Murphy's Brass Rail in Athens, GA is the scene of the latest men's pro tour stop and again Dragon Promotions is producing the largest pool event in GA of the year. 53 players are in attendance this year including USA top stars Rodney Morris, Charlie Williams, Jeremy Jones, and defending champion Johnny Archer. The young guns are also in full effect with Gabe Owen, John Schmidt, Danny Basavich, Robb Saez, and Mike Davis. The event is even more international than in the past with 7 countries and 4 continents represented by Mika Immonen, Thorsten Hohmann, Young Hwa Jeong, Ralf Souquet, Alan Rolan, Santos Sambajon, Luc Salvas and Brian Yi.
Tonights event started with a charity event for the Boys & Girls Club with sponsors playing in the pro am event. The fans were than treated to challenges with the pros for free. The main event though was the $8000 winner take all ring game.
The Dragon Promotions Atlanta Ring Game was sponsored by Cindy Lee of Classic Billiards & Planet Pool(PA), Capones Billiards(FL) Rocky McElroy, LTL Universe.com, Davids Pressure Washing Service (GA), Aaron Czetli of WorldPool.com & Chris Szuter of Fiddlestix Billiards (OH), and Benedict Min of Master Billiards(NY).
The ring game included Johnny Archer, Mika Immonen, Corey Deuel, Young Hwa Jeong, Rodney Morris, and Robb Saez. It was scheduled for 3 hours before sudden death and it took every bit of the 3 hours to get to the end. The first sudden death game after three hours was worth $2500 and the score was Rodney Morris $3000, Mika Immonen $2500 and Young Hwa Jeong $2500. Mika was running out the game which looked like a sure winner when he missed a makeable 6 ball in the corner. This left Young Hwa a tough bank shot which he unfortunately bobbled and left a easy gift for Morris to run out for the $8000. At one point, Rodney had 1 game earlier on in the 3rd hour and came all the way back to win.
The DP Atlanta Open is brought to you by Brunswick Billiards and Brunswick Chalk as well as Lucasi Cues. Other sponsors include Simonis Cloth, Aramith Balls, PartyPoker.com, Image Que's John Spidel, and Slayer Technologies Mike Davidson.
Special thanks to our excellent host Murphy's Brass Rail and owners Soon Yer Seo , daughter Grace Choi, and manager Kwang Hee Kim.
Play begins at 11am Thursday and online brackets are posted.
