The 4th stop of the 2007 USBA Tour was held at Southgate Billiards in Southgate , CA on June 15-17. The ”split” tournament format was unique: All players who had an average of .750 or better played in the “A” Tournament. Anyone below that average played in the “B” tournament. Entry fee for the A tournament was $ 205.00 and $ 105.00 for the B tournament.

The “A” Tournament was also a handicapped tournament. Players such as Pedro Piedrabuena, Rodolfo Covarrubias ( Mexico ) and Carlos Palafox played at the International Master level. In 30 point games, they had to go to 30. Salvador Diaz and Vicky Pineda played at the Master level (A+) and got 2 points on the wire (they only had to go to 28 points). Ricardo Ariel, Carlos Alvarez, Alfredo Reyes, and Timoteo Moreno were considered A players and got 4 points on the wire.

Gary Cohen and Lenny Luis Pinal were considered B+ players and had the option of paying the regular entry fee of $ 205.00 in order to get 6 points on the wire or they could pay
$ 105.00 and only get 4 points on the wire. Pinal chose to get the 6 points and Cohen chose to get 4 points. Ricardo Carranco was considered a B player and only had to pay
$ 105.00 to get 6 points on the wire. The only game where the handicap made a difference was when Lenny Luis Pinal defeated Carlos Palafox 30-24.

Click on the flight to see tournament charts:

Flight A: Right from the start, it was obvious that the players to beat were Pedro Piedrabuena and Rodolfo Covarrubias, both at the International Master level. On day 2 of the 3-day tournament, Covarrubias suffered a defeat at the hands of Carlos Alvarez, an A player with a 4 point handicap. Covarrubias averaged only .800 for that game. Later that same day, Covarrubias was defeated by Vicky Pineda by a score of 30-18. By the time day 3 came around, Pedro was still undefeated, so Covarrubias needed for Pedro to lose to someone if he were to have any chance of winning the tournament. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, so with just one game left between Pedro and Covarrubias, the outcome was already settled. Covarrubias won the last game handily, 30-17, handing Pedro his only loss of the tournament, and securing 2nd place. Covarrubias also ran a tournament-high-run of 14 during that game and finished with a grand average of 1.147 and a 9-2 record. Pedro finished 10-1 with a grand average of 1.321 and a high run of 8.

The rest of the players and their stats are as follows. Position of finish, record, high run, grand average including points on the wire and actual grand average:

Vicky Pineda: 3rd, 8-3, high-run 6, avg.w/handicap = .922, actual avg = .855
Carlos Palafox: 4th , 7-4, high-run 4, grand average = .810
Carlos Alvarez: 5th , 6-5, high-run 4, avg.w/handicap = .824, actual avg = .700
Salvador Diaz: 6th , 5-6, high-run 4, avg.w/handicap = .943, actual avg = .866
Alfredo Reyes: 7th , 5-6, high-run 5, avg.w/handicap = .763, actual avg = .637
Gary Cohen: 8th , 4-7, high-run 4, avg.w/handicap = .705, actual avg = .585
Ricardo Ariel: 9th , 4-7, high-run 4, avg.w/handicap = .809, actual avg = .680
Lenny Pinal: 10th , 4-7, high-run 4, avg.w/handicap = .722, actual avg = .551
Timoteo Moreno: 11th , 3-8, high-run 4, avg.w/handicap = .759, actual avg = .634
Ricardo Carranco: 12th , 1-10, high-run 4, avg.w/handicap = .544, actual avg = .367

"A" Division Winners: Pedro Piedrabuena (Center) 1st Place Rodolfo Covarrubias (Left) 2nd Place Virgilio (Vicky) Pineda (Right) 3rd Place

The “B” Tournament, where the games were only 20 points each, was amazing. The top 2 from each flight advanced to an 8-man round-robin final. In all, 32 players entered, some of whom had never entered a USBA Tournament before. The field was split into 4 flights of 8 players each, the B, C, D and E Flights. Summary of the preliminaries is as follows:

Flight B: Felipe Moreno finished 7-0 with .628 grand average and a best game of 1.111. Florentino Rangel qualified with a 6-1 record, and a .453 average.

Flight C: Anthony Gonzalez, 18 years young, finished 6-1 with a .521 average and a best game of .741. Juan Ramirez finished in 2nd with a 5-2 record and a .455 average. Rigoberto Cuevas, who finished in 3rd place, had a best game of 1.111.

Flight D: Emmanuel Herrera, just 19 years old, wins the flight with a 6-1 record and a .651 average. Jim Shovak comes in 2nd with a 6-1 record, .551 average, the B tournament high-run of 8 and the B tournament best game of 1.333 (20 points in 15 innings). Omar Khalifa, a promising young player, finishes 3rd with a 5-2 record and would have advanced had he not lost a 20-19 game to Shovak.

Flight E: Antonio Rivera finishes 6-1 with a .510 average and Ernesto Zaldivar qualifies with a 5-2 record and a .432 average.

The "B" Finals: Jim Shovak goes undefeated, 7-0, a .593 average, a high-run of 6 and a best game of 1.111. Emmanuel Herrera finishes in 2nd place, 4-3 with a .629 average and a best game of 1.176. Anthony Gonzalez, also 4-3, finishes in 3rd place with a .523 average and a high-run of 6. Juan Ramirez finishes in 4th with a 4-3 record, a .509 average and a best game of 1.176. Florentino Rangel comes in 5th , 3-4, .468. Antonio Rivera in 6th , 2-5, .541. Ernesto Zaldivar in 7th , 2-5, .502. Felipe Moreno in 8th , 2-5, .523.

"B" Division Winners Jim Shovak (Center) 1st Place Emmanuel Herrera (Right) 2nd Place Anthony Gonzalez (Left) 3rd Place

A total of $ 3,000.00 was added to the tournament: $ 1,500.00 by Southgate Billiards room owner, Jose Reinaga and $ 1,500.00 by the USBA. The payouts were as follows:

Pedro Piedrabuena: $ 1,100.00
Rodolfo Covarrubias: $ 900.00
Vicky Pineda: $ 700.00
Carlos Palafox: $ 500.00
Carlos Alvarez: $ 300.00
Salvador Diaz: $ 200.00

Jim Shovak: $ 1,100.00
Emmanuel Herrera: $ 900.00
Anthony Gonzalez: $ 750.00
Juan Ramirez: $ 600.00
Florentino Rangel: $ 500.00
Antonio Rivera: $ 400.00
Ernesto Zaldivar: $ 300.00
Felipe Moreno: $ 150.00

Southgate Billiards Room Owner Jose Reinaga

Jim Shovak & Pedro Piedrabuena and the crowd

Two brand new Schuler cues were generously donated by Schuler Cues and were raffled off to 2 lucky winners. A third raffle winner received Walt Harris' Billiard Atlas Systems and Techniques in both English and Spanish, which was also generously donated by Walt Harris. A special thanks to George Aronek and Pedro Piedrabuena for being tournament directors. Without you, it would have been a nightmare. Also, thanks to Simonis cloth, Aramith and Professor-Q-Ball for co-sponsoring the event. Great job everyone. Let's do it again.