Cliff Joyner has won the US Open One Pocket Championship being held in conjunction with the BCA National 9-Ball Championships at The Plaza Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, NV.
The winners side came down to Joyner and Shannon Daulton and it was Daulton earning a quick 4-0 win for the hot-seat. Joyner was just as dominating in his 4-0 win over Marco Marquez on the one-loss side and the rematch was on between Daulton and Joyner in the finals.
In the final race to five which lasted well over three hours, Daulton held an early 1-0 lead, but Joyner made quick work of the second game to tie the score at 1-1. Daulton looked on his way to a win in game three when he missed a ball and Joyner ran out for a 2-1 lead. Daulton controlled the fourth rack and ground out a win to knot the score at 2-2. Daulton won the next for a 3-2 lead, but a scratch by Daulton in game six allowed Joyner to run out for another tie at 3-3. The seventh game was a true marathon with both players falling prey to the deep Diamond pockets and some position errors, but it was Joyner that ended up with the win to get him to the hill.
The eighth game saw Joyner with an open table and running out for the win when he missed a ball at 6-3. Daulton ran to 7-6 but missed a bank on his last ball. The game eventually came down to both players needing the last ball and finished when Daulton tried a 4 rail shot to move the ball to his pocket but caught the side pocket with the cue ball to leave Joyner straight in.
Joyner earned $3,900 for first while Daulton settled for $2,300 in second place prize money. Marquez and Vince Tedesco filled out the top four spots. The Open 10-ball event is scheduled to finish with the Open Teams and Ladies teams getting started on Saturday as well as the bank pool tournament. Online brackets are now complete with all results up to Saturday morning.
