Rasmeloungon then stopped Robb Saez 8-4, icing the hottest man in the room after the Capone’s house pro had just smashed Charlie Williams 8-3. Fujiwara, a Jacksonville-area player, had come back from a 6-3 deficit facing Troy Frank to advance to Rasmeloungon as the last of the unbeaten.

It was a surprising pair of names amongst those that had fallen. John Schmidt and Tommy Kennedy were both put out by Josh Degler, who got a taste of Saez in an 8-2 shellacking to finish tied for fifth. Williams joined him despite breaking the last two 10 balls in to finish Broxson the round before and forcing Frank into a stupendous jump shot o­n the 7 ball to pull out a hill-hill victory from a 7-3 lead.

Saez and Frank played for fourth place, but Saez showed fierce defense of his turf by leaving Frank in the chair. Breaking and running a total of six times in an 8-1 win, Saez saved four of them for last in the tournament’s biggest package deal. It propelled him to a rematch with Pooky, who was coming off a brutal defeat in the winners’ bracket final that had seemed like certain victory.

Fujiwara came back as he had o­n Frank, this time from a slightly steeper deficit of 7-3. While Fujiwara played brilliantly to force a deciding fifteenth game, his 8-7 win came by virtue of Rasmeloungon’s miscue o­n the 8 ball. The out-of-town operative took the liberty of cooling Saez down again, sprinting out to a 5-1 lead and going o­n to an 8-4 win to get a rematch in the finals.

This time Pooky held o­n, taking a 6-2 lead in the extended o­ne set tilt and then watching it slip to 6-5. Rasmeloungon managed to parlay solid defense into a seesaw from there, as both players took o­ne at a time, with Pooky delicately running out the last for a 9-7 victory. Having battled a good-natured home gallery for Saez and an ardent cheering section for Fujiwara watching o­n the big screen in the back, even Capone’s owner Rocky McElroy had to admire the kid’s swing. Like it says the logo o­n the stools in this joint, bada bing, Pooky.

Results:

1st – Pooky Rasmeloungon ($4,000)
2nd – Neil Fujiwara ($2,000)
3rd – Robb Saez ($1,500)
4th – Troy Frank ($1,200)
5th/6th – Josh Degler/Charlie Williams ($900)
7th/8th – David Broxson/Tommy Kennedy ($600)
9th/12th – Wayne Catledge/Butch Croft/Steve Knoll/Ray Martin ($450)
13th/16th – Tony Crosby/Bill Ferguson/Richie Richeson/John Schmidt ($300)
17th/24th – Brian Butler/Benny Conway, Jr./Brian Davalos/Dave Grossman/Buddy Hall/Rodney Morris/Daniel Tietze/T.F. Whittington ($150)

Visit InsidePOOL for the latest news from the Florida Pro Tour.