Roberts goes undefeated to win Stop #7 on The Pool Series
It can seem at times as if Josh Roberts is like a hawk, free-floating about the countryside, his hawk eye keeping an eye out for tournaments that whet his appetite for competition. Without a lot of warning or fanfare, he’ll swoop down out of the sky and grab the tastiest item (cash prize) on the […]
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Josh Roberts
It can seem at times as if Josh Roberts is like a hawk, free-floating about the countryside, his hawk eye keeping an eye out for tournaments that whet his appetite for competition. Without a lot of warning or fanfare, he’ll swoop down out of the sky and grab the tastiest item (cash prize) on the menu. He sometimes has to settle for less than the best ‘cause he’s not the only hawk in the sky, but wherever he goes, them other hawks tend to be very much aware of his presence and the possibility of him landing on the top prize ahead of them.
Always a threat and a generally quiet one at that, Roberts’ best (recorded) earnings year with us here at AZBilliards was in 2022, when he won three major events; The Iron City Open’s One Pocket division and its One Ball One Pocket division, along with the River City Open’s Banks division. But what earned him his highest spot on our AZBilliards Money Leaderboard that year (#21) were the 23 other cash finishes he recorded, all but three of which were inside any given event’s top 10.
This past weekend (Sat., May 10), the hawk was cruising around overhead in his own territory and spotted Stop #7 on the Carolinas-based Pool Series, an ongoing series of events, allowing frequent ‘flyers’ the opportunity to amass points during the year in quest of an end-of-year prize fund for the top three finishers’ – 1st $1,000, 2nd $500 and 3rd $250. The top 64 in the standings receive an invitation to a $2,500-added event to close out The Pool Series season.
So, down he swooped, into the $1,000-added event, with its 32-maximum competitors hosted by Brass Tap & Billiards in Raleigh, NC. Roberts went undefeated through five opponents in six matches, downing Gregorio Sanchez twice; winners’ side semifinal and single set of the true double-elimination final.
It was one of those ‘short races to 3, best of 3 sets’ formats that makes for quick action at the table, but very little to write about when it comes to scores that might otherwise provide readers with a sense of how a given match played out. We only get to tell you about set scores (2-0 or 2-1), which tell you something, but leave out a lot. The maximum number of games that can be associated with any ‘race to 3’ set would of course, be three (1-0, 1-1, 2-1, set over). The minimum number of games would be two (1-0, 2-0, set over). Individual game scores have a way of reflecting either a shutout or a double-hill match. The same is sort of true of set scores, except that a 2-0 set score doesn’t tell you whether each individual set meant the ‘races to 3’ were a shutout or went double-hill; 2-0 in sets could mean that in one of those sets (or both) an opponent actually won a game. 1st set would go 1-0, 1-1, 2-1 with player X winning the set. Same with the second set for the match win. Player X’s score would be 2-0, even though his opponent battled him to double hill in both sets.
Roberts went 2-0 in sets in four of his six matches. It was the same opponent in both of the 2-1 sets, Sanchez.
Roberts took the first three 2-0, downing Joe Hyatt, Jr., Mike Davis, Jr. (points leader in the Series at the moment), and Christian Fuller, which put Roberts into one of the semifinals against Sanchez. From the other end of the bracket, it was BJ Ussery, Jr. wending his way to the hot seat match. Ussery lost a single set in his opening round to Hank Powell and did not lose one to either The Pool Series’ tour director, Justin Clark or Dustin Wiley, which allowed Ussery to pick up Joao Sias in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Roberts gave up the first of only two sets he’d give up all day to Sanchez and advanced to the hot seat match against Ussery, who’d shut Sias out (in sets). Roberts shut Ussery out in sets to claim the hot seat.
Over on the loss side, Davis had followed his loss to Roberts with four straight; three 2-1 set victories over Pat Dixon, Chris Clark, and Jason Rogers, with a set shutout over Steven Page (ahead of Rogers) to draw Sanchez. Kaleb Hixon, who’d lost his opener in a set shutout versus Roberts, won five straight on the loss side; four by set shutouts, before Gindac Ciprian Gabriel won a set against him. Hixon drew Sias.
Sias eliminated Hixon 2-0, while Sanchez allowed Davis a single set before advancing to the quarterfinal against Sias. Sanchez downed Sias 2-0, but one could have bet and won money that that wasn’t going to happen in the semifinals against Ussery. And it didn’t. Sanchez took a 2-1 set win. It would have been nice to have been able to report on the actual game wins in those three semifinal sets as both competitors battled back and forth for a shot against Roberts, waiting for one of them in the hot seat. Was it three, double hill sets, with two of them won by Sanchez. Or two set shutouts and one set win for Ussery? We await the programming of a bracket system that would track the individual games within the sets, although frankly, we suspect that the report would go on forever.
Same wish for the double-elimination, ‘best of ‘three’ set final. Roberts took the first (and only) set (in sets) 2-1 to claim Stop #7 on the Pool Series.
Tour director Justin Clark thanked the ownership and staff at Brass Tap and Billiards for their hospitality, as he began preparations for the next stop on The Pool Series. Scheduled for the weekend of May 17, the $1,000-added, 9-Ball Open (same races to 3, best-of-three sets format), with a maximum of 32 entrants, will be hosted by Sticks & Stones Family Billiards and Grill in Rock Hill, SC.
