Filler & Reinhold Storm Buffalo’s

Tony Chohan and Joshua Filler

As soon as Buffalo’s Pro One Pocket Championship ends, one pocket players and aficionados can’t wait for next year’s event.

Presented by PoolActionTV.com, owner James Leone (“Buff”) and his General Manager, Steve Tesvich, welcomed thirty six of the top one pocket players on the planet and a full field of 128 nine-ball players plus hundreds of fans who stampeded to Buffalo’s Billiards in Jefferson, LA for their Tenth Annual Pro Classic.

There were three divisions – the $1,000 added One Ball One Pocket, the $20,000 added Pro One Pocket and the $10,000 added Open Nine-Ball tournament.

The One Ball One Pocket event had a $200 entry fee and was single elimination with races to four. The double elimination Pro Classic One Pocket event had a $2,000 entry fee with races to five on both sides. The Nine Ball event was also double elimination with a $100 entry fee, played on seven footers with races to seven on both sides and alternate break. Once down to sixteen players, it was single elimination with races to nine – finals to be one extended race to eleven.

Following the players auction, meeting and draw, this year’s event kicked off on Tuesday evening with the One Ball One Pocket Championship. Sponsored by the Action Palace of Dayton, OH, forty four players joined the fray. When the smoke cleared, it was Germany’s Joshua Filler and USA’s own Josh Roberts in the finals. Roberts played great but it was Filler who added another title to his belt.

On Wednesday night, the main event, the double elimination Pro One Pocket Championship opened with a rousing player auction of the thirty six players entered into the event– final total $378,350!

As soon as the players meeting and draw was completed, play began and everywhere you looked, there was world class one pocket being played.

Racing through the brackets, it was BCA Hall of Famer Shane Van Boening, Sky Woodward, Joshua Filler, One Pocket Hall of Famer Scott Frost, defending champ Roberto Gomez, Devin Poteet, last year’s runner-up Tony Chohan and Fedor Gorst who made the final eight on the winner’s side.

In a nailbiter, it was Woodward over Van Boening 5-4, Filler over Frost 5-3, Gomez over Poteet – also 5-3, while Chohan edged out Gorst 5-4.

Filler tore through Woodward and Chohan thrashed Gomez – both scores 5-0. This set up the hot seat match – Filler smoked Chohan 5-1 and locked up his seat in the finals. Chohan headed west to await an opponent.

On the west side of the chart, Van Boening avenged his earlier loss to Woodward 5-2 but was eliminated by Chohan – also 5-2. Last year’s runner-up Woodward finished fourth and Van Boening finished in third place.

While the Pro One Pocket was winding down, the Open 9-Ball was just getting started. Playing on a sea of seven footers, the field was finally whittled down to the sixteen player knockout round. Within a few matches, there were four players left standing. Gregorio (“Guama”) Sanchez squeaked out a 9-8 win over Chip Compton and Chris Reinhold defeated the always tough John Morra 9-4. Compton and Morra finished in a 3-4 tie.

Chris Reinhold

The final match was tight all the way until Reinhold pulled away at the end to defeat Gregorio 11-8 and become this year’s Buffalo’s Open 9-Ball Champ.

It had been a grueling few days for all involved and the Pro One Pocket finals had finally arrived – it was time to crown a champion. Since this was true double elimination, Chohan would have to defeat Filler two sets for the title. After all the bets were down and everyone settled in, the match began.

Both players fought hard for every ball and game as Buffalo’s House Pro T-Rex looked to claim his fourth title and the Killer aiming for his first.

And did these players give everyone their money’s worth! Tied at four apiece, it was Filler who sank the final ball to win the premier one pocket event of the year!

For an interesting aside, Joe Long once again picked the winner – making it a total of four! And One Pocket Hall of Famer went for $2,000 in the auction and cashed $14,000!

PoolActionTV.com would again like to thank James Leone and his staff for going the extra mile to show players and fans the Big Easy spirit.

Thanks to Tournament Director Ian Jones for doing a great job juggling the various events. We’d also like to thank Larry Schwartz, Billy Incardona, Jeremy Jones, Joe Long, Scott Rabon, John Hennigan (“Johnny World”) and Gary Bradshaw for their expert commentary.

Thanks to custom cuemaker Steve Lomax of Lomax Cues for donating another beautiful $2000 cue!

Congratulations to Joshua Filler and Chris Reinhold for becoming this year’s Buffalo’s champions!

See you next year!

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