Jimenez chalks up seven on the loss side, wins Garden State Pool Tour’s second Amateur stop
Runner-up Lamberti wins five of his seven matches in deciding double-hill games Luis Jimenez’ career at the tables, at least as far as it relates to his recorded earnings with us here at AZBilliards, began 15 years ago, with competition on Tony Robles’ Predator ProAm Tour in the New York City tri-state area. The following […]
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Marc Lamberti and Luis Jimenez
Runner-up Lamberti wins five of his seven matches in deciding double-hill games
Luis Jimenez’ career at the tables, at least as far as it relates to his recorded earnings with us here at AZBilliards, began 15 years ago, with competition on Tony Robles’ Predator ProAm Tour in the New York City tri-state area. The following year, his efforts were recorded for competing on the Tri-State Tour and the year after that, he recorded earnings on both tours. In 2013, in which all of his cash-payments came on the Tri-State Tour, he won his first and second regional tour events and climbed to #260 on the AZBilliards Money Leaderboard.
His earnings took a bit of slide in 2014, but his position on the Leaderboard climbed 22 points to #238. The Leaderboard reflects cash earnings and the ‘climb’ was possibly attributable to fewer competitors earning big money at the upper levels of professional competition that year. His participation and earnings lowered in the following years, but in 2019, just before COVID put its fingers on the scale of sports participation (and everything else), he roared back to be ‘in the money’ for 17 events; 13 on the Tri State and four on the Predator ProAm. They included one win and four runner-up finishes on the Tri-State and allowed him to climb as high as #231 on the Leaderboard. It is still his best-recorded earnings year.
Since that time, he recorded and cashed in only five events. Four on the Tri-State Tour (three of them in 2021), and just over three years ago, he won his first Garden State Pool Tour (GSPT) title. This past weekend (Sat., Feb. 15) on that tour, as he did in that first GSPT win, he came from the loss side, this time winning seven in a row and defeating Marc Lamberti twice in a true double-elimination final. The $300-added event, a 9-ball competition for FargoRates of 599 and below, drew 28 entrants to Shooter’s Family Billiards in Wayne, NJ.
It’s a good start to a relatively new year for Jimenez, who’s demonstrated his talent before. He could be headed out on a journey that’ll replace 2019 as his best-recorded year. Seven more wins at the same winner-cash level would do it. Competing and cashing in 17 events, as he did in 2019, and earning, on average, about $200 per event would work, as well. Nothing like a ‘come from the loss side’ win to provide a jolt of confidence, not to mention adrenaline. Fuel for a comeback? We’ll keep you posted.
Jimenez started out promisingly enough this past weekend with a first-round, 5-1 victory over Rachel Lang, whom he would meet again in the quarterfinals. His opponent in the second round, Mark Watt, was awarded three ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 7 and sent Jimenez to the loss side 4-3. They would meet again in the semifinals. Watt advanced to down Jose Vega 4-2 and draw Vincent Chang in one of the winners’ side semifinals.
Marc Lamberti, in the meantime, who would earn starting ‘beads on the wire’ against all six of his eventual opponents, had to battle hard getting to the same place. Four of the five opponents that he faced to eventually claim the hot seat forced him into a double hill, final game to advance. Lamberti won his first against Mike Johnson 4-4 (Johnson racing to 7) before chalking up the first two of his four straight double-hill wins against George Latko, Jr., and Tamer Bajnouk, to draw Rick Rodriguez in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Watt downed Chang 5-4 (Chang racing to 7), as Lamberti punched his ticket to the hot seat match with his third straight double-hill win, over Rick Rodriguez. With yet another double-hill win, his fourth, Lamberti claimed the hot seat.
Chang moved to the loss side and ran into Jimenez, who, at the time, was four matches into his seven-match, loss-side winning streak. That streak had begun and advanced to the meetup with Chang via two shutouts, over Mike Johnson and Ronnie Sheng Xu, both of whom had awarded Jimenez a ‘bead on the wire’ in a race to 5. The matches in the middle of those two, straight-up races to 5, eliminated Anthony Torre (2) and James Ehrig (3). Rick Rodriguez joined the loss-side club and met up with Rachel Lang, who’d followed her opening-round loss to Jimenez with four straight, as well, the latest of which had eliminated Nicole Adams by shutout and Jose Vega 5-2.
Jimenez and Lang advanced to a quarterfinal rematch; Jimenez over Chang 5-2 and Lang over Rodriguez 6-2. In pool’s ‘mental’ game, the past is supposed to be just that; gone, forgotten, ignored as any kind of ‘issue,’ but in these quarterfinals, both were highly motivated in their quest for advancement, for different reasons. It resulted in a double-hill match with Jimenez being the recipient of a single ‘bead on the wire’ in a race to 5.
Jimenez won the quarterfinal match against the woman he’d sent to the loss side and advanced to the semifinals for a meetup with the guy who’d sent him to the loss side, Mark Watt. Different ‘mental game’ dynamics in this one. There had been only two matches for Watt between his winners’ side victory over Jimenez and their rematch in the semifinals. Jimenez was at the tail end of winning six (non-stop) in a row, while Watt (according to the digitalpool time stamps) had sat more or less idle for an hour, waiting for Jimenez to finish vanquishing Rodriguez and Lang.
It was the old ‘momentum’ vs. ‘rest’ debate that accompanies a lot of semifinal and final/double-elimination final matches. ‘Momentum’ took this random, semifinal sample-round of play. Jimenez gave up just a single rack to Watt and advanced to face Lamberti, twice as it turned out, in the true double-elimination final.
Same debate, different specifics. Lamberti had waited for an hour and a half before Jimenez stepped up to the tables to finish the tournament. Jiminez, rather dramatically, while giving up two ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 7, chalked up another round to ‘momentum,’ as he shut Lamberti out to force a second set. The ‘match’ parameters were different in that second set; the same two ‘beads’ on the wire for Lamberti, but in a race to 6. This time, they battled to double hill (a ‘draw’ in the momentum/rest debate) before Jimenez closed it out to claim the event title.
Tour director Dave Fitzpatrick thanked Chris Kemp and her Shooters Family Billiards’ staff for their hospitality, along with sponsors Outsville, Billiard Engineering, JFlowers Cues & Cases, and Brutal Game Gear, Kamui, Off the Rail Apparel, and John Bender Cues. The next stop on the Garden State Pool Tour, scheduled for Sunday, February 23, will be an Open 10-ball tournament with a maximum of 32 entrants and hosted by Bergen Billiards in Palisades Park, New Jersey.
