28 Players found their way from all corners of the country, traveling by plane, car and motorcycle, for our 8th annual OnePocket.org Member’s only Tournament at Railyard Billiards in Louisville, KY. Hosted by room owner Kyle Ferguson, the tournament was played on their 8 matching 9’ Diamond tables, all with 4-1/4” corner pockets — an ideal setup for One Pocket!
The long weekend of competition began with a single elimination $50 entry Bank Pool tournament Thursday night, which was open to our members and locals as well, so it drew a solid field of 30 players, including local house pro Louis Demarco. However, it turns out some of our members are pretty sporty at Banks too because Demarco fell early and the finals came down to members Justin Tingle and Mark Mariani, with Mariani prevailing in a tight hill-hill match.
The main event started early Friday afternoon after a spirited calcutta handled by our local liaison member John Crabb that netted a total of $4315 to go along with the $3100 tournament total. That extra $300 in the tournament fund was contributed by three late member cancelations who insisted their entry money stay in the prize pool. Thank you for that, but we really hope next time you can make it!
With our MOT’s being double elimination, races to 3 both sides, to avoid finishing too late Sunday we have locked into a schedule of everyone playing twice Friday, then a solid day of play Saturday, leaving our final 4 for Sunday. Defending champion Mike Eck arrived just in time to play Friday, but there would be no back to back this year as Mike fell to John Rawski and Jay Pettlon. Prior champions Dave Gross and Andy Warren also found themselves out by the time play finished Saturday night.
So the final 4 came down to undefeated Lou Figueroa and John Rawski, with the 2 survivors on the one loss side being former champion Robert Newkirk and ‘Arizona Jay’ Pettlon (who actually hails from St. Louis). Newkirk prevailed in that match that went hill-hill (as did many of our matches this year — a testament to the even level of member competition).
Rawski fell to Figueroa in the hot-seat match, and then fell to a seemingly tireless Robert Newkirk to set up a Figueroa/Newkirk final. Somehow the bionic 75 year old Newkirk still had gas in his tank to win the final single race to 4 by a score of 4-0. This was Robert’s second MOT title, having won in 2017. Congratulations to all the winners and all the other members who made the trip to mix it up (in competition and camaraderie!).
Many matches and the finals were streamed by XPool.com, the in-house streaming platform there at Railyard, and these matches will continue to be available free for those who missed out. Many thanks to the ownership and staff at Railyard for your terrific hospitality! Also a shout out to our man John Crabb for all his preparation work and help with running both the mini and main event, as well as the calcuttas. Also to Chuck Stinson for creating this (and all the others) MOT posters.
Tournament Payouts:
- Robert Newkirk 1100
- Lou Figueroa 600
- John Rawski 400
- Jay Pettlon 300
- Ben Smith 200
- Mike Brown 200
- Justin Tingle 150
- Dave Gross 150
Calcutta:
- 1700
- 1000
- 700
- 415
- 250
- 250
Brackets:
https://digitalpool.com/tournaments/onepocketorg-members-tourney/bracket
Photo Gallery:
https://www.poolinaction.com/2024-Tournaments/2024-MOT
TV Table Videos:
[ Thursday Banks ] — [ Friday One Pocket ] — [ Saturday One Pocket ] — [ Sunday One Pocket ]