12th Annual Empire State Championships at Raxx Billiards in West Hempstead, NY on tap next

 

Tenzin Jorden and Thomas Schreiber battled twice in the February 9-10 stop on the Predator Pro Am Tour. The first time, the match sent Schreiber on a three-match, loss-side trip. The second time earned Jorden his first title on the Predator Pro Am Tour. The $1,000-added event drew 73 entrants to Cue Bar in Bayside (Queens), NY.

 

Both matches between Jorden and Schreiber went double hill. The first, in a winners’ side semifinal, advanced Jorden to the hot seat match, where he was joined by Dave Callaghan, who’d defeated Mac Jankov in his winners’ side semifinal match. Jorden claimed his first hot seat 9-7 over Callaghan and waited on Schreiber’s return.

 

Long before Dave Callaghan had moved into the hot seat match, his brother, Michael Callaghan was busy trying to advance on the loss side. Michael made it past the first money round (13th through 16th) and moved into the matches that would determine the four-way tie for 9th place. And ran into his wife, Monika, whom his brother had sent to the loss side earlier. Displaying a level of fearlessness rarely seen on a pool table, Michael Callaghan defeated his wife, double hill (6-5), eliminating her from the tournament, albeit with $150 in her pocket . . . uhh, purse? Fortunately, they were able to stay and watch brother/brother-in-law, Dave, compete in the semifinals because Michael was subsequently defeated by Esteban Morrell 7-4. We don’t know whether they watched those semifinals together or not. We didn’t ask.

 

Esteban Morrell, who’d defeated Hector Torres 7-4 previously advanced to meet Jankov, coming over from the winners’ side semifinal. Schreiber drew Matthew Harricharan, who’d eliminated Brian Toolsee and Jaydev Zaveri (winner of the last Predator Pro Am stop), both 7-4.

 

Morrell won a double hill battle over Jankov and in the quarterfinals, faced Schreiber, who’d defeated Harricharan 7-2. Schreiber gave up only a single rack to Morrell in those quarterfinals, and then sent Dave Callaghan to sit and watch the finals with Michael and Monika Callaghan by defeating Dave 7-3 in the semifinals.

 

Jorden and Schreiber settle in to the their second straight, double hill match; this one for all of the proverbial marbles, all 1,250 of them. Jorden defeated Schreiber a second time to claim his first Predator Pro Am title.

 

A Second Chance event that drew 14 entrants, saw Russell Masciotti and KC Clayton battle to double hill in the final. Masciotti dropped the last ball to claim the Second Chance title and take home $140. Clayton added $100 to the $100 he’d earned finishing in the tie for 13th place in the main event. Vinnie Crescimanno and Justin Daniels (adding to his $100 for finishing in the tie for 13th place) each took home $20.

 

Tour director Tony Robles thanked the ownership and staff at Cue Bar for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Predator Cues, Ozone Billiards, NAPL, The DeVito Team, PoolontheNet.com, Billiards Digest, AZBilliards, Pool & Billiards Magazine and his entire staff, including his lovely wife, Gail.

 

Zion Zvi will defend his two-time title at 12th Annual Empire State Championships

 

The next stop on the Predator Pro Am Tour, scheduled for the weekend of February 23-24, will be the 12th Annual Empire State Championships, as usual, hosted by Raxx Billiards in West Hempstead, NY. There will be a $2,000-added Amateur event, which last year, drew 111 entrants, and was won by Jason Carandang. There will also be a $1,000-added Open/Pro event. The two-time defending champion of this event, Zion Zvi, has indicated that he will be on-hand to defend his title.

With an undefeated trip through a short field on Sunday, July 1, Tony Robles won his second straight, Open event on his own tour; his fourth, overall, since February. To do it, he forced Zion Zvi into his third straight second-place finish on the tour. It would have been his fourth straight second place finish had Robles not defeated him in the semifinals of the Empire State Championships in February. The $500-added Open/Pro event drew 16 entrants to Eastside Billiards on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

They met first among the winners’ side final four, with Robles sending Zvi west 7-3. Robles advanced to the hot seat match where he faced Justin Daniels, who’d defeated Sean Morgan 7-3. Robles sent Daniels to the semifinals 7-5 and sat in the hot seat, awaiting Zvi’s return.

Zvi moved over and picked up Jennifer Baretta, who’d defeated Mike Dube and Joe Landi, both 7-4.  Morgan drew Mhet Vergara, who’d survived a double hill battle against Greg McAndrews and then given up only a single rack to Alex Osipov.  Zvi and Morgan advanced to the quarterfinals with identical 7-4 wins over Baretta and Vergara. Zvi  then defeated Morgan 7-3, and gave up only a single rack in the semifinals versus Daniels to earn his re-match against Robles. 

In the extended-race finals, Zvi was looking to exact revenge for his earlier loss among the winners’ side final four, but Robles stepped to the table with his own memories. While Robles had kept Zvi out of the finals of the Empire State Championships with a double hill, semifinal win, it was Zvi, a month later, who chalked up a commanding 7-2 semifinal victory that spoiled Robles’ bid for a third straight win on the tour. 

With Robles in the hot seat, Zvi had to reach nine games first, to extend the race to 11 games, and he almost pulled it off. Zvi was out in front by two at the 5-3 and 6-4 marks. When Zvi reached the ‘extension hill’  mark of 8 games, though, Robles was only one behind. Robles then won two in a row to hit the nine-game mark, and conclude his undefeated day.

As tour representative, Robles thanked the ownership and staff at Eastside Billiards, as well as sponsors  Predator Cues, The National Amateur Pool League, Delta-13 racks, Poison Cues, PoolOnTheNet.com, and NYCGrind.