The Predator 9 Ball Tour along with Cuebar in Bayside, NY hosted the 1st Annual Louis Pannullo Charity Event for the Michael Magro Foundation September 6-7.
The full field of 64 included WPBA superstars Allison Fisher, Jeanette Lee, Jasmin Ouschan, Gerda Hofstatter, Liz Ford, and Caroline Pao. There were a total of ten women in the event including up and coming Gail Glazebrook, Borana Andoni, Alison Fischer, Olga Gashkova and Linda Cheung.
The top men included, Mika Immonen, George Sansouci, Shaun Wilkie, Tony Robles, Marc Vidal, Bobby Blackmore, Ron Park, John Alicea, Mhet Vergara and Juniors Michael Tosado, Jonathan Castillo and Jonathan Robles.
Mika Immonen led the top of the bracket with wins over Mark Mallari 7-1, Mhet Vergara 7-1 and Joey Kong 7-2. Jasmin Ouschan defeated Rene Villalobos 7-1, Robert Darden 7-1, and Marc Vidal 7-4 to set up a showdown with Mika Immonen.
The match between Jasmin and Mika was hotly contested and at 5-5, Mika won the next two games to take the set 7-5.
George Sansouci won his first three matches defeating Borana Andoni 7-4, Alison Fischer 7-3, and Ron Park 7-5 before succumbing to John Alicea 7-4. John Alicea had already beaten Bob Watson 7-6, Sal Marcelo 7-1, and WPBA superstar Allison Fisher 7-6 before defeating George Sansouci.
Tony Robles drew Pat Luna first round winning 7-1, and then beat Alfonso Passariello 7-1 and Lionel Rivera 7-3 to earn a shot at Gerda Hofstatter.
Gerda defeated Brian Leong 7-1, Ed Filangeri 7-6 and Michael Tosado 7-1. Against Tony, Gerda made a couple of safety errors that cost her the match 7-4.
In the bottom of the bracket, Shaun Wilkie was in dead stroke and easily handled Jerry Sandler 7-0, Thomas Wan 7-1, Gail Glazebrook 7-1 and Bobby Blackmore 7-6. Bobby Blackmore had already beaten Jeanette Lee 7-6 before facing Shaun.
On the one loss side, Allison Fisher was upset by the incredibly talented Thomas Wan. Jeanette Lee won 7-1 against Gail Glazebrook to earn a spot for day two.
On day two, Mika Immonen struggled against John Alicea. John paced himself and played great on his way to a 9-3 win.
The other winners side match saw Tony Robles lose a very tough match to Shaun Wilkie 9-8 after Tony snookered himself on the six ball at hill-hill.
Meanwhile, Jeanette Lee took on Jasmin Ouschan on the one loss side. It was a crowd pleasing match as they started out at 1-1 and went all the way to 8-8 when Jeanette missed a tough shot on the five ball that cost her the match 9-8.
Gerda Hofstatter defeated Thomas Wan 9-4 but fought hard in a loss to Marc Vidal 9-6. Marc squared off against Mika next and pulled it out 9-8 as Mika continued to struggle.
After defeating Mhet Vergara 9-4, Jasmin Ouschan faced Tony Robles next. Tony looked comfortable at the table as he took a 4-0 lead and never looked back winning the match 9-5.
Tony took a commanding 5-0 lead against Marc Vidal in his next match but Marc kept his composure and fought back only to lose 9-7 from a scratch on the break.
This set up the semifinal match between Tony Robles and young and talented John Alicea. It was close in the beginning but John broke six times during the match and came up dry every single time giving Tony a 9-3 victory.
In the final against Shaun Wilkie, Tony made a couple of mistakes throughout the match but caught some good rolls. In the end, Tony won the match 11-7 for the victory.
This was the final regular season Open tour stop of the 2008 season (Tour Finale October 11-12). Tony played in 14 events this season and made it to the finals an astonishing nine times winning five stops while placing second four times to earn the 2008 Predator 9-Ball Tour Player of the Year.
I would like to give special thanks to Dr. Louis Pannullo, his family and friends, DJ, Andrew and the entire Cuebar staff, my tournament director William Finnegan, Rob Omen, the love of my life and my inspiration Gail Glazebrook, my son Jonathan Robles, AZBilliards, Phil Capelle (thanks for the books), all the tour sponsors, and all the pros Allison Fisher, Gerda Hofstatter, Jeanette Lee (thanks for the autographed photos and the cue), Jasmin Ouschan, Liz Ford, Caroline Pao, Mika Immonen, Shaun Wilkie & George Sansouci for investing their time to help benefit this great charity.
But more than anything, I would like to thank every player, friend and fan that participated in this special event to help out the Magro family. Thanks to you, we were able to raise close to $8,000 for the Michael Magro Foundation! The Magro family has a very special place in our hearts and I really appreciate them, Dr. Louis and Cuebar for giving us the opportunity to do this for them.
Please feel free to visit www.michaelmagrofoundation.com if anyone is interested in making a donation.
We have an A,B,C,D event September 27-28 and the Tour Finale on October 11-12 with $3,000 added guaranteed. This tournament will be the first ever Empire State Championship and the winner will have his name on a banner at Raxx. Both events will take place at Raxx in West Heapstead, Long Island.
Remember that in order to pay the normal entry fee, you must have participated in at least 3 tour stops. If not you will have to pay double the entry plus a $20 registration fee (if you've never played in a single event).
Looking forward to seeing everyone there.
