Tiger Billiar Finale Won by Chau and Lac
Tiger pool Tour / Arlington, VA

by Andy Lincoln
The Tiger pool Tour’s 2007 season wrapped up at Champions billiards Café in Arlington, VA, December 8-9. This was a $4,000-added event that attracted a strong field of 53 open division entries and 16 women’s division players all hoping to make their final mark on the season.
Matt Clatterbuck had an uneventful Saturday with wins three easy wins to make the final four on the winners’ side. Points leader Shaun Wilkie also had no problems winning his first two matches 9-1 before facing the women’s division points leader, My-Hanh Lac. Wilkie played a controlled match and won 9-3. Tour founder Danny Green played well in all four of his matches to reach Sunday undefeated. Joining Clatterbuck, Wilkie, and Green in the final four was Manuel Chau, who has been a strong contender in the few events that he has played in this year.
Play continued Sunday with Clatterbuck and Chau advancing easily over Wilkie and Green, respectively, by 9-4 scores. The hot seat match was hard fought, with Clatterbuck winning on the hill 9-8. The elimination bracket played out with Larry Kressel coming back from 6-2 to win 7-6 against Brandon Shuff ending Shuff’s bid for the points lead. Kressel fell victim to a determined Danny Mulhollen III. Mulhollen had lost his first match but rebounded with six wins to pit him against Wilkie. Wilkie won this one 7-5 and then slipped past Green 7-6. Chau was not happy with his heartbreaking loss for the hot seat and defeated Wilkie 7-5 to earn a rematch with Clatterbuck.
The single race to 11 final between Chau and Clatterbuck was flawless. Clatterbuck took an 8-4 lead but watched as Chau evened the score at 8. Chau made the most of his next turn at the table, running out the set to win 11-8. Neither player missed an open shot in this match.
An even field of 16 players came out Sunday to shoot at the $1,000 share of the added money. Points’ leader Lac had a challenging day, winning over Bethany Kurtz 7-2, Ming Ng 7-4, and Asia Cycak 7-6 to reach the hot seat match. Her opponent was none other than second place on the points list, Cheryl Squire. Lac seemed to establish who was number one when she raced out to a 6-1 lead, but Squire fought back game after game until the score reached 6-all. Lac calmly sank the 5-9 combination to advance to the hot seat.
In the elimination bracket, Malea Haacke came out on top of Ng 5-4 and then put Cycak into fourth place. Squire seemed unfazed by her hot seat comeback that came up short, breezing through Haacke 5-0 to reach the finals. The single set race to 9 went back and forth until, after a timeout at 5-5, Lac took charge and won 9-6.
Open Results:
1st Manuel Chau
2nd Matt Clatterbuck
3rd Shaun Wilkie
4th Danny Green
5th Danny Mulhollen III
Brian Deska
7th Larry Kressel
Mark Touch
9th Brandon Shuff
Jerry Gruber
My-Hanh Lac
Chris Adams
Women’s Results:
1st My-Hanh Lac
2nd Cheryl Squire
3rd Malea Haacke
4th Asia Cycak
5th Bethany Kurtz
Ming Ng
7th Chanta Kry
Sharon O’Hanlon

Shuff Wins First billiard Tour Event and Shea Repeats
Tiger pool Tour / Frederick, MD

