It was the second time that Russell Masciotti and Matt Klein had met in the hot seat match on the Tri-State Tour. Last year, in April at Cue Bar in Queens, NY, Masciotti, looking for his first regional tour win anywhere, sent Klein to the loss side in that event’s hot seat match. Klein returned from a semifinal victory over Shane Torres to deny Masciotti that first regional tour win.
This year, on Sunday, March 8 at a $1000-added stop that drew 38 entrants to Steinway Billiards in Astoria (Queens), NY, things played out a little differently. The event last year was described (by me) as a “battle of the Bs,” both players at the time playing at a ‘B’ level on the tour. This year, Klein’s an ‘A’ player; second on the tour’s ‘A’ list, and was just coming off of a tour win a week ago. Masciotti is still a ‘B’ player; #15 on that list and still in the hunt for his first major win. They didn’t play in the hot seat match this year, because Klein was sent to the loss side early by Abel Barriento and had to win seven loss-side matches just to be in the finals. Masciotti stopped Klein’s run in the finals, finishing undefeated to claim the event title and his first regional tour win.
Masciotti’s path went through Basdeo Sookhai, David Grant and Julian Tierney before coming up against Thomas Schreiber in a winners’ side semifinal. In the meantime, Allison LaFleur and Ada Lio squared off in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Masciotti got into the hot seat match with a 7-3 win over Schreiber. LaFleur joined him after sending Lio to the loss side 6-3. Masciotti claimed his second-ever hot seat, downing LaFleur 7-5.
On the loss side, it was Schreiber who picked up Klein, four matches into his loss-side winning streak, that had recently included wins over Julian Tierney 7-5 and a double hill win over Sherwin Robinson. Lio drew Jason Goberdhan, who’d eliminated Qian Chen 6-2 and survived a double hill win over Brandonne Alli to reach him.
Klein defeated Schreiber 7-5, and in the quarterfinals, faced Goberdhan, who’d sent Lio home 6-2. Klein advanced into two straight double hill fights, winning the first 8-7 over Goberdhan in those quarterfinals and then, defeating LaFleur 9-8 in the semifinals.
And so it was, that just a month shy of a year later, Klein and Masciotti met again in the finals on the Tri-State Tour. They battled back and forth to a 5-5 tie, before Masciotti reached the hill (6) first. In the middle of what looked to be a relatively easy runout that would have extended the match for Klein, he missed his shot at the 8-ball. Masciotti stepped up and cleared the table to claim the event title and his first regional tour win.
Tour representatives thanked Manny Stamatakis and his staff at Steinway Billiards for their hospitality, as well as Ozone Billiards, Sterling-Gaming, Kamui Tips, Phil Capelle, Bloodworth Ball Cleaner, Pool & Billiards, Professor Q Ball, Bender Cues, Liquid Weighted Cues and Billiards Engineering. The next stop on the Tri-State Tour, scheduled for Sunday, March 15, will be hosted by Clifton Billiards in Clifton, NJ.
l to r: Luis Carrasco, Rainer Oraa, Debra Pritchett, Akiko Taniyama, Juan Guzman & Jim Conn
Juan Guzman is, as they say, tearin’ ‘em up at the tables these days. As mentioned in a report on a Tri-State Tour stop he won in November, he’s not likely to catch up to his best earnings year to date (2016), when he won two events on the Tri-State, two on the Predator Pro Am tour, and was runner-up that year in the George “Ginky” Sansouci Memorial run by both tours, but he’s making a late year run at getting closer. He won a stop on the Predator in April, seemed to take a mini-break and has since recorded two victories on the Tri-State (Oct. & Nov.) and just this past weekend, Nov.30-Dec. 1, added a Predator Pro Am Tour stop to the 2019 resume. Though he was challenged in the finals by long-time Predator competitor, Jim Conn, who won seven on the loss side to reach him, Guzman prevailed to go undefeated at the $1,000-added event which drew 60 entrants to Steinway Billiards in Astoria (Queens), NY.
With Conn already at work on the loss side, following a defeat at the hands of Abel Barriento, Guzman advanced to a winners’ side semifinal against Rainer Oraa. Luis Carrasco and Akiko Taniyama squared off in the other one. Carrasco got into the hot seat match with a 7-4 victory over Taniyama, as Guzman was busy sending Oraa west 8-6. Guzman claimed the hot seat 9-7 over Carrasco and waited for Conn to finish his loss-side run.
It was Oora who drew Conn, four matches into his loss-side streak, which had recently included a successful rematch against Barriento 8-6 and a 7-4 win over the tour’s #1 B+ player Matt Klein. Taniyama, a C player, drew Debra Pritchett (D+), who, going into the event, was 12 rungs above Taniyama on the tour’s top female list (#7 – #19), primarily because Pritchett had competed in about three times as many events on this year’s tour; 11 versus Taniyama’s 4.5 appearances. Pritchett had recently knocked out the tour’s #1 female player, Suzzie Wong (C) 6-4 and Euryel Castillo 7-4.
