Sansouci and Gonzalez Tops in Manhattan

Sansouci and Gonzalez Tops in Manhattan
Ozone Billiards Predator Tour / Manhattan, NY

by Jerry Tarantola, NYCGrind.com

On January 23-24, the Ozone Billiards Predator 9-Ball Tour made its second stop of the 2010 season at Eastside Billiards in Manhattan, NY. Alex Gonzalez took home the gold in the amateur event, while George “Ginky” Sansoouci earned first place in the open/pro event.

On the winners’ side of the A-D event, Wilson Cruz rolled over Stu Warnock 7-3 in a dominant performance and was then matched up with Gonzalez, who had previously defeated Matthew Harricharan 7-3. Cruz continued his winning ways over Gonzalez 7-3, earning a spot in the finals.

Andrew Kane had a gritty performance, defeating Pat DiBuono 7-6, Matthew Harricharan 7-4, and Warnock 7-2 before being defeated by Gonzalez 7-0. Hungry for a rematch against Cruz in the double-elimination finals, Gonzalez completed the set with a 9-7 score and an impressive Predator Tour win.

In the open/pro 10-ball event, tour promoter Tony Robles won his first two matches over Randy Jaragoske 8-5 and Paul Raval 8-4 before being sent to the west side by Frankie Hernandez 8-6. Hernandez knocked Sansouci to the one-loss side 8-6, where he rebounded, winning over Randy Jaragoske 8-1, Mike Miller 8-4, and Robles 8-5. This earned Sansouci a rematch against Hernandez, whom he was able to overcome with a major 8-4 win in the finals.

Though Sansouci had numerous second- and third-place finishes on the Predator Tour, this was his first win. Also, this was the first time in over ten years, since the Ocean State Championship, that arguably the top three New York players finished in the top three of an event.

Open/Pro Results:
1st George Sansouci $600
2nd Frankie Hernandez $400

Amateur Results:
1st Alex Gonzalez $900
2nd Wilson Cruz $625
3rd Andrew Kane $425
4th Stu Warnock $300
5th John Alicea $200
Matthew Harricharan
7th Pat DiBuono $150
Brian Hunter
9th Diana Rojas $125
Dave Ascolese
Luis Jimenez
Ricky Rangoonan
13th Gary Murgia $100
Ron Mason
Jason Gonzalez
Walter Goller

Rivera Rules Predator Billiard Stop

Rivera Rakes in First Predator Win
Predator 9-Ball Tour / West Hempstead, NY

by InsidePOOL Staff

Lionel Rivera triumphed over a 79-player field at the April 18-19 stop of the Blatt Billiards Predator 9-Ball Tour. This event was hosted by Raxx Pool Room in West Hempstead, NY, and was the tour’s second A-B-C-D stop of the 2009 season.

The main tournament began Saturday and drew 62 of the Tri-State area’s strongest players. Picking up right where he left off from the first A-B-C-D event, where he took third place, Rivera took advantage of a first-round bye and fell into dead stroke by defeating John Mazes 7-2, Craig Seal 7-4, Mike Wong 7-4, and Thomas Wan 7-4 to remain unscathed after the first day. Albert Estevez also enjoyed a first-round bye and then defeated Dave Ascolese 7-3, Bobby Varughese 7-3, and Shawn Sookhai 7-6.

As day one came to a close, only four were left undefeated—Rivera, Beau Baer, P.J. Puma, and Albert Estevez. On the A-B side, Rivera faced Baer for a chance at the hot seat, while in the C-D bracket, Puma battled Estevez.

While Rivera remained in control of his game on day two, Baer seemed to be a different player. Rivera took advantage of a couple of mistakes and dominated Baer 7-2 for a chance at the hot seat, while Estevez took care of Puma to earn his shot at the hot seat, winning 7-5. The match for the hot seat was a barn-burner, with Rivera squeaking out the win 7-6.

 

On the one-loss side, Shawn Sookhai staged a comeback by winning four in a row—three of them hill-hill matches—to earn a shot at the semifinals against Estevez. But Sookhai seemed to lose his steam against Estevez, who won 7-3 for a chance to redeem himself.

In the finals, Rivera could not be denied as he calmly ran rack after rack to claim his first Predator Tour stop of this season, winning 7-4.

