The First Annual Budweiser Winter Classic held Jan 27th & 28th At Strokerz Billiard Pub in Morgantown WV was a great event! 42 players showed up and fought it out! There were great players from all around the east in attendance. Some notable names include Don Steel, "Sugar" Shane Hennen, Mike McClain, Marc Vidal, David Grau, Shane Jackson and Reggie Smallwood. Strokerz regular Buzz Jones had a good showing placing 9-12. This event would have some great maches but the best one of the weekend in my opinion came on the losers side on Sunday when local player and Strokerz regular Joey Arbuckle and Mike McClain would meet up and it made for a great match. Joey had his first loss handed to him earlier Sunday by David Grau who already has a win on the Joss tour under his belt this year. The first 9 games of the match had Joey up 6-3 and on the hill in this race to 7 format. it looked like Joey would have this in the bag. After Joey played a safe Mike made a kick on which I belive was the 3 ball which went in and the he proceded to run that rack out and two more which tied tha match at 6-6. Afer coming up empty on the break Joey had no shot and elected to push rolling the cue in front of the 8 ball leaving a shot on the 1 but jacked up over the 8 wasn't easy so Mike gave the shot back to Joey. This would be the only shot missed in the match by either player and it was the difference. Mike ran the rack out to take the Match, The very knowledgable crowd gave both players a well deserved round of appaluse! The Hot seat Match between David Grau and Don Steel would prove interesting as well. Don was down 5-2 and ended up after several games of great saftey play ahead 6-4. David played a safe on the 6 freezing it to the 9 on the right hand rail down table in front of the corner pocket leaving Don a tough kick. Don Made a great shot hitting the 6 sending the 9 down table into the corner pocket! The whole place went nuts! Don and David would meet again the the final this time it would be one race to 9. David would control the whole match with the score 7-3 he made back to back 9 balls on the break! Winning 9-3 and taking home the first place cash! The action was good all weekend as well. We look froward to hosting more events like this in the future. Thanks to all the players for attending and every one who supported this event. Here are the payouts.
1st David Grau $750.00
2nd Don Steel $450.00
3rd Marc Vidal $300.00
4th Mike McClain $200.00
5th-6th Max S Joey Arbuckle $115.00
7th-8th Shane Hennen, Shane Jackson $65
9th-12th Richard Barney, Buzz Jones, Pat Calversi, Reggie Smallwood $30
1st David Grau $750.00
2nd Don Steel $450.00
3rd Marc Vidal $300.00
4th Mike McClain $200.00
5th-6th Max S Joey Arbuckle $115.00
7th-8th Shane Hennen, Shane Jackson $65
9th-12th Richard Barney, Buzz Jones, Pat Calversi, Reggie Smallwood $30
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