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Rosario comes from the loss side to capture his first Predator title

Abel Rosario, Dave Shlemperis and Mike Harrington

Abel Rosario, building on progress he's made throughout the year, playing on the Predator Tour, won his first; a $500-added Amateur event, that drew 41 entrants to the Cue Bar in Bayside (Queens), NY on Saturday, November 14. Rosario won seven games on the loss side for the right to face hot seat occupant, Dave Shlemperis, and hung on to win the final, double hill.
 
With Rosario at work on the loss side, early, the man who sent him there, Mike Harrington, advanced to a winners' side semifinal against Irene Kim. Shlemperis, in the meantime, squared off against Marco Dy. Harrington survived a double hill fight versus Kim, and in the hot seat match, faced Shlemperis, who'd sent Dy to the loss side 7-4. Shlemperis won his last match, defeating Harrington 7-3, to claim the hot seat.
 
Rosario, with two notches already on his loss-side belt, defeated Ehmunrao Tooccaram 7-2 and Dave Faraguna 7-5 and picked up Kim. Dy drew Lidio Ramirez, who'd survived two straight double hill matches, against Tommy Hagan and Eric Kwon, to reach him. Rosario then eliminated Ramirez in the quarterfinals 9-7 for a second shot at Harrington.
 
Rosario gave up only a single rack in a 7-1 victory over Harrington in the semifinals. He then fought to force a case game against Shlemperis in the finals, and won it to claim his first Predator title.
 

Strickland and Delimelkonoglu take Open/Amateur stops on the Predator Tour

Earl Strickland

Earl Strickland, Tony Robles, Mika Immonen, Mike Yednak, Chad Bolling, Brian Singh, William Finnegan, and Anthony Chiappina got together on Sunday, April 13 and played a little pool on the Predator Tour. They signed on to the tour's $500-added Open event, and it was Earl the Pearl winning four in a row who went home with the top prize, defeating Mika Immonen in the finals. In the $500-added Amateur event, which drew exactly eight times as many entrants, it was Kapriel Delimelkonoglu, who went undefeated to capture the Amateur title. Both events were hosted by the Cue Bar in Bayside, Queens.
 
Strickland took care of Chiappina in the opening round and faced Yednak, who'd downed Singh, in a winners' side semifinal. Tour director Robles defeated his assistant Finnegan and drew Immonen, who'd defeated Bolling, in the other winners' side semifinal. Strickland sent Yednak west 8-4 and in the hot seat match, faced Robles, who'd sent Immonen over 8-6. Strickland defeated Robles 8-4 and waited for the return of Immonen.
 
On the losers' side, Bolling and Singh downed Finnegan and Chiappina, respectively; Bolling 8-6 over Finnegan and Singh in a forfeit by Chiappina. Immonen and Yednak switched opponents from the opening round and defeated them a second time; Immonen over Singh 8-1 and Yednak over Bolling 8-2. Immonen took the quarterfinal match against Yednak 8-1 and then elminated Robles 8-3 in the semifinals. Strickland completed his four-match, undefeated day with a 9-3 win over the Iceman in the finals.
 
In the Amateur event, it took Delimelkonoglu four matches just to reach the winners' side semifinal, where he squared off against Chickie Romero. In the meantime, Shawn Sookhai faced Laszlo Kovacs. Delimelkonoglu defeated Romero 7-6 and in the hot seat match, met up with Sookhai, who'd defeated Kovacs 7-4. In their first of two, Delimelkonoglu and Sookhai battled to double hill before Delimelkonoglu prevailed to sit in the hot seat.
 
On the loss side, Romero and Kovacs met up with Ron Mason and Tommy Hagan. Mason had gotten by Glenn Ramsey 7-5 and Meshak Daniel 7-2. Hagan, who was in the midst of a six-match, loss-side winning streak that would take him as far as the semifinals, defeated Stuart Warnock 7-5 and survived a double hill match versus James Stevens to draw Kovacs. Mason and Hagan handed Romero and Kovacs their second straight loss; Hagan 7-3 over Kovacs, Mason 7-4 over Romero.
 
A double hill quarterfinal eventually advanced Hagan to the semifinals, where his loss-side streak came to an end at the hands of Sookhai, who defeated him 7-4 for a second shot against Delimelkonoglu. Their second meeting was as hotly contested as the first. They fought to double hill again, and again Delimelkonogluu prevailed to capture the Amateur title.

Shaw goes undefeated on Predator Open, Uzdejczyk comes from loss side to win Amateur title

Jayson Shaw, Robb Saez and Michael Yednak

Jayson Shaw, looking to add to his already substantial winnings in 2013, signed on for the $500-added Open event at Stop # 16 on the Predator Tour, held on the weekend of October 5-6. Amidst a short field of 15 entrants at The Cue Bar in Bayside, Queens, Shaw went undefeated to claim his third 2013 Predator title, which had included the Empire State 10-Ball Championships in February. He had to get by Mike Yednak twice; once, in the hot seat and again, in the finals. Yednak, who won the Amateur division of Labor Day weekend's George "Ginky" Sansouci Memorial tournament has just recently been elevated to Open/Pro status, and in addition to advancing to the winners' side final, managed to down Robb Saez in the semifinals for second shot at Shaw.
 
