Buffalos 2021

To put it simply, Buffalo’s means big action. We’ve heard of legendary high action rooms of the past – “The Rack” in Detroit, Cochran’s in San Francisco in the 60’s, Lambert’s in Texas. All those rooms are long gone, along with their unbelievable pool gambling action. Well guess what, that amazing action is happening 24/7 right here, right now at the world famous Buffalo’s Billiards in New Orleans. Owner James Leone caters to the players to the N^th degree, and the top players gather here, in droves – especially for the week leading up to Memorial Day, for Buffalo’s annual One Pocket Pro Classic.

The festivities began Wednesday evening with a One Pocket Hall of Fame virtual presentation of a “Lifetime Pool in Action” award to John Henderson live-streamed by PoolActionTV via a split screen featuring Mary Kenniston at Buffalo’s and senior action legend John Henderson from his rehab hospital in CA. [post screen shot of John with plaque]

The HOF presentation was immediately followed by a One Ball One Pocket “mini” tournament, featuring monster players and a full 32 player field. This was a very popular and fast moving event, both for the players, the sweaters and the betters!

Final results 2021 One Ball One Pocket mini tournament — player, tourney $, Calcutta $:

1^st John Morra, $2,800, $3,700
2^nd Jason Brown, $2,000, $2,800
3^rd/4^th Alex Pagulayan, $1,050, $1,400
3^rd/4^th Carlos Biado, $1,050, $1,400

The main event at Buffalo’s was their annual Pro Classic, featuring 20 of the top One Pocket players from across the globe. With its $2,000 entry fee and $10,000 added that makes for an attractive pay day for the top 4 places, right? But then how about you add the largest ever calcutta for a One Pocket event — a whopping $112,500, that also pays 4 places! No wonder players and fans alike are making Buffalo’s a “must attend” event. And the quality of play was as you would expect for these talented players giving it their all to try to earn their share of that big prize money. With the small field, and the tournament spread out over 4 days, the race to 5 games in true double elimination format stayed on schedule, but the cream as expected rose to the top, with recently adopted house pro Tony Chohan going undefeated to snap off the biggest payday, capped by his win over a resurgent Scott Frost in the finals.

Chohan had no easy path to reach the finals however, notching wins over up and comer Evan Lunda 5-1, then two time defending champion Alex Pagulayan 5-3, followed by three straight hill-hill match wins; veteran One Pocket guru Jeremy Jones, then pretournament favorite Dennis Orcollo, before facing Frost in the finals.

Final results for the 2021 Buffalo’s Pro Classic One Pocket:

1^st Tony Chohan
2^nd Scott Frost
3^rd Justin Hall
4^th Dennis Orcollo

Not to be left out of the competition, OnePocket.org had enough members on hand to hold their own Member’s Only Tournament, at nearby Lacy’s poolroom, with 14 member/players. Lacy’s graciously opened especially for us Saturday morning, including cooking a breakfast for us!

Final results 2021 Lacy’s Members Only Tournament:

1^st NH Steve
2^nd jtompilot
3^rd lfigueroa

Browse many more photos from Buffalo’s event here: https://www.poolinaction.com/2021-Tournaments/2021-Buffalo-Classic

NHSteve