The Lucky Dogs from Kemmerer won the 29th Annual AMOW 8-Ball State Championships held in Casper March 22-26. Last year the Lucky Dogs won the C Division in the VNEA pool tournament. This year there were five divisions in the BCA pool league in which Lucky Dogs placed first in the Silver Division. The tournament was put on by Cue Sports International and took place at the Ford Wyoming Center. The Wyoming State Pool Tournament starts with singles play on Wednesday and Thursday preceded by team play Friday through Sunday. 

Cody Baker plays as anchor for Lucky Dogs. He said, “I think we all played very solid as a team and played some of our best pool.” There are four people on each team and race to nine best games out of 16. The league is set up as a 16-game format with opportunity to play each person once. Baker said, “It’s a big deal to win two years in a row.”

Playing for the Lucky Dogs in the 2022 State Pool Tournament was Dave Shillcox, Justin Christen, Cody Baker, and Tanner Hansen. In this year’s tournament was Dave Shillcox, Jeff Christen, Cody Baker, and Tanner Hansen. 

Also in the tournament was a team called Tr8tors with two players from Kemmerer and two from Evanston. Joann Allan (Evanston) Stefanie Kraft (Evanston) Dean Meacham (Kemmerer) and John Brandis (Kemmerer) placed 7th out of 40 teams. Baker commended all teams that made the finals. He said, “It’s hard to make the finals. It’s a feat in itself.” 

Baker gave credit to his teammate and said, “Last year and this year Tanner Hansen made the winning 8 ball on both state championship matches.” Baker who shoots fourth for the team said the past two years Hansen hit the 8 ball to win the match. Baker said, “It’s a team effort but that shot ended it. He won his last game which gave us ninewins where I didn’t even have to shoot the last game.”   

Due to their win in a CSI tournament this season, the Lucky Dogs get free entry to the Vegas Pool Tournament next February. The Lucky Dogs won $4,380 as a team from the tournament.