Taniyama defeated Pritchett 6-3 and in the quarterfinals, faced Conn, who’d eliminated Oraa 8-5. Conn ended Taniyama’s bid 10-5 in those quarterfinals.
Conn then defeated Carrasco 9-6 in the semifinals for a shot at Guzman in the hot seat. In the extended-race-to-9 finals, Guzman reached his target 7 racks ahead of Conn to claim the event title.
In a 15-entrant, single elimination Second Chance event, Chulo Castro and Ambi Estevez battled to a deciding 13th game. Castro prevailed to claim the Second Chance title. Julian Tierney and Marisol Palacios tied for third place.
Tour director Tony Robles thanked Manny Stamatakis and his Steinway Billiards staff for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Predator Cues, Ozone Billiards, PlayNAPT.com, The DeVito Team, Poolonthenet.com, Capelle (BilliardsPress.com), AZBilliards, Pool & Billiard Magazine, Billiards Digest and his own Predator Pro Am team, to include his lovely wife, Gail. The next stop on the Predator Pro Am Tour, scheduled for the weekend of December 13-14, will be the tour’s final event of the year, its 2019 Tour Championships. The $4,000+-added event will, as usual, be hosted by Raxx Billiards in West Hempstead, NY.
Though saddled with an increasingly popular asterisk, indicating that a tour stop win has been earned without benefit of a deciding final match, Luis Lopez’ victory on the Sunday, October 7 stop on the Tri-State Tour counted where it counted most; in his pocket. According to information at our disposal, the $705 he earned as official winner of the stop made 2018 his best earnings year to date. Another Luis (Carrasco) was Lopez’ hot seat and would-have-been finals opponent. The $1,000-added event drew 39 entrants to Steinway Billiards in Astoria (Queens), NY.
Following victories over Andre Shramanko 6-3 and Mike Strassberg 6-2, Lopez chalked up two straight shutouts, over Michael Fedak and, in a winners’ side semifinal, Latonia Taylor. Carrasco, in the meantime, downed Dave Shlemperis 7-2 in the other winners’ side semifinal to join Lopez in the hot seat match. Lopez defeated Carrasco 7-1 to claim the hot seat, and, as it turned out, the event title.
On the loss side, eight competitors were at work, looking to earn their share of the $820 left to divide up among six other competitors. Dave Shlemperis, sent to the loss side by Ramilo Tanglao and in the midst of a loss-side winning streak that would take him to the semifinals, picked up one of them; Nick Limbertos, who’d defeated Tanglao 7-3 to get into the first money round, and Ambi Estevez 7-4 to reach Shlemperis. Taylor drew Mike Mele, who’d defeated Abel Barriento, double hill and Shweta Zaveri (the tour’s top female competitor) 9-4.
Shlemperis and Taylor got right back to work and advanced to the quarterfinals; Shlemperis 7-5 over Limbertos and Taylor 7-4 over Mele. Shlemperis eliminated Taylor in those quarterfinals 8-5 and then had his modest four-match loss-side streak ended with a double hill win by Carrasco in the semifinals.
The two Luis’, Lopez and Carrasco, opted out of a final and, as the undefeated occupant of the hot seat (and having defeated Carrasco once already), Lopez claimed the event title.
Tour representatives thanked Manny Stamatakis and his staff at Steinway Billiards, as well as sponsors Ozone Billiards, Sterling Gaming, Kamui Tips, Phil Cappelle, BlueBook Publishing, Human Kinetics, Pool & Billiards, Professor Q Ball, Bender Cues and DIGICUE OB. The next stop on the Tri-State Tour, scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 21, will be hosted by Cue Bar in Bayside (Queens), NY.
As the Super Billiards Expo (SBE) draws closer (April 12-15), the ‘pool eagles’ have begun to gather, settling into the Northeast and deploying to a variety of locations for some pre-SBE competition. On the weekend of April 7-8, the Philippines’ Lee Vann Corteza, who finished 9th in the SBE’s Players Championship last year, showed up to compete in the Open division of a stop on the Predator Pro Am Tour. Vann Corteza went undefeated through the field of 16 that showed up for the $250-added event, hosted by Steinway Billiards in Astoria (Queens), NY.
A concurrently-run, $750-added (eagles in training) Amateur event drew 83 entrants and was won by Alex Osipov, who came back from a loss in a winners’ side semifinal to win three on the loss side, and down hot seat occupant, Abel Barriento.
