Meanwhile Parica and Rodney Morris were playing for the hot seat in a matchup
everyone expected to see again in the finals. Both had won five in a row to
reach this point. Rodney prevailed by a 9-6 margin and waited for Parica to
dispatch the winner of the Eberle-Iverson match. No o­ne gave either player
much of a chance against Jose.
No o­ne told Max though and he jumped into an early 4-0 lead with Parica and
never let up o­n the way to a 9-3! win. But now he had to face the invincible
Mr. Morris who seemed to effortlessly demolish anyone in his way. Fresh off
his third place in Reno and hungry for a second straight Hard Times title,
Rodney looked confident and relaxed prior to the match. The o­nly question
seemed to be, how bad would he beat Max. Wrong question! It should have been
the other way around. Max sent a strong statement to the pool world that he
has arrived, winning going away by an 11-5 wipeout.
During the tournament, when asked by an o­nlooker what he hoped to achieve in
pool, Max responded that he wanted to be a champion. He took a big step in
that direction this week. Although Hard Times is not a major championship, it
is always a difficult test and takes a top player's ability to win. This
should be a tremendous boost to Max's confi-dence and he will be a force to
be reckoned with in 2003.

1. MAX EBERLE $4,000 + $880 Calcutta  2. Rodney Morris $2,200 + $550 Calcutta
 
3. Jose Parica $1,200 + $330 Calcutta  4. Kris Iverson $800 + $220 Calcutta 
5-6. Tony Chohan & Alex Laingco $600 + $110 Calcutta  7-8. Gerardo Jamito &
Ralph Daloian $400
9-12. Joey Gebron, Santos Sambajon, Tony Watson & Ernesto Domingues $300 
13-16.
Jason Williams, Jon Henson, Chico Williams & Brian Somer $200  17-24. $100

Billy Palmer continued his domination of West Coast o­ne Pocket events going
undefeated in six matches to take the crown. He bumped off Mike Mares 3-0,
Melvin Mackay 3-0, Max Harbaugh 3-2, Tony Chohan 3-1, Santos Sambajon 3-2 and
4-2 in the finals. It looked like business as usual for Mr. Palmer who seems
to have whatever it takes to win his matches. When he needs to come with a
big shot, he does, and when the game calls for canny strategy, he always has
something clever up his sleeve. Look out for him if he decides to visit
Louisville in January. Palmer is right up there with the top guns of o­ne
Pocket.

1. BILLY PALMER $1,500  2. Santos Sambajon $900  3. Joey Gebron $600  4. Tony
Chohan $400  5-6. Jose Parica & Rodney Morris $250  7-8. Gene Ventura & Tony
Melendez $150  9-12. Max Harbaugh, Mike Mares, John Henderson & Chris
MacDonald $75

by Jay Helfert, Tournament Director