The Tiger Pool Tour continued its 2007 season in fine form at Stop #2 in Rockville, MD at Orange Ball Billiards on March 10th/11th. This was a $2000 added event with an Open Division field of 92 entrants and 19 ladies in the Sunday Women's Division.
There was early Saturday afternoon action between Mike Davis and Jerry Slivka. Davis took a 4-0 lead with Slivka watching patiently before he stormed back winning 9-7. Local Orange Ball pool teacher Spanish Rob Palucho also came back from an 8-6 deficit to win 9-8 against North Carolinian BJ Ussery. Joining these two in the final 8 winner's side were relative newcomer Marc Vidal, tour “veteran” Shaun Wilkie, a much improved Alvin Thomas and Dustin Paris, Chuck Fake and Pooky Rasmeloungon.
Sunday played out with crowd favorite Palucho defeating Vidal, Wilkie over Thomas and Rasmeloungon ahead of Paris all by 9-7 scores. Slivka seemed on autopilot knocking off Fake 9-2 and then easily defeating rival Rasmeloungon 9-4. Wilkie squeaked out a 9-8 win over Palucho to face Slivka for the hot seat. An uneventful 9-6 win put Slivka into the final.
The elimination bracket held some tough matches all day long. Vidal defeated Brian Deska, Brandon Shuff and Rasmeloungon before falling to Palucho to finish in 4th place. Wilkie took care of Palucho with no problems 7-1 to set up a rematch with Slivka. Controversy over the rack never changed Slivka's demeanor as he emerged victorious 11-6 against Wilkie. 1st paid $1200 with $800 for 2nd.
There were 19 ladies signed up to compete for the cash and WPBA regional tour points. WPBA pro Sueyen Rhee worked her way fairly easily into the hot seat match where she was joined by Malea Haacke. This turned out to be quite a match with Rhee emerging 7-6. Amy Foster lost her first match to last event's winner My-Hanh Lac but surged through the elimination bracket. After winning 3 matches, Foster found herself faced with Lac again. Foster earned her revenge over Lac 5-3 and then placed Asia Cycak into the 4th spot with another 5-3 score. Haacke squeaked out a 5-4 win over Foster to earn another chance at Rhee. This was a vintage match recalling the year 2003 when these two players finished 1st and 2nd on the points list and played each other in the finals five times. Rhee won this match 9-5 to earn $380 with Haacke taking home $250.
