected and tough as nails to edge out George Michaels 9-6. Amar Kang continued his reign of terror leaving Chris MacDonald in a disappointing 5th place after a well-played tournament; Oscar Dominguez however, couldn’t keep up with Jonny Warren as various misfortunes befell him, leaving Jonny to capture the set 9-5. Amar was still on fire as he tore through Jonny 9-4 and received no challenge from cousin Chohan.

In the finals, Amar and Morro were both determined to take home the title. With a crowd of more than 150 friends and spectators, the action was fast and furious! Morro would win a game, and Amar would answer back with a win. The score teetered back and forth all the way through! With a tie set at 10-10 in the single-race to 13 finals, Amar performed an inspiring out to take his first lead in the match. Naturally, Morro answered back immediately. Tied at 11, Morro broke the balls and when they all stopped rolling, a 2-9 combination lay wired. Morro got to the hill. Amar was on his way to answering back when he missed the 6-ball, leaving Morro a 4 ball out for the win. The 7-ball was a little tricky because it sat by the side rail with the 9-ball blocking the corner pocket. Morro opted to try and bump the 7-ball into a more favorable position after pocketing the six. Instead of hitting the 7-ball, the cue ball went right around it angling out to leave Morro a sharp combination or a one-rail bank. Morro chose to shoot the rather common bank, but it came up much shorter than anticipated, went back toward the other corner, which it was still too short for, and left Amar a slight cut for the easy out. After narrowly escaping defeat, Amar played solid as a rock to break and run out what ended up being a one game decider for several thousand dollars! With the tournament, as well as the action, the crowd really had something to sweat! A terrific time was had by all, winners and losers alike.

We would like to thank Delbert Wong of Family Billiards for continuing to support the tour and tournaments in general. It is one of the “must visit” rooms on the West Coast! There is always something going on! On The Wire, promoters of the Pechauer Tour, are excited to see continued growth for and participation in the tour. As always, we encourage enthusiasts of all levels to spend their billiard dollars with the sponsors who continue to give so much so that we all can enjoy the thrill of competition – even if it is from the sidelines!