114 W Cota Shelton, Wa 360-426-2221
February 23 & 24, 2008
By Dwayne Dibbley

Ernie’s Fir Cone Bar & Grill Masters tournament has survived for 26 years and is still going strong.  Three different owners, poor economic conditions, and even bad weather don’t deter the true players from a chance at glory.  The Masters is, after all, the premier open doubles in the Pacific Northwest.  Year after year, the Masters attracts players from all across the United States.  With years cut off at 36 teams players had to sign up early to ensure entrance. To take a shot at being Masters Champions, Players from all across the Northwest showed up from Kelso, Castle Rock, Centralia, Shelton, Tacoma, Longview, Lacey, Seattle, Springfield, OR., and of course from Shelton.  What a tournament, great boards that were as fast as greased owl crap and Ernie cooked up some of his world famous grub.  There are not many weekends one could spend as great as this.  Even the Friday Night draw was exciting.

Winners of the Friday Night Draw were Ryan Devlin (Longview) and Mike Strayer (Shelton).  Second place went to Mike Rapp (California) and Vern Gonzales (Shelton).

The Masters started 2 hours late due to how long it took to do the Calcutta.  But it did start and went late into the night.  Unfortunately, we can only name the top six places.