In addition to victories at the pool table, Jeffrey Ignacio has been chalking up some Frequent Flyer Miles. He began the year with a victory in the Predator Tour's season opener, defeating Earl Strickland twice to claim the title. He flew to California, where he defeated Oscar Dominguez in the finals of the Chuck Markulis Memorial Tournament, and a day later, opened a campaign that resulted in a finals victory over Skyler Woodward in the US Bar Box 10-Ball Championships in Reno, NV. He came back to New York to compete in the Predator Tour's $500-added Open/Pro event again on the weekend of February 28-March 1, and went undefeated through a short field of seven entrants to claim his second Predator Tour Open/Pro title.
In a concurrently-run, $500-added Amateur event that drew 41 entrants, Bud Robideau came back from a defeat in the hot seat match to defeat Carl Yusuf Khan. The events were hosted by the Cue Bar in Bayside (Queens), NY.
In the Open/Pro event, Ignacio got into the hot seat match against Tour Director Tony Robles. Ignacio had defeated Eugene Ok 7-2, while Robles was sending Lee Kang to the losers' bracket 7-5. Ignacio claimed the hot seat in a double hill battle against Robles.
On the loss side, Kang picked up Michael Wong, who'd been awarded a loss-side bye. Ok drew Elvis Rodriguez, who'd eliminated Bob Schlott 7-2. Kang, down 6-3 against Wong, came back to tie it and win, while Rodriguez was busy defeating Ok 7-4. Kang took the quarterfinal match against Rodriguez by the same score and then smoked Robles 7-1 in the semifinals. Ignacio, though, ended Kang's loss-side streak with a 9-6 win in the finals.
In the Amateur event, Robideau and the "Warrior" (Khan) met first in the hot seat, once Robideau had defeated Joe Gibbons 7-5 and Khan had sent Ron Mason west 7-3. Khan took the first of two against Robideau 7-2.
On the loss side, Gibbons picked up Chris Brooks, who'd defeated Darren Schmidt 8-5 and Jamiyl Adams 7-5. Mason drew Steve Wright, who'd gotten by Vinnie Santiago 7-3 and Dave Shlemperis 7-2. Brooks eliminated Gibbons 7-2 and Mason survived a double hill battle versus Wright.
Brooks then eliminated Mason 7-4 in the quarterfinals, before himself being eliminated by Robideau in the semifinals, double hill. Robideau came out gunning in the finals against Khan and reached the hill, five games ahead. Khan battle to tie things up and force a case game, but Robideau won that last battle to claim the Amateur title.
Tour director Tony Robles thanked the ownership and staff of the Cue Bar, as well as sponsors Predator Cues, Ozone Billiards, TheDeVito Team.com, PlayNAPL.com, Gotham City Technologies, NYCGrind, PoolontheNet.com, and Delta-13.com.
Both the Amateur and Open/Pro side of the March 29-30 stop on the Predator Tour saw the same two players face each other in the hot seat match and finals. In both the $500-added Amateur event, and $500-added Open/Pro event, the hot seat occupants (Amateur Mike Harrington and Open/Pro Jorge Rodriguez) failed to win a second time, leaving Amateur Chris Derewonski and Open/Pro Jayson Shaw to claim the respective titles. The concurrently-run dual events were hosted by Gotham City Billiards in Brooklyn, NY.
In the short field (11) Open/Pro event, Rodriguez advanced to the hot seat match with a winners' side semifinal victory over Earl Strickland 7-4, while Jayson Shaw advanced to meet him with a 7-2 win over tour director Tony Robles. Rodriguez took the hot seat battle 7-2 and waited on Shaw's return.
Strickland and Robles moved to the loss side where they met up with young Thomas Rice and Hunter Lombardo, respectively. Rice had gotten by Larry Ross and Steve Kalloo, both 7-3, to draw Strickland, while Lombardo had defeated Joe Gibbons 7-1 and Jeremy Sossei 7-5 to pick up Robles. Strickland downed the youngster 7-3, and in the quarterfinals, drew Robles, who'd ended Lombardo's day by the same score.
Strickland and Robles hooked up in a double hill quarterfinal match, which ultimately advanced Strickland to meet a familiar foe, Shaw, in the semifinals. Shaw downed Strickland 7-3 for his second shot against Rodriguez. In an extended race to 11, Shaw claimed the event title 11-6.
In the 59-entrant Amateur field, Derewonski and Harrington met up in the hot seat match, once Derewonski had dispatched Brooke Meyer to the loss side 8-4 and Harrington had taken command of a match against Sookeeo Ramkissoon 7-1. Harrington took his first against Derewonski 10-3, and waited in the hot seat for him to return.
Meyer and Ramkissoon's event day would end in their first loss-side matches. Meyer fell victim to Steve Astashen, who, after being defeated by Emily Duddy, was in the midst of a seven-match, loss-side winning streak that would take him as far as the quarterfinals. Wins #5 & #6 came against Dave Ascolese 7-3 and Brian Russell 7-2. Ramkissoon picked up Gail Robles, who was on a four-match, loss side winning streak of her own that would take her as far as the semifinals. She'd gotten by Patrick Meyers and Meshak Daniel, both 7-4, to draw Ramkissoon.
Robles defeated Ramkissoon 7-4, as Astashen was eliminating Meyer 7-3. With both of their loss-side winning streaks on the line, Robles shut Astashen out in the quaterfinals, before she had her own loss-side run stopped by Derewonski 9-7 in the semifinals. Derewonski earned his rematch and took full advantage, defeating Harrington in the finals 12-6 to capture the event title.