by Andy Lincoln
The Tiger pool Tour returned to action at Champions billiards Café in Frederick, MD, October 6-7 for their eleventh event. A big thank you goes out to room owner Gary Allen and his friendly hard-working staff for welcoming the tour. A strong, tough field of players came out to play for the $2,000-added money in both the open and women’s division events.
Brandon Shuff started his Saturday out with a 9-8 scare from Trevor Dentz. A quick 9-2 win over Tai Bui and a 9-5 score with Barry Bowman pitted Shuff against strong tour player Lee Holt. Holt was having a great day with a pair of 9-2 wins over Matt Clatterbuck and Dan Maruschak. Shuff advanced past Holt 9-7 to reach the final four winners’ side going into Sunday’s play. The bottom half of the bracket was ruled by Manuel Chau, who knocked off three Virginians in Luther Farley, Joe Russo, and Larry Kressel. Joining Chau and Shuff in the final four were Jerry Slivka and Danny Mulhollen III, both in the current top five on the tour rankings.
Play continued Sunday with Shuff working his way through Slivka 9-7 and Chau squashing Mulhollen 9-3. An exciting 9-8 win over Chau put Shuff into the hot seat. Not much of interest was happening in the elimination bracket. Mulhollen and Slivka both advanced to meet up where Slivka sent Mulhollen home in the fourth-place spot. Slivka quickly took down Chau to set up a rematch with Shuff in the single-set, race-to-11 finals.
The finals started out with Shuff taking a commanding 6-1 lead. Slivka never threw in the towel and fought back to 7 with Shuff on the hill. Shuff pushed to a long, tough jump shot, which Slivka passed on without even getting out of his chair. Shuff confidently drained the improbable shot and maintained his composure to run the rack out.
A field of 12 ladies came out Sunday to shoot at the cash. The final four winners’ side came down to last event’s winner, Linda Shea, tour regulars Malea Haacke and Sharon O’Hanlon, as well as Ming Ng making the most of a rare appearance. Shea advanced over Haacke 7-3, while Ng came out on top 7-6 with O’Hanlon. In the hot seat match, Shea took an early lead before Ng came back to win 7-5.
In the elimination bracket, O’Hanlon sent Haacke home in fourth place before losing to Shea. The single-set, race-to-9 finals saw a determined Shea take another early lead. Ng managed a couple more games, but it was Shea winning with a 9-6 score for her second consecutive tour win.
Open Results:
1st Brandon Shuff
2nd Jerry Slivka
3rd Manuel Chau
4th Danny Mulhollen
5th Andy Lincoln
Ilir Jaho
7th Richard Barney
Joel Lackraj
9th Larry Kressel
Luther Farley
Lee Holt
Joe Russo
Women’s Results:
1st Linda Shea
2nd Ming Ng
3rd Sharon O’Hanlon
4th Malea Haacke
5th Cheryl Squire
Kathleen Lawless
7th Nicole Vincent
Simone Hospedales

Shuff Wins First billiard Event, Shea Repeats

Tiger pool Tour / Frederick, MD
by Andy Lincoln
The Tiger pool Tour returned to action at Champions billiards Café in Frederick, MD, October 6-7 for their eleventh event. A big thank you goes out to room owner Gary Allen and his friendly hard-working staff for welcoming the tour. A strong, tough field of players came out to play for the $2,000-added money in both the open and women’s division events.
Brandon Shuff started his Saturday out with a 9-8 scare from Trevor Dentz. A quick 9-2 win over Tai Bui and a 9-5 score with Barry Bowman pitted Shuff against strong tour player Lee Holt. Holt was having a great day with a pair of 9-2 wins over Matt Clatterbuck and Dan Maruschak. Shuff advanced past Holt 9-7 to reach the final four winners’ side going into Sunday’s play. The bottom half of the bracket was ruled by Manuel Chau, who knocked off three Virginians in Luther Farley, Joe Russo, and Larry Kressel. Joining Chau and Shuff in the final four were Jerry Slivka and Danny Mulhollen III, both in the current top five on the tour rankings.
Play continued Sunday with Shuff working his way through Slivka 9-7 and Chau squashing Mulhollen 9-3. An exciting 9-8 win over Chau put Shuff into the hot seat. Not much of interest was happening in the elimination bracket. Mulhollen and Slivka both advanced to meet up where Slivka sent Mulhollen home in the fourth-place spot. Slivka quickly took down Chau to set up a rematch with Shuff in the single-set, race-to-11 finals.
The finals started out with Shuff taking a commanding 6-1 lead. Slivka never threw in the towel and fought back to 7 with Shuff on the hill. Shuff pushed to a long, tough jump shot, which Slivka passed on without even getting out of his chair. Shuff confidently drained the improbable shot and maintained his composure to run the rack out.
A field of 12 ladies came out Sunday to shoot at the cash. The final four winners’ side came down to last event’s winner, Linda Shea, tour regulars Malea Haacke and Sharon O’Hanlon, as well as Ming Ng making the most of a rare appearance. Shea advanced over Haacke 7-3, while Ng came out on top 7-6 with O’Hanlon. In the hot seat match, Shea took an early lead before Ng came back to win 7-5.
In the elimination bracket, O’Hanlon sent Haacke home in fourth place before losing to Shea. The single-set, race-to-9 finals saw a determined Shea take another early lead. Ng managed a couple more games, but it was Shea winning with a 9-6 score for her second consecutive tour win.

Open Results:

Women’s Results:

1st
Brandon Shuff

1st
Linda Shea

2nd
Jerry Slivka

2nd
Ming Ng

3rd
Manuel Chau

3rd
Sharon O’Hanlon

4th
Danny Mulhollen

4th
Malea Haacke

5-6th
Andy Lincoln

5-6th
Cheryl Squire

Ilir Jaho

Kathleen Lawless

7-8th
Richard Barney

7-8th
Nicole Vincent

Joel Lackraj

Simone Hospedales

9-12th
Larry Kressel

Luther Farley

Lee Holt

Joe Russo

13-16th
Larry Nevel

Jeff Abernathy

Candy Ramous

Jui-Lung Chen

Park and Shea Win on Tiger pool Tour
Tiger pool Tour / Sterling, VA

by Ceci Strain

The Tiger pool Tour returned after a short summer break to First Break Café in Sterling, VA, August 25-26. The open division started off strong with a full 64-player field, but at the end of the weekend, Shin Park was the last man standing. In the women’s division, 15 players showed up, with Linda Shea taking top honors.
Most notably in Sunday’s final 16 was fifteen year-old Richard “The Kid” Barney from Hagerstown, MD. Barney met with an early placement into the elimination bracket with a 9-6 loss to Shawn Putnam in the second round on Saturday. The early loss didn’t faze “The Kid,” as he won his next matches until being eliminated by Mike Davis 7-3.

