John Johnson and I fought a three hour battle from midnight until 3:00 am this morning to determine the winner of the Northern California qualifier of the U.S. Amateur Championship. The championship match was a race to 11. John won the lag and chose to break. I chose to start with 8 ball. We played eight games of 8 ball, and I built a 5-3 lead. Then we switched to 9 ball, and John caught a hot streak, winning four unanswered games for a 5-7 lead. We traded games back and forth until the score was 8-9, then John won the last two for an 8-11 finish. Congrats John on your victory, and best wishes at the nationals in November!
Here are the final standings from last night.
1. John Johnson from Stanford, CA
2. Michael Reddick from San Jose, CA
3. Eric Harada from San Jose, CA
4. Clint Palaci from San Diego, CA
Angle of Reflection 
Congrats on a fine showing.
How long did you have to wait after winning the hot seat to starting the final matche?
Thanks! It was a bummer that I made it to the hot seat undefeated then eventually lost, but I did much better this year than in years past. I won the winner’s bracket at 7:30pm, then had to wait until 11:45pm for the title match, so a little over 4 hours. I still shot pretty well in the final, but never could get any rhythm going.
Congrats! 2nd place is definitely an accomplishment in that field. Your predictions weren’t too bad, either. The only guy that made it to the top four that you didn’t have in the top five in your predictions is that Michael guy 😉
Thanks Gary! That Michael guy’s pool playing ability is somewhat schizophrenic, so I didn’t want to risk picking him. ;-p
Aw, rats! So close!!! You should’ve saved all those consecutive b&r’s the other night for John. Keep looking forward. 🙂
Yes, I should have saved those! LOL!