Eighty-two players showed up for an exciting event on the Fury Central Florida tour held March 6, 2005 at Planet 9-ball in Tampa. Twenty-seven tables were in play much of the day with action-filled matches on all sides.
At last week's tournament, Jason Richko took 2nd but this time he went to the end undefeated taking first place and much notice of his sharpened game. Meeting him for the hot seat match was another player that's been making waves, Strokers room-owner Jose Delrio. The hot seat fight for the spot in the finals was close as DelRio jumped out to a 3-1 lead but Richko tied things up at 4-4. Richko made the next move, taking the next three games for a7-4 victory and a spot in the finals.
On the B side, DelRio matched up with Adam Wheeler who had just won two back-to-back double-hill matches. After losing his first match of the day to Nomar Paula, Wheeler won eleven straight matches to make it to the semifinals. Once the semis were underway, Wheeler took the first rack and DelRio took the next two to bring the score in his favor at 2-1. In the next rack, DelRio missed a tough shot on the 4 ball and Wheeler ran out to tie it up at 2-2. The momentum shifted in Wheeler's favor at this point and he went on to win the next three games to take the match 5-3 and get into the finals.
The race to 9 finals between Richko and Wheeler began at one in the morning; it was Richko's 7th match and Wheeler's 13th of the day. The match started off slow with safety play until Wheeler got ball in hand for the out and a 1-0 score. Richko broke and ran the next rack to tie it up 1-all. Richko got in rhythm and followed this up with 2 more solid run outs to go up 3-1. A missed eight ball by Wheeler at 3-2 cost him the chance to tie it up and Richko pulled ahead by 4-2, then 5-2. Wheeler then changed his tactics and began playing safe and this gave him the opportunity to take three racks and tie it up at 5-5. With ball in hand and a break and run, Richko again took the lead at 8-6. Richko was on the hill but it was Wheeler's turn to break and he snapped the nine to make the score 8-7. The next rack was tedious and tense while both players made fatigued mistakes until Wheeler scratched on the five and Richko ran out to secure the win at 9-7. Delrio and Justin Hall filled out the top four.
Results:
1st Jason Richko $780
2nd Adam Wheeler $440
3rd Jose DelRio $300
4th Justin Hall $200
5/6th Tim Daniel, Julio Delpozo $140
7t8th Glen Lynch, Louis Altes $110
9-12th Cory Lydle, Billy Schmidt, Bret Frazier, Brett Lykens $80
13-16th Will Trip, Danny Sheldon, Will McGuire, Brian Davalos $60