Park faced Larry Kressel on Sunday morning and sent him to the elimination round with a win of 9-4, just in time to meet up with tour regular Jerry Slivka. Though Park took a strong 6-1 lead, he missed the 6 ball in the eighth rack, and Slivka came back like a whirlwind to take the match 9-8.

Continuing In the elimination bracket, Shawn Putnam and Park continued to please the crowd by again bringing their matches to the hill. Shaun “Get Some” Wilkie was victorious over Putnam 7-6, and Park battled Davis to continue on with a win of 7-6. In the hot seat match, Slivka and Francisco Diaz seemed to be playing a speed pool match as they quickly ran through their games. Slivka had an early lead, and after a short trade-off in the middle of the set, he finally closed it out with a win of 9-5, sending Diaz over to the elimination bracket to wait for his next opponent.

Park methodically ran rack after rack against Wilkie in the quarterfinals, defeating him 7-2. He then moved on to the semifinals against road partner Diaz, and again he methodically defeated Diaz 7-5 for the opportunity to match up again with Slivka. However, because of a scheduling conflict, Slivka had to forfeit the final round to Park.

The one-day women’s event saw tour regular Cheryl Squire gain a notable win of 7-2 early in the day against current point’s winner, My-Hanh Lac, and a win over Sharon O’Hanlon 7-4 to reach the hot seat match against Linda Shea. Shea moved through the winners’ bracket and sent Kathleen Lawless to the elimination bracket 7-3.

The hot seat match in the ladies’ event was a close one, but Squire advanced with a final score of 7-5. Tina Meraglio, who had returned from a pool hiatus, had worked her way through the elimination bracket after a first-round loss and met up with Lawless in the quarterfinals. Meraglio was determined to move on to the semifinals and won the match 5-1. Shea wasn’t prepared to lose the tournament, and seemed determined as she practiced on another table straight through the quarterfinals. She was ready and quickly defeated Meraglio, moving on for a rematch against Squire.

In the single race-to-9 finals, Shea took a strong lead of 8-2 against Squire but didn’t close the door completely. Squire managed to fight back for a few more games before Shea finished the match with a win of 9-5.
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Hatch Dominates Tiger pool Tour

Tiger pool Tour / Sterling, VA
by Rick Davis
A stacked field of 61 players came out for the Tiger pool Tour, which held its ninth event at First Break Café in Sterling, VA, over the July 21-22 weekend. Top national players, previous event winners, and other dangerous entities swarmed the event, but Dennis “The Hatchet Man” Hatch recovered from a loss to best the field.
Action on the winners’ side included a who’s who of tour players. Hatch made his way through three rounds before falling to Chuck Altomare 9-5, who was sent west as well by Matt Clatterbuck in the next round. Clatterbuck, who has taken three top-three finishes including a win, was now in the hot seat match. On the other end of the board Mike Davis fell just short and was defeated by tournament director Andy Lincoln 9-5, but Lincoln was denied also as Shaun “Get Some” Wilkie, who has also taken three top-three finishes, slipped by 9-7 to take his seat in the hot seat match. Wilkie and Clatterbuck inched along, but in the end it was Clatterbuck who had the endurance for the 9-6 win.
On the one-loss side the cream was certainly rising to the top. Hatch took a trio of wins, including a 7-1 slap against Lincoln, to reach the quarterfinals. Nearby, Ryan McCreesh was on a comeback, taking six left-side wins, including the elimination of Davis 7-4, but was then upset just shy of the quarterfinals by Chuck Altomare 7-3.
The handful of remaining matches blazed through as Hatch eliminated Altomare 7-5 in the quarterfinals, then Wilkie 7-3 in the semifinals, to reclaim his seat at the finals. Hatch and Clatterbuck put on a good show from the amassing crowd, but the top pro, Hatch, was too much for the top tour player and defeated him to claim the title.
Results:
1st Dennis Hatch
2nd Matt Clatterbuck
3rd Shaun Wilkie
4th Chuck Altomare
5th Ryan McCreesh
Andy Lincoln
7th Jeremy Sossei
Bob Begey