Niels Feijen Wins at Skins

Niels Feijen Wins at SkinsBy InsidePOOL StaffIn the first ever Skins Billiards Championship, held at the Hilton Casino Resort in Atlantic City, NJ, Holland’s Niels Feijen has triumphed over 15 of his peers and ended up the big winner. The Skins event, presented by Billiards International Limited and Allen Hopkins, began on Friday, November 19 and concluded the next evening.The Skins format is sudden death, with each game worth a set amount. The completely fresh format had 16 of the world’s best vying for $130,000 in prize money. Friday’s rounds eliminated half of the players in four rounds that took the eight top money-makers and moved them into the semifinals. Jeremy Jones, Mike Massey, Santos Sambajon Jr., Bill Blanda, Johnny Archer, Fabio Petroni, Corey Deuel, and Gabe Owen fell short of the money mark and went home early on Friday.
In Saturday’s matches, Larry Nevel, Charlie Williams, Niels Feijen, and Earl Strickland composed the first round. Feijen was the first to earn a skin by winning three games in a row, but the match went into sudden death elimination when no one won another skin. The remaining money, $16,500, carried over and was the prize. Nevel and Strickland were paired up for the first of the elimination rounds, and when Nevel sent the cue ball flying off the table on his break, Strickland quickly cleared the table. Williams, matched with Feijen, won the lag and broke and ran out. The final two players, Williams and Strickland, played for the $16,500. Strickland won the lag and began to run out but hooked himself for the 4. He kicked and hit it, and Williams was forced to play safe, sending the 4 to the end rail. Pocketing the 4 only hooked him on the 5, and Strickland made contact but left Williams an out. With Williams’ score, he and Feijen progressed to the finals.The second match of the day put Keith McCready, Luc Salvas, Rodney Morris, and Thorsten Hohmann together. Morris won the lag and started off winning the first three games in a row, earning a skin worth $3,000. McCready kept the crowd entertained but couldn’t string three together, and at the end, there was $18,000 in unclaimed money in the eleventh game. If no one won the next three, it would go into sudden death again. Hohmann first played Morris and won, then Salvas, and then McCready in a gut-wrenching match that saw McCready miss a tough 8 ball. Hohmann and Morris went on to the finals with their wins in the semifinals.The finals started off with “Rocket” again taking the first skin, worth $13,000. Four games went by with no one winning more than one, and then Feijen defeated Morris with a break-and-run and then Williams after a safety battle. With Hohmann as “the stopper,” the German pushed out after his break. Feijen played safe behind the 7, and when Hohmann hit the 1, he left Feijen a somewhat difficult out, which he captured for a win of $35,000. Only $6,000 remained in the pot after that, and after the match went into sudden death to see who would earn it, Morris was the lucky winner, adding that to his winnings to end up with the second highest amount at the event.Results:Niels Feijen $42,500Rodney Morris $25,000Thorsten Hohmann $22,000Charlie Williams $21,500Visit InsidePOOL for the latest news from the Skins Billiards Championship.

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