Daulton Aces Ring Game; Mathews Honored

By Bill Rosenberger

The Gulf Coast Classic spanned five days and consisted of four major events, including the Bank Pool Ring Game, the 9-Ball Tournament, and the bar table 9-ball event.  Shannon Daulton cleaned house o­n Saturday with his ring game win, while tour promoter and InsidePOOL Magazine contributor Grady Mathews was honored with a Hall of Fame induction.

Saturday's big money event included Daulton, Truman Hogue, Glen Rogers, Tony Fargo, John Brumback, and Jason Miller.  Each player put up $3,000 for a chance to double, triple or even earn back five times as much. 

Hogue and Rogers exited first, while Fargo held the early money lead with $6,800.  Brumback had $6,700, while Miller was third o­n the list with $3,400.  Daulton was a distant fourth with $1,100 and didn't look like the contender, but he soon heated up.

Daulton turned into a machine in the next round, banking home eight straight balls to turn his small payback into some huge winnings-$18,000.  Although he was dominant in the ring game, Daulton didn't do as well in the other events, but either way, he went home a winner.

In the Bar Table 9-Ball event, Will Pay got paid, taking first over Nat Green, who finished second.  Cliff Joyner, who played well in all the events, finished third. 

In the 'big boy' 9-ball event, Joyner rallied in the west side to finish in fourth, while John Schmidt, who finished second to Johnny Archer last week in the North American Tour opener, took the top spot.  Marco Marquez and David Grossman rounded out the top three. 

As Sunday's final matches dwindled down, o­ne man found himself striving to win two titles.  Buddy Hall competed in the finals of the bank tournament against Hogue after falling to Marquez in the finals of the o­ne pocket event.  The match went to hill-hill before Hall nailed down the win.     Finally, Grady Mathews, who did a great job as promoter of the weekend events, was honored as the first inductee into the o­ne Pocket Hall of Fame, which was recently created by o­nepocket.org.

Results:

9-Ball

1st John Schmidt $2,600

2nd Marco Marquez $1,600

3rd David Grossman $1,100

4th Cliff Joyner $900

Banks

1st Buddy Hall $2,500

2nd Truman Hogue $1,500

3rd Ike Runnels $1,000

4th Gerald Reichle $800

One Pocket

1st Marco Marquez $5,000

2nd Buddy Hall $3,000

3rd Mike Surber $2,000

4th Ray Martin $1,500

5th Bill Blanda, Ike Runnels $1,000

Bar Box 9-Ball

1st Will Pay $930

2nd Nat Green $697

3rd Cliff Joyner $465

4th Sam Gilmer $232

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