The Northern Lounge hosted a player appreciation tournament with $1000 added to the event this weekend and it was won by an Arizona Hot Shot Pool League regular.  Taking home 1st place was Tres Kane.  He had to defeat Brian Poore in two sets to claim the title and top prize.  Finishing in third was 6 rated Matt Koskella.  

 Tres' road to the title included wins over Curt Antol 9-7 (Hill-Hill), Gil Munoz 9-3, Paul Vasi 9-6 (Hill-Hill), Matt Koskella 9-3 and Russ Baldwin 9-6 (Hill-Hill) before suffering his only loss to Brian Poore 7-4.  Brian fought his way to the hot seat starting with a bye before defeating Tom Leutz 7-5, Orrin Kolberg 7-6 (Hill-Hill), Burt Balancad 7-4, Don Burns 7-6 (Hill-Hill) and Tres Kane 7-4.

     Matt Koskella proved why he has the skills to move to the next level.  After suffering his only loss to Tres he sent these cashing players home; Jimmy Brewer 6-2, Don Adams 6-5, Don Burns 6-4 and Troy Ridder 6-7 (Hill-Hill).  Matt deserved another shot at Tres Kane by his efforts, however, he fell short in his second try and was sent home with a third place finish by the score of 9-4.  Congratulations to Matt for being the highest finishing 6 rated player.  

     The finals match pitted the two best players of the weekend in Brian Poore & Tres Kane.  Tres was hot and determined fresh off his win over Matt and fought to a 9-4 first set win.  Set two started with a 1-0 lead for Tres.  An unfortunate miscue in game two cost Brian 4 straight games as Tres pocketed the last three balls in game two before back to back 10-ball breaks and a run out in game 5.  With a 5-0 lead in his pocket Tres hit the after burner and capitalized on his momentum, and finished off the tournament with a 9-1 win.  With little tournament play in January, Brian came out and showed why he is a threat in every event he enters.   Many thanks go out to 'The Fireman', after the win he proceeded to buy a round of beverages, donate $50 to the Sunday Night Scotch Doubles tournament that was running at the same time & donate another $50 to the Travis Draughon tournament prize fund running next Sunday the 30th at the Northern Lounge.   

     On a last note, there was alot of conversation about the Arizona Rating Committee raising everybody back up one level.  There wasn't one voice heard that thought this move would be positive.  A couple players commented that it would cost the ARC credability.  As many players studied the large tournament board for this event, you could see how close almost all the matches were.  The lower rated player has a shorter race than before increasing their percentage of winning.  Tell your local ARC member what you think about the potential change or come to the next meeting and let us hear YOU speak!

     The next Appreciation points list starts February 1st, don't miss out!