Skyler Woodward and Robert Gomez
New Town, ND was ground zero for pool this week as players converged on the Four Bears Casino and Lodge for their 25th Annual Eight Ball Classic.
This popular event was kicked off with a $2000 added Men’s and a $500 added Women’s 9 Ball Mini-Tournament. Eighty men and seventeen women put up their entries to try for their piece of the cash.
A total of $6000 was up for grabs as Dennis Orcollo claimed $1600 for first place, Oscar Dominguez received $1100 for second and Jamie Pluta got $800 for third place.
Melissa Little claimed first and $600, Toni Sakamoto got $400 for second and Caela Henley-Huddleston took home $200 for third place.
The women’s division of the Eight Ball Classic started with 50 players. When the smoke cleared, it was Caela Henley-Huddleston and Nicole Keeney fighting it out for the hot seat. Nicole prevailed and sent Caela west to await the results of the Jessica Moxon-Toni Sakamoto match. Jessica took down Toni leaving her in fourth place with a $900 payout. Jessica proved to be too much for Caela – she finished third with a $1000 check in addition to $730 from the Calcutta.
Nicole Keeney is no stranger to final match action and she defeated Jessica for the title and the first place prize money of $3500 plus a Calcutta payout of $1825. Jessica received $2000 in prize money and $1095 Calcutta cash for her runner-up finish.
The Men’s 8 Ball Classic started with a star-studded field of 163 players. By this evening, the field had been whittled down to four superstars. Shane Van Boening defeated John Morra – leaving him in fourth place and a $2800 payday plus $3924 from the Calcutta. Shane found Sky Woodward waiting for him after a defeat in the hot seat match against Roberto Gomez. Sky was a man on a mission as he defeated the always tough SVB leaving him with a third place consolation prize of $3300 plus $7412 Calcutta money.
The hard-fought final match was down to the wire – 6-5. Roberto emerged as this year’s Four Bears Eight Ball Classic Champion – he received $10,000 in prize money plus $16,132 Calcutta money for his efforts. Sky had to settle for second and a $5000 check plus $11,772 for his portion of the Calcutta but he rocketed past Rodney Morris and Oscar Dominguez to take second position on the Mosconi Cup Points list with his performance in this event.
Congratulations to Roberto Gomez and Nicole Keeney – this year’s Four Bear Eight Ball Classic Champions!!!
PoolActionTV.com would like to thank the Four Bears Eight Ball Classic Committee for putting together another outstanding event. We’d like to thank the Four Bears Casino and their staff for again laying out the welcome mat to players and fans alike.
PoolActionTV would like to thank all our viewers, Terry Hanna and everyone behind the scenes who helped make this match possible. Thanks to Jason Sword, Brandon Shuff and Ricki Lee Casper for adding their excellent and knowledgeable commentary.
We’d like to thank our sponsors – Kamui, Hanshew Custom Cues, Club Billiards of Wichita, KS, Outsville, Aramith, Simonis, Lomax Custom Cues, Durbin Custom Cues and GoPlayPool.com. Thanks to all - it couldn’t have been done without you!!!
Next stop is Dave Cole’s Carom Room in Beloit, WI for their Fall Classic 10 Ball. Dates are September 23-25th. Hope to see you down the road!!!
