The 3rd Stop of the USBA Tour was held at George's Billiards in Boynton Beach , Florida. Three Gabriels tables were used to accommodate a 14-player field. This was a “B” player tournament, meaning that no player who had an average of .800 or better was allowed to play. The event was run by Jim Shovak, Jake Zymeck and room owner George Vittini. Players had to be turned away for this event, since there were only 2 days with which to play and 3 tables to use.

Fourteen players, mostly local, all competed for a first-place prize of $ 1,300.00. The total prize fund was $ 3,650.00: entry fees of $ 145.00 per player and $ 1,620.00 which was added to the prize fund by the USBA.

Among the local players were Don Sperber, Robert Raiford, Mercedes Gonzales, Tom Harwood, Henry Ugartechea, Mike Rossner, USBA Director Jake Zymeck, Tony Cardona, and room owner George Vittini. The out-of-towners included Joe DeAmato and John Magulas from Massachusetts (room owners of World Class Billiards in Peabody , MA ), USBA Secretary/Treasurer Jim Shovak from New York , USBA Director George Theobald from Chicago , and Eric Hughes from DC.

The field was divided into 2 flights of 7 players each, the A flight and the B flight. The top 3 from each flight advanced to a 6-man round robin final. Because of time constraints, the preliminary matches were 15-point games. The final matches were 20 points each.

Click on the flight names to see Tournament Charts.

Flight A:It was obvious from the start that the players to beat were Joe DeAmato and Jake Zymeck. Third place was a dog-fight between Mike Rossner, Jim Shovak, Tom Harwood and Tony Cardona who had the best game in the flight with a 1.250 average. By the time the last matches were played, Joe DeAmato and Jake Zymeck had already assured themselves a spot in the finals. Tom Harwood would have advanced if he had won his last match, but suffered a devastating loss to Eric Hughes. Mike Rossner hurt his chances of advancing by suffering a 15-14 defeat to Jim Shovak who needed to score 11 points in his final match against Joe DeAmato to advance. In that final match, Joe DeAmato started the scoring with a crushing 8-run against Shovak, the high-run of the tournament. Shovak came back strong to make it 9-6 in DeAmato's favor. Later, DeAmato's lead was 13-10, and Shovak needed just one more point to advance, but that last point eluded him, as DeAmato finally went out, 15-10, sending Shovak to the showers, and allowing Mike Rossner to advance to the finals. They both had the same record and the same number of total points scored. The next tie-breaker was "points against", the number of points that all your opponents scored against you. Mike Rossner gave up fewer points, so he advanced.

Flight B: In the “B” flight, it was Don Sperber leading the field early with a grand average of .804 and a 3-0 record along with George Theobald, also 3-0. Theobald had the best game in his flight, 15 points in 13 innings, a 1.154 average. By the time the last preliminary matches came around, it was an even-worse dog-fight than the “A” flight. Almost everyone in the flight still had a chance to advance to the finals with 2 matches left to go. Don Sperber suffered 3 disappointing losses in his final 3 matches, including a loss to Henry Ugartechea, who averaged 1.000 against Sperber, and a final match loss to Robert Raiford, knocking him out of the finals. George Theobald survived some scares and finished 4-2 to advance. Robert Raiford and Mercedes Gonzales, after shaky starts, found their strokes and finished strong with 4-2 records to advance.

Finalists and Tournament Directors: Jim Shovak, George Theobald, Mercedes Gonzales, Jake Zymeck, Joe DeAmato, Mike Rossner, Robert Raiford and George Vittini.

Finals: In the finals, which lasted 5 rounds, it was Joe DeAmato, Robert Raiford and Mercedes Gonzales leading the way, all with perfect 2-0 records. Raiford and Mercedes had to play each other next, so someone had to lose. Mercedes came out on top, 20-12. Raiford had to play DeAmato next and never seemed to be able to get in the game, losing 20-7 and killing his chances of finishing in first place. DeAmato and Mercedes both won their 4th-round matches, giving them both 4-0 records. The final match would determine the winner of the tournament. The loser would automatically finish in 2nd place, since everyone else already had 2 or more losses. Robert Raiford won his final match 20-6 and went out in style in just 9 innings for the tournament best game average of 2.222, assuring him of 3rd place.

The last match was anticipated greatly by the crowd, as Mercedes was the home-town favorite. Jim Shovak was the referee of the match and George Vittini kept the score. The game started very slowly with DeAmato in front 5-1 after 11 long innings. Mercedes ran a 3 to make it 5-4, and 2 innings later ran a 4 to lead 8-6. DeAmato fired back and took the lead 12-8. Two innings later DeAmato was up 15-10 after a 3-run and looked strong. An inning later it was 16-11. Mercedes scored 2 to make it 16-13. DeAmato scored a point, but Mercedes came right back with 3 more to close the gap to 17-16. DeAmato, determined to win, scored a 2 and missed the 3rd point to give him a 19-16 lead, needing just one more point to become the Champion. Mercedes scored 1 and missed, 19-17. DeAmato misses again and Mercedes scores another point to make it 19-18. Mercedes misses and leaves DeAmato a very easy short-angle shot. DeAmato shoots it and misses it long. The crowd can't believe it. Neither can DeAmato. Mercedes scores another point to make it “hill-hill” and is left with a short-angle. She misses it and again the crowd groans in disbelief. DeAmato is left with a make-able shot. Not an easy shot, but make-able. He hits it and again it just barely misses on the long side. DeAmato can't believe he missed it. Mercedes is left with a decent shot and makes it and the crowd goes wild!

Robert Raiford (3rd), Jim Shovak, Mercedes Gonzales (1st), Joe DeAmato (2nd)

Who said that women couldn't compete with men in billiards? Mercedes didn't know about that, so she went-ahead and won anyway. Congratulations to Mercedes Gonzales, the Champion of the USBA Tour 3rd Stop. Well done, well done. The prizes were awarded as follows:

1st Place : $ 1,300.00 Mercedes Gonzales

2nd Place : $ 900.00 Joseph DeAmato

3rd Place : $ 650.00 Robert Raiford

4th Place : $ 400.00 George Theobald

5th Place : $ 250.00 Mike Rossner

6th Place : $ 150.00 Jake Zymeck

A brand-new $ 500.00 Schuler Cue, generously donated by Schuler Cues, was raffled off and was won by George Vittini's future son-in-law. Thanks to everyone who helped out and thanks to all the players for making this a very successful event! The next stop of the USBA Tour is at Southgate Billiards in Southgate, CA. There is a “B” tournament and also a handicapped “A” tournament to be held June 15-17. Please contact Jim Shovak at 516-238-6193 if you wish to participate. Entry fee is $ 105.00 for B players and $ 205.00 for A players. First place prizes are anticipated to be at least $ 1,000.00 for the B tournament and $ 1,500.00 for the A tournament.