Charlie Bryant held on to win the Viking Cue $10,000 added double regional Championship at The Pool Room in Marietta, GA this weekend with a second set win over 'Canadian Ice' Brian Butler.
As play started on Sunday, the previously unbeaten players started falling from the ranks fast. Both Helena Thornfeldt and Monica Webb forfeited their matches on Sunday when they couldn't make it to the room. That opened the door for BJ Ussery and David Broxson to advance unchallenged. Earl Strickland, the second most expensive player in the calcutta dropped a match early Sunday and couldn't seem to get it together on the one-loss side. He finished in 9th place.
On the winners side, Charlie 'Hillbilly' Bryant took the hot-seat with a dominating 9-2 win over Butler. Butler went to the one-loss side and beat David Broxson 7-4 in a match that wasn't even that close as Broxson couldn't get anything really started all match long.
The true double elimination finals got under with Butler taking an early lead over Bryant in the first set. Bryant clawed his way back into the match on two different occasions, but continuously player catch-up finally caught up with Bryant as Butler won 9-6. Bryant turned the tables on Butler in the second set and quickly got out to a 4-0 lead. Butler got back to 4-2, before Bryant raced to the hill at 8-2. Butler won the next two games, but it was too little too late as Bryant won the 13th rack for the 9-4 victory.
Bryant earned $4920 for first place, while Butler settled for $3500. Broxson and Ussery filled out the top four spots.
All in all, it was a great event with a room full of fans who stayed until 2am just to watch the final match between Hillbilly and Butler.
The $25,000 added Viking National Championship will get underway on Wedneday at Palace Billiards in Villa Park, IL. We will have complete coverage of that event with brackets and photo galleries from Diana Hoppe.
Complete Payouts:
1st Charlie Bryant $4920
2nd Brian Butler $3500
3rd David Broxson $2500
4th BJ Ussery $1700
5th/6th Brian Capps, Stevie Moore $1100
7th/8th Ronnie Park, Paul Song $750
9th/12th Bruce Berrong, John Schmidt, Earl Strickland, Jim Jennings $475
13th/16th Todd Drake, Aaron Frady, Robert South, Dave Maddux $300
17th/24th Mark Gregory, Jeff Abernathy, Jerry Grooms, Helena Thornfeldt, Patrick Brown, Scott Lewis, Horace 'Groundhog' Godwin, Monica Webb $200
25th/32nd Rich Howard, Billy Tyler, Joe Tucker, Paul Turner, Bill Bailey, Ed Pope, Joe Rossman, Chuck Dorsett $100
Photo courtesy of Diana Hoppe - Pool Pics By Hoppe
