The Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour drew a field of 70 players to Rockford Billiard Cafe in Rockford, IL this weekend for a $2000 added event.
Right out of the gate, Adam 'GQ' Smith made himself the clear favorite with dominating wins over all opponents. Smith didn't allow an opponent past 6 games on his way to the match for the hot-seat and defeated Duane Tuula by the score of 9-0 during that run. Smith took the hot-seat with a 9-6 win over Marco Marquez and made himself comfortable confidently waiting for an opponent in the finals.
Marquez defeated Gil Hernandez on the one-loss side to earn another shot at Smith in the finals.
The finals started out close as both players traded games until the score was tied at 4-4. Smith came up dry on his break in the 9th game and it looked like that might be his last trip to the table as Marquez ran that rack and the next three to put himself at the table breaking with an 8-4 lead. Marquez made a ball on the break but had no shot at the 1-ball. A push out by Marquez was Smith's first trip to the table in four racks and he made the most of it by firing in a bank shot on the 1-ball and breaking out a cluster. Smith then answered Marquez's run and did it one better by running that rack and then the following four racks for the 9-8 win.
Smith earned $1800 for the win, while Marquez took home $1150 for second. Hernandez and Gordy Vanderveer filled out the top four spots.
The Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour will be at The Pool Room in Marietta, GA next weekend for a $10,000 added double regional championship. Note that this event was moved from The Pool Room 2 in Duluth Ga.
Complete Results:
1st Adam Smith $1,800
2nd Marco Marquez $1,150
3rd Gil Hernandez $750
4th Gordy Vanderveer $500
5th/6th Chris Patterson, Henry Brodt $300
7th/8th Derek Pogirski, Duane Tuula $200
9th/12th Nick Sterling, Troy Miley, Ike Runnels, Scott Cohen $100
13th/16th Mike Dunklin, Tom McCluskey, Rich Mager, Eddie Balderas $50
