On May 3rd and 4th Malarkey’s Pool and Brew in Tacoma, Washington, held its first Northwest Bar Box 8-Ball Challenge. The tournament drew forty-two players based in a double-elimination eight ball race to five/five on ten seven foot Valleys.

Fresh off his recent win at the Nighthawk and in early starting form, Glenn Atwell marched undefeated through the A side with wins over Leon Thomas (5-1), a hill-hill thriller over 12th place finisher Raul Abenojar (5-4), Rose Soliz (5-0), Jing Gicoso (5-2), then pre-point handily beating Eddie Carrido (5-2) to wait for the top half of the A side which was owned by Malarkey’s Don Wirtiman who ran off with wins over Jim Boyce (5-0), Rhiannon Stewart (5-0), Rennie Amadeo (5-3), then beating the surging Cindy Sliva, who impressed everyone early on defeating Jeff Baker (5-0), Larry Lesson (5-4) then winning a squeaker against Doug Enera (5-4).

The point match was a true flop in a sense of words. Glenn defeated Don (5-1) only to wait for the winner of the B side. On the B side players such as Robert Cleveland, Cindy Sliva, Jing Gicoso and Eddie Mataya flourished after wins over Andrea Saenz-Maes (5-4) and Joe Mack (5-0). Robert faced a surging Eddie Mataya who also early on ran the A side beating Don Anton (5-1), Pat Vice (5-0), then controlling and beating Robert (5-2) only to lose the pre-point to Don Wirtiman (4-5). The 4th place match featured both Malarkey’s regulars, Jing Gicoso and Eddie Mataya, where early on Jing had the lead but was no match for Eddie who played lights out to defeat him (5-1). Eddie was now to face Don for a tough 3rd place set. It seemed as if each of these players knew it was ‘game on’ as we watched early on as Don took the lead 3 to 1, only to have Eddie cold handedly take control and beat Don (5-4).

Entry $15, 42 Players, 100% bar matched = $1,260 purse
Top Woman: Kasia Wilcox $25

1st/2nd (split) Eddie Mataya/Glenn Atwell $615
3rd Don Wirtiman $170
4th Jing Gicoso $110
5th/6th Cindy Sliva/Eddie Carrido $75
7th/8th Dustin Olsen/Leon Thomas $45
9th-12th Robert Cleveland/Dannie Stewart/Chicago Dan/Raul Abenojar $25