Raed Shabib
While headlines have tended to focus on the state of Florida’s fortunes in the wake of Hurricane Irma, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that Irma’s impact stretched further north, as far as Atlanta, GA, where as late as this past weekend (September 16-17), there were still thousands of people without power. Mr. Cues II in Atlanta had the power necessary to host a Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour stop over the weekend, though the continuing issues may well have contributed to a relatively low field of competitors. Raed Shabib navigated his way through a field of 28, on-hand for the $500-added event, and after dropping the opening set of a true double elimination final to Jeff Hooks, came back to win the second set and claim the event title.
Shabib advanced to a winners’ side semifinal against Marvin Reed, as Jeff Crawford squared off against Mike Chapman. Shabib got into the hot seat match with an 8-4 win over Reed. He was joined by Crawford, who’d defeated Chapman 9-3. Shabib claimed the hot seat with an 8-7 win over Crawford, who was racing to 9, and waited on the return of what turned out to be Jeff Hooks, who, at the time of the hot seat match, was in the midst of a five-game, loss-side winning streak that began with a defeat at the hands of Reed, and would give him a shot against Shabib in the finals.
On the loss side, it was Chapman who drew Hooks, three matches into his streak, with recent wins over John Maikke 7-4 and Bernardo Hernandez, 7-8 (Hernandez racing to 10). Reed picked up Justin Duncan, who was on a win streak of his own, having been defeated in the event’s opening round, and winning six straight to advance as far as the quarterfinals.
Hooks downed Chapman 7-2 and was joined in the quarterfinals by Duncan, who defeated Reed 6-5 (Reed racing to 7). Hooks and Duncan locked up in a double hill fight that saw both of them miss a shot at the 9-ball, three times, in the deciding game. Hooks eventually advanced to the semifinals against Crawford, where a 7-6 win (Crawford racing to 9) gave him a shot against Shabib in the hot seat.
With Shabib racing to 8, Hooks took the true double elimination opener 7-6. With one loss for each of them going into the second set, they battled to double hill for the title. Shabib hung on to win it 8-6 and claim that title.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Mr. Cues II, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Delta 13 Racks, AZBilliards and Professor Q Ball. The next stop on the Viking Cues' Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for September 23-24, will be hosted by Brown’s Billiards in Raleigh, NC.
