Keith Shahan Dominates Monday Night Pinball at Free Play Abilene
Monday nights in downtown Abilene mean pinball under the neon glow at Free Play Arcade. Patrons flock to the Cypress Street location for the eat-and-play passes, the hot honey pepperoni pizza, and a sprawling game floor that features everything from basketball and skiiball to fighting games and premium pinball tables. On Monday, July 6, 2026, organizer Chris Delp called a tight, twelve-player field to the flippers for a two-stage tournament that tested stamina just as much as shot accuracy.
The evening kicked off with a four-round Group Match Play qualifier before funneling the top half of the roster into a high-stakes Amazing Race finals format. With ninety-five minutes of qualifying and over two hours of elimination-bracket pressure on the line, every drained ball carried weight.
The Monday Night Field
The twelve competitors who showed up for Monday’s bracket brought a mix of fresh enthusiasm and seasoned local talent to the floor. Nine unranked players stepped up to challenge three IFPA-ranked regulars, creating an environment where a single stellar game could completely upset the standings.
The undisputed heavy hitter in the room was Keith Shahan, an Abilene hometown hero holding the IFPA #489 national rank and sitting comfortably at #35 in the Texas NACS standings. Shahan entered the tournament with immense momentum, having secured two victories in his last five events. Standing in his way was Sarah Kader, an ascending player who had recently boosted her rank to IFPA #20,663 by landing three consecutive top-three finishes. Further down the roster, unranked competitors like Vernon Lambert, Knoahh Dorris, and Nicholas Conway prepared to prove they could hang with the state’s ranked talent.
A Flawless Qualifier for the Top Seed
In Group Match Play, competitors battle in four-player groups, earning points based on their finishing position on a given machine. Shahan gave the rest of the field a masterclass in consistency, sweeping his way through the preliminary rounds. He put up the top score on all four of the machines he played, taking maximum points in every single round on his way to securing the number zero seed for the finals.
While Shahan dominated his groups, the rest of the field fought tooth and nail for positioning. Vernon Lambert and Knoahh Dorris found themselves locked in a tight, evenly matched battle throughout the evening. The two competitors shared four games during the tournament, and each finished ahead of the other exactly two times.
The pressure peaked in Round 4 on Stern’s 2024 release, The Uncanny X-Men (Pro). The table demands careful shot management; competitors looking for a massive score boost can start the lucrative Save the City mode by hitting each shot three times before firing away at the center ramp. In a grueling seventeen-minute showdown, Knoahh Dorris captured first place and 7.00 points. Sarah Kader claimed second for 5.00 points, while Lambert took third with 3.00 points and Troy 88 finished fourth for 1.00 point. The dust settled, and the top six players moved on to the finals.
Conway’s Climb from the Back of the Pack
The tournament shifted into an Amazing Race format for the finals, a cutthroat structure where all remaining players compete individually on the same machine. The player with the lowest score at the end of the round is immediately eliminated.
Nicholas Conway entered the finals as the bottom seed, but quickly proved that preliminary rankings mean nothing when the ball is in the plunger lane. In Round 1, Conway put up 3,887,110 points on Stern’s The Mandalorian (Pro), safely outlasting fourth-seeded Calyn Wheeler, who was eliminated in sixth place with 2,624,020 points.
Conway kept his Cinderella run alive in Round 2, surviving on Cactus Canyon (Remake) with a score of 4,343,050 while Knoahh Dorris bowed out in fifth place. The field continued to narrow as Vernon Lambert was knocked out in fourth place on Godzilla (Pro) during Round 3. Conway’s deep run from the back of the bracket finally came to an end in Round 4 on The Uncanny X-Men (Pro), where his 7,470,780 score wasn’t quite enough to survive, sending him home with a highly respectable third-place finish.
The Iron Monger Decides the Crown
Conway’s exit left the top two seeds, Keith Shahan and Sarah Kader, alone on the floor to settle the championship. The final battleground was Stern’s 2014 Iron Man (Vault). The table features a motorized Iron Monger figure that rises from beneath the playfield to disrupt shots, and it heavily rewards players who can start Iron Man 2X scoring just prior to initiating the Do or Die mode, which doubles the hurry-up value to a massive 70 million points.
Kader fought hard in the Round 5 elimination game, logging a solid 3,216,950 points on the fast-paced table. But Shahan, who had been untouchable all evening, stepped up to the flippers in Round 6 and closed the door. In a blisteringly fast two-minute game, Shahan racked up 7,309,790 points. It was the widest scoring margin recorded on any machine during the finals phase, leaving no question about who owned the room. Kader’s performance secured her second place and extended her impressive streak of podium finishes, while Shahan walked out into the Texas night with another well-earned victory.
Final Podium:
- 1st Place: Keith Shahan
- 2nd Place: Sarah Kader
- 3rd Place: Nicholas Conway
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