ANNOUNCEMENT Predator 9-Ball Tour Charity Event for the Michael Magro Foundation September 6th & 7th at Cuebar in Queens, NY.

You must preregister to play in this event by contacting Tony Robles or William Finnegan and prepaying your entry. No one will be registered for the event without paying first. The draw will be taking place the week of the event and play starts at 10AM on Saturday, September 6th. Dress shirt, dress slacks and dress shoes are required. To view the press release please click the following link:
http://worldchampionsmiles.cuetable.com The following professional men and women have already signed up for the Leukemia Foundation Charity Event sponsored by Dr. Louis Pannullo which will take place at Cue Bar in Bayside on September 6th & 7th: The field will be closed at 64. Please see Tony Robles or Bill Finnegan at the next event to sign up or call Tony at 917-202-2750 or Bill at 917-232-5069. Spots are going fast.

A tough field of 50 players showed up at Comet Billiards in Parsippany, NJ on Saturday August 3rd for stop #13 of the Predator 9-Ball Tour. Top players included, Jeremy, Sossei, Joey Korsiak, John Alicea, Mike Fingers, Carmen Lombardo, Joey Kong, Victor Nau, Jason Michas, Sean Morgan, Bobby Blackmore, Tony Robles and Shin Park. Jason Michas had a great start going undefeated the first day with wins over Justin Muller 9-6, Duane Toney 9-3, and 9-7 against #1 ranked Open player Joey Kong, setting up a day 2 match with Tony Robles. Tony Robles had a tough win against the always ready to win Thomas Wan 9-6, and then cruised through the tournament with wins over William Finnegan 9-1, Lionel Rivera 9-1 and Wayne Nicholson 9-1. At the bottom of the chart, Jeremy Sossei was on a tear, with wins against Victor Restivo 9-0, Laura Lagudi 9-0, and Dave Shlemperis 9-5 before winning a tight match 9-8 against New Jersey’s young talent John Alicea. Shin Park also dominated his bracket by winning 9-4 against Mike Wong, Joey Korsiak 9-4, Sean Morgan 9-2 and 9-1 against Steve Lillis to set up a showdown against Jeremy Sossei for day two. On day two, Michas seemed to lose his day 1 steam. Against Robles, Michas struggling to pocket balls on the break and consistently got out of line allowing Robles to win 9-1. In his first match on day 2, Shin Park won 9-6 in a very tough match against 2007 Ocean State Champion Jeremy Sossei to set up the hot seat match against Tony Robles. Park was ahead the entire match and at 8-6 with Park on the hill, Park missed a very difficult eight ball leaving Robles a long straight in shot on the 8-ball. With his cue elevated, Robles jacked up, pocketed the 8-ball and drew the cue ball table length to get perfect shape on the 9-ball making it 8-7. Robles then broke and ran out the next rack to make it hill-hill. Park broke and pocketed 2 balls and had an easy out but surprisingly missed a routine seven ball. Unfortunately for Robles, the cue ball ended up behind the 9-ball, blocking the 7-ball. With the 7-ball in front of the pocket, Tony calmly kicked the cue ball two rails to pocket the seven and get perfect shape on the eight to win the match 9-8. Meanwhile, Jason Michas was battling it out on the next table against Jeremy Sossei. The long match saw many missed shots and a number of safety battles and at an hour and a half with the scored tied 4-4, the match was put on the clock. This seemed a difficult obstacle for Michas to overcome as Sossei closed the set, 9-6. This set up a rematch against Shin Park and Jeremy Sossei. Park took a commanding 8-1 lead, but Sossei showed a lot of heart and came back 8-6. Unfortunately a missed a combo by Sossei to make it 8-7 allowed Park to run out the rack for the 9-6 win and a chance for revenge against Robles. The final was one sided as Shin played perfect until he was up 8-1. Tony fought back to 8-6 but missed his last three shots as Shin closed the show 11-6. Congratulations to Dave Shlemperis for finishing 9th-12th and to Phil Ozoux who won the top finishing C/D player. Both players played a great throughout this tough open event.

ANNOUNCEMENT

The Predator 9-Ball tour season finale banner event at Raxx Pool Room, Sports Bar & Grill will now and forever be known as the Empire State 9-Ball Championship. We fully expect to have a full 128 player field so if you have already qualififed get your name on the list and sign up at the next event. Who will be the first ever Empire State 9-Ball Champion??? Stay tuned!!!

