BJ Ussery fought off a hard charging Eddie Abraham to win the 2005 Planet Pool Tour Season Opener at Champions Billiard Cafe in Laurel, MD. The event, with a field of 121 players in the open division, was the largest in Planet Pool Tour history.
Ussery took the hot-seat with a dominating 9-1 win over Walter Koch who had already surpassed his best performance on your yet. On the one-loss side, Eddie Abraham and Lee Holt were battling it out to see who would face Koch. Both Abraham and Holt had lost their first matches of the event and charged through the one-loss side knocking out some of the tournament favorites. Abraham has eliminated last year's #1 Mike Davis and #2 Ryan McCreesh, while Holt had eliminated Keith McCready, Brett Stottlemyer (who won 2004 year end final) and Pooky Rasmeloungon.
Abraham won the battle with Holt and then proceeded to send Koch to the bleachers with a 3rd place finish. This set up the final match between Abraham and Ussery Due to a change in format this year, the final match was a single set.
Abraham lead the match most of the way and was ahead 6-4 before Ussery came back to tie the match 7-7. Ussery continued to ride that momentum and won the last two games for the 9-7 victory.
Ussery earned $1500 for first, while Abraham settled for $1000. Koch and Holt filled out the top four spots.
In the ladies division, Sueyen Rhee bounced back from a loss to Kathleen Lawless and crushed her opponents in the next two matches for the tournament win.
Rhee lost 7-6 to Lawless for the hot-seat, but did not lose another game as she defeated tour newcomer Janet Keith 5-0 and then Lawless 7-0 in the finals.
Rhee pocketed $475 for first, while Lawless took home $320 for second. Keith and Kathy Friend filled out the top four spots.
The Planet Pool Tour will be at First Break Cafe in Sterling VA on February 12th-13th for their next event.
Complete Payouts:
1st BJ Ussery $1500
2nd Eddie Abraham $1000
3rd Walter Koch $650
4th Lee Holt $420
5th/6th Nick Prinsloo, Danny Green $280
7th/8th Shawn Toni, Pooky Rasmeloungon $200
9th/12th Don Steele, George Hammerbacher, Mike Davis, Chad Pike $140
13th/16th Jim Henson, Ryan McCreesh, Keith McCready, Buddy Chilton $110
Women's division 1st Sueyen Rhee $475
2nd Kathleen Lawless $320
3rd Janet Keith $210
4th Kathy Friend $140
