Sylver Ochoa (File photo courtesy of Melinda Bailey)

When it got to be 4:30 a.m. on a Monday morning, the final two contestants in the Fast Eddie’s Olhausen 9-Ball Tour stop on the weekend of July 11-12 decided to forego a deciding match and split the top two cash prizes. Sitting in the hot seat, Sylver Ochoa was the event’s de facto winner, with Charlie Bryant as the runner-up. The $1,750-added event drew 128 entrants to Fast Eddie’s in Austin, TX.

Bryant and Ochoa had faced each other in the hot seat match, after Bryant had defeated Corey Dordek 9-5 and Ochoa had sent Al Mason west 9-4. In the hot seat match that followed, Ochoa prevailed 9-6 and waited for a finals match that never happened.

J.P. Lopez and Jui Lung Chen were waiting for Dordek and Mason on the one-loss side. J.P. Lopez had gotten by Adam Maloney 7-5 and James Davis, Sr. 7-3 to meet Mason. Chen had defeated Rick Stanley and Sean Black by the same 7-4 score for the right to square off against Dordek. Lopez and Chen advanced to the quarterfinals; Lopez defeating Mason in a hill-hill match, as Chen got by Dordek 7-3. Chen advanced to the semifinals against Bryant with a 7-3 win over Lopez.

Both Chen and Bryant had been sent to the one-loss side by Ochoa, so both were looking for a rematch. Bryant turned out to be the more determined of the two, defeating Chen 7-4 and deciding with Ochoa, moments later, to pass on a dawn-approaching final matchup.