Cindy Dorsey, John Schmidt, Brandon Shuff, Thomas Dorsey

The Tiger Tour was at Diamond Billiards in Midlothian Virginia for the first time this past weekend on May 31st and June 1st. The room added a total of $2500 to the event with the help of Jagermeister, a cue donated by John Schmidt 's sponsor OB1, and the sponsors of the Tiger Tour.

The field was a strong one with 41 players coming out to prevent Manuel Chau from taking a fourth tournament in a row. 20 excited ladies were in attendance to compete for the title of Virginia State Champion. Saturday's line up included several of the top points leaders of the tour along with some new faces from the Richmond area, and three of the ladies that were warming up for their competition on Sunday.

The surprise visitor from Florida was pro player John Schmidt. John is currently sponsored by the host pool room and wasn't about to let them down. John's tournament run didn't allow a single player to reach above four games. His wins on Saturday included Dave White of Norfolk, VA 9-3, Larry Kressel 9-4, and in his final match for Saturday against Dustin Paris ended brutally 9-3. This earned him a Sunday spot where he would meet Richmond local David Hunt in the Final Four of the winners' bracket.

The defending Chau continued to look strong starting out on Saturday winning his first match 9-2 against Mark Little, but as the day wore on his matches grew closer to the edge with wins over John Newton 9-7 and Paul Helms 9-8. This put him into the final four on the winners bracket for Sunday where he would meet up with Planet Pool Tour Founder Danny Green. The women faired well on Saturday. However, only 2007 Tour Champion My-Hanh Lac made it into the final twelve cash spots. My-Hanh fought her way through the winners' bracket Saturday with wins over William Moon 9-7 and Joey Ryan 9-6. She was sent to the elimination bracket by Danny Green 9-5 where she met up with Richmond local Larry Kressel and was defeated 7-5.

After a full day of matches, Diamond Billiards put together a special evening action ring game. The contest featured a $200 entry with John Schmidt, John Newton, Larry Kressel, Joey Ryan, Brandon Shuff and Manuel Chau. Manny came out ahead in the end with Joey Ryan taking second place.

Schmidt's run on Sunday continued as he quickly dispatched David Hunt 9-3 to finally meet up with tour points' leader and winner of the previous three events, Manuel Chau. This was a much anticipated match up between the two, but Schmidt again dominated the table and sent Chau to the elimination bracket with a 9-4 win. Brandon Shuff was waiting for Manny in the elimination bracket. After taking an early upset loss on Saturday to Paul Helms, Brandon began plugging away to get back to the top. With wins over Dave White 7-5, John Newton 7-3 and an early Sunday win over Eric Moore 7-1, Brandon then eagerly took on Larry Kressel and defeated him 7-0. He looked to be unstoppable as he went up against Manny Chau defeating Manny 7-1 to face off against John Schmidt. The finals however weren't as evenly matched as we had hoped and John walked away with the first place prize money of $1100 after blanking Shuff 11-0.

After the match we had a moment to catch a quote from John. “I want to thank everyone at Diamond Billiards in Midlothian Virginia. The Tiger Tour put on a great event and they treated me very nice. I am happy I played well and got

My-Hanh Lac

The ladies division Sunday saw 20 players all vying for the title of Virginia State Champion and a much coveted spot at the WPBA 2008 US Open. With a surprise visit from Virginia's Governor Gilmore, the ladies were really in the spotlight. Newcomer to the tour Iris Ranola of Manila, Philippines, appeared to be the toughest competition for Ming Ng and My-Hanh Lac early in the day.

The big surprise for the day was long time friend of the tour, Christine Foster. Christine pushed her way through the winner's bracket defeating Ann Bellamy 7-4, and Katie Cowan 7-5, but was sent to the elimination bracket by Lac. She didn't give up and went on to defeat Sharon O'Hanlon 7-5 for a shot at Ming Ng. Ng didn't give her a chance quickly defeating her 7-0 sending Christine into 4th place. Ng and Lac matched up to see who would go on to play Ranola in the finals. It was Lac coming up with the win. Lac is already qualified for the US Open and was competing strictly for the Virginia State title. Lac came out ahead 9-7 against Ranola. Ranola will be attending the WPBA 2008 US Open alongside My-Hanh Lac. We wish both ladies the best of luck!