Charlie “Hillbilly” Bryant lost only a single match on his way to winning the Texas Open 9-Ball Tournament on Labor Day weekend, an event that stretched its way into sunrise on Tuesday morning, thanks, in part, to Bryant's exceedingly deliberate play at the tables throughout the tournament. The $3,200 Open event drew 116 entrants to Skinny Bob's Billiards in Round Rock, TX. The concurrent, $800-added Ladies event drew 30 entrants and was won by Ming Ng. The matches were streamed under the auspices of Ray “Big Truck” Hansen's PoolActionTV facilities, via Ustream.
With tour representatives discussing the imposition of a shot clock to speed the process, Bryant moved among the winners' side final four, after victories over Joey Caruso, Eric Aicinena, Roman Bayda, C.J. Wiley and Barry Emerson. Bryant faced Gabe Owen in a two-hour plus match that stalled one-loss side matches at the 5/6 slots. The two battled to double hill before Bryant won it and moved into the hot seat match versus Chip Compton, who'd defeated Brian Sanders 9-5.
Bryant spent five minutes discussing ball position in the opening rack that Compton had prepared. When it was finally set to his liking, Bryant broke and entered into another lengthy match that eventually left him in the hot seat and sent Compton off to the semifinals 9-4.
On the one-loss side, Brandon Shuff, who'd been sent west in the second round, was working his way through the bracket toward an eventual match versus Owen in the quarterfinals. With six wins at his back, Shuff defeated Barry Emerson 9-3 and Gary Abood 9-5 to pick up Sanders. Owen drew perennial Fast Eddie's winner, David Gutierrez, who'd defeated Corey Dordek 9-5 and Wiley 9-8 to reach him. Shuff got by Sanders 9-5, as Owen was busy downing Gutierrez 9-3.
Shuff's run through the west bracket finished at nine matches when Owen defeated him in the quarterfinals 9-6. Owen went on to win the semifinal matchup against Compton 9-4 and then turned to face Bryant for the second time. He won the opening set of the true double elimination final 9-4, but as the sun crept its way up over Texas skies, Bryant picked up some speed in his game and defeated Owen 9-2 in the second set to capture the Texas Open title.
Ming Ng came from the one-loss side to meet hot seat occupant, Kim Sanders in the Ladies double elimination final. Ng survived a double hill opening set and captured the first place prize with a 7-5 win in the second set. Ng had defeated Helen Hayes 7-4 in the semifinal matchup. Nicole Keeny finished fourth. Melinda Bailey and Belinda Calhoun tied for fifth place, while Kim Pierce and Christina DeLaGarza shared the seventh place spot.
Open
1st Charlie Bryant $3,500
2nd Gabe Owen $2,600
3rd Chip Compton $1,750
4th Brandon Shuff $1,150
5th Brian Sanders $650
David Gutierrez
7th Gary Abood $450
C.J. Wiley
9th Barry Emerson $300
Dave Henson
Corey Dordek
J.P. Lopez
13th James Davis, Sr. $200
Darryl Smith
Cesar Garcia
Jason Bacon
17th Doug Young $100
Chris White
Bernard Walker
Joey Gray
Eric Aicinena
Brian Rosenbaugh
Tracy Sanders
Shane Harvey
Women
1st Ming Ng $720
2nd Kim Sanders $480
3rd Helen Hayes $385
4th Nicole Keeny $265
5th Melinda Bailey $200
Belinda Calhoun
7th Kim Pierce $145
Christina DeLaGarza
