Warnock joins growing list of Tri-State winners

It seems at times as though the only certainty about the New York area's Tri-State Tour is the uncertainty about who'll win it from week to week. The 38 stops on the tour since last May have produced 29 different winners and on Saturday, May 10th, Stu Warnock became Number 30, coming back from a hot seat defeat to capture first place in the $500-added, A-D handicapped event, hosted by Castle Billiards in East Rutherford, NJ.

Warnock got by Rhio Anne-Flores from among the winners' side final four 8-5, as Teddy Lubis (a winner on the tour last August), defeated ChristIan Smith 7-4. In the hot seat match that followed, Lubis and Warnock battled back and forth to double hill, before Lubis prevailed in what would turn out to be Warnock's only defeat of the day.

Over on the one-loss side, a few other former tour winners were at work. Danny Cintron (the only five-time winner) would only get as far as 7th place, before falling to Brian Hunter (a winner in February), who would face Anne-Flores. Pat DiBuono was waiting for Smith. Hunter dropped Anne-Flores into the tie for fifth place 7-5, as DiBuono did the same to Smith 7-2.

Both the quarterfinal and semifinal matches were hill-hill struggles, as Hunter first defeated DiBuono and then fell to Warnock. At 2:30 in the morning, after a five-hour wait, Lubis faced Warnock for a second time, with starkly different results. Fresh off his victory over Hunter, Warnock won early and often, finishing the long day with a 9-2 win.