Dave Grau advanced to the hot seat and stopped a loss-side bid by Rick Cicottie to win the Sunday, May 12 stop on the Western New York Tour. The event, initially divided into A and B players, drew 16 entrants to Camelot Billiards in Rochester, NY.
Grau met up with Terry Bulman among the winners' side final four, as Fran Imburgia, who'd just sent Cicottie to the loss side, faced off against Jerry Sullivan. Grau defeated Bulman 8-3, as Imburgia traveled west on the heels of a 4-3 victory by Sullivan. Grau got into the hot seat, giving up only a single rack to Sullivan and waited on Cicottie's return.
Cicottie, in the meantime, started back with a 4-3 win over Sunny Kemp, and followed it with a 4-2 victory over Melissa Vsitek, which set him up for a re-match against Imburgia. Bulman drew T. Tamavoughn, who'd gotten by tour director Nick Brucato 7-2 and Marc Creamer 6-4. Cicottie successfully wreaked his vengeance on Imburgia, defeating him 4-2, and was met in the quarterfinals by Bulman, who'd eliminated Tamavoughn 6-5.
Cicottie completed his five-match, loss-side run with a 5-3 victory over Bulman in the quarterfinals and a 4-3 win over Sullivan in the semifinals. At that point, nearly 2 a.m., Grau and Cicottie opted out of a final match and split the top two prizes, with Grau, in the hot seat, declared the official winner.