The tour also hosted the Delta-13 second-day B-C-D event that was won Charles Lentini, who defeated Dave Deserio in the final 7-4.

Results:
1st Lionel Rivera $1,000
2nd Albert Estevez $ 675
3rd Shawn Sookhai $ 500
4th Beau Baer $ 350
5th Thomas Wan $ 250
PJ Puma
7th Alex Gonzalez $ 175
Shorty Santiago
9th Charlie Lentini $ 100
John Alicea
John Hacsi
Bobby Varughese
13th Bob Mammarella $ 50
Dave Manasseri
Mike Ettl
Ryan Klett

Robles Snaps off Predator Billiard Event

Robles Takes His First Predator Stop of the Season
Predator 9-Ball Tour / Bayside, NY

by InsidePOOL Staff

Tour director Tony Robles won his first Predator 9-Ball Tour stop of the season the weekend of April 11-12 over Oscar Bonilla in the finals. Cue Bar in Bayside, NY, was host to the event’s 45 players, which included Hall of Famer Mike Sigel, Shaun “Get Some” Wilkie, Al Lapena, Frankie Hernandez, Jeremy Sossei, Eddie Uber, Marc Vidal, George SanSouci, and Tony Robles.

With the 16 open and pro players in the event, no one was ever comfortable with the matches that lay before them. And many of the higher-ranked players found victory against the usually dominating pros.

Robles was on cruise control until he ran into Sean “Alaska” Morgan, who played strong throughout the set and capitalized on a number of mistakes by Robles and defeated the “The Silent Assassin” 8-6.

Bonilla continued to show the crowd he is a force to be reckoned with. Before his big win over Mike Sigel, he defeated Brian Hunter 8-2, then Sigel 8-7, Lapena 8-5, Sossei 9-7, and won the hot seat match against Morgan 9-6. The comfortable Bonilla then waited for the one-loss side to catch up.

Robles worked out his demons on the one-loss side with wins over Mhet Vergara 8-4, Michael Yednak 8-0, Lapena 9-6, Uber 9-8, and Sossei 9-4. This set up a rematch between Robles and Morgan, who was just defeated by Bonilla 9-6. In the semifinal match, Robles came out vengeful with a 9-3 win and geared up to face Bonilla in the finals.

The final match was a close battle that saw both players playing great pool with few errors. At hill-hill, Robles broke and calmly ran out to win his first stop of the 2009 season.

The tour also hosted a B-C-D tournament Sunday with 10 players vying for the top prize of $150. The finals of the event saw Steve Wright versus newbie P.J. Puma, a Cue Bar regular. Puma was undefeated going into the finals with wins over Jesse Thomas, Paul Raval, Andrew Kane, and Alex Borukovich. In the finals, at hill-hill, Wright hooked himself in the side pocket. A failed massé attempt on the 2 ball left Puma with a five-ball run-out that he successfully completed for a first-place finish.

Results:
1st Tony Robles $1,000
2nd Oscar Bonilla $ 650
3rd Sean Morgan $ 475
4th Jeremy Sossei $ 350
5th Shaun Wilkie $ 275
Eddie Uber
7th Al Lapena $ 150
Marc Vidal
9th Ariel Rivera $ 100
Justin Muller
Mike Sigel
Michael Yednak

Dy Nabs First Predator Billiards Stop

Predator 9-Ball Tour / Lindenhurst, NY

by Jerry Tarantola

The Blatt Billiards Predator 9-Ball Tour held its first A-D tournament of the season the weekend of March 28-29 at Mr. Cue’s Billiards in Lindenhurst, NY, with Marco Dy walking away with first place. The tour’s third $1,000-added stop welcomed a total of 80 of its players to this new poolroom on the schedule.

As play unfolded Sunday, the story was all about players who showed a no-quit attitude on the table. Emerging player Thomas Wan lost his first match but quietly won eight consecutive matches before losing a come-from-behind set to tournament director William Finnegan. Finnegan had a stand-out performance and surely surprised a few people, as he bounced back from a hill-hill loss to Erin McManus before winning nine consecutive matches in a row to land his spot in the finals.

