LW Pool Club

The LW Pool Club’s annual Mano-A-Mano eight ball tournament was July 17. This was a double elimination tournament restricted to 16 A and B level players. The first round was a two-out-of-three match that only counted as one loss. After the first round, there were eight players in the winner’s bracket and eight in the losers’ bracket.

In the second round, Dave Silva beat John Barth in the winners’ bracket and then won a long tactical game against Ruffy Ramos to be the only remaining player in the winners’ bracket. That meant that Ramos would play Ren Villenueva, who moved from the winners’ side to beat the last player in the losers’ side.

Villenueva made a great shot to get position on the eight ball, and moved to the finals against Silva. Since Silva had not lost a game and Villenueva had lost one in the double elimination format, that meant Villenueva had to beat Silva two games in a row. Villenueva won the first game when he ran his last three balls and made a difficult shot on the eight by running it down the rail on a thin cut into the corner pocket. In the final game, Silva ran his last five balls but had no shot on the eight, but was able to leave the eight ball about four inches away from a corner pocket. On his next shot Silva was left on the rail, but slow-rolled the eight in from the length of the table.

—Dave Silva