Benji Buckley cut his eye-teeth playing in Great Britain on the GB9 Tour, that country's "official professional 9-ball tour," and as late as last August, was still competing there. In May of last year, he competed in the Open division of a stop on the Florida Pool Tour and finished fourth, behind Donny Mills, Tony Crosby, and Anthony Meglino. In October, he competed in Florida State's Amateur 9-Ball Championship and finished ninth. On the weekend of January 16-17, 2016, he went undefeated to capture the Florida Pool Tour's $4,000-added Florida State Open 10-Ball Championships that drew 65 entrants to Zingale's in Tallahassee, FL.

 

Buckley got into the hot seat by first sending his eventual finals' opponent, Mike Delawder, to the loss side 8-5. Jeff Jordan, in the meantime, was busy sending Nathan Rose over by the same score. Buckley claimed the hot seat 8-3 over Jordan and waited on Delawder's return.

 

On the loss side, Delawder picked up David Grossman, who, after being down 6-2, eliminated David Jacobs, double hill, and then defeated Mubarak Fulaiman 7-4. Rose drew Gabe Owen, who'd defeated Tommy Kennedy 7-5 and Harold McAbee, double hill. 

 

Delawder and Grossman battled to double hill before Delawder prevailed to face Owen, who'd defeated Rose 7-5. Delawder and Owen battled to a somewhat predictable double hill quarterfinal before Delawder prevailed again, to take on Jordan in the semifinals. 

 

Delawder spoiled Jordan's plans for a re-match against Buckley with a 7-2 win in the semifinals. Buckley then spoiled Delawder's plans for a successful rematch with a 9-4 win in the finals to capture the Florida State Open 10-Ball Championship title.

Starcade Billiards had another great two-day event on October 10-11, where 89 players were in attendance to take the top prize of $1,650 for two days of hard work. Top regional pros and talent were present, such as Mike Davis Jr., Cliff Joyner, Scotty Townsend, Pablo Matheu, Justin Ledford, Tommy Kennedy, Stoney Stone, Nathan Rose, Dave Grossman, Benny Conway Jr., Josh Hillard, Denny Fox, Harold McAbee, Mike Laney, Randy Jordan, Jeff Jordan, Mike Delawder, Nick Applebee, Rick Howard, Jamie Baraks, JR Rossman, to name a few…

 

The purse was $1,500 added, $50 entry, 100% payout, no hidden fees. Starcade Billiards does it right every single time. Robert Harris, Harris Cues, co-sponsored the event and raffled off a beautiful $1,500 cue and awarded another cue to the Champion, as well. The format was double elimination, 9 ball express rules were effect, winner’s brackets races to nine and loser’s bracket races to seven on both days. However, this was the first time the Magic Rack was implemented. So it’s safe to say that many balls were made on the break, which amounted to many break-and-runs and some very lop-sided matches.

 

Mike Davis captured the hot seat basically uncontested, and it’s worthy to mention he skunked Tommy Kennedy 9-0, allowing him only one shot the entire match!

 

Meanwhile, Jamie Baraks and Nathan Rose were in dead stroke. Mike was waiting for the winner of the Rose-Baraks match, and it was Rose who prevailed this time. Baraks made it to the finals the past event in February this year where Davis also won, but this time had to settle for the 3rd place envelope of cash.

 

The final match was a single race to 12. Mike took the crown undefeated by a score of 12-3 over Rose.