Lovely double dips Keeney to win Ladies Tournament
Danny Smith went undefeated through a field of 39 entrants, including the "Kentucky Colonel," Nick Varner, in a $1,000-added One-Pocket Tournament, held under the auspices of the Midwest 9-Ball Tour, on the weekend of November 15-18. The One-Pocket tournament, which began on Thursday and ended on Friday night, was held in conjunction with a $3,500-added Open 9-Ball tournament (still ongoing as of late Sunday night) and a $500-added Ladies Tournament, won by Liz Lovely.
Smith's path went through Varner as they squared off in one of the winners' side semifinals. L.V. Abernathy and Shane Winters were the other pair. Smith and Varner battled to double hill before Smith prevailed, advancing to the hot seat match to take on Winters, who'd shut out Abernathy. Smith got into the hot seat 3-1 and waited for what turned out to be Joey Gray.
Varner moved west to pick up Gabe Owen, who'd shut out Tommy Tokoph and just did survive a double hill match against Billy Thorpe. Abernathy was the one who had the misfortune to draw the loss-side streaking Gray, who'd gotten by John Gabriel and Shane McMinn, both 3-1 (Gabriel would go on to finish third in the 9-Ball event).
It was Varner and Gray advancing to the quarterfinals; Varner 3-1 over Owen, and Gray shutting out Abernathy. Gray and Varner then locked up in a double hill match, eventually won by Gray, who would go on to win a second double hill battle, this time against Winters in the semifinals. Gray would be engaged in a third straight double hill match in the finals. This time, though, he came out on the wrong end, as Smith took him down to complete his undefeated run through the field.
Liz Lovely took the 15-entrant Ladies Tournament, and had to double dip hot seat occupant Nicole Keeney to do it. They met first in the hot seat match, won by Keeney 7-5. On the loss side, Luci Cook downed Jenny Shafer in the quarterfinals 7-1, and got a shot at Lovely. Lovely defeated her 7-1 in the semifinals for a second chance against Keeney. Lovely took the opening set of the true double elimination final 7-4 and finished her comeback with a 7-2 victory in the second set.
