Shane Van Boening and Allison Fisher
Over the past weekend, the grand finale of the 48th Annual Texas Open 9 Ball Championships took place. Hosted by owners Kim and Tracy Sanders, the newly remodeled Skinny Bob’s Billiards in Round Rock, TX was the place to be!
The $20,000 added 9 Ball Open had an entry fee of $125. The double elimination event was races to nine and winner breaks. Using a template rack, the nine was racked on the spot with three point rule in effect. After a record-breaking players auction, the brackets were posted and play began.
Using eighteen brand new Diamond tables, the 160 player field was whittled down by Saturday night to the final 32. A second players auction was held and when it was finished, play resumed.
Two players battled their way through the very tough field to the hot seat match – Shane Van Boening and Roland Garcia. The match was all Shane as he defeated Roland 9-3. Over on the one loss side, Dennis Orcollo was in dead punch as he handily dispatched Sky Woodward and Roland with identical scores of 9-4 to face Shane in the finals. Two-time Texas Open champ Woodward would have to settle for fourth place this time and Garcia finished in third place. Good tournament, guys!
As this event was true double elimination, Dennis would have to defeat Shane twice for the title. Dennis was looking to sweep both events as he had already claimed the One Pocket title in this event a few days earlier. Shane was looking to claim his second Texas Open 9 Ball title as he had previously won in 2008.
Seems that Dennis wasn’t the only one in dead stroke as Shane blew though his opponent 9-2!
The Women’s Division had a full field of 32 players and races to seven.
After several matches, Allison Fisher and Sakura Muramatsu battled for the hot seat. This was Allison’s first appearance at the Texas Open and she didn’t disappoint defeating Sakura 7-3 to claim her spot in the finals.
Sakura was sent to the west side to await the victor of the Chris Fields-Courtney Peters match. On a mission, Courtney battled her way through Chris Fields 7-5 and then defeated Sakura 7-5 to lock up her spot in the finals. Sakura finished in third place.
Again, Courtney would have to defeat Allison twice to win the tournament. Starting out neck and neck, Allison finally pulled away at the end of the well-played match to close it out 7-4.
Congratulations to both Shane Van Boening and Allison for becoming the 2021 Texas Open 9 Ball Champions! Great tournament, Dennis and Courtney!
And, thanks again to everyone at Skinny Bob’s for, as usual, a first class event! Local sponsors for this event included Hanshew Custom Cues, Austin Pro, Mints Amusements, Sanders Roofing & Exteriors, GAF and ABC Supply Company.
Thanks to Tournament Director Jason Hill for an exemplary job juggling multiple events. We’d also like to thank Larry Schwartz, Jeremy Jones, Tom Wirth, Del Sim, Michael Yednak, Mary Kenniston, Alex Pagulayan, Scott Frost, Tony Chohan & our own Ray Hansen for their excellent commentary.
And, as always, PoolActionTV would like to thank our fans and sponsors! They include JB Cases, Diamond Billiard Products, Enviroassessments, Castillo Leather Goods, Durbin Custom Cues, Simonis, Lomax Custom Cues, IPKT, Hanshew Jump Cues, IPKT, TeamStraightPoolEye, the Action Palace of Dayton, OH and Fort Worth Billiards Superstore of Fort Worth, TX.
Our next event is the $150,000 Champions One Pocket Challenge featuring Alex Pagulayan and Tony Chohan! Held at the Rack & Grill III in Aiken, SC, this is going to be great! Dates are September 23rd-26th! Hope to see you there!!!
