Frankie Hernandez, Jose Parica and Jeff Beckley
Fifty-one players came out to play in the 4th Annual Predator Tour Empire State Championships, which was held at Raxx Pool Room in West Hempstead, NY on September 3-4. A strong field came out to play in the $2,000 added event and take a chance at the coveted NY title.
Several top players participated, including Mike Fingers, Oscar Bonilla, Jorge Rodriguez, Frankie Hernandez, Zion Zvi, Jeremy Sossei, Sean "Alaska" Morgan, Tony Robles, Mhet Vergara, Victor Nau, Mike Wong, Joey Korsiak, and two visitors to the Predator Tour; Jose Parica and Jeff Beckley. Three women also came out to play against the Open field, including Diana "Snooky" Rojas and Kiss of Death & RackStar members Borana Andoni and Gail Glazebrook.
One of the two tour visitors, Jose Parica, is known as the leader of the Filipino invasion for being integral in bringing many of the worlds best Filipino pool talent to the US. Jose will also go down as one of the winningest professional players in this sport's rich history, and continues to play the game at an extremely high level today.
While Jose Parica represents the strong tradition that the game was built on, there were also several up-and-coming players looking to showcase their skills in their quest to be the Empire State Champion.
One of these players, also tour visitor, was Jeff Beckley from Indiana, who made the trip to NY for this event. Jeff had an impressive tournament going with several strong wins that stirred up buzz around his play. On his run, Jeff defeated John Ortiz 8-1, Robert Gipp 8-3, Lionel Rivera 8-7, Tony Cosenza 8-0, Tony Robles 8-5 and Frankie Hernandez 8-6, earning a spot in the finals, undefeated.
While there were several other players playing good enough to get to the finals, including Mhet Vergara, Jeremy Sosssei, Sean Morgan, and Tony Robles, Jose Parica was determined to earn the top spot.
In the winner's bracket, Jose Parica defeated Eric Tang 8-4, Ray Romanowski 8-5, and Jeremy Sossei 8-5, before losing to Frankie Hernandez 8-2. That loss put Jose on the one-loss side, where he regained traction en route to the finals.
Jose then defeated top NY-based Filipino player Mhet Vergara 8-3, followed by Tony Robles 8-7, then avenged his loss to Frankie Hernandez 8-6 earning the spot in the finals versus Jeff Beckley. In the final match, both Jose and Jeff were in a battle until 6-6, when Jose took control of the set en-route to a final 11-7 victory.
Jose Parica has been a longtime fan favorite in NY, and is a beloved character and personality in the sport of pool… and it's clear that he still has what it takes to play the game at the highest level. Congratulations to Jose for winning the 4th Annual Empire State Championships!
Many thanks to our title sponsor Predator Cues and the PlayNAPL.com as well as our official rack sponsor Delta-13, PoolOnTheNet.com, NYCGrind.com, Billiards Press, Pool.bz, Go4Pool.net, Master Chalk, Billiards Digest, Inside Pool Magazine, Pool & Billiard Magazine, Maxim Billiards and ProfessorQBall.com for their continued support.