Belying the type of battles one might expect in an Open event preceding the SBE, the last four standing in this one combined for an aggregate game score of 28-3 in the event’s final four matches. The hot seat match was a shutout by Vann Corteza, while the final three matches – quarterfinal, semifinal and final – yielded 7-1 match scores.
Vann Corteza and Jorge Rodriguez fought twice in this event; hot seat and finals. Vann Corteza survived a double hill fight against Zion Zvi in one winners’ side semifinal, while Rodriguez downed Sean “Alaska” Morgan in the other one. Vann Corteza got into the hot seat with a rare shutout over Rodriguez.
On the loss side, Zvi picked up Luke Rollison, who’d gotten by Eddie Kunz and Justin Muller, both 7-4. Morgan drew Hunter Lombardo, who’d eliminated Mhet Vergara, double hill and Gary O’Callaghan 7-5. Zvi advanced to the quarterfinals by coming out on top of his second straight double hill match, and was joined by Lombardo, who downed Vergara 7-4.
Hunter gave up a single rack to Zvi in the quarterfinals, before Rodriguez gave up only a single rack to him in the semifinals. Vann Corteza completed his undefeated run with a combined (hot seat and finals) match score of 14-1.
[photo id=49122|align=right]Osipov wins three on the loss side to meet and defeat Barriento in Amateur finals
In the Amateur event, Alex Osipov came back from an 8-6 loss to Abel Barriento in a winners’ side semifinal, to defeat him in the extended-race finals by the same score. Paul Carpenter, after surviving a double hill match against Luis Carrasco, faced Barriento in the hot seat match. Carpenter came out on the losing end of his second straight double hill fight, leaving Barriento in the hot seat.
Osipov and Carrasco got right back to work on the loss side. Osipov won an 8-6 match over Gary Bozigian, who’d eliminated Paul Everton 7-4 and Eugene Ok, double hill, to reach him. Carrasco, in a 7-4 win, downed Greg Matos, who’d previously defeated Ramilo Tanglao 7-5 and Corey Avallone 6-4.
Osipov took the quarterfinal match Carrasco 9-5, and earned himself a second shot at Barriento with a 9-6 win over Carpenter in the semifinals. Osipov reached his 8 racks first, ahead of Barrieto, in the extended-race finals, and added two to win it 10-6.
A Second Chance event that drew 14 entrants saw Max Watanabe down Erick Carrasco, double hill, in the finals to win it. Ray Feliciano and Paul Everton finished in the tie for 3rd place.
Having chalked up a Tri-State victory in September at Cue Bar, Thomas Schreiber added another to his 2017-2108 title list with an undefeated run on the January 20-21 stop on the tour. His September victory involved three matches on the loss side, including a semifinal win over Lidio Ramirez (who’d sent him to the loss side) and Pashk Gjini in the finals. On this most recent stop, Gjini was his first opponent, and Ramirez would end up facing him in the hot seat match. The $1,500-added event drew 48 entrants to Steinway Billiards in Astoria (Queens), NY.
After downing Gjini in the opening round, Schreiber went on to defeat Feng Zhao, Abel Barriento, and Amy Yu, which set him up to face Debra Pritchett in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Ramirez, in the meantime, met up with Llija Trajceski in the other winners’ side semifinal. Schreiber got into the hot seat match with an 8-5 win over Pritchett, and was met by Ramirez, who’d sent Trajceski to the loss side 9-7. Schreiber and Ramirez locked up in a double hill fight that eventually sent Ramirez to the semifinals.
On the loss side, Pritchett picked up Yu, who, following her defeat by Schreiber, downed Philip Pearce 7-4 and Irene Kim 7-2. Trajceski drew Feng Zhao, who’d gotten by Erick Carrasco 6-3 and Duc Lam 9-4.
Trajceski and Zhao fought to double hill before Trajceski advanced to the quarterfinals. He was joined by Yu, who’d eliminated Pritchett 7-3. Trajceski chalked up his second straight double hill win, eliminating Yu in those quarterfinals.
Trajceski’s rematch against Ramirez went his way. He downed him 9-5 in the semifinals to earn a shot against Schreiber. Schreiber locked Trajceski up in his third double hill match and won it to claim the event title.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Steinway Billiards, as well as sponsors Ozone Billiards, Sterling-Gaming, Kamui Tips, Phil Capelle, BlueBook Publishing, Human Kinetics, Pool & Billiards, Professor Q Ball, Bender Cues, and DIGICUE OB. The next stop on the Tri-State Tour, scheduled for Sunday, January 28, will be hosted by Clifton Billiards in Clifton, NJ.
