New Iberia, Louisiana - Things are heating up on the bar tables at the Ozone BIlliards US Amateur Open 9-Ball Pro-Am. "The South Dakota Kid " Shane Van Boening sliced through the field thus far like a hot knife in butter, but there are still three heavy hitters left. All the players and fans are anticipating the final three matches with not only a $2500 1st Place bounty, but an additional $5000 for the winner in the calcutta. The events are still live at Emerald Billiards in Louisiana today.
While some of the top pros opted to not play in the Ozone Pro-Am event and focus solely on the pro 9-ball and pro 10-Ball divisions of the Poison DP Pro Classic, Shane jumped in right away. "I love the bar tables!", he exclaimed before his first match."I'm going to steal this tournament", he said with a kidding smile.
Not too many people can argue with that. Van Boening two days later now sits in the hot seat in the finals awaiting the last three players to fight it out. Among those are young guns Chip Compton of Oklahoma and James Davis, Jr. of Texas.
The dark horse to win might be Two time World Champion Thorsten Hohmann of Germany. Thorsten is appearing in only his second ever bar table tournament.
"I like the bar tables. I did well before in Reno and beat Shane before on them. I'm not afraid of anyone on the baby tables", commented Hohmann, a 400+ ball runner in straight pool (on the big tables).
Thorsten will have his work cut out for him because if he wins his next two matches and does meet Shane, he will have to defeat him twice in the finals. Meanwhile, Van Boening is also dominating in the big table pro 10-Ball event simultaneously and will meet Johnny Archer today for the winner's bracket finals.
On the ladies side, the two Asian ladies that have been turning heads all week are Kaori Ebe of Japan and Korea's Eunji Erica Park. They seemed destined to be on a collison course once Park was sent to the loser's side by last year's winner Ashley Kline. Park avenged that loss later and will face her roomate Ebe today.
Newbie professional Eunji Park fought through the loser's side to reach the finals today.
Watch the Ozone Billiards US Amateur Open Bar Table Pro-Am events for free at www.PoolActionTV.com including archived matches you may have missed.
Big Names, Big Action at Ozone Billiards US Amateur Open
July 31, 2011