As usual, Hawaiian Brian's Billiards was rocking all weekend as it hosted the bi-annual Aloha Open 9-Ball tournament. The weekend's festivities began Friday evening with a free reception for the 128 tournament players and their guests, featuring an open bar, sushi chef and pupu-laden tables.
The weekend was a time to renew old friendships and competitions with neighbor island pool players and to observe the skills of the future up-and-coming "young guns". And there was action before and after the tournament for all who cared to watch or participate, from $20 "5 and 9" 9-ball matches and ring-games, on up to a $500 a game 9-ball match-up.
The tournament itself found many of the "C" ranked players dominating the money list. The final match pitted Clayton Lee from the winner's bracket against Frank Kim emerging from the loser's bracket. Both players started off shaky, with Frank winning the first game with a billiard on the 9-ball, set-up by Clayton's failure to touch the 1-ball. But Clayton was the first to overcome his shaky start and began methodically running out when it counted, winning the championship match 3 to 1 and bragging rights as Aloha Open champion. Congratulations to Clayton Lee, our 2005 Aloha Open Champion.
Complete Results:
1st Clayton Lee $3,500
2nd Frank Kim $1,800
3rd Matt Kato $1,000
4th Clayton Franklin $500
5th/6th Donavan Pang, Robert Hong $300
7th/8th Darren Feliciano, Domiador Pader, Jr. $220
9th/12th Eric Morikawa, Arte Durante, Jeff Dulay, Kurt Kobayashi $150
13th/16th Derek "Moose" Naito, Kevin Yonesaki, Jay Zablan, David Antenorcruz $110
17th/24th Jordon Beers, K. Reyes, Eddie Marshall, Daniel Kahaliwai, Jerry Tran, Kelii Chuberko, Chris Shimabukuro, Brian Kumura $80
25th/32nd Hawaiian Brian, Danny Kukonu, Kevin Lum-King, Wayne Hirakawa, Jr., Fred Regal, Lane Sato, Ano Tauala, Jerry Haggadone $60
