Chia-Ching Wu was not the only young player making their mark on the pool world this weekend as seventeen year old Justin Bergman came within a half a pocket of winning the Seminole Florida Pro Tour event at Stroker's in Palm Harbor, Fl.
Bergman remained undefeated all the way up to the quarter final match where he lost to Robb "Robin Hood" Saez for the hot-seat.
Bergman came back with a win over Jason Kirkwood on the left side of the board to earn the rematch with Saez in the finals.
Bergman took the early lead in the match, but Saez didn't get to the hot-seat without a little game in him. Saez came back to tie the match and the score remained close through the first 14 racks. With the score tied at 7-7, Bergman tried to squeeze a six-ball into a half of a pocket and missed. This mistake would prove fatal as Saez cleared the table and then went on to win the next game for the 9-7 match win.
Saez pocketed $3500 for first, while Bergman settled for $2150 in second place prize money. Kirkwood and BJ Ussery filled out the top four spots.
Tour director John Ditoro expressed thanks to Stroker's room owner Jose Delrio for helping to put on another great event.
The Seminole Florida Pro Tour will be at Victory Billiards in West Palm Bch., Florida on July 16-17 for their next event. The mixed scotch doubles event scheduled at Capone's Billiards in Springhill, Florida on September 3rd-4th has been changed to a regular open singles event. The added money will still be $8000.
Complete Results:
1st Robb Saez $3500
2nd Justin Bergman $2150
3rd Jason Kirkwood $1600
4th BJ Ussery $1200
5th/6th Tommy Kennedy, David Grossman $900
7th/8th Buddy Hall, Justin Hall $650
9th/12th Donnie Mills, James Baraks, Ron Park, Ronnie Wiseman $450
13th/16th Dan Lavoie, Hunter Lombardo, David Broxson, James Laderia $300
17th/24th Richie Richeson, Chris Bartrum, Butch Croft, Troy Frank, Sylver Ochoa, Josh Degler, Dan Leonard, Neil Fujiwara $150
File photo courtesy of Diana Hoppe - Pool Pics by Hoppe
