2nd Annual Chinook Winds Open 8-Ball Championships
March 6-8, 2015

2015 Chinook Winds Open 8-Ball Championships

Before the 8-Ball Championships got going, the Chinook Winds Open 8-Ball Championships, led by Tournament Directors Mike Jensen and Andrew Monstis, took to the tables.  This was a 3 part event, beginning with a Warm-Up Tournament Thursday night, followed by a Calcutta Friday evening and then on to the main event.  The Warm-Up Tournaments featured 84 men and 12 women.  These were double elimination, race to 3 events.  In the women's division, Vivian Villarreal cruised through to the point to await an opponent in the final.  Shari Ross beat Deby Welfringer (3rd) to get into the final with Vivian and finished in 2nd place, while Vivian prevailed and gave us a glimpse of the champion that she is.

The men's field of 84 exceeded all expectations and finished in the wee hours.  The pros dominated the field with only Chad Bisconer, Paul Marquez and Steve Lingelbach penetrating the top 12. 1st place was Rafael Martinez, 2nd/Jayson Shaw, 3rd/Josh Roberts, 4th/Stan Tourangeau, 5th-6th/Ace Brown and Corey Deuel, 7th-8th/Marc Vidal and Steve Lingelbach, and 9th-12th/Chad Bisconer, Dan Louie, Paul Marquez and Roger Bordley.

The Calcutta was a well attended and spirited affair.  Andrew Monstis, Paul Marquez and Carissa Biggs took turns as Auctioneer.  The men netted $25,280 and the women $6425, with the first place man earning $8908 for the winning bidder(s) and $2342 for the women's champ bidder(s).

Immediately following the Calcutta, the Women and Men's CWOs got underway, with 2 rounds played Friday night, continuing through Saturday and finishing up on Sunday.  The final 16 players in the men's division were, as expected, mostly pros but with a few of our regional GrandMasters and Masters hanging with the big boys. John Morra took out Shane Van Boening in the point match (7-4).  Meanwhile on the back side, there were some hard fought matches to see who would get through to the final.  The 3rd place match came down to Shane and Corey Deuel.  Shane was plagued with uncharacteristic misses and untimely fouls and quickly fell behind.  In spite of 3 dry breaks by Corey, Shane found himself doing more watching than shooting and ended in 3rd place ($3000) and Corey moved on to the final.

The final started out with 3 breaks and runs and Corey getting into the early lead (2-1).  In game 4, John broke and then fouled on his first shot.  Corey ran off the remaining 5 stripes and extended his lead (3-1).  In game 5, Corey's dry break resulted in John's run out. (3-2).  Each man had a shot at game 6 but, John's miss on the 15-Ball left Corey with a wide open table.  Couple that run out with a break and run in game 7 and Corey had a commanding 5-2 lead in the match.  A messy game 8 went to Corey and he closed out the match with another break and run in game 9. (7-2).

John looked to turn things around in the second set, shooting through a problem cluster before, missing the 13 ball and leaving Corey the table and the game.  Corey broke and ran in game 2 and capitalized on a miss to run out in game 3. (3-0).  John took advantage of Corey's dry break in game 4 and ran out and broke and ran in game 5 to equal his game total in the first set. (3-2).  In game 6, Corey again broke dry but an untimely miss by John gave him the table and the run out (4-2).  John broke and ran in game 7 and Corey returned the favor in game 8 (5-3).  Corey blew up in game 9 and allowed John to run out and almost even the match (5-4).  The next 3 games were breaks and runs but time ran out for John Morra (2nd place/$5000) as Corey Deuel clinched the title and accepted the plaque and a check for $10,000.

The Women's CWO field totaled 38. Western BCAs Cindy Sliva reminded us she is the real deal, working her way through the front side to the point match against Vivian Villarreal.  She didn't stop there, securing a place in the final with a 5-1 win over Vivian.  Western BCA regional GMs, Kim Jones and Carissa Biggs played for a chance to knock out Vivian in the 3rd place match, with Carissa ending up in 4th place ($900) and Kim getting her shot at Vivian.  Vivian had other plans, though, and held Kim to only one game and 3rd place ($1400) as she moved on to the final.  The first set was all Vivian as she took it 5-1.  In the second set, Cindy (2nd place/$2000) got an early 3-2 lead but Vivian (1st/4000) took the next 3 games (5-3) to close out the match.

The CWO was a smashing success and is expected to grow and attract even more of our games top players in the future.  Congratulations to the Champions and to Andrew, Mike and everyone who helped make this event what it is and will become.  Many thanks to Chinook Winds for their generous sponsorship.  Can't wait to see who comes in October!