Charlie Bryant wins his second Houston Open with a Hill-Hill win over Jeremy Jones 7-6. With both players living in the Houston, it makes this an all Houston , Houston Open Final. So next October you need to come to Houston to see if you can take off our locals. We don't think you can!. 122 players from all around the country came to play. With top picks Cliff Joyner, Charlie Bryant, Jeremy Jones. Gabe Owen and Marco Marquez just to name a few and with the total prize fund at $37,175.00 it got hot in Houston.
By Sunday the Open was down to 32 players with many of the top picks already in the one loss bracket or driving home. By the afternoon we were down to the big money matches. With Jeremy Jones defeating Charlie Bryant 9-5 and Barry Emerson defeating Rick Stanley 9-8 in the semi-finals of the winners bracket the matches were set to run like this. Hillbilly defeating Franco 7-6 and David Henson defeating Rick Stanley 7-4 then Hillbilly defeating David Henson 7-5 and finally Hillbilly defeating Barry Emerson 7- 4 to meet Jeremy Jones in the Finals.
Now the finals, a true double elimination format with the first set going to nine and the second going to seven. Hillbilly came out on fire in the first set taking it 9-5 to force the final race to seven with the action going like this. Hillbilly breaking sending the cue towards the lights only to come up dry, Jeremy plays safe, Hillbilly plays safe, Jeremy misses the hit, Hillbilly with ball in hand comes short for shape on the four ball hits it good only to miss the 5 ball but it goes two rails in the corner, Hillbilly tried a tough shot with a back-up safety but misses both, Jeremy runs out 1-0. Hillbilly makes the five ball on the break then runs to the six but comes short on the shape, Hillbilly shoots at the six but misses, Jeremy plays a two rail safe but scratches, Hillbilly runs out 1-1. Jeremy breaks and runs out 2-1. Hillbilly breaks and runs out 2-2. Jeremy empty on break, Hillbilly plays safe, Jeremy kicks safe, Hillbilly takes foul to lock up the balls, Jeremy plays safe, Hillbilly misses hit, Jeremy with ball in hand runs to a 8-9 carom 3-2. Hillbilly breaks and runs out. Jeremy empty on break, they play six safety's before Hillbilly make a tough out 4-3. Jeremy breaks and runs out 4-4. Hillbilly makes the seven ball on the break only to hook himself behind the eight playing shape for the three ball, Jeremy with ball in hand runs out 5-4. Hillbilly empty on break, Jeremy runs out 6-4. Hillbilly makes the two ball on the break then plays safe, Jeremy kicks the one in the side buts then misses a 3-6 combo in the corner, Hillbilly runs out 6-5. Jeremy scratches on break, Hillbilly runs to the eight but gets hard and misses the cut, Jeremy plays safe but leaves Hillbilly a long eight ball shot with the cue ball just off the end rail and the eight slightly off angle two thirds down table he just spears it in for shape what a shot HILL-HILL last set of the finals with Jeremy Jones breaking what more could anyone in the building ask for, what a tournament!!!. Now Jeremy is breaking for the set, Jeremy empty on break, Hillbilly has a shot at the one with a 2-9 combo straight in the corner, Hillbilly makes the one but plays shape way long, Hillbilly now must play safe or shoot a 2-9 back cut carom. He looks at long and hard, decides to shoot the carom, and it just barely falls for he's second Houston Open Title!!
Congratulations to Charlie Bryant the Hillbilly for a tough win. We would like to thank Legends Billiards for hosting such a great event. They really did a great job handling the crowd of players and spectators. Special thanks goes out to Mindy and Craig Cohen owners of Legends Billiards along with tournament directors Denis and Trisha Strickland for all there hard work. Also JD Hymel for his help Sunday with the charts.
Much thanks goes out to Amanda Ramirez For running the break contest that paid out over $1600.00 with Charlie Bryant winning the pot on Saturday and Charlie Mora winning the Sunday Pot. Our vendors were Ron Geyer with The Custom Cue Connection, Joe Salazar with the Connoisseur of Custom Cues and Jerry Oliver with Jerry Oliver Custom Cues.
Total Payouts
1st Charlie Bryant $10,591
2nd Jeremy Jones $7,184
3rd Barry Emerson $5,193
4th David Henson $3,402
5th-6th Franco & Rick Stanley $2,216
7th-8th Clint Freeman & James Davis Sr. $1,566
9th-12th Soneel, Edgar Acaba, Derek Fontenot and Sylver Ochoa
13th-16th Howard G., Todd Lewis, Younger Chapman and Ernesto Bayaua
Pictures by Jeremy Byrd. Story by Bill Fuller.
