After wins over Howard Vickery and Bob Ogburn, the story on the winners side of the Senior Masters VI at Steve Mizerak's Billiard was Wade Crane in the hot-seat. Unfortunately for Crane, there was a bigger story on the left side of the board.
'The Rifleman' Buddy Hall dropped his first match of the tournament to Howard Vickery and then came back with a bye, two forfeits and then nine wins on the one loss side to earn his shot at Crane in the finals. Those nine wins didn't come easy though, as Hall had to come back from deficits in many of his one loss side matches. Possibly the biggest comeback was in his match against Ron Park where Hall trailed 9-3 in the race to 10 match. Hall came back and won seven straight games with Park on the hill to earn the 10-9 victory.
Hall trailed Crane 6-1 in the race to 11 finals but after comebacks like the one against Park, a five game deficit was not a problem. Hall took control of the match and frustrated Crane with lock-up safeties and table runs to win ten of the next eleven games for the 11-7 win. Crane's only victorious rack after Hall started his comeback came via a bobbled 9-ball by Hall.
Hall earned $10,000 for first place, while Crane took home $6,000. Ogburn and Vickery filled out the top four spots.
Complete Payouts:
1st Buddy Hall $10,000
2nd Wade Crane $6,000
3rd Bob Ogburn $4,000
4th Howard Vickery $3,000
5th/6th Don Brunelle, Jim McDermott $2,300
7th/8th Wayne Catledge, Frank Ruby $1,700
9th/12th Lonnie Firth, David Favor, Don Steele, Ron Park $1,250
13th/16th Sun I-Te, Rick Howard, Judex James, Jose Parica $900
17th/24th David Ross, Mel Rowe, Robert Cox, T.F. Whittington, Pat Howey, Bob Maidhof, Tom Wirth, Joseph DelFalco $700
25th/32nd Scott Smith, Michael Stansbury, Jim Jennings, Tommy Kay, Walter Glass, Ed Keiss, Morse Dugger, Mike Gulyassi $600
