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Piersa goes undefeated at Jayson Shaw’s US 1 Billiards & Bar in West Haven, CT

January 27th, 2021 | azhousepro | Uncategorized

Robert Piersa

Though he won the Derby City Classic’s Bigfoot Challenge and a stop on the Euro Tour (the Dynamic Billiards Treviso Open) early in the year and was a dynamic and vocal member of the European winning 2020 Mosconi Cup team, later in the year, it was, overall, a slow year for Jayson Shaw; his lowest in recorded payout earnings (at AZBilliards) since 2015. He wasn’t alone in that regard, of course; the pandemic doing its work world-wide, but Shaw was busy, too, with a few other things. 

In May, he created his own YouTube channel, and during the summer, he was hard at work, preparing US 1 Billiards and Bar in West Haven, CT for an October 9th re-opening, under his new ownership and management. For those who don’t follow him or US 1 Billiards and Bar in West Haven on Facebook or elsewhere, the re-opening with (as Jayson put it) “everything brand new, and I mean, brand new” went off smoothly and in a matter of weeks, Shaw had regular tournaments running.

The latest of those tournaments occurred this past weekend, on Sunday, January 24. IT was a $500-added 9-ball tournament, for Fargo-rated players 700 or below, which drew 27 entrants to US 1 Billiards and Bar and saw Robert Piersa go undefeated through the field, defeating separate opponents in the hot seat match and finals.

After Piersa had defeated “young gun” Thomas Rice in a winners’ side semifinal and Ryan Lineham sent Jorge Vivanco to the loss side, Piersa and Lineham squared off in the hot seat match. Piersa claimed it and waited on what turned out to be the return of Vivanco.

Rice moved over to the loss side and ran right into his second straight loss, delivered to him by another “young gun,” Lukas Fracasso-Verner, who’d been sent over by Lineham in a winners’ side quarterfinal and defeated Mario Argentino (who’d split the top two prizes in the previous week’s tournament with Nicholas Bosquet) and Henry Cha. Vivanco got right to work on his trip to the finals, downing Kerry McAuliffe.

Vivanco then eliminated Fracasso-Verner in the quarterfinal match and Lineham in the semifinals that followed. Piersa ended Vivanco’s three-match, one-loss winning streak with a victory in the finals.

Shaw’s US 1 Billiards and Bar will hold another $500 added tournament this weekend for players rated 650 and below, on the last day in January; Sunday, Jan. 31.

Shaw has also just announced a $1500 added pro-am event in February 6-7 at US 1.  Check the US 1 Billiards and Bar Facebook page or Shaw’s page for further information.   

Vivacio comes back from semifinals to take down Lang in Predator A-D event

July 2nd, 2012 | azhousepro | Uncategorized

They split their two meetings, but Jorge Vivacio took the critical, final match over Rich Lang to win it all. The $500-added, A-D handicapped event of the June 30-July 1 stop on the Predator Tour drew 36 entrants to Eastside Billiards on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

They met first in the battle for the hot seat. Just prior, Vivacio had defeated Ross Lacey and Lang had downed Debra Pritchett, by identical 7-4 scores. Lang got the best of Vivacio 10-3 in the hot seat match and waited for him to get back.

Lacey moved to the loss side and picked up Mike Dube, who’d defeated Dennis Espinal 7-3 and Alex Osipov 7-5 to reach him. Pritchett drew Alex Borukhovich, who’d gotten by Louis Jimenez 7-3 and survived a double hill match against Arron Moody. Lacey advanced, defeating Dube 7-2. Pritchett did not, falling to Borukhovich 8-6.

Borukhovich defeated Lacey in the quarterfinals 7-5 and had his loss-side streak stopped in a 9-7 victory by Vivacio in the semifinals. Vivacio avenged his earlier defeat at the hands of Lang with a 12-6 victory in the finals.