 Brandon Shuff |
The tour returned to action at Champions Billiards Café in Frederick, MD on October 6th/7th for event #11. A big thank you goes out to room owner Gary Allen and his friendly hard-working staff for welcoming the tour. A strong but tough field of players came out to play for the $2000 added money in both the open and women's division events.
Brandon Shuff started his Saturday out with a 9-8 scare from Trevor Dentz. A quick 9-2 win over Tai Bui and a 9-5 score with Barry Bowman pitted Shuff against strong tour player Lee Holt. Holt was having a great day with a pair of 9-2 wins over Matt Clatterbuck and Dan Maruschak. Shuff advanced past Holt 9-7 to reach the final 4 winner side going into Sunday's play. The bottom half of the bracket was ruled by Manuel Chau who knocked off 3 Virginians in Luther Farley, Joe Russo and Larry Kressel. Joining Chau and Shuff in the final 4 were Jerry Slivka and Danny Mulhollen III both in the current Top 5 on the tour rankings.
Play continued Sunday with Shuff working his way through Slivka 9-7 and Chau squashing Mulhollen 9-3. An exciting 9-8 win over Chau put Shuff into the hot seat. Not much of interest was happening in the elimination bracket. Mulhollen and Slivka both advanced to meet up where Slivka sent Mulhollen home in the 4th spot. Slivka quickly took down Chau to set up a rematch with Shuff in the single set final race to 11.
The final started out with Shuff taking a commanding 6-1 lead. Slivka never throws in the towel and fought back to 7 with Shuff on the hill. Shuff pushed to a long tough jump shot which Slivka passed on without even getting out of his chair. Shuff confidently drained the improbable shot and maintained his composure to run the rack out. This was Shuff's first 9-ball Tiger Tour win. 1st was worth $1000 with $600 for 2nd.
A field of 12 ladies came out Sunday to shoot at the cash. The final four winner side came down to last event's winner Linda Shea, tour regulars Malea Haacke and Sharon O'Hanlon as well as Ming Ng making the most of a rare appearance. Shea advanced over Haacke 7-3 while Ng came out on top 7-6 with O'Hanlon. In the hot seat match, Shea took an early lead before Ng came back to win 7-5.
In the elimination bracket, O'Hanlon sent Haacke home in the 4th spot before losing to Shea. The single set race to 9 final saw a determined Shea take another early lead. Ng managed a couple more games but it was Shea winning with a 9-6 score for her second consecutive tour win. 1st was worth $380 with $260 for 2nd.
Click here for open division payouts.
Click here for ladies division payouts.