In the $500-added Amateur event, which drew 44 entrants to the same location, Bogie Uzdejczyk came from the loss side and avenged an earlier loss by defeating hot seat occupant, Tommy Hagan to claim the event title. Sent west by Hagan in one of the winners' side semifinals, Uzdejczyk won three on the loss side for a second shot at Hagan, and then, took full advantage to win it.
 
In the Open event, Shaw faced Robb Saez in one of the winners' side semifinals as Yednak squared off against Ray Lee in the other. Shaw and Yednak advanced to the hot seat match with identical 7-5 victories over Saez and Lee. Shaw gave up only a single rack in the hot seat match, and waited on Yednak's return.
 
Saez, in the meantime, working on the loss side met up with Juan Guzman, who'd downed Emily Duddy 7-3 and Tony Liang 7-4. Lee had the misfortune of running into Mhet Vergara, who'd defeated Darren Defilippis 7-4 and then, completely shut out Jerry Tarantola. Vergara chalked up his second straight shutout, eliminating Lee, while Saez was busy surviving a double hill battle over Guzman.
 
Saez ended Guzman's two-match shutout streak 7-3 in the quarterfinals and turned to the final obstacle on his way to a re-match against Shaw – Yednak, in the semifinals. Yednak, though, was just as determined for a re-match and downed Saez 7-5 to earn the opportunity. Shaw ended Yednak's bid 9-4 in the finals to claim the title.
 
Uzdejczyk takes Amateur event
 
In the Amateur event, Tommy Hagan advanced to the hot seat match by first, defeating Bogie Uzdejczyk in a winners' side semifinal 7-4, and then, by a score of 7-5 in the hot seat match, defeating Marco Dy, who'd sent John Hacsi to the loss side 7-5. Hagan sat in the hot seat, waiting on Uzdejczyk.
 
Uzdejczyk began his three-match loss-side campaign against Stuart Warnock, who'd gotten by Billy Santiago 7-3 and survived a double hill match against Scott Murphy. Hasci met up with Dinko Busanich, who'd defeated Tony Liang 7-4 and Keith Adamik 7-5.
 
Uzdejczyk ended Warnock's day 7-5 and in the quarterfinals, faced Hasci, who'd prevailed in a double hill match against Busanich. Uzdejczyk went on to defeat Hasci 7-5, and then, earn himself a re-match against Hagan with a 7-5 victory over Dy in the semifinals. He completed his comeback with a 9-7 win over Hagan to claim the event title.

See downs Robles on Predator Tour; DeBreo goes undefeated in Amateur event

Huidji See

Huidji See and Tony Robles battled twice during the $500-added Open portion of the September 21-22 Predator stop, which drew only eight entrants to the Cue Bar in Bayside, Queens. They split the two matches, but See captured the event title by winning the second one, the finals. In the concurrently-run, $500-added, A-D handicapped event, Raphael Dabreo went undefeated through a field 50 to take the top Amateur prize.
 
See and Robles met first in the hot seat match. Robles had sent Frankie Hernandez west 8-3, as See was busy with an 8-4 win over Dave Grau. Robles took the first of his two against See 8-4 and sat in the hot seat, awaiting his return.
 
Hernandez moved over to take on Adrian Daniel, who'd defeated Vikram Dasari 8-4. Grau picked up Nigel Francis, who'd gotten by Jim Yonge 8-6. Grau and Hernandez moved on to match up in the quarterfinals with identical 8-1 victories over Francis and Daniel. Hernandez took the quarterfinal 8-5, but was stopped by See in a double hill, semifinal match.
 
In the extended-race final, Robles need to reach 8 games, ahead of See, to chalk up an undefeated run. He almost got there. Ahead by four, and on the hill at 7-3, Robles admitted to missing numerous opportunities, which allowed See to close the gap, pass him and eventually win 10-9 to claim the event title.
 
As in the Open event, the Amateur finalists – Raphael DaBreo and Tony Liang – met twice; once in the battle for the hot seat and again, in the finals. Unlike the Open event, the hot seat occupant, DaBreo, won both matches to go undefeated and claim the amateur title.
 
DaBreo had downed Meshak Daniel 7-5, as Liang was sending Bogie Uzdejczyk west 7-1. DaBreo gave up only three racks to Liang in the hot seat match and sat in that seat, waiting for the re-match finals.
 
Daniel and Uzdejczyk moved west and immediately picked up their second straight loss. Daniel went down 7-5 to Tommy Hagan, who'd first defeated Silver Fret 7-2 and Rene Villalobos 7-3. Uzdejczyk fell, also 7-5, to Eric Grasman, who'd gotten by Keith Adamik and Justin Muller, both 7-4.
 
Hagan took the quarterfinal match against Grasman 7-4, but was eliminated by Liang 7-2 in the semifinals. DaBreo completed his undefeated run with a second victory over Liang, 7-5.