France's Vincent Rochefort won his first Predator Amateur tour event with an undefeated run through 71 entrants on the weekend of March 8-9. Rochefort had to stop a nine-match, loss-side winning streak by Omar Alli, looking for his second win on the Predator Tour, to complete the job. The $500-added event was hosted by Steinway Billiards in Astoria, Queens, NY.
Rochefort's trip to the winners' circle was almost derailed by Chris Derewonski in one of the winners' side semifinals. Derewonski battled him to the hill, before giving way to advance Rochefort to the hot seat match. Josh Friedberg, in the meantime, defeated Kapriel Delimelkonoglu 7-3 to join Rochefort in the winners' side final. Rochefort sent Friedberg to the semifinals 7-5, and waited on Alli.
Alli, sent to the loss side by Steve Callo, chalked up four wins before running into Callo a second time. He defeated Callo 7-5, and then, Joe Gibbons 7-4 to pick up Delimelkonoglu. Derewonski drew Laszlo Kovacs, who'd defeated Jimmy Acosta 7-5 and Brook Meyer 7-4.
Alli and Kovacs handed Delimelkonoglu and Derewonski their second straight loss in identical 7-4 victories and faced each other in the quarterfinals. Alli prevailed 7-5 and then, just did survive a double hill match versus Friedberg in the semifinals. Rochefort, though, was on his game and ended Alli's loss-side winning streak with a 7-3 win in the finals.
Jeremy Sossei and Earl Strickland played twice in the February 23 Open event on the Predator Tour, with Strickland winning both times. Eric Grassman faced two different opponents in the Amateur event over the weekend and won twice, as well; against Diana Rojas and Thomas Rice. The $500-added Amateur event drew 48 entrants, while the $500-added Open drew 10 to Gotham City Billiards in Brooklyn, NY.
Strickland and Sossei met first in the battle for the hot seat. Strickland had downed Jorge Rodriguez 7-5 in one winners' side semifinal, while Sossei defeated Tony Robles 7-3 in the other. Strickland moved into the hot seat with his first win over Sossei 7-3.
Rodriguez moved over to pick up Emily Duddy, who'd defeated Joe Gibbons 7-1 and Larry Ross 7-4. Robles drew Joey Korsiak, who'd gotten by Jerry Tarantola 7-3 and shut out Mike Esposito. Rodriguez and Korsiak met in the quarterfinals, once Rodriguez had downed Duddy 7-2 and Korsiak had defeated Robles 7-3. Rodriguez then shut out Korsiak and got a shot at Sossei in the semifinals. Sossei denied Rodriguez a re-match against Strickland with a 7-5 win, and then, in his own re-match, fell to Strickland in the finals 7-3.
On the Amateur side, the eventual winner, Grassman, met up with Steve Wright among the winners' side final four, as Diana Rojas faced Thomas Rice. Grassman and Rojas advanced to the hot seat match with identical 7-1 wins over Wright and Rice. Grassman sent Rojas to the semifinals 8-4.
On the loss side, Rice picked up James Stevens, who'd defeated William Finnegan 7-1 and Tony Ignomirello 7-4 to reach him. Wright drew Chris Derewonski, who'd gotten by Koka Davladze 7-3 and survived a double hill match against Roberto Mendoza. Wright and Rice got right back to work; Wright shutting out Derewonski, while Rice eliminated Stevens 7-2.
Rice took the quarterfinal match 7-5 over Wright, and successfully navigated his semifinal re-match against Rojas 7-3. Rice battled Grassman to double hill before Grassman prevailed to claim the Amateur event title.
Tour director Tony Robles thanked Gotham City Billiard owners, Kevin and Isabel Buckley, for their hospitality and continuing support of the tour.
Earl Strickland completed an undefeated run through the field to win the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour stop at Raxx Pool Room in West Hempstead, NY on November 23rd and 24th.
Strickland was just one of the early favorites in this event, with a field that included Mike Dechaine and Europe's Jayson Shaw. By the luck of the draw, Dechaine and Shaw faced off in the first round with Shaw scoring the win and Dechaine taking a very early trip to the left side of the board.
Back on the winners side, it was Strickland scoring a 9-6 win over Shaun Wilkie to capture the hot-seat on Sunday afternoon.
Wilkie made the journey to the one loss side, and found Dechaine waiting. Dechaine had won seven straight matches on the left side of the board and was not planning on settling for third place. Dechaine ran over WIlkie 9-2 to set up a match with Strickland in the finals.
Strickland came out strong in the first set of the finals and raced to a 6-1 lead. Dechaine is not known for crumbling under pressure though, and he came back to win seven straight games and held an 8-6 lead. That would be as close to the finish line as Dechaine would get, as Strickland won the next three racks for the 9-8 victory and first place.
The second place finish was enough to catapult Dechaine to the top of the Joss Tour Points List.
Sunday's second chance tournament saw Larry Ross beat Mike Andrews for the hot-seat and then degeat Joe Gibbons in the finals for an undefeated victory.
As is always the case on the Joss Tour, a beautiful $1500 custom engraved Joss Cue was raffled off, and the winner on this weekend was John Kalski.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will now take a break for the holidays and return to action on February 8th at Sharpshooters Billiards in Amsterdam, NY.
