 Jerry Slivka |
The tour stopped in to Side Pockets in Laurel, MD for event #6 on June 2nd/3rd. This was a $2500 added event with a paid WPBA qualifying spot into the Florida event later this month. A strong field of 79 entrants in the Open and 26 ladies in the Sunday event came out to play.
Professional player Mike Davis rode a couple of strong wins over Shawn Toni and Danny Mulhollen III 9-3 and 9-4 to advance to Sunday. The bottom half of the bracket was controlled by Jerry Slivka who took down points leader Shaun Wilkie 9-4 to earn his spot in the last 8. These two stars were joined by Larry Kressel, Brian Deska, Myke Munoz, Joe Cataldi, Mitch Trainham and Walt Hendrick.
Sunday started out with no surprises as Davis advanced over Munoz 9-7 and Slivka rolled Hendrick 9-0. Slivka continued his perfect play going up 6-0 on Cataldi who had easily defeated Trainham 9-2. Slivka won over Cataldi earning his spot in the hot seat match. Kressel defeated Deska and fought hard against Davis but fell short 9-8. The much anticipated winner side final was worth the wait as the score wound up at hill-hill. Davis came away with a 9-8 win.
There were a couple of nice runs in the elimination bracket. Brandon Shuff lost his second round match and then stormed back with 8 wins before falling to Kressel 7-5. Wilkie also kept his chances alive with 6 wins including putting Kressel into 4th place 7-5. The rematch between Slivka and Wilkie had the same outcome as before with Slivka advanced easily 7-2. This set up another rematch in the single race to 11 final for Slivka and Davis. This was a hard fought match as Davis returned from a 5-1 deficit to make the score 9-9. Slivka took this one 11-9 to earn his second event title of 2007. 1st was worth $1100 with $750 for 2nd.
The story in the Sunday women's event was the continued domination of the Tiger Pool Tour Women's Division by My-Hanh Lac. She has won 3 out of 5 events this year and maintains a huge lead on the points list as well as the WPBA Regional Tour points list. Lac is not content to wait until next year to play on the WPBA and was determined to win this qualifying event. Lac did not have an easy path having to defeat Caroline Pao, Sharon O'Hanlon and then Falon Farleigh 7-4 to reach the hot seat match. Her opponent was none other than Ellen Yu who won our last event defeating Lac in the finals. Lac came through in this match 7-5.
In the elimination bracket, Cheryl Squire claimed 4th place at the hands of Farleigh. A thrilling 5-4 win over Yu put Farleigh in the final single set race to 9 with Lac. These two contestants met up in the finals a few weeks ago in Hagerstown, MD. This match ended up being a repeat with Lac playing well and Farleigh struggling. Lac walked away with a 9-1 win to claim the WPBA qualifying spot and $450. Farleigh earned $300 for her efforts.
Click for open division payouts.
Click for ladies division payouts.
