Must be something about the combination of month and location because for the second year in a row, Raphael Dabreo has chalked up a victory on the Tri-State tour in August at Castle Billiards in East Rutherford, NJ. This most recent event was a $1,000-added A-D handicapped event, held on the weekend of August 3-4, that drew 48 entrants, including Will Nunez, with whom DaBreo eventually split the top two prizes.

 

Those two met first among the winners' side final four, while Chris DeCaprio and Eddie Perez were going head to head in the other winners' side semifinal.  DaBreo took the first of his two against Nunez 7-5, and in the hot seat contest, faced DeCaprio, who'd sent Perez over 6-4. DaBreo, an A-ranked player, was challenged by the C player, DeCaprio; forced to play a deciding 15th game, which he won.

 

Meanwhile, Nunez was working his way back from the loss bracket. He picked up Keith Adamik, who'd gotten by Carl Yusuf Khan 7-4 and survived a double hill match against Paul Raval. Perez drew Dennis Quinn, who'd defeated Sam Hoffman, double hill, and Mike Strassberg 6-3. Nunez and Perez moved on to the quarterfinals; Nunez 7-4 over Adamik, Perez 6-4 over Quinn.

 

Nunez took the quarterfinal match against Perez 7-4, and downed DeCaprio in the semifinals 6-4. DaBreo and Nunez opted out of a final match, leaving the undefeated DaBreo in possession of the official event title holder.

 

Tour representatives, including new addition to the crew, Rick Shellhouse, thanked the ownership and staff at Castle Billiards, as well as sponsors Sterling-Gaming, Ozone Billiards, Qpod Cues, Kamui Tips, Phil Capelle, BlueBook Publishing, and Human Kinetics.