Dechaine Wins World Summit of Pool, Morris Forfeits
World Summit of Pool / Las Vegas, NV
Mike Dechaine defeated Thorsten “Hitman” Hohmann at the World Summit of Pool, taking home the lion’s share of the prize fund and top honors to boot. Hosted by the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV, the $20,000-added event was sponsored by McDermott Handcrafted Cues, Instroke Cases, Ivan Simonis Cloth, Aramith Balls, Delta-13 Rack, Quick-Clean, and Diamond Tables.
“Rocket” Rodney Morris, always a favorite, was poised to possibly take the hot seat match and await an opponent in the finals. One of the final four undefeated players, he sent Keith Bennett to the one-loss side to advance to the hot seat match to face off against Dechaine, who had earlier bested Roberto Gomez of the Philippines. Inexplicably, with the score knotted at 3-all in the race to 13, Morris broke down his cue and quit the match. He was disqualified from the event, which allowed Hohmann to skate through the semifinal match to reach the finals against Dechaine.
In the final four on the one-loss side, Steve Moore ousted John Morra to take on Gomez, whom he also eliminated to advance to the quarterfinals. His opponent there was Hohmann, who suffered a second-round loss in the event like Moore did. Hohmann sent home John Kucharo and then Bennett to make it to the quarterfinals. There Hohmann surpassed Moore to reach the semifinals, where he was greeted with no opponent at all.
In the true double-elimination finals, Hohmann was faced with having to defeat Dechaine twice for the title. He won the first set handily, reaching 13 with Dechaine still at 7 to force the second set. Hohmann took an early lead 4-2, but Dechaine wasn’t about to throw in the towel. He only allowed Hohmann two more racks before sweeping the second set 13-11 to take the title.
Mike Dechaine defeated Thorsten “Hitman” Hohmann at the World Summit of Pool, taking home the lion’s share of the prize fund and top honors to boot.
Results:
1st Mike Dechaine
2nd Thorsten Hohmann
3rd Rodney Morris
4th Steve Moore
5th Roberto Gomez
Keith Bennett
7th John Morra
John Kucharo
9th Max Eberle
Dean Goddard
Walter Glass
Ralph Eckert