Nearly 40 players came out to Master Billiards in Queens, NY this weekend to play in the 12th stop of the Predator 9-ball Tour. Big names included Mika Immonen, Shaun Wilkie, Shin Park, Jorge Rodriguez, Mike Fingers, Bobby Blackmore, & Tony Robles. Day one saw the usual suspects lining up for the top spots in the tournament. Shin Park was on a tear destroying everyone in his path including a 9-0 win over Tony Robles. Robles, “He shot perfect pool. Didn’t miss a ball and had a great break. He earned the shut out.” Mhet Vergara was also having a great tournament as he concluded day one undefeated along with Jorge Rodriguez and Shaun Wilkie, who sent Mika Immonen to the one loss side with a 9-5 victory. Caroline “Kapow” Pao was also tearing through the winner’s side earning two wins in a row before falling to Mike Panzarella 9-6. She would win the highest finishing female of the event. For day two, the top six were brought back to fight for the 1st place prize. Shin Park faced Mhet Vergara in the semis and Park took a huge 7-0 lead before Vergara caught a gear to earn 5 racks in a row, but couldn’t go any farther and fell to Park 9-5. Jorge Rodriguez just had all the right moves in his match to Shaun Wilkie and earned the 9-6 win over the Valley Forge runner up. Vergara seemed to keep that gear moving in his next match against Immonen, taking a stunning 5-1 lead over the Iceman, but Mika came back strong and tied the match 7-7. The battle ensued and a missed opportunity in rack 16 by Vergara let Immonen squeak out the win 9-8.Wilkie seemed to be having an off day in his match to Robles. Though Wilkie took a 3-0 lead at the beginning of the match and had some spectacular shots, a few out of position cue balls let Robles escape with the 9-7 win to face Immonen. The Robles/Immonen match was quite the crowd pleaser. Robles came out strong and took a commanding 5-0 lead over Immonen and a frustrated Mika just could not get a roll. But Robles seemed to lose focus and missed 4 kill zone shots to allow Immonen the next 7 racks in a row and take a 7-5 lead. Robles regrouped and took control to earn the next two racks and tie it 7-7. The next two racks were traded to make it 8-8 with Tony’s break. A great break proved frivolous as nothing was pocketed and Mika had his opportunity. He ran through the rack but unfortunately under stroked the six ball, leaving him virtually tied up with the 7. A disappointed Mika tried his best to cut it into the corner but missed by half a diamond allowing Robles to close the set 9-8 and leave Mika to settle for 4th place. For the hot seat, Jorge Rodriguez battled the seemingly impenetrable Shin Park as best he could. But Park was not to be stopped. Park again took a commanding 6-2 lead over Rodriguez and though Rodriguez came with some great shots to try and close the gap, it was too big a lead for Park to lose and Rodriguez fell to Park 9-2 and prepared to battle Robles on the one-loss side. Rodriguez seemed annoyed about his big loss to Park and took it out on Robles by taking a huge 5-0 lead over the Assassin early in the match. Robles however, was not to be pushed around for too long and with a reliable break and a few good rolls, regained momentum and closed the gap 8-7 Rodriguez. The last rack was a destined to be Rodriguez. On Tony’s break, surprisingly Tony broke and didn’t make a ball again when he needed it most. Rodriguez took advantage and ran through to the 6-ball only to have it skid and miss the corner pocket. The leave for Robles was a very thin cut on the 6-ball and unfortunately he made it but scratched afterwards. Robles conceded and Rodriguez took the set 9-7. Park was needed at the Sang Lee International Billiards Tournament and thus conceded his match to Rodriquez allowing Jorge his first Predator 9-ball Tour win of the season. Congratulations Jorge.

REMINDER! NEW EVENT! Predator A-B-C-D Event to be held at Raxx Pool Room

The Predator 9-ball tour has listened to the players and has now added an A-B-C-D event to the growing list of events for this season. The event will take place at Raxx Pool Room, Sports Bar & Grill on the weekend of September 27th & 28th. Thank you for supporting the tour. See you this weekend at Rack n' Roll!

