Ramos Finds His Gear !!

From left to right winner Isaac Ramos, Owner of Shooters Peter Chin, and runner up Teen Yan

Submitted Article:

This past weekend, July 25th and 26th 2015, saw another of the summer series of events at the Shooters Snooker and Sports Club. Each of these tournaments has a different format and appears to appeal to a wide range of players, many of whom have never previously attended a Shooters event. This past weekend’s event separated players into two distinct groups. Player feedback for this event was very positive and the event will likely be repeated in an enhanced format in the future.

This recent event was billed as a Group 9 Ball Shootout in which two groups of players –- Handicaps ‘3-5’ and Handicaps ‘6-8’ – competed among themselves on Day 1 and then against each other on Day 2. On Day 1 separate draws were held for the ‘3-5’ handicaps and another for the ‘6-8’ handicaps. The top 8 players from each group returned for Day 2 when a re-draw occurred for the 16 players to determine the Sunday matches. All matches were a race to the player’s handicap. This was also the first tournament to accommodate ‘3’ handicaps. This new handicap grouping serves as a good introduction for less skilled players to competitive tournament play. And since Day 1 play was largely against each player’s “peers” there were many close matches. Day 2 also saw several very close matches as well as some “upsets”. Very surprising was the distribution of players – 37 ‘3-5’ handicap players turned out versus 21 ‘6-8’ handicap players. The total purse was a whopping $4400 with a further $1940 up for grabs from the Player Calcutta. These kinds of payouts tend to generally attract the more skilled players.

When Day 1 ended, Elena Baptiste, Teen Yan, Mashaka Munene, Darlene Gardiner, Jennifer Beausoleil, Don Eddie, Edmund Chow and Allen Ortilla had emerged from the ‘3-5’ handicap grouping to play again Sunday. From the ‘6-8’ group, Richard Murray, Rick Garant, Kevin Oliveira, Alan Ada, Ray Jansen, Isaac Ramos, Brad Guthrie and Jagdesh Raghoo successfully navigated their way through Saturday play to be able to make a Sunday appearance. For those who played their way into Sunday a total of $1000 was paid out on Saturday with the balance of $3400 paid out at the end of the tournament. All players who survived Saturday play received a payout.

As play was concluding Sunday, Isaac Ramos was sitting in the hot seat on the ‘A’ side waiting for the winner of the ‘B’ side final between Teen Yan and Jago Raghoo. Ramos was fortunate to be in the hot seat after flirting with elimination several times on Saturday including a ‘B’ side hill/hill match in which he was forced to win 7

consecutive games to avoid an early tournament exit. In the ‘B’ side final Yan defeated Raghoo to face Ramos for the tournament title in this double elimination tournament. Yan had made a very impressive march through his Sunday matches defeating some tournament ‘heavyweights’ to face off against Ramos in the final. Yan continued his strong play by defeating Ramos in their first match but could not extend his winning string and fell to Ramos in their 2nd match.

Congratulations to Isaac Ramos on the tournament win. Isaac was one of the highest ranked players in the tournament and one of only two ‘8’ handicap entered. Despite some Saturday stumbles Ramos found his game on Sunday and rolled through his competition to emerge as the tournament winner.

Thank you to all the participants for a great weekend of pool and welcome to those who had not previously participated in a competitive 9 Ball tournament on the 9 footers at Shooters. As noted previously, there are more innovative tournament formats on the horizon at Shooters for the balance of the summer months. Tournament qualifiers are also being run for each of these events. Check the Shooters Snookerclub Facebook page for details and dates.

Player Prize Money Calcutta

1st Isaac Ramos 8 $1070 $800

2nd Teen Yan 5 $730 $480

3rd Jagdesh Raghoo 7 $500 $290

4th Richard Murray 7 $350 $170

5-6th Darlene Gardiner 4 $225 $100

5-6th Brad Guthrie 7 $225 $100

7-8th Edmund Chow 5 $150

7-8th Don Eddie 4 $150

Paid to 16 players who were eligible for Sunday play. $1000