The 2014 Malarkey’s Thanksgiving 9-Ball Classic Tournament attracted 77 pool players from Washington, Oregon, California and Canada. The weather wasn’t cooperating on Nov. 29-30, dumping 4-6 inches of snow that Saturday morning, but none of the pool players let that stop them from getting to Tacoma to for some of the best competition in the Pacific Northwest. Entry fee was $75 and the field filled up fast. Malarkey’s added $1,500, to make the total prize money $5,350. With 77 players, the race was to 7 on the A side and was shortened 6 on the B side. Once we got to the money rounds, the B side race went to back up to 7. Played on nine 9 ft Gold Crown tables, it took 16 hours on day 1 to get down to the final 16 players for day 2. Rail2Rail Productions furnished the live stream coverage and a new company from Canada, ScoreSaloon provided live match scoring on their website.
The competition was intense and two players, one from WA and one from Canada, immediately stood out from the crowd, demolishing their opponents as they charged through the brackets: Dan Louie and Simon Pickering. Dan Louie won the point against Leroy Dorsey and waited for the rest of the B side battle it out. On Day 2, Simon was sent to the B side by Rafael Martinez, but that didn’t stop Simon’s charge to the finals. He defeated some really top notch players, including Bob Zack, Stan Tourangeau and LeRoy Dorsey for a shot at Dan Louie in the Final Match. Simon won the first set against Dan Louie 7-3, but Dan was not going to be doubled dipped. Dan came back for the second set, stronger than ever and beat Simon 7-5 in that last set, winning the $1,400 first prize money! Simon took home $800 for his efforts. LeRoy Dorsey finished 3rd place. 1st High Woman was Jenny Lewis and 2nd was Joyce Robinson. Congratulations to the players finishing in the money.
Thanks to all the players that participated, Clark Smith, owner of Malarkey’s for sponsoring this event and adding $1,500 to the prize money, Rebecca Easley, the tournament director, for managing 77 players in one weekend, ScoreSaloon for introducing live match scoring and Rail2Rail for their complete live stream coverage so no one had to miss any of the Malarkey’s Annual Thanksgiving 9-Ball Classic.