Jeffrey Ignacio chalked up his third victory of the year on the Predator Tour by coming from the loss side and defeating hot seat occupant, Jayson Shaw, for the second time, in the finals of the $500-added Open/Pro portion of the March 14-15 stop on the tour. Yomaylin "Smiley" Feliz, also coming from the loss side, took home the top prize in the concurrently-run, $500-added A/B/C/D event. The Amateur event drew 59 entrants, while the Open/Pro event drew 12 to The Cue Bar in Bayside (Queens), NY.
Ignacio's victory went through Shaw twice, the first time in a winners' side semifinal, as Frankie Hernandez and Sean Morgan squared off in the other. Shaw gave up only a single rack to Ignacio in sending him to the loss side, as Hernandez downed Morgan 7-5. Shaw claimed the hot seat 7-2.
On the loss side, Ignacio picked up Zion Zvi, who'd defeated Rob Omen 7-2 and Giovani Hosang 7-3. Morgan drew Michael Wong, who'd gotten by Eugene Ok 7-2 and tour director Tony Robles 7-3. Wong eliminated Morgan 7-5 and in the quarterfinals, met up with Ignacio, who'd defeated Zvi 7-4. Ignacio then downed Wong 7-3 and in the semifinals, Hernandez 7-4. He completed his loss-side run with an 11-6 victory over Shaw in the finals.
Like Ignacio, Yomaylin "Smiley" Feliz' trip to the winners' circle, took a detour at the winners' side semifinals, where she fell to Abel Barriento 7-5. By the same score, Tom Hagan took down Arturo Reyes. Hagan then claimed the hot seat 8-5.
On the loss side, Feliz met up with Wanlop Chantarakolkit, who'd gotten by Bob Toomey 7-2 and Jim Gutierrez 7-5 to reach her. Reyes drew Stephen Dempsey, who'd defeated Basdeo Shawn Sookhai 7-3 and survived a double hill match against Steve Wright.
Feliz, at that point, began a series of three straight double hill wins, eliminating Chantarakolkit, Reyes (who'd defeated Dempsey 7-4), and in a re-match, Abel Barriento. She completed her winning campaign with a 10-6 win over Hagan in the finals.
The Predator Tour, which spends a lot of its time in the Tri-State New York area, paid a visit to Rhode Island on the weekend of September 14-15, and (no surprise) was treated to a host of the New England area's top players. As the Red Sox were busy completing their sweep of the Yankees at Fenway Park, Ranulf Tamba, who's spent the past few years plying his trade primarily on the New England-based Rack 'Em Up, and J. Pechauer Ride the 9 Tours went to work in the Amateur division of the Predator stop, and came from the loss side to defeat the Tri-State New York area-based Stewart Warnock. In the Open division, another New England-based regular, Nelson Oliviera, was runner-up to Tony Robles, who he challenged in the hot seat and finals. The $1,000-added Amateur event drew 30 entrants to Snookers, in Providence, RI, while the $1,000-added Open event drew a short field of 12.
In the Amateur event, Tamba was sent to the loss side from among the winners' side final eight 7-1 by Abel Barriento, who advanced to face Warnock in one of the winners' side semifinals. Gail Glazebrook squared off against Irvin Simkins in the other. Warnock got into the hot seat match with a 9-6 win over Barriento, and was met there by Simkins, who'd sent Glazebrook west 7-5. Warnock and Simkins battled to double hill before Warnock prevailed to sit in the hot seat, unaware as he waited for Tamba, that he'd won his final match.
Tamba, in the meantime, went right back to work on the loss side, defeating Brooke Meyer 7-1 and James Stevens 7-5, to pick up Glazebrook. Justin Muller won a double hill match against Billy Santiago and downed Kevin Falco 8-4 to pick up Barriento. Barriento advanced 8-6 over Muller, but Tamba handed Glazebrook her second straight loss 7-4.
Tamba then defeated both Barriento in the quarterfinals and Simkins in the semifinals 7-5. He and Warnock fought tooth and nail to double hill in the finals, but Tamba sunk the final ball to claim the title.
Robles got into the hot seat match in the Open event after downing Tom D'Alfonso 8-4. Oliviera had defeated Justin Muller (tied for 5th in the Amateur event) 8-3 to meet him. Robles took the first of their two 8-4 and waited in the hot seat for the second.
Neither Muller, nor D'Alfonso made it out of their first loss-side match. Phil Davis, who'd gotten by Dan Cintron 8-5 and Clayton Rocha 8-4, beat Muller in a double hill match. D'Alfonso was defeated 8-5 by Ray McNamara, who'd eliminated Jay McCaughey 8-3 and won a double hill battle against Joey Dupuis.
Davis took the quarterfinal match over McNamara 8-4, but was downed 8-5 by Oliviera in the semifinals. Oliviera took Robles right to the brink, but Robles completed his undefeated run through the short field of 12 to claim the event title.
