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Brooklyn's own "Smitty" Dan Smith grinds out a gritty win at Skyline

Dan Smith and Mike Fingers

31 players prepared for battle at the Blaze Tour stop this weekend, which was hosted by Skyline Billiards in Brooklyn, NY.

Skyline Billiards is a pool player friendly friendly pool room, that serves as a breeding ground of emerging top talent coming out of NY. The pool room is owned by pool players Rob Pole Jr and Sammy Wu who roll out the red carpet for brooklyn players as well as road players alike. On this day it wasn't recently sponsored WPBA Liz Ford or house pro "Spain" Marc Vidal who snapped of the tourney, but rather Brooklyn's own "Smitty" Dan Smith.

"Smitty" has been a strong short stop in the NY landscape for quite some time, and has been playing this game for 20 years. Dan Smith is a self described "Pool Googan" or "Pool Freak", and who has pool coursing through his veins.

"Smitty" Dan Smith has come up playing in many pool "action" packed pool rooms in NY, most notably the historic Chelsea Billiards in New York. He has been a gritty player since the days of matching up with "Kid Delicious" Danny Basavich, "Billy the Kid", Skeeter Hawk, New Jersey "Blood", "Neptune Joe" and the late "Johnny B".

While "Smitty" hasn't been on his A- game for quite some time since his decision to allow his pool game to take a back seat to building a career and family, he certainly can get the cash. He has always been one of the most impressive players that I have seen come up in NY, with his ability to bring the heat and put packages together vs his opponents.

"Smitty" would have to awaken the spirit of the dormant warrior within to win against a strong field such as... Eddie Abraham, Rob Pole, Mike Fingers, Eddie Vasuqez, Scott Evans, "Twiz" Derek Eakins, Jorge Rodrigez, all looking for a win at Skyline.

In a clear sign that pool is drawing back players to the game, Smitty has stepped up efforts to begin to focus on pool again, as he has taken his game to the next level. In Sunday's tournament action, he ran through the field unscathed as he marched to the finals undefeated and was poised to make a dominant statement that the "Pool Googan" has his groove back.

In the finals it was a battle between "Mike Fingers" and "Smitty" for top honors. "Mike Fingers" has been a dominant force on the Blaze tour as well as the NY landscape for several years and was determined to come back from the "One Loss" side to earn the win. The first match was a gritty battle as "Mike Fingers" showed a lot of heart for bouncing back from an earlier loss to "Smitty" to grind out a 7-6 win. This set up a final match for who would earn bragging rights as well as top honors.

In the finals "Smitty" Dan Smith was dead set on putting the fear in the local touring up and coming player in the NY area with his focused intent to bring his A-game on this night. "Mike Fingers" although an always tough opponent, couldn't contain the break out performance from the "Pool Googan" for the latest Blaze stop as he goes on to roll over Mike 7-3. "Smitty" has been putting in the time as he has been playing out of Skyline Billiards regularly and earns the respect from the knowledgeable brooklyn players and fans with a dominant home win.

Here is a quick break down the tournament in the final stretch:

Winners Side:
"Smitty" Dan Smith defeats "Mike Fingers" for the hot seat after Mike just came off of a strong 7-5 win over Tim Clark. Dan had just caught a gear after a dominant 7-2 win over home player Ray Lee.

"One Loss Side"
"The Russian" Steve Astashin was also having a stand out tournament as he was wowing the rail-birds with a demon stroke and amazing position play. Steve had an impressive 6-4 win over "Twiz" Derek Eakins, moving him over on the bracket to play Ray Lee. Ray has just come off of a 6-4 win over Alex Gilvary. "The Russian" Steve Astashin then rolled over Ray Lee 6-2 setting up a match between him and Mike Fingers for the Hot seat.

- by Jerry Tarantola - NYC Grind
NYCGrind.com

Complete Results:

1st Dan Smith $1000
2nd Mike Fingers $550
3rd Steve Astashin $250
4th Ray Lee $150
5th/6th Alex Gilvarym $100
Tim Clark $100
Twiz Real Name Derek Eakins
Biker Bill Real Name Bill Rowlands

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