23 women came out to Northern Lounge to play for this 8-ball tourney and $885 in prize monies! This was the perfect opportunity for women to get some 8-ball tourney practice before the BCA's in May, and Northern Lounge was the perfect place to host the event!
Two of the best 8-ball players in the state met up in the hot seat match! Bernie Store against Marney Teague. Both ladies played incredibly well all weekend to get to this spot. It was a tough match and Bernie came out victorious beating Marney by 5 to 2.
Meanwhile we all knew Michelle Trevino, (2nd in points standings after March's event) and Susan Williams, (Currently 1st in points standings after March's event), were destined to face each other and sure enough they did! The two met up on the b-side in the 8th round, for 4th place! Both ladies were knocked to the B-side Saturday in the 2nd round and had been fighting their way back! Michelle scratched and made the 8-ball in rack 5, which landed Susan on the hill with a 3 to2 lead. Michelle came back and won the next game making it tied hill-hill. In the final game, Susan completed a tough 6-ball out which won her the match by the score of 4 to 3! Congratulations to Michelle for 4th place and $95 in prize money!
Susan next met up with Marney in a battle for 3rd place. Susan won the first game, Marney won the second and the third. Then Susan won the next one making it tied at two a piece. Marney won the next one which put her on the hill. Susan won the next making it tied hill-hill. The last game was very tough with a big clump of ball on the spot. Great safeties were played by both players until the cluster was finally broken up and Susan was left with an open shot and able to see her object ball. She took full advantage of the table from there, made the last few balls and won the match. Congratulations to Marney for a fabulous 3rd place finish and $145 in prize money!
Bernie's long wait was finally over. She was pumped and ready to play! Susan had made it all the way through the B-side to meet up with Bernie and we knew this was going to be a great match. Since this was a true double elimination tournament, Susan would have to beat Bernie in two sets of races to 5 to gain the victory.
The match started and Susan quickly won the first game. Then Bernie won the next 3 in a row! She was definitely in her groove! She is one of the funnest people to watch play! For instance, in game 4, Bernie ran the table and left herself an extremely difficult cut shot on the 8-ball. She made that 8-ball shot with ease which put her up in the count 3 games to 1!
Susan didn't let it frazzle her. The very next game, Bernie broke and ran the table down to 2 of her balls left then missed, which left a couple little clusters and all of Susan's 7 balls on the table as well. Needless to say, Susan came to the table with a difficult table staring back at her. She took a deep breath and calmly ran all her balls out perfectly, sunk the 8-ball and won that game and the next, which got her right back in the game making the score tied 3 to 3.
Bernie is a seasoned player as well and she didn't let Susan's comeback frazzle her either. The next game she came to the table with most of her balls and a couple little clusters just as Susan had the game before. She methodically made each ball and broke up each the clusters and ran the rest of the table. This win put her on the hill with the score of 4 to 3. The next, and what would turn out to be the final game, went back and forth between players. One shot it looked like Susan was going to run out, then a mistake would bring Bernie back to the table and vice-versa. This went on until there were only a couple balls left for each player on the table. Susan made one of her two remaining balls, but left herself unable to see her last object ball completely, which forced her to try a difficult cross bank. She missed the bank, which left Bernie up with a 3 ball out. Bernie made all 3 balls again with ease and won the game, the match and the tournament Victory!
Congratulations to Susan for an incredible comeback to 2nd place and $195 in monies! Congratulations to Bernie Store who won the event and the $270 in prize money! Bernie is an amazing player and a fierce competitor! We look forward to both of these ladies meeting up again in the tournaments to come!
The AWBT also held a free second chance event on Sunday and 8 women came back to participate! Congratulations to Kristie Ortega for the win and $58 in prize money and to Margie Stephanik for 2nd place and $32 in prize money!
We also held a 50/50 raffle! We raised $105 total and the winner was Bernie Store! Congratulations Bernie for your $52.50! Thanks to everyone who bought tickets!
A BIG HUGE thank you goes out to Larry, Marty and Sandy at the Northern Lounge! It's an awesome bar with great facilities and great playing tables and we had a wonderful weekend!
We look forward to seeing all of you at our next tournament which will be a 9-ball WPBA Qualifier to be held at Metro Sportz Bar on June 24th and 25th!
Top 8 Finishers:
1st Bernie Store $270
2nd Susan Williams $195
3rd Marney Teague $145
4th Michelle Trevino $95
5th/6th Kristin Haney, Vilene Stutesman $60
7th/8th Diana Clayton, Debbie Compton $30
