It was the second day of the Fury Florida Amateur 9-Ball Tour events held at CueTime Billiards in Sebring on the weekend of May 21-22. The men's division started Sunday with 52 players and exciting first-round draws.
At the top of the board, CueTime owner Chuck White drew Baron's Billiards owner Tim Baron. The homeroom advantage paid for White and he went on to face Louis Altes in the next round. Another top first-round match was points-leader Julio Aquino versus 2nd-placed Nomar Paula. With only eight points between them, this is always an intense rivalry. Paula took the match and advanced to face Justin Hall. A third interesting draw was Jose Ybarra versus 5th-ranked Robert Otto. Ybarra secured this win to go on to match up with tournament director, Elvis Rodriguez.
After the first round was down, it was Hall that was drawing the attention of the crowd as he sent top players to the B side including Paula and 4th-ranked Robert Noon. Altes was next on Hall's list and Hall took another win to secure his spot in the hot seat match. On the bottom of the bracket, Ybarra and Bruce Choyce were set to face off to see who play Hall. Ybarra took the high road and sent Choyce left.
It was Hall's day and he quickly sent Ybarra to the B side with a 7-4 win, locking down king of the hill. When Altes and Ybarra met in the semis, it was all Altes and he took the match 5-3 to get back into the finals for another shot at Hall.
The finals were a fast-paced shootout between Altes and Hall. Hall had the upper hand as he had defeated Altes earlier in the tournament but Altes had the advantage of being a past event winner. It seemed anyone's game as both players were making a run for it at 6-6. Hall had the next break and this proved to be the deciding rack as he ran out the next three games to win 9-6. This was Hall's first Fury victory after scoring many top five finishes this season.
Results:
1st Justin Hall
2nd Louis Altes
3rd Jose Ybarra
4th Robert Noon
5th/6th Glen Lynch, Bruce Choyce
7th/8th Jeremy Bell, Nomar Paula
9-12th Steve McGeehan, Mike Caron, Tony Vicari, Chuck White
