David Lanthier
They came from everywhere this past weekend (Sun., Jan. 19) to try their hand at the Kraken $500 Entry 640 & Under 8-Ball Championship at Griff’s Billiards in Las Vegas. Fifty players in total came to compete from 12 different states and 4 provinces of Canada. They all brought their best bar table 8-ball games, but only one could be standing at the end.
Payouts went out to the top twelve finishers. Making the first round of the cash with good showing were Blake Kamiab of California, Tom Kitka of Alaska, Jeff Gray of Las Vegas, NV and Jorge Bermudez of Utah. Finishing tied for 7th place was Johnny “Bass” Sandifer of Colorado and Savannah Easton of Las Vegas, NV. Mike McCullah of California and Chris Seckinger of Utah both had strong finishes tying for 5th place. Rene Rendon of Texas fought through with a strong, classic game of 8-ball to finish proudly in 4th place. Late entrant, Trevor Sickendick navigated his way through the field to the match for the hotseat before losing to the eventual first and second place finishers to take 3rd place home to Oregon.
Bobby Campbell of Washington showed up to his first-round match to face off with the young, sharp-shooter from Florida, Sofia Mast. She won the hill-hill battle sending Bobby to the loser’s side with a long road ahead of him. Bobby took advantage of the downtime before his next match and was ready winning 6-2 over Kevin Beskal of British Columbia. He then caught fire with a 6-1 win over Mark Johnson of MO, a 6-2 win over Thatcher Vaughn of FL, a 6-4 win against Bo Jin of CA and a 6-4 victory with Tom Kitka of AK. He then stepped to the table to take on another young, shooting star in Savannah “The Road Runner” Easton of Las Vegas. Bobby was enough of a ‘wily coyote’ to take down the Road Runner 6-2. His match against Chris Seckinger was a battle. It had a bit of everything, but Campbell was successful in the hill-hill match. He then took down Rene Rendon 6-2 before facing off against Trevor Sickendick. Trevor had brought his game, and this one was a great match. Hill-hill, Trevor had a difficult long table shot on the 15 that went awry, leaving Bobby a long shot off the rail on his 6-ball. Bobby stroked it in coming around the table perfectly to get out and advance to the finals to face the undefeated David Lanthier of Ontario Canada.
David Lanthier was in form from the drop. He took down Rogeur Habachiy of CA 6-3 followed by wins over Mike McCullah 6-3, Tom Kitka 6-1 and Rene Rendon 6-2 before facing off with Trevor Sickendick for the hotseat. Sickendick had just come off of two great wins, hill-hill over Jeff Gray and 6-4 over Chris Seckinger and was looking strong coming into the hotseat match. Lanthier proved too strong, however, winning the hotseat match 6-2. In the finals it was a single race to 9. Bobby Campbell came out strong, sparring with Lanthier tying the score at 3-3. After a dry break by Campbell, Lanthier went on a tear running out, breaking and running, running out after another dry break (alternate break) followed by a break and run. After taking the next game to get to the hill, Lanthier got to the table in the case game and continued the clinic with a perfect runout to take down the inaugural Kraken $500 Entry 640 & Under Bar Tabe 8-Ball Championship!
We need to give a huge “Thank You!” to Griff’s Billiards, here in Las Vegas. It is easily one of the nicest pool rooms in the country with top notch equipment, great service and a food and beverage menu that is out of this world. We also would like to thank you M.O.B. Sponsors who make what we do possible: Table 34, Bramare Inspired Italian, Venom Pest Elimination, Jam Up Apparel, Sunrise Mountain Family Medical Clinic, Masterpiece Cuisine and Caveman Q’s. We would also like to thank the hardest working people in pool… FargoRate! Without FargoRate we would not be able to do what we are doing. Thank you!
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