Justin Hall (Photo courtesy of Ricky Bryant)
The big item of the day was Shane Van Boening getting bounced from the 9-Ball Banks competition after only two rounds. After finishing 2nd in 2012, Shane only won one game in his two matches. His round one loss to Shannon Murphy was 3- 0 and the second round match against Jeremy Jones went 3 – 1. This loss will make it almost impossible for Shane to Three-Peat as The All-Around Champion, having won it in 2011 and 2012. At the end of the day Saturday, the 9-Ball Banks was in the fifth round, which would carry over into Sunday. The fifth round has 105 players still remaining from the original 353 and a lot of great players with no loss holding onto their one time buy back.
Day two also saw the first official use of the Diamond 10 foot tables. The 10 footers are scheduled to see the Straight pool competition, 10 Ball “Big Foot” competition and the Banks Ring Game. The players started the qualifying runs in the Straight Pool. And at 9PM the fifth 10 footer was in the Accu-Stats arena for the Banks Ring Game. This is the first year with THREE Live Streams from the Derby City Classic, Accu-Stats as always has the TV Arena and a Pay Per View Stream. Inside Pool is back for the third year with a free stream from two of the 10 foot tables. And new this year is Big Truck covering the other two tables. Check the AZ Billiards main page for links to the streams.
The Ring Game is six players with $1000 buy in and 10 balls on the table. Each player has 20 chips worth $50 each. In the first three racks each ball is worth $50, then increases in the next two racks to $100 and goes up $100 every 2 racks until one player has all the chips. There is a draw for shooting order at each increase. The six players for 2013 were, Shannon Daulton, John Brumback, Brian Groce, Shannon Murphy, Justin Hall and John Morra. After six racks and the ball value at $200 there were two players remaining. John Morra, 2012 Derby City 9-Ball Banks Champion, playing Justin Hall, 2012 Southern Classic 9-Ball Banks Champion. Going into the 8th rack the ball value increased to $300 and the players were close to even in chips. But after some great play by both players Justin Hall was holding all the chips and the $6000.
