Vegas pool tournament heats things up

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Collin Schmidt
  • 341st Missile Wing Public Affairs
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  A team of eight Airmen from Malmstrom Air Force Base spent a week in Las Vegas to compete in the 2013 American Poolplayers Association National Team Championships.
The team competed in the 8 ball division, which is a type of pool game where the player must sink the eight ball after sinking either all the striped or solid balls first.

To qualify for the Las Vegas tournament, the team finished in first place during a Friday night league game and second place in the regional competition.

"It was a pretty fun experience," said Team Captain Brian Borchlewicz, 341st Missile Operations Squadron electronics laboratory team chief. "I got the chance to meet some famous pool players such as Jeanette Lee and Mike Massey. When our team won the regional qualifier we were given $2,100 for the trip to Vegas so when we arrived we rented a house for the week - hot tub and pool included!

"The tournament took place at the Riviera casino. There was something like 250 pool tables in one giant room with a huge tournament bracket on the wall with 740 teams on it, Borchlewicz said. "We found our place on the bracket and it would tell us the team we were competing against, what time we were scheduled to play and the table number that we would be playing on. It was pretty crazy."

During the competition, each team was required to put up five players to compete. The composition of the teams was based on a point system, which determined the skill level of each player with each team having a combined skill level of no more than 23 points.

"Our team consisted of myself, skill level 7; Staff Sgt. Matt Harris, SL-5; Master Sgt. Chris McCabe, SL-4; Tech. Sgt. Rickey Cascell, SL-5; Tech. Sgt. Chris Zachary, SL-4; Staff Sgt. Nikki Hill, SL-3; Staff Sgt. Donnie Hoffman, SL-3 and Senior Airman Nick Buck, SL-5,"Borchlewics said. "We played a seven, a five, two fours and a three skill level every time," Borchlewicz said. "It's a smart strategy because you get the most numbers for your money. We finished in 129th place out of 740 teams and were one match away from 65th place, which is the best any Montana team has ever done. Looking back on it we did pretty well."

Borchlewicz and his teammates were the first all-military team to compete in the Las Vegas tournament.

"Plans for the future are to get another team together and see if we can make it down to Vegas again," Borchlewicz said. "Every Friday night we're going to compete and see how far we can go. It's a long road ahead but we have a great team and the experience alone is fun. I'm looking forward to it."