Recap of the Maryland State
Bar Box Bonanza
At The New Green Room
During the players meeting we changed the races to 9 on the winner side and 7 on the losers with the finals being one race to 13. Play started with 32 participants, considering there were 4 other tournaments on the same weekend we felt it was a great turn out. The tournament brought out some faces we haven’t seen in a long time from John Fertitta, Dave Brigner, Terry Justice, Leroy Preston and Joe Stem. The turn out had a tough field with Kevin West, Clint Clayton, Shawn Toni and Mark “Donut Man” Ford.
With such a strong field, and alternating break format no one was an overwhelming favorite at the start. Shawn Toni rattled off 2 wins in the top half bracket over Curtis Branker and Ken Collins until running into Jeff “Piano Man” Brinkman who changed his tune. Mark Ford was playing well after practicing all week.
In the bottom half of the bracket there was win one, lose one going on. Billy Kluczynski had a nice run of 3 matches until running up against the house pro, Dave Stem. Dave won 4 matches and a chance to play for the hot seat vs Mark Ford.
Loser side there was very impressive winning streaks going on. Curtis Branker won 4 and fell short against Shawn Toni right before the money. Kevin West won 2 and lost to Keith Sutton before the money. Shawn Toni gets the best of John Fertitta and Keith Sutton and the Piano Man (Jeff Brinkman).
By this time it was getting late and Shawn Toni found another gear. Taking advantage of all missed opportunities from his opponents leading to wins over Keith and Dave getting his chance at Mark Ford in the finals. It was a bumpy start for Mark. Shawn jumped out with an early lead. The match was starting to look one sided but Mark hung in there. Tied 7 to 7 they started talking about a split. Nothing was agreed on, and the match continued. Shawn breaks the 9 in jumps ahead. Winning the next 2 games. Shawn had an 11 to 8 lead. Mark wins 2 and Shawn gets on the hill. The score is 12 Shawn and 10 Mark. Shawn had the break and was looking for the win. Shooting the 7 ball in the corner and drawing the ball with low right English, pulled the ball back passed the side for the eight. Over rolled the shot and left with a tough 8-ball cut into the corner. The angle wasn’t enough to travel around the table so he juices it up with left hand English and didn’t cut it enough. Mark won the next one too. Hill – Hill and it all came down to a bad roll from a very tough cut and Shawn was trapped. It ended in a 50/50 chance of kicking at it or trying to lock up some balls, the cue ball fell short of locking up the balls and Mark ran out.
Congrats to Mark “Donut Man” Ford for winning the first stage of the Bar Box Bonanza. A big thank you to all the players who came out and played, Chris and Gary owners of “The New Green Room”, the great staff, Charlie’s Pro Shop , Classic Billiard Service and The Finding Felt gang.
Thank you,
Breaknnrun.com Staff
View the Completed Bracket here.