Los Angeles Pool League

Results are in for our 50TH Anniversary Tournaments which were held this past weekend at Jerry's Billiards in Pasadena. These tournaments were handicapped according to the Fargo ranking of the players. This meant that the higher ranked players had to win more games than a lower ranked player, thus creating a "level playing field" for all those competing.  

Our Scotch Doubles event was held Saturday, December 7th and 26 players represented 13 teams.  This was an exciting event and the results were as follows: 

1st Place:   Chris Taganas & Baj Khatao (1,136)

2nd Place:  Lori Perry & Frankie Galvez (809)

3rd Place:  Fabian Martinez & Eduardo LOBO Rangel (1,121)

4th Place:  Matthew Bradbury & Brenden Quigley (976)

These winning teams played great with lots of strategy and communication amongst the partners.  We want to congratulate Chris and Baj for a great first place win.  We also call out the exceptional effort made by team Lori and Frankie taking second and team Matthew and Brenden taking fourth especially because they were ranked in the middle of the pact behind higher ranked teams.  This means that they had to play exceptional pool.  Congratulations to Fabian and Lobo on their third place finish.  

Our Singles event was held on Sunday, December 8th and 41 players competed for seven top spots.   This tournament brought in a range of player levels with the top Fargo ranked player Juan Cajina at 627 and the lowest ranked Fargo player being Tod Davenport at 309.  In fact, there were 18 players ranked above 500; 12 players ranked in the 400s; and 11 players ranked in the 300s.  The winners were as follows:  

1st Place:  Roberto Valenzuela (562)

2nd Place:  DJ Kinne (567)

3rd Place:  RHINO Lay (619)

4th Place:  Yuri Cortes (475)

5th Place:  Lori Perry (411)

6th Place:  Ray Cruz (619)

7th Place:  Jesse CRASH Palomares (501)

Prize money and trophies were provided to those that placed.  Great Job Roberto, Baj and Rhino our top three spots.  

We want to call out the exceptional efforts of Lori Perry who with Partner Frankie Galvez, took second in the Scotch Doubles and fifth in the Singles was quite an accomplishment.  

The tournaments ran smoothly and it was a great day of sportsmanship and competition.  Los Angeles Pool League brass came out to play including Vern Addison, top women's player from the 1980s, 1990s and her nephew Michael.  Pat Bingham also a long time LAPL player also came out to visit.  

We are especially thankful to players who came from Lake Forest, Long Beach, Simi Valley and Palm Springs to play in the singles event.  

Tod Davenport designed and produced our 50th anniversary T-Shirts and Steve Duckman, LAPL President choose the trophies for both tournaments.  Thank you to Jose Torres, Lori Perry, Steve Duckman, Tod Davenport and Jon Bourgault for helping organize the event.  We appreciate the support of Jerry's Billiards and its owner Frank for supporting our league.  Finally, we appreciate Natalie and Elio of Jerry's who were a great help during the event and are always helpful to our league and our members.



Al Ballesteros

This past Sunday we had our first fundraiser of the season at the Eagle LA.

A big thank you to Charlie and Marcus for opening up early and keeping us all hydrated.

In memory of long time League member and former President of the Board, John Cochran, we held our Greased Lightning 8 ball tournament. It was a quick moving competition on a 15 second shot clock. With only a handful of players showing up, it was by majority vote, switched to a money tournament. A portion of the registration fees going towards the League and the rest going to the 1st and 2nd place winners.

Our 3rd Place honorable mention was Vu Tran. Winning 2nd Place was Mark Lewis. Our King of the Hill and undefeated 1st Place winner was Ken Lee.

Thanks to a donation by an anonymous patron at the bar who enjoyed watching our players race against the stop watch, $105 was made by the League.

Next week, November 5th is an off night for all teams due to the Presidential election. November 12th is our 5th week of play and our Spring 2024 Awards Party.  All teams will have their matches at Jerry’s. From 6:30 to 8pm we will have food, drinks and a raffle for all members, past and current who attend. Each player will receive 1 free drink ticket and 3 free raffle tickets.

All Captains from last season donate 2- $20 prizes. Additional raffle tickets can be purchased at the start of the Awards Party for a chance at winning over $400 in prizes.

Come early on November 12th, eat, drink and win some prizes. Awards will also be given out to last season’s 1st and 2nd Place teams, West Coast Challenge qualifying winners and any fundraiser winners who requested a trophy. At 8pm, all 5th week matches will be played by the 8 teams who do not have Byes. A table will be available for the team that has a BYE that night to practice on.

Shoot Well. Play Fair. Have fun.

Steve Duckman
LAPL President