Paulo Valverde, Akbar Karmoeddien and Chris DeCaprio
He won his first Tri-State Tour stop four days before Christmas, coming from the loss side to take down Dennis Kennedy. On Saturday, February 1, Akbar Karmoeddien came from the loss side again (this time, playing only one match) to take down Paulo Valverde in the finals of the $1,250-added event that drew 42 entrants Gotham City Billiards in Brooklyn, NY.
Following wins over Michael Xie, Andrew Cleary, Pat Mareno and a double hill win over Allison Honeymar, Karmoeddien faced Keith Diaz in a winners' side semifinal. Valverde, in the meantime, squared off against Ambi Estevez. Karmoeddien advanced to the hot seat match 6-3 over Diaz, as Valverde survived a double hill battle versus Estevez. In their first of two, Valverde prevailed over Karmoeddien 6-3 to sit in the hot seat.
Diaz moved to the loss side and picked up Chris DeCaprio, who was in the midst of a four-match winning streak that would take him to the semifinals. DeCaprio had survived two straight double hill matches, against Mikes Harrington and Garetta, to pick up Diaz. Estevez drew James Rodriguez, who'd shut out Allison Honeymar and defeated Steve Wade 7-3.
Diaz and Estevez picked up their second straight losses; Diaz falling to DeCaprio 6-4 and Estevez being eliminated by Rodriguez 8-2. DeCaprio won the quarterfinal match against Rodriguez, 8-4 to complete his loss side run. Karmoeddien defeated DeCaprio, double hill to earn a second shot against Valverde in the hot seat.
Karmoeddien and Valverde would play 13 games in the finals, and until they'd completed nine of them, neither had more than a single game lead. Valverde took the initiative on each of the ties (beginning with 0-0), until they were knotted at four games apiece, at which point Karmoeddien took his first lead of the match. He followed it with a second win to go up 6-4, and Valverde came back to win rack # 11. Karmoeddien took two in a row to complete his second Tri-State win.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff of Gotham City Billiards, as well as sponsors Sterling-Gaming, Ozone Billiards, Qpod, Heptig Cues, Kamui Tips, Phil Capelle, BlueBook Publishing, and Human Kinetics. The next stop on the Tri-State Tour is scheduled for Saturday, February 8, at Castle Billiards in East Rutherford, NJ.
