By Jerry Stuckart:

On Saturday, Feb. 7th, 10 Arizona 8's showed up at Bullshooters to compete in an 8's only Round Robin Tournament. The players decided on a race to 9, 9-ball on the barboxes. With 10 players we had to keep matches moving along fairly quickly as everyone would be playing 9 matches. The 10 players all post frequently on AZBilliards.com and therefore were playing for the King of AZB 8's. Brady Valentine, Justin Pressior, Todd Dilley, Carlos Avalos, Jason Crugar, Mike Howerton, Derrick Thoman, Andy Davis, Ken Contrell, and Jude Espinoza made up the field.

Entry fee was $50 with a $50 Winner-take-all sidepot. Half the field got in the side action with a chance to take home $600 for first place.

The battle began and quickly the action was heated with a few close matches. Andy and Derrick, the 2 guys from Prescott Valley, drove down and matched up in the first set. And Derrick was able to win the hill-hill case game for the 9 - 8 victory.

At the end of Round 2, we had a challenge match on the TV table. AZPoolScene.com streamed it's first tournament with one table on the spot light all day long. Jerry Stuckart challenged Chuck Parrill for the King of AZ 9's. The games decided on were 10-ball and 8-ball both on the barbox.  The two started it off with 10-ball and quickly Jerry jumped out to a 5 - 0 lead in the race to 9.  Chuck was never able to get things rolling and Jerry was able to close out the set 9 - 4. 

Next up on the TV table was Jason Crugar against Mike Howerton.  The two were also set to play a challenge match, but because of the length of the Round Robin would have to do it another day.  In this match Mike played extremely well and Jason looked fatigued.  Mike won the match 9 - 2.

Chuck and Jerry flipped for the first break of 8-ball and Chuck broke and ran out the first rack in the race to 7.  If Chuck were to win this 2nd set the two would have to play a tie-breaker of 9-ball.  After a few more racks, Jerry was able to tie it up at 3 - 3.  Jerry seemed to come alive and put together the next few racks to get to the hill at 6 - 3.  Chuck was not done as he ran out to creep to 6 - 4 and looked to be running out the next rack when his position forced him to shoot a somewhat difficult 8-ball.  Jerry took advantage of the wide open table to run out the rack for the win.

Back over in the Round Robin a few players were seperating from the group, Derrick Thoman won his first 5 matches, Carlos was sitting at 4 - 1 along with Mike, and a few others had won 3 of 5.  But the day was long from being over for most.  Justin approached me shortly into his 7th match of 9 and said that he wanted to call it a day.  He had back problems in the past and just couldn't keep up with the grueling matches.  After looking at the board it appeared the his 2 remaining opponents were both mathematically eliminated from the finals.  His match was tied 3 - 3 with Mike at the time, therefore adding to Mike's victory total.