LW Pool Club

The LW Pool Club held its monthly tournament on Jan. 24. Eight ball with 12 two-person teams was played in a double elimination format. This is very different from a regular seven round tournament. In professional tournaments, double elimination formats are often used to eliminate players who have no chance of finishing in the money. If a player loses the first game, his or her team goes to the loser’s bracket, where it will play another team that has lost the first game. If the player loses that game, the team is out.

The last two teams remaining in the winner’s bracket were Barry Brideau and Gary Monahan, against Bruce Pettys and Patrick Conlon. Brideau and Monahan won, which sent them to play Rusty Aquino and Brian Burke, who fought their way through the loser’s bracket to be the remaining team with one loss. When Conlon scratched on a bank shot, that gave Aquino ball-in-hand for an easy shot on the eight ball.

This set up the final match between Brideau and Monahan, who hadn’t lost a game, against Aquino and Burke. As always, in a double elimination format, the team with one loss must win two straight games to take first place. The game came down to Aquino and Burke having one ball left and Brideau and Monahan were shooting at the eight. Aquino scratched the cue ball, which went three rails into the corner pocket. This left Monahan a shot at the eight, which was on the rail six inches from the corner pocket. Since Monahan is righthanded, he shot the eight in with the cue behind his back, instead of using the rake. If a player is confident in their pool game, it’s okay to show off once in a while.

—Dave Silva