top of page

2019 Coughlin Open Artistic Pool Championship


    On November 1st-3rd Artistic Pool players from all over the US converged on the newly opened Big Money Billiards Parlor in London Ohio for the inaugural Coughlin Auto Artistic Pool Open. An overall champion would be crowned as well as the eight discipline champions.
     The tournament was played on 7ft diamond tables with Simonis 860HR felt and featured Aramith pro cup TV balls.
Day 1 saw players shooting the first half of the program and 4 of the 8 disciplines of Artistic Pool which are Trick and Fancy, Special Arts, Draw and Follow Shots. When the smoke cleared, The Trick and Fancy champion was “The Farmer” Marty Carey with a perfect score of 40 out of 40. Special Arts was won by “The Michigan Kid” Jason Lynch with a score of 37 out of 40.
    After the first two disciplines, Jason Lynch was tied with hometown pro Brian “Superman” Pauley both with scores of 75. The next round consisted of the Draw and Follow disciplines. Jason Lynch and rookie Theo “Bloodshark” Mihelis tied each with a score of 38 out of 40 in the Draw. Players went to a playoff with both players missing the first playoff shot in the famous “Circular Draw.” Players then went to another playoff shot with Jason edging out Theo for the draw title. The follow discipline title went to returning player Tim “The Dragon” Chin with the second perfect score of the day. After day one the scores were extremely close with Jason leading at 140 with Tim right behind him at 138.
The end of day one saw the favorite side event of an open speed pool event to benefit the Special Olympics of Madison County. Players broke a full 15 ball rack and had to clear the table as fast as they could, leaving the 8 for last. Jason Lynch won the event just edging out fellow artistic pool pro “The Bayou Bullet” Jamie Moody.
     Day 2 saw players finish up the remaining 4 disciplines and start the quarter finals. Players finish the prelims by shooting shoot shots from the Bank/Kick and Stroke Disciplines. Jason Lynch double dipped and won both discipline titles with the third perfect score of the tournament in Bank/Kick and a 38 out of 40 in stroke. The last round saw players compete in the fan favorites of Jump and Masse. Both disciplines were won by cue makers specific to those discipline with
the creator of the Marty Cary Jump cue Marty Cary winning the Jump discipline with a score of 38 out of 40 and Abram “Too Tall” Diaz of Too Tall custom cues winning the masse discipline title with a score of 28 out of 40. This saw the preliminary rounds come to an end with Jason Lynch the number 1 seed with a score of 271, 34 points ahead of the number 2 seed Abram Diaz
     The top 8 players advanced to the heads up playoff round. The first matchup saw the number 1 seed Jason Lynch (271) take on the number 8 seed Andrew “The Enigma” Sozio (145). Andrew held his own but Jason was having a great weekend and won on the last shot 94-79. The next match featured number 2 seed Abram Diaz (237) vs Brian Pauley (200). This players went shot for shot the whole way through with Brian failing to hit Abrams last challenge shot and falling short 58-56. The 3rd quarterfinal match featured the number 3 seed Tim Chin (233) vs the 6th seed Marty Cary (201). Tim got past Marty 96-72 on his next to last challenge shot. The last match saw number 4 seed Theo Mihelis (224) vs the number 5 seed Jamie Moody (218). Like with some of the matches already, this went down to the last shot. Leading by 5 point and the last shot, all Theo needed was to pick an hanger shot to mathematically eliminate Jamie. Theo picked the “Poolhall Junkies kickshot” but missed on all three attempts leaving the door wide open for Jamie. Jamie needed to hit the shot on any attempt and finished the match off by making in on the 1st attempt to win 87-84. The semifinals were set leading into the last day.
Two side awards were given out after the players dazzled the crowd with their individual shot creations. Theo Mihelis won the rising star award, an award for players who have played in less than 3 events with the highest score, as well as the Sportsmanship award voted on by the players.
The final day saw two semifinal matches and then the finals of the event. The first semifinal match saw Jason Lynch against Jamie Moody. Jason got out to an early lead and even with Jamie mounting a comeback, Jason did not relinquish the lead and won 87-58. The second semifinal match saw Abram Diaz against Tim Chin. Tim caught a grove and seemed to not be able to miss a shot. Abram struggled to mount any momentum and could not come. Tim advanced to the finals with a 60-23 victory.
The finals saw two artistic pool veterans in Jason Lynch and Tim Chin. Like with his semi final match Tim caught a grove and seemed like he could not miss. After hanging with Tim for the first couple shots Jason could not find a grove and went several shots without getting points. Tim hit the “open the gate” 2mm draw shot on the first try to get the win 77-28.
This event also saw another big deal with Abram Diaz earning the WPA Artistic Pool #1 ranking. We would love to thank the many sponsors of this event. Big Money Billiards parlor for the generosity and hosting the event. Simonis cloth for provide the best cloth in the business to play on as well as Aramith Balls. McDermott cues for the raffle cue as well as the Marty Cary jump cue and Too Tall custom cues. This event was streamed by Railbirds TV. Congrats players.

bottom of page