The Ulrich & Associates inaugural $500-added tournament attracted 32 excellent players, including two women, Tina Pawlowski and Connie Rim.  The strong field that came out to support this tournament included Dave “The Wave” Hemmah of Los Angeles; San Diego’s own Victor Castro and Louis Ulrich; Peter Lhotka of Yuma, AZ; Marshall Jung of Los Angeles; and two of the APA’s three-man team tournament winners, Elias Valles and Fach Garcia.

Intense matches took place throughout, including the hill-hill win of Chip Kine over former Camel Pro Tour player Steve Eakins and a hill-hill rematch between Dave Hemmah and Peter Lhotka where Lhotka.  Lhotka was responsible for originally sending Hemmah to the o­ne-loss side of the chart, but in their rematch, Hemmah ended up with the win and eliminated his opponent.  In the match for the hot seat, College Billiards manager Victor Castro defeated Louis Ulrich 6-4, which sent Ulrich over to the west side.  

Hemmah, who placed fifth in the Sands Reno tournament last year, went o­n to play Ulrich, who at 15 was the youngest player ever to win the biannual USPPA Reno event.  Now, 13 years later, Ulrich, more knowledgeable now, used his seasoning to defeat Hemmah in an exchange of run-outs in a hill-hill match that saw Ulrich gain a shot at Castro in the finals.      

Castro who won College Billiards’ annual Jay Swanson Memorial Tournament in 2002, showed that even though he manages a pool hall, he’s still a tough competitor.  Ulrich started off the match up 5-0, and in the end, Ulrich won with a 9-5 victory over Castro.     Louis and Connie had the idea for the tour because they wanted to provide a regular organized tour for the players by the players and give back to the sport.  If the tour ends up successful, they are going to go out and look for more sponsors, as well as hold more tour stops for the upcoming year.  

Ulrich & Associates will be holding their second tour stop o­n Febuary 21-22, 2004, at Family Billiards in Oceanside, CA.  Tournament director Connie Rim said, “We want to thank all of the players who participated, as well as College Billiards for hosting the event.  We hope that we will see all of you at our next stop in February.”

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