45 players came out for the Fury Midwest Amateur 9-Ball Tour's second stop of the season - held at Emerald Q in Waterford, MI this weekend. Josh Ulrich from Battle Creek went undefeated to take home top honors, defeating Bryce Young, Rick Bolton, Frank Lorenz, Eddie Duensing, and Toledo teen sensation Danny Smith before facing Mark Ritter in the hot seat match. Steamrolling Ritter by an impressive 7-0 score, the long wait for the finals seemed to cool him off a bit and Kevin Lutzky got to 5 before Ulrich made a 9-ball break and then three-fouled him to earn the crown.
Until he had to face Ulrich, it appeared as if Mark Ritter might just steal the tournament, as he defeated Kurtis Weiss7/2, Bob Talford 7/6, Tommy Strickland 7/5 and Kevin Lutzky 7/2 before his loss in the hot seat match. Prior to his first loss, Lutzky had defeated Lee Lambaria, Art Millington and Jeremy Seaman. Once Ritter sent him to the one-loss side, Kevin came back up the ladder with wins over Casey Ward and Danny Smith to earn the right to a rematch with Ritter, where he avenged his initial 7/2 loss by trouncing Mark 5/2.
Toledo teenager Dan Smith was also a force to be reckoned with throughout the weekend, defeating Rickie Arms, Mark Lamb, and PJ Hargrave before his first loss and then Jeremy Seaman 5/3 on the loser's side.
Mother Nature seemed to be the only one bent on dampening spirits, as she dumped over seven inches of wet snow on the area throughout the day on Sunday.
Emerald Q owner Fabian was really great to the players, and everyone commented on how much fun they had and that they would be looking forward to a tour stop there again some time in the future. The house donated the table time for the minis & so did the tour operator, so they were all 100% payback (as is Emerald Q's regular weekly event on Wednesday nights).
Complete Results:
1st Josh Ulrich $530
2nd Kevin Lutzky $340
3rd Mark Ritter $180
4th Danny Smith $100
5th/6th Jeremy Seaman, Casey Ward $75
7th/8th Joe Henry, Tommy Strickland $50
