Lampert Plays Up a Storm of her Own in Paradise

Tropical Storm Erin moved away from the Texas coastline just in time for the Hunter Classics Amateur Women's Tour to descend at Paradise Billiards in Corpus Christi , Texas August 18-19. The weather was beautiful, the sun was shining, and there was no bad water to be found, despite media reports earlier in the week.  

Many tough players made the trek to the beautiful pool room of Harrison Todd.  The pool room is, indeed, a pool player's paradise.  It has two well-layed out sides to it and has amazing space for seating and 9 nine foot tables and 18 eight foot tables.  The food and atmosphere were just like paradise and the wait staffs were extremely friendly and polite.  We can't wait to play there again!

Climbing through the brackets to meet in the hotseat match were Amanda Lampert from Dallas and Heather Lloyd from Austin .  These tough players battled it out on Sunday morning to see who would win the hotseat title and Amanda would win 7-4.  This proved to be the first time at this tournament anyone claimed over 3 games against Amanda.  On the one-loss side, a 2-plus hour match with numerous safeties ended with Leslie Anne Rogers over Terry Petrosino 7-4.  Terry placed a well-deserved 4th place and earned $225.  Leslie went on to play Heather Lloyd for third place and it came down to one game.  At 6-6, Heather was down to the 9-ball and was ready to bank it in the corner when someone got in her line of sight.  She stood back up, readdressed the shot, and decided to shoot a thin cut instead of kicking.  She made the tough shot and won the match.  Leslie Anne placed 3rd and won $340.

Heather Lloyd (2nd), Terry Petrosino (4th), Leslie Anne Rogers (3rd) and Amanda Lampert (1st)

This led to a rematch between Heather and Amanda in the finals.  Heather would need to defeat Amanda two sets to win the tournament and the 2008 WPBA Qualifier that was up for grabs and Heather started off strong sailing through the first set 7-3.  The opposite result would happen in the next set as Amanda prevailed with some strong shooting to win 7-2 to capture her first Hunter Tour win of the year.  Amanda won $750 for 1st and the WPBA Qualifier.  Heather earned $500 for 2nd place.  All the ladies played great over the weekend and many spectators commented about the awesome tournament and great play. 

Rounding up the $2,000 added payouts, Melinda Hinojosa and Jennifer Kraber placed 5th/6th and won $160; Michelle Yim and Shayla Neris placed 7th/8th and won $110; and 9th-12th place finishers were Maria Rodriguez, Kyu Yi, Samm Diep, and Monica Anderson who each won $30.