Gomez wins two out of three versus Deuel to claim 34th Annual Andy Mercer Memorial
In 12 of the 20 years that the Philippines’ Roberto Gomez has been providing input into his AZBilliards’ profile, he has been among the top 50 players on the AZBilliards’ Money Leaderboard. At the end of 11 of those 12 years, his average position on that Leaderboard was 20, with a low of #49 in […]
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Roberto Gomez with Rum Runners Owner Geno Hill
In 12 of the 20 years that the Philippines’ Roberto Gomez has been providing input into his AZBilliards’ profile, he has been among the top 50 players on the AZBilliards’ Money Leaderboard. At the end of 11 of those 12 years, his average position on that Leaderboard was 20, with a low of #49 in 2017 and a high, reached just last year, at #8. Oddly enough, he finished his best recorded earnings year to date (2022) at #9 (an oddity related to the total amounts earned by the top-tier competitors in that year). In the first three months of this year (the last of the 12), he has reached his highest point on the Leaderboard (#7), though it remains to be seen whether he’ll remain in that position until the end of this year.
He’s off to a good start. This past weekend (March 21-24), he chalked up his first event title of 2025 by winning the $3,700-added, 34th Annual Andy Mercer Memorial 9-Ball Classic which drew a full field of 64 entrants to Rum Runner Lounge in Las Vegas. Two weeks ago, at events of the US Open, he went undefeated to the hot seat match of the One Pocket event, claimed it with a victory over Alex Pagulayan and then lost the final to Evan Lunda. He finished in the money at two other US Open events; 9th in 10-Ball and 5th in 8-Ball. Two weeks before that, also in Vegas, he was edged out in the finals of the Predator Pro Billiard Series’ Bank Pool Showdown by Billy Thorpe. Six other appearances since the ball dropped in Times Square to usher in the New Year include four at the Derby City Classic (3rd in the Big Foot Challenge), the Jay Swanson (“Swanee”) Memorial (9th) and the Las Vegas Open (5th).
In the end, this year’s Andy Mercer Memorial came down to a three-match battle between Gomez and Corey Deuel; hot seat match and a true double-elimination final. Each had faced their share of challenges on the road to their first match, battling for the hot seat.
Gomez got through his first three matches with an aggregate score of 18-4. In races to 6, Gomez downed Josh Smith (3), shut out Robert Pulver and gave up just a single rack to Mike Hutcheson. Then, Mitch Ellerman put up a double-hill fight against him in a winners’ side quarterfinal. Gomez survived that challenge and entered his match against John Lalo in one of the winners’ side semifinals with an aggregate score of 24-9.
Deuel arrived at his winners’ side semifinal match with an aggregate score of 24-5. He chalked up two 6-1 victories over Troy Ridder (1st match) and Brian Parks (in a winners’ side quarterfinal), while in the middle, shutting out Jimmy Sweeney and giving up three racks to Kings Santy. He drew Ian Costello in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Gomez got into the hot seat match with a 6-1 victory over Lalo, as Deuel and Costello locked up in a double-hill match that did, eventually, advance Deuel to his first meetup with Gomez. Gomez dominated, claiming the hot seat 6-1.
Costello and Lalo came over to the loss side and picked up two competitors who’d lost their winners’ side quarterfinal. Mitch Ellerman, who’d lost to Gomez, downed Max Eberle 6-2 and Sean Lane 6-1 to draw Costello. Brian Parks, who’d lost to Deuel, won a double-hill battle versus John Morra and eliminated Nico Scalise 6-2 to pick up Lalo.
Costello won an almost-double hill battle (6-4) over Ellerman and advanced to the quarterfinals. Parks gave up just a single rack to Lalo and joined him. Parks gave up just two to Costello to win that quarterfinal match and earn himself a rematch against Deuel in the semifinals.
Deuel had allowed Parks just one rack in their initial meetup. Parks doubled his contribution, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Deuel punched his ticket to the true double-elimination final rematches with the 6-2 win over Parks.
The 14-point FargoRate edge for Gomez (789/775) gave him a 13 percentage-point edge in his chances of winning the final match versus Deuel (56.5%/43.5%). Or final two of them, if it came to that. And it did. They battled to a somewhat predictable double-hill opening set that was won by Deuel. And though we weren’t afforded the opportunity to poll the spectators on this, they were likely the only ones hoping for a second double-hill match. It almost came to that. Deuel chalked up four of the five he needed to make it happen, but Gomez closed it out by winning the 10th rack, claiming the 34th Annual Andy Mercer title with a 6-4 win.
