It was another full field of sixty four players at the Rumrunner's Open Barbox event on March 25th - 27th; and another win for Shane Van Boening.
Van Boening made his way through the winners bracket and ended up facing one of the best playing young guns on the west coast, Oscar Dominguez, for the hot-seat. Oscar has been concentrating on school and letting pool be a secondary priority, but he made quick work of Van Boening for the hot-seat 6-2.
On the one loss side, Van Boening found Papa (Ernesto) Dominguez waiting for him. Ernesto had won this event last year, but Van Boening sent him to the left side of the board with a lopsided 6-1 scoreline earlier in the event. The elder Dominguez was looking for revenge, but that was not to happen on this day as Shane ran away with a 6-3 victory and another shot at Oscar in the finals.
The event was a true double elimination affair, so Shane would have to beat Oscar twice to earn the title, but that proved to be a challenge that Van Boening was more than up to. He made a statement coming right out of the game as he broke and ran four racks to get things started. After that, he never looked back as he took the first set 6-1 and then was one rack better in taking the final set 6-0 for first place.
Van Boening won $6000 for first place, but that total was more than doubled including calcutta money. Oscar settled for $3000 in prize money and almost $4500 in calcutta money.
Special thanks to Melinda Huang for updated from the event.
