Shuff Wins First Billiard Tour Event and Shea Repeats

Shuff Wins First Billiard Tour Event and Shea Repeats
Tiger Pool Tour / Frederick, MD

by Andy Lincoln
The Tiger Pool Tour returned to action at Champions Billiards Café in Frederick, MD, October 6-7 for their eleventh event. A big thank you goes out to room owner Gary Allen and his friendly hard-working staff for welcoming the tour. A strong, tough field of players came out to play for the $2,000-added money in both the open and women’s division events.
Brandon Shuff started his Saturday out with a 9-8 scare from Trevor Dentz. A quick 9-2 win over Tai Bui and a 9-5 score with Barry Bowman pitted Shuff against strong tour player Lee Holt. Holt was having a great day with a pair of 9-2 wins over Matt Clatterbuck and Dan Maruschak. Shuff advanced past Holt 9-7 to reach the final four winners’ side going into Sunday’s play. The bottom half of the bracket was ruled by Manuel Chau, who knocked off three Virginians in Luther Farley, Joe Russo, and Larry Kressel. Joining Chau and Shuff in the final four were Jerry Slivka and Danny Mulhollen III, both in the current top five on the tour rankings.
Play continued Sunday with Shuff working his way through Slivka 9-7 and Chau squashing Mulhollen 9-3. An exciting 9-8 win over Chau put Shuff into the hot seat. Not much of interest was happening in the elimination bracket. Mulhollen and Slivka both advanced to meet up where Slivka sent Mulhollen home in the fourth-place spot. Slivka quickly took down Chau to set up a rematch with Shuff in the single-set, race-to-11 finals.
The finals started out with Shuff taking a commanding 6-1 lead. Slivka never threw in the towel and fought back to 7 with Shuff on the hill. Shuff pushed to a long, tough jump shot, which Slivka passed on without even getting out of his chair. Shuff confidently drained the improbable shot and maintained his composure to run the rack out.
A field of 12 ladies came out Sunday to shoot at the cash. The final four winners’ side came down to last event’s winner, Linda Shea, tour regulars Malea Haacke and Sharon O’Hanlon, as well as Ming Ng making the most of a rare appearance. Shea advanced over Haacke 7-3, while Ng came out on top 7-6 with O’Hanlon. In the hot seat match, Shea took an early lead before Ng came back to win 7-5.
In the elimination bracket, O’Hanlon sent Haacke home in fourth place before losing to Shea. The single-set, race-to-9 finals saw a determined Shea take another early lead. Ng managed a couple more games, but it was Shea winning with a 9-6 score for her second consecutive tour win.
Open Results:
1st Brandon Shuff
2nd Jerry Slivka
3rd Manuel Chau
4th Danny Mulhollen
5th Andy Lincoln
Ilir Jaho
7th Richard Barney
Joel Lackraj
9th Larry Kressel
Luther Farley
Lee Holt
Joe Russo
Women’s Results:
1st Linda Shea
2nd Ming Ng
3rd Sharon O’Hanlon
4th Malea Haacke
5th Cheryl Squire
Kathleen Lawless
7th Nicole Vincent
Simone Hospedales