 Shannon Daulton and Nick Varner |
Shannon Daulton brought his Great Southern 9-Ball Tour to Breakers Sports Bar & Grill in Knoxville, TN last weekend for the Big Orange Classic VI. Action got underway Friday night with a 48 player single elimination mini tournament that was won by Sammy Monday who beat Billy Bailey in the finals.
The field for the main event on Saturday was 64 players strong and included three former US Open Champions (Earl Strickland, Gabe Owen and Nick Varner) as well as other top names like Shannon Daulton, Bill Bailey, Russ Edwards and Jonathan Hennessee.
Strickland felt the upset bug early as he lost a 9-4 decision to Shannon Murphy in the first round of the event.
As the winners side narrowed, Varner, Daulton and Owen continued their strong play and backed up their positions as early favorites. Daulton finally ended Owen's undefeated run and earned himself a place in the hot-seat match against Nick Varner. The hot-seat was won by Varner in a close 9-7 match.
On the one loss side, Owen eliminated Stan Shuffett to earn another shot at Daulton but Daulton was just too strong. Daulton beat Owen 9-2 to set up a rematch with Varner in the finals.
Daulton won the first set of the true double elimination finals 9-7, but the second set belonged to Varner 9-5 for the tournament win.
Daulton expressed his thanks to the staff at Breakers for a great tournament. The event was made possible by sponsors Cannon Promotions, Nick Varner Custom Cues, and AzBilliards. The tours next stop will be this weekend at Sporty's Sports Bar in Greenville, SC.
