Room owner John Moody took full use of home field advantage over the weekend to win the Planet Pool 9-Ball Tour stop at Great Slates in Cambridge, MD.
The open division drew a field of 83 players and Moody took an early trip to the one-loss side thanks to a 7-6 loss to Tony Ruberto in the third round. Moody came back to win his next nine matches on his way to the finals.
The hot-seat was taken by tour regular Pooky Rasmeloungon who defeated Ruberto 9-2. After Ruberto fell to Moody on the one-loss side, the true double elimination finals got underway. Pooky was playing some great pool, but Moody had already won nine straight matches. All that stood in front of him and his first Planet Pool Tour victory was two more matches with Rasmeloungon.
The first match was close, but Moody pulled out the 9-7 win. The next match was even closer as it got to hill-hill before Moody won the case game for the 9-8 victory.
Moody collected $1350 for first place, while Rasmeloungon settled for $750. Ruberto and Mike Davis filled out the top four spots.
The ladies division drew a field of 21 players with Gwen Dickert taking the hot-seat over Michelle Choe 7-3. Choe then lost a heartbreaking 5-4 match with Malea Haacke in the semi-finals.
Haacke was riding the high of two straight victories on the tour, but would need to defeat Dickert twice to earn her third tournament win. The first set went hill-hill before Haacke pulled it out to force a final set, but the second set saw Dickert pull out a close win.
Dickert won $400 for first, with Haacke pocketing $265 for second. Choe and Betty Roe filled out the top four spots.
The Planet-Pool Tour will be at Orange Ball Billiards in Rockville, MD on June 5th-6th for their next event.
