Gabe Owen wins his second Houston Open title and goes undefeated at Legends Billiards in League City, TX. With the hotels being full from Katrina and Rita victims, and the building being under mandatory evacuation just days before the field still reached over 125 players in the two events.
With top picks such as Gabe Owen, Jui Lung Chen, Charlie Bryant, Sylver Ochoa and John Macias in the open division the event played long and hard on Saturday to take the field down to 32 players returning on Sunday.
The prize fund was at $17881 James Davis Jr. Had a great event as he played his way to the 4th place position with late round wins over Charlie Bryant 7-4, Kenny Greer 7-6 before losing to Manny Chau 7-5.
On the winners side it was Gabe playing Mike Alonzo for the hot seat. What a tournament Mike was having reaching the finals of this tough event. Mike was playing a strong match against Gabe till the 10th rack where he began making small mistakes which Gabe was there to take advantage of running the final score to 9-5.
The next match was a nail biter and possibly the most exciting match of the day between Mike Alonzo and Manny Chau. Mike was playing solid and ran to a 5-2 scoreline before Manny started his come back. Pushing the score all the way to 6-6 before missing the 3 ball giving Mike the table back. Mike ran to the 8 ball leaving himself a tough back cut to the side pocket having to go three rails for shape on the 9 ball. He took his time and fired only to have the 8 jaw out of the side pocket giving Manny the chance at Gabe.
In the finals Gabe played almost perfect pool to win the final match and the title with a score of 9-4.
Thanks to the sponsors Mindy and Craig Cohen of Legends Billiards, Jerry Olivier Custom Cues and Strick-ly used cars, and to our vendors Ron Geyer of the Custom Cue Connection and Joe Salazar with the Connoisseur of Custom Cues.
Total Pay-out:
1st Gabe Owen $5605
2nd Manny Chau $3785
3rd Mike Alonzo $2695
4th James Davis Jr. $1826
5th/6th Kenny Greer & James davis Sr. $1150
7th/8th Brian Jones & Charlie Bryant $835
9th/12th John Macias, Doug Smith, Gordon Van de Veer, Charlie Mora $340
13th/16th Travis Stamper, Candido Ramirez, Denis Strickland & David Parker $260
