Francisco Bustamante and Can Salim
Hosted by Griff’s Bar & Billiards in Las Vegas, NV, the 29th Annual Jay Swanson Memorial 9-Ball Championship kicked off on President’s Day.
Presented by Griff’s and PoolActionTV.com, this $3,000 added double elimination event drew 81 players. Played on nine foot Diamonds, the format was alternate breaks with races to 8/7 and one extended race to eleven for the title.
Notables included defending champ John Morra, BCA Hall of Famers Francisco Bustamante and Alex Pagulayan, reigning Buffalo’s Pro One Pocket champ Roberto Gomez, newly minted Bayou State One Pocket Classic titlist Tony Chohan as well as the new Bayou State 9-Ball Classic champ Billy Thorpe.
2020 Swanee champ Max Eberle led Vegas locals Bob Herchik, Ian Costello and Gary Onomura as well as Savannah Easton, fresh off snapping off both the Ultimate Pool USA Arizona Juniors and Womens Championships.
Germany’s Can Salim, Canadian Erik Hjorleifson, Filipino Jeffrey De Luna and Marco Teutscher of the Netherlands added some international flavor. Josh Roberts, Shane Winters, Jeff Beckley, Ronnie Allen, Frank Nordmann and Nick De Leon roamed the room as well as young guns Mark Estiola, Adrian Prasad and Kash Keeton.
Other ladies included current WPA Women’s World Nine-ball champ Rubilen Amit, reigning European Straight Pool, Nine Ball and Ten Ball champ Pia Filler, Emily Sumrall and Sabrina Peterson.
After the players meeting and draw, the matches began. Whittled down to the final four on the winners side, Shane Winters battled Can Salim and Francisco Bustamante took on compadre Alex Pagulayan. Salim won his match as did Bustamante – both with an 8-6 score. They locked up their seats in the hot seat match and their opponents headed west.
Now down to four players, Salim and Bustamante began playing the hot seat match while over on the one loss side, Pagulayan and De Luna were in a dead heat fighting to stay alive. Neck and neck throughout the entire match, it was tied at five apiece. Pagulayan then won the next two games to close out the match out 7-5. De Luna finished in fourth place.
In the hot seat match, Salim had jumped out to a 5-2 lead, however, slowly but surely, Bustamante clawed his way back and went ahead 6-5. Can won the next game to tie it up but then Francisco went ahead 7-6. Bustamante then broke dry for the first time in the match but Salim was hooked. He rolled out leaving himself on the rail with a tough shot on the one. Francisco passed and then watched Can fire it in and run out the rack. He then broke the balls, made four and ran out to claim his seat in the finals.
Now battling to stay alive, Bustamante won the lag and pulled out to a 3-0 lead. After trading misses in the fourth game, Pagulayan finally got on the board making it 3-1. They split the next two games making it 4-2 and then 5-3. Francisco won the next two games to take the match 7-3 leaving Alex in third place.
As said previously, the finals would be one extended race to eleven. Due to the late hour on Tuesday evening, the finalists agreed to play the finals on Wednesday night and from the beginning, it was a dead heat. Tied at 6-6, Bustamante pulled away to make it 8-6 but Salim rallied to tie it at nine apiece!
After a safety battle in the next game, it was Francisco who came with a tough shot on the seven to run out and get to the hill first.
Breaking, Bustamante pocketed two balls and had a clear opening shot on the two and a layout with no problems. All Can could do was watch Francisco clear the rack to win the game and take the title! Final score – 11-9.
Congratulations to Francisco for a great tournament! Good job, Can!
Stay tuned for nonstop action at Griff’s for the next nine days!
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