Orange Ball Billiards Cafe in Rockville MD hosted its first of many to come one pocket tournaments over the Memorial Day Weekend. The Event was promoted and produced by Mike Ricciardella (former owner of Planet Pool), Tim Papageorge (Pops) the pool manager of Orange Ball and Dennis Wilson. Grady Matthews and Jimmy Fusco came down for the tournament along with numerous super local player including Jerry Slivka, Pookie Rasmeloungon, Ryan McCreesh, Bo Newport, Tom Wirth, Eddie Abraham, Billy Stevens and Doug Sharp.
Saturday was the race to 3 single elimination one pocket event that started at Noon and finished at 9PM. Jerry Slivka edged out Grady Matthews in the quarter finals to meet Jim Parker in the semis before advancing to the Final against Tom Wirth (Tom Tom). The Players split the money in lieu of a final match so the Ring Nine ball games could begin at around 10PM. First prize was $1,000, second was $700 and third & fourth $350.
The were 2 ring games, one was 10 ball for the Top players and one ring game was 9 ball for the close to top players. In the 10 ball ring game there was Grady, Fusco, Jerry Slivka, Pooky, Ryan McCreesh and Ed Abraham. After 3 hours it was down to Grady and Pooky. The playing points had doubled 2 times before Pooky finally got the last 2 games to take all of Grady's points. The games were scored by Mike Ricciardella and Denis Wilson and the results werre announced after each game. Pooky received the $1,000 winner take all prize.
In the 9 ball ring game that was going on the same time with Doug Sharp, Bob Harris, Brandon Shuff, Spanish Rob Palucho, Kevin Lefty, and Nick Prinsloo things were going back and forth and players got down to 1 point left and won but finally after and hour 3 players were out and it was down to Doug , Rob and Nick. Doug Sharp was down to 2 points left with the other 2 players with 7 points left and Doug then proceeded to win 4 out of the next 5 for the win and the $1,000 prize.
One Sunday there was a 22 player single elimination 9 ball tournmt that was a race to 9. Most all the players were back for that in addition was Jack McGinnis, Vytas McGinns and Spanish Rob Palucho. Grady was knocked out early by Nick Prinsloo in a well fought hill hill match, Jimmy Fusco was not playing as he was resting for the evenings trick shot exhibition, but Spanish Rob caught a gear and rolled through the lineup beating favorite Jerry Slivka and Ryan McCreesh to meet Ed Abraham in the Final. But Eddie was on fire and there was no stopping him today. He missed very little and Rob new got started. Ed Abraham won this match 9-5 to take the $625 first prize and Rob got $325 for second.
