Back To Back: Laaksonen Wins Stop #4
Kim Laaksonen is currently enjoying a SIXTEEN match winning streak as he takes down Stop #4 at Diamond Billiards in sunny Fresno, California. He is undefeated as a new player on tour, playing flawlessly and executing both textbook runouts and less than ideal clusters of 9 ball. He started his barrage of wins with a shutout against Aimee Super, followed by a great match with young gun Tyler Styer 9-6. Reid Fleming and Tinsley Johnson went down in convincing victories as well before Kim's run was nearly ended by MWST veteran Vilmos Foldes. In a stunning hill-hill victory, Kim hit a gear and never looked back. He faced off against March Player of the Month Jason Williams, who fared well and put up a 9-6 scoreline leading up to the hotseat match against Brian Parks. Both players had great showings in the match, but a few unforced errors by Parks let Kim through the door 9-5.
After losing to Kim in the mid stages on the winner's side, Vilmos Foldes regrouped and defeated Sal "Son of A Gun " Butera 9-4. This put him on track to go up against junior star Spencer Ladin, who played a great set and nearly defeated Vilmos in another hill-hill match. Next, Foldes faced off with up-and-coming player Ben Hrabina - an Arizona shooter who is making quite a name for himself on the tour. Ben put up a good fight but was defeated 9-6. Foldes took out his next 2 opponents - Oscar Dominguez and Brian Parks - 9-4 in each set to take him to the final against Kim.
In the finals, Kim and Vilmos exchanged closely tied scorelines, meeting at 2-2, 7-7, 8-8, and 9-9 before Kim put his game in high gear and closed out the set 11-9.
In the $500 Added Second Chance 9-Ball Tournament, SoCal Super 7 Omar Vachhani and April Player of the Month Aaron Remijio met in the final match (Aaron's second consecutive finals appearance), with Aaron taking down the cash.
We would like to thank everyone who came out to play, support, and watch this weekend. We especially want to thank Sheri and Pat Dadian at Diamond Billiards and their amazing staff for their service during the long weekend hours of the event! Additionally we would like to thank Mezz Cues & West State Billiards for making this tour possible, and our many sponsors Zan-Tip, Turtle Rack, On The Wire Creative Media for the live stream coverage, Fast & Loose Designs, Iwan Simonis Billiards for sponsoring the Second Chance Tournament, QKS Cases, Jam Up Apparel, Aramith - Billiard Balls, John Barton JB Cases, Tony Rodriguez Re/Max, Eddie Cohen, CSI - CueSports International, and James Hanshew.
Stay tuned for more updates on tour stops!
