Great Southern Billiard Tour / Spring Hill, FL

by Lea Andrews

A-ranked player Dan Dennis made an undefeated run through a field of 32 to emerge the winner of the $1,500-added Great Southern Billiard Tour event, defeating Cliff Tyler in the finals. The June 6-7 event was hosted by Rocky McElroy at Capone’s, his room in Spring Hill, FL.

Dennis made quick work of his winners’ side final four match, sending Cliff Tyler west with a score of 9-2 and going on to face Dan Whitten, who had bested Jason Richko 9-6. Whitten’s score got reversed on him in the match for the hot seat, and he joined the one-loss side.

On the left side of the bracket, A-ranked Albert Howe, who had allowed Bill Stoll just three games in his last match, met AA-ranked Jimmy Dempsey, who’d just bested Nolan Lane 11-3. In this match, it was Dempsey who was held to 3, and he finished in seventh. Unfortunately for Howe, he carried the three-game trend into his next match, falling to Tyler 9-3. Meanwhile, Rich Schau, who’d had a strong 11-2 win over Bart Rich, met Louie Smith, who’d had a 9-8 win over Bobby Moore. A-ranked Smith managed to get to the hill against AA-ranked Schau but he came up short of the win, finishing in seventh with a score of 11-8. Schau backed up that win with an 11-6 win over Jason Richko, but he couldn’t close out the win against Tyler, marking up six games and taking fourth.

In the one-loss semifinal match, Whitten was shooting for a rematch with Dennis, but so was Tyler. The men both fought hard for it, taking the match hill-hill, but Tyler sunk the final 9 and moved on to the finals.

Tyler needed to take both sets of the true double-elimination finals to win, but Dennis was ready for him, and he wasn’t going to let Tyler level the playing field by taking the first set. Dennis took the final game in the hill-hill match for his first win on the Great Southern Billiard Tour.

A-ranked player Dan Dennis made an undefeated run through a field of 32 to emerge the winner of the $1,500-added Great Southern Billiard Tour event, defeating Cliff Tyler in the finals.

Results:
1st Dan Dennis $1,000
2nd Cliff Tyler $500
3rd Dan Whitten $300
4th Rich Schau $150
5th Albert Howe $70
Jason Richko
7th Louie Smith $30
Jimmy Dempsey

Shuffett Celebrates Southern GSBT Victory
Great Southern Billiard Tour / Greenville, SC

by Joshua Johnson, Inside POOL

Fourteen-year-old Landon Shuffett moved through a field of 55 players to take home the $1,000 first-place prize and crystal trophy in the Great Southern Billiard Tour’s return to Greenville, SC. Shuffett, rated an A player in the GSTB’s A-B amateur system, defeated B-rated Chase Smith 9-2 in the first set of the true double-elimination finals, having moved through the field undefeated.

The finals were a replay of the hot-seat match, which saw Shuffett display solid nerves to complete a difficult run-out at hill-hill to move into the finals. However, the finals were a different story. After gifting the second rack to Smith, Shuffett ensured that there would be no second race as he bore down and showed the form that has taken him to multiple Junior National titles to win the set. On his way to the finals Shuffett defeated Brian Turner 9-6, Antonio Tovar 9-3, Brad Shearer 9-5, Adam Clark 9-1, Craig McPartlin 9-3, and Chase Smith 9-6 to claim his first victory on the GSBT.

Smith made his way to the finals with one loss in the shortest way possible, giving up the hot seat match to the wunderkind. This second-place finish represents his best finish on the GSBT so far. His tournament path went through Matt Holiday 7-4, Marty White 7-2, Steve Cox 7-5, Tony Williams 7-5, and Ray Benish 7-4. After his loss to Shuffett 9-6, he defeated Craig McPartlin 7-3 to earn the rematch with Shuffett. McPartlin moved through the tournament undefeated until meeting Shuffett in the semifinals of the winners’ bracket, where he was bumped to the one-loss side. He went on to defeat Brian Turner 9-2 and Kenny Wilson 9-6 before falling to Smith.

This event is being streamed live at the following link: Click here

Great Southern Billiard Tour Brackets - The Palace in Greenville, SC

Fourteen-year-old Landon Shuffett moved through a field of 55 players to take home the $1,000 first-place prize and crystal trophy in the Great Southern Billiard Tour’s return to Greenville, SC.

Results:
1st Landon Shuffett $1,000
2nd Chase Smith $500
3rd Craig McPartlin $350
4th Kenny Wilson $200
5th Brian Turner $125
Ray Benish
7th Adam Clark $75
Tony Williams
9th Mike Basha $50
Matt Mancini
Roger Jeffcoat
Joe Watson

Newman fights off Roberts to win Great Southern Billiard Tour event

By Joshua Johnson, Inside POOL

What started off with 42 players on Sunday ended with Josh Newman fending off a hard charging Josh Roberts to secure victory in Rock Hill, SC. Newman defeated Roberts 7-5 in the second set of the true double elimination format after losing the first set on the hill at 11-6. A 16 year old prodigy from Bessemer City, NC played great all weekend and was a deserved winner.

Roberts played great to get to the finals, winning 7 matches in a row, but could not muster enough energy to defeat Newman a second time. Newman defeated Jeff Abernathy 11-6 to win the hot seat match. Abernathy moved to the left side of the bracket, where he squared off against a straight shooting Roberts.

What started off with 42 players on Sunday ended with Josh Newman fending off a hard charging Josh Roberts to secure victory in Rock Hill, SC.

Roberts dispatched Dusty Norris 11-1 in the semifinals of the 1-loss bracket, but did not have as easy a time against Jeff. Both players displayed great shot making skills in the set, as well as some intelligent safety play. In the end, an unforced scratch at hill-hill by Abernathy on the 9-ball sent Roberts through to the finals. In addition to the main event held here at Breakers Sports Bar and Grill, a second chance tournament was held. Peter Iskander took top honors in that event, defeating Paul Mullins in the single elimination, race to 7 tournament.

View the Great Southern Billiard Tournament Brackets for Rockhill, SC

The Great Southern Billiard Tour would like to thank the owner of the Breakers Sports Bar, Jeff Peele, for hosting the event as well as its sponsors: Nick Varner Cues and Cases, Tiger Products, Delta-13 Rack, Masters Chalk, Inside POOL, AZ Billiards, Professor Q-BALL, Stroke Magazine and Billiards Digest. The Great Southern Billiard Tour will be at Chalk It Up Billiards in LaGrange, GA for its next amateur event. It will be played on 7 foot Diamond bar tables.