Wilson Becomes the Winner

Wilson Becomes the Winner
USPPA Championship / Reno, NV

by Rick Davis

The USPPA Championship event concluded with Carl Wilson Jr. as the overall winner after a big comeback following a mid-event defeat. The annual event, which took place November 30-December 3, drew in a whopping 160 players to the Sands Regency Hotel in Reno, NV. The handicapped, double-elimination 9-ball event uses a computerized ranking system to rate the players to determine how many games they must win with a maximum of 8 and a maximum spot of 5.

On the winners’ side the last two standing were Jeff Heath and Frank Giordano, and after a close call it was Heath who advanced by defeating Giordano 8-6. On the one-loss side Carl Wilson Jr. was on a comeback run and was quickly approaching the remaining top players. Wilson started strong by taking his first four matches but was then defeated by Mike Morany and sent west. Wilson was not discouraged, though, and took another trio of matches to reach the top six. There Wilson eliminated Jamie Bruce while Patrick Rhea knocked out Mark Tiu. Wilson and Rhea went at it in the quarterfinals, but Wilson was unstoppable at that point and ousted Rhea 8-5 then sent Giordano to follow him after eliminating him 8-6 in the semifinals.

With a true double-elimination format Wilson had to defeat Heath twice to take the win, and after taking the first set 8-6 Wilson had the eyes of the entire field upon him. Finally, after taking six matches on the one-loss side and making a huge two-day comeback, Wilson steamrolled Heath 8-2 in the second set to claim victory.

Results:
1st Carl Wilson Jr.
2nd Jeff Heath
3rd Frank Giordano
4th Patrick Rhea
5th Mark Tiu
Jamie Bruce
7th Deo Alpajora
Marshall Williams