Earl Strickland (Photo courtesy of poolactiontv.com)
This weekend, the Bank Shot Bar & Grill in Laurel, MD was the venue for the Maryland State 10-Ball Bar Table Championship. A full field of 128 players, including such well-known names as Mike Davis, Matt Krah, Earl Strickland, Ryan McCreesh, Bill Stephen, Shaun Wilkie, Brandon Shuff and Keith McCready ponied up their entries to vie for the title. The format was call shot, alternate break and race to seven.
Saturday’s action began with a players auction – James Aranas and Earl Strickland were the top two picks. The draw was completed and they were off!!! At the end of play on Saturday night, the field was whittled down to 48 players.
Play began today at noon and by early evening, the tournament was down to the final four on the winners side. Earl Strickland defeated Mike Davis in a hill-hill nailbiter to advance. Wilkie also eked out a 7-6 win over Reymart Lim to become Earl’s opponent in the battle for the hot seat. The hot seat match began with Wilkie leading 6-4. Failing to make a ball on the break in what could be the match, Earl won that game and the next two to go
undefeated into the finals.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the chart, James Aranas was getting his revenge against Mike Davis. Mike had earlier sent James To the west side 7-5. This time, it was James who knocked Mike out of the event – leaving him in fourth place. Next victim was Wilkie – the score in that match was 7-3 – leaving Shaun in third place.
James’ dreams of taking down the tournament were dashed with a flawless performance by the legendary Strickland. Earl took no prisoners as he roared to a 7-1 victory. Great tournament, James! Congratulations, Earl!
This event wouldn’t have been possible without its sponsors. Thanks again to host site, The Bank Shot Bar & Grill and tournament sponsors On The Hill Productions, Choice Pool League, Sly Custom Cues, Lights Out Billiard Apparel and Joss Cues.
PoolActionTV.com was proud to bring our viewers another fine event sponsored by Steve Lomax of Lomax Custom Cues, John Barton of JB Cases, James Hanshew of Hanshew Custom Cues, Mike Durbin of Durbin Custom Cues, Simonis, Aramith, GoPlayPool.com, Kamui and Club Billiards of Wichita, KS.
Our next stop is the 2nd Annual Don Coates Memorial with $10,000 added guaranteed. It will be held at Brass Tap & Billiards in Raleigh, NC – August 23-27th. We also have a few two-man events brewing! See you all down the road!!!
