Great Slates in Cambridge, MD played host to the official US Open warm-up event on September 17/18th and a full field of 64 players came out to vie for their share of the $4000 added prize money. Strong player and room owner John Moody Sr. had everything in perfect working order in this beautiful venue for tournaments. The back feature room had one table with seating for 75 anxious fans taking in the action.

This was a super strong field with no less than 30 players on their way to the US Open. Pre-tournament favorites included Warren Kiamco, Earl Strickland, Jose Parica, Shawn Putnam, Mike Davis and Jason Kirkwood. It was a long day getting through the matches on the 9 Gabriel tables. Strickland survived a first round 9-8 scare from Jerry Slivka and overcame a 6-1 deficit to visiting British player Craig Riley winning 9-7. Kiamco had an easier time of it winning his first three matches by a combined score of 27-7. A couple of other strong matches were Putnam over Parica 9-7 and Kirkwood rolling over Allen Hopkins 9-1. It took all night and early into the next morning to whittle the field down to 24 players. The winner bracket wound up with friends Chris Szuter vs Putnam, Kirkwood vs Kiamco, young Filipino star Deo Alpajora vs regular tour player BJ Ussery and Steve Lillis vs Strickland.

On Sunday, Putnam and Kiamco advanced easily with 9-4 wins. Ussery overcame Alpajora 9-7 and Strickland eked out a 9-8 entertaining match over Lillis. Putnam and Strickland continued on to the hot seat match without any drama. The winner side final was also uneventful as Strickland won 9-4. The elimination bracket had a bunch of superstars and the 3 Filipino contingent of Kiamco, Parica and Alpajora all wound up playing each other with Kiamco emerging at the end. Ussery eliminated Mike Davis hopes and followed that up by sending Kiamco on his way. Putnam was not happy with his loss to Strickland and defeated Ussery 7-4 to set up his rematch. He came out of the gate strong in the final stretching a 4-0 lead to 7-1. A dejected Strickland was getting no sympathy from the crowd but was able to look within to mount a comeback. After a constant banter with the crowd including telling stories during his own backswing, Strickland worked the score back to 8-6. Putnam put and end to that winning the next 3 games to post the 11-6 victory over this impressive field. 1st place took home $2300 with $1500 for 2nd.

RESULTS

• 9-2 v Troy Huffman Jr.
• 9-4 v Chris Bartram
• 7-9 v Earl Strickland (was 6-1 Up!)
• 7-6 v Chris Comstock
• 3-7 v Tony Crosby

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