In the finals, Finnegan met up with Dy, who also had a breakthrough tournament, earning an undefeated spot in the finals after squeaking through a hard-fought hill-hill set with Lionel Rivera. Rivera was then taken out in the semifinals by Finnegan in another dramatic hill-hill battle, with Finnegan making the 9 on the break to win the match.

The final set saw Finnegan start out strong to build a 7-2 lead in the race to 9, looking dominant. In a surprising turn of events, Dy grinded back to tie the score at 8-8, putting himself in another gut-check hill-hill situation.

Finnegan had the break and successfully pocketed a ball and had an open table for a chance to earn the title and the personal victory of having gone through ten consecutive players. Uncharacteristically, he missed an easy 2 ball, giving Dy the easy run-out and his first Predator Tour victory.

The Predator Tour also hosted a second day B-C-D event, which brought out 16 players to compete Sunday afternoon. Dave Manasseri and Bob Mammarella fought through this field to make it to the finals, but it was Manasseri who came out on top in the finals with a dominant 7-2 win over Mammarella. Borana Andoni was the highest-finishing female, but Erin McManus was awarded $100 for the runner-up Delta-13 highest finishing female because of the fact that Borana had a strong ninth-place finish.

Results:
1st Marco Dy $1,000
2nd William Finnegan $650
3rd Lionel Rivera $ 500
4th Thomas Wan $ 325
5th John Mazes $ 250
Jose Soto
7th James Swanson $ 150
Frankie Cologne
9th Justin Muller $ 100
Joe Hunter
Dennis Lake
Borana Andoni
13th Beau Baer $ 75
John Hasci
Shawn Scokah
John Alicea

See more pics at NYCGrind.com

Immonen Snares Predator Billiard Win

Immonen Comes Back for Predator Win
Blatt Billiards Predator 9-Ball Tour / Parsippany, NJ

by InsidePOOL Staff

The Blatt Billiards Predator 9-ball Tour kicked off its second stop with an astonishing 108 players at Comet Billiards in Parsippany, NJ, the weekend of February 28-March 1. Of them all, it was 2008 Player of the Year Mika Immonen taking home top honors in the open division, with Christian Smith winning the amateur event.

Ignacio Chavez and Tony Robles were on a collision course for one another, as Chavez defeated Frankie Hernandez 9-6 to earn a spot for the hot seat and Robles won a hard-fought set against the legendary George “Ginky” Sansouci 9-6. In the match against Chavez, Robles took the lead 4-2 early in the match but scratched on three routine shots, which ultimately cost him the set 9-6. Now all Robles could do was wait for the winner of Immonen and Jorge Rodriguez.

Immonen was on a mission on day two and was determined to make it to the finals from the west side. He started the second day by defeating Sean Morgan 9-2, Al Lapena 9-7, Frankie Hernandez 9-0, and Jorge Rodriguez 9-3 for the right to meet Robles in the semifinals. His break and patterns were in perfect form against Robles as he quickly won the match 9-3.

Immonen continued to break and run with consistency in the finals, while Chavez struggled to make a ball on the break. The Finn came with his full arsenal and put on a clinic in shot-making, position play, kicking, banking, and defense to easily win the match by a score of 11-4.

The Predator 9-Ball Tour also hosted a second-day BCD event with 29 players. Christian Smith took care of business in the top of the chart to earn his spot for the hot seat, where he defeated Raphael DaBreo 5-3. Guy Ianuzzi won six matches in a row to earn a spot against DaBreo in the semifinals but ran out of steam and succumbed 5-3. In the final race to 7, Smith started strong, and though DaBreo put up a great fight, Smith triumphed 7-5.

Results:
1st Mika Immonen $1,400
2nd Ignacio Chavez $1,000
3rd Tony Robles $ 700
4th Jorge Rodriguez $ 500
5th George Sansouci $ 325
6th Frankie Hernandez $ 325
7th Oscar Bonilla $ 225
8th Al Lapena $ 225
9th Rob Saez $ 135
10th Lionel Rivera $ 135
11th Shaun Wilkie $ 135
12th Sean Morgan $ 135
13th Mhet Vergara $ 100
14th Junior Sanchez $ 100
15th Justin Muller $ 100
16th Marc Vidal $ 100

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