Joey Kong wins again at the North Jersey 14.1 Straight Pool Pro/Am Quarterly. Out of the last three tournaments held thus far in 2008, Joey has two first place finishes and one second place finish. Joey, from the "hot seat", won the finals with the help of a 41 ball run against Gerard Soriano. This was not Joey's high run for the tournament. That was a 52 ball run made while besting Carmen Lombardo 110 to 29. Joey, only needing a one ball run to win the final match after the miss that terminated his 41 ball run, which he made after a missed shot by Gerard. The score of the final match was 110 to 73.
Gerard had just been moved up to a Skill Level 4, two matches prior, after he ran 56 balls against Marc Vidal for that win, and thus played Joey even in the finals with both players going to 110 points.
Hall of Fame inductee Pat Fleming held on to Tournament High Run distinction with a 61 ball run accomplished during a match he won against Gerard, who ran 40 balls in that match. In this match Pat, a skill level 2 player, had to score 130 points while Gerard, playing prior to his promotion in Skill Level from a 3, only needed to score 90 points. Pat won this match by the score of 130 to 70.
Finishing in third place was Jason Michas, a skilled 9-baller and competing here as a Skill Level 4 player, after losing to Gerard, who was now playing at his promoted Skill Level of 3. The match was heavily contested, a real "scrapper" if you will, with no real runs by Jason and only a 17 ball run by Gerard. Pressure began to take effect on the quality of play, filled with missed shots and scratches, as both players vied for the final match-up against Joey Kong. Jason's high run for the tournament was 27.
Finishing in fourth place was noted 9-ball player and all around billiard aficionado, Marc Vidal. Marc playing in this tournament for the first time had been doing very well, and on his way to a rematch with Joey Kong until his loss against Gerard Soriano. No fault of Marc, but Gerard was able to step up his game a notch to run 56 balls, besting Marc by a score of 99 to 13. Gerard was penalized 9 points (10% of his match game) for exceeding his ball run limit of 50 balls in that match, which he elected to do, and was then moved up in Skill Level on the very next match. Marc's high run for the tournament was 43 balls, which was accomplished twice.
Other noted straight pool players in the event were Carmen Lombardo with a high ball run of 28, not a good day for Carmen who regularly runs in the 50's, Brian Cap with a 27 ball high run, Tim Edmonds with a 21 ball high run, and Bill Horne, another 50 ball runner who couldn't find his game, with only a 17 ball high run.
This 3rd quarter event of the North Jersey 14.1 Straight Pool Pro-Am Quarterly was held over the weekend of September 13th and 14th at Comet Billiards, Parsippany, NJ. The final matched was streamed live on Accu-stats.com from the Accu-stats arena in Comet Billiards.
The 4th quarter tournament will be held in the same location at the end of this year on December 20th (and 21st if needed). For detailed information of this Tournament and contacts, visit www.NorthJerseyStraightPoolProAm.com.
