Tommy Ulbik, Denny Sneed and Daniel Herring
On the weekend of February 21-22, Daniel Herring won his first Omega Billiards Tour Stop! The event was $,1,500 added with 80 players and held at The Billiard Den in Richardson, Texas.
After a great opening day on Saturday, there was still a lot of great competing going on. By Sunday afternoon, Tommy Ulbik defeated Curtis Cardwell hill-hill, then Steve Raynes 6-3, and also Jeremy Jones 6-6 to win a spot in the hotseat. Daniel Herring defeated Crispian Ng 7-3, Steve Collins 7-4, and Denny Sneed 7-1 to also win a spot in the hotseat.
On the one-loss side, 2014 Tour Champion Nick Conner defeated Phillip Palmer 8-2 and Crispian Ng 8-2 before running into a determined Denny Sneed who won 7-1. Barry Emerson defeated Paul Guernsey 8-4, Steve Collins 8-3, Cory Anderson 8-6, and Jeremy Jones 8-5.
Barry and Denny were then battling it and it went hill-hill with Denny coming out on top. Barry would place 4th.
In the hotseat, another battle was going on between Daniel and Tommy. It was the first time for each to be in the hotseat and both were playing really, really well. When the smoke cleared, Tommy had won hill-hill. This sent Daniel to the one-loss side where Denny Sneed was waiting. Denny was the farthest traveler (from Odessa, Texas) and he got off to a good start against Daniel, up 4-1. Daniel didn’t give up though and won the next 6 games and defeated Denny 7-4. Denny would get another third place under his belt on the Omega Tour!
Daniel then matched up against Tommy again, this time in the finals. Daniel won the first set in the double elimination format by a score of 7-2. He would repeat that score in the second set to earn him his first Omega Tour stop title!
After the event, Tournament Director Melinda Bailey talked to both players. She asked Daniel how it felt and he said, “Great.” That’s it? “Okay, it feels awesome. I was upset I lost the hosteat match hill-hill and then when I found myself down 4-1, I didn’t want my tourney to end that way. Then I won 6 in a row to get another chance in the finals. I felt like I’ve been due for a win for quite some time. I haven’t won a big tournament in many years, so this feels really awesome. ”
Tommy was a little deflated to get second, but still very happy with his highest finish yet. Tommy said, “I just tried to forget about my misses and play the right shot.” Well, it worked!
Daniel would win his FIRST Omega event and Tommy would place an impressive 2nd out of 80 players! Congratulations to ALL the players!!
A HUGE thank you goes out to our sponsors Omega Billiards Supply, Predator Cues, Poison Break Cues, BCAPL/CSI, and Lucasi and Players Cues. We would also like to give a big thanks to our additional sponsors, Wallace Custom Cues, OB Cues, Irving Ink and Thread, Pro Billiard Service, AZBilliards.com, Billiards Digest, and BilliardsPress.com.
Melinda Bailey would like to thank The Billiard Den owners and staff for their awesome hospitality all weekend! A big thank you also goes out to Michael Hoang, main sponsor of the Tour and owner of Omega Billiards Supply in Hurst, TX. Michael and Omega Billiards Supply are well known for the huge booths at many of the large tournaments across the country.
The next stop of the Omega Billiards Tour will be March 28-29 at Pucketts in Fort Worth, Texas. $1,500 added and limited to 80 players. Still 6 more stops left before the $4,500 Season Finale! Pool is alive and thriving in Texas! Check out the website for more details on how to get involved in the Dallas-Fort Worth area pool tour:
And follow the brackets live online at: http://omegatour.challonge.com/
