Wayne Pullen, from Thousand Oaks California, has won the USPPA Pro Am Classic as The Sands Regency Casino in Reno, NV.
Pullen was undefeated and captured the hot-seat with an 8-3 win over Bill Houck. Houck went to the one-loss side and ended Tony Chohan's long run through the brackets.
With 237 players in the tournament, and the USPPA ratings ranging from the mid 20s to mid 160s, the finals ended up being played by two players with identical 100 ratings. For the first time in USPPA history, both players in the finals were elegible for the $6000 bonus if they won the tournament.
Pullen pulled ahead 2-0 in the finals, and never trailed. Game five was a turning point as Houck missed a very makeable 9-ball to fall behind 4-1 instead of 3-2. The players traded racks until the 7-4 point when Houck made his charge and closed the gap to 7-6 with a 9-ball break in the 13th rack. Pullen had a chance to close the match out with a 2-9 combo in the 14th rack, but missed it. A safe on the 4-ball by Pullen, earned him a makeable shot when Houck hit the ball but did not leave it safe. From there, Pullen methodically ran out the final 6 balls and celebrated his win.
With the $6000 bonus, Pullen collected $10,000 for first place. Houck settled for $2500 for second place. Chohan and Luis Garcia filled out the top four spots.
Check out all the match results with our online brackets.