This past weekend, Comet Billiards hosted the Women’s Open Predator 9-ball Event sponsored by Jim Murnak Cue Cases. The event brought in WPBA pros Liz Ford, Meghan Minerich and Caroline Pao. Iris Ranola, who has been cleaning up the regional events attended, along with recent Tri-State Invitational runner up Gail Glazebrook and the always deadly Emily Duddy arrived with Asia, who recently won the JPNEWT qualifier spot. The draw brought a very difficult 1st round match for Iris Ranola and Meghan Minerich. After moving here in February from the Philippines, Iris is a recent powerhouse edition to the northeast women’s events, winning many of the region’s qualifiers this year. Meghan Minerich, sponsored by Gallery Billiards, has been on the pro circuit for a number of years now. The ladies traded racks back and forth until a costly 8-ball miss proved deadly for Minerich and allowed Ranola to pull ahead and close the match 7-5, sending Minerich to the one-loss side much earlier than expected. Liz Ford was playing very strong pool this weekend. After a 7-0 win over Glazebrook, she continued her dominance on the winner’s side until she met with Caroline Pao in the quarter finals. Pao started the day with a nail-biter in the first round as Olga Gashkova fought tooth and nail against the WPBA pro, but a 6-ball miss in rack 13 allowed Pao to squeeze out the win 7-6. After that Pao blazed through the winner’s side to meet up with Ford. This was a great match as both players were equaling hungry for the win. At hill-hill it was still a coin toss as to who was going to take the match. Pao proved victorious as she clenched the win 7-6. Emily Duddy initially lost to Ford earlier in the day and was clearing the one-loss bracket. A close call with up and coming player, Borana Andoni 7-5 seemed to give Duddy the steam she needed to beat the dangerous Asia 7-5. This set up another chance at Ford. Unfortunately for Duddy, the second time was no different as Ford continued to show her experience and talent leaving Duddy to settle for 4th place. Exhibiting a phenomenal break, impeccable cue ball control and nerves of steel, Iris Ranola has been dominating the women players of the northeast. As the winner’s bracket came to the hot-seat match, Pao struggled to maintain her momentum and fell 7-3 to Ranola setting up a rematch between Ford and Pao. The loss to Ranola may have carried into Pao’s rematch with Ford. Both ladies were visibly tired and the day’s pressures had clearly taken a toll on each player’s game, but Ford was relentless and trudged through the match, not allowing Pao much room for error. As Pao struggled, Ford dominated and clenched the match 7-1. The day was long and draining and so in the late hours of the event, both Ranola and Ford decided to crown the other as champion of the event, so the first Predator Women’s Open 9-ball Event crowned Iris Ranola and Liz Forst co-champions of the tournament. Congratulations to both ladies for a great tournament and thank you again Jim Murnak for sponsoring the event.

Fresh off his IPT Challenge victory over Karl Boyes, Tony Robles continued his winning ways as Park Slope Billiards in Brooklyn, NY played host to stop #11 of the Predator 9-Ball Tour with a field of 42 players. Notable players included, Shin Park, Chris Lynch, Eddie Abraham, Marc Vidal, Bobby Blackmore, Michael Tosado, Holden Chin, Jeremy Sossei, Steve Lillis, Jorge Rodriguez, Mike Fingers, Joey Kong and Frankie Hernandez. In the top bracket, Steve Lillis scored victories over Jason Eglen 9-2, Shin Park 9-8, Mark Pamtovic 9-4 to earn a shot against Robles. Tony beat Bora Jeong 9-2, and eked out a win against a very strong Marc Vidal 9-8, Holden Chin 9-7, Joey Kong 9-2 and won against a very tough Steve Lillis 9-7 to earn a spot for the hot seat. In the bottom bracket, Mike Fingers beat Eric Mezz 9-8, Thomas Wan 9-7, Frankie Hernandez 9-6, before losing 9-3 to the always strong Eddie Abraham. Eddie Abraham had the toughest draw in the first round playing Ocean State Champion Jeremy Sossei. It was a great match but Eddie pulled it out 9-7. Eddie then beat Gelando Allie 9-3, Joe Hong 9-3 Mike Fingers 9-3 and the owner pf Park Slope Billiards Amilcar Contreras 9-3 to earn a shot at Robles for the hot seat. The match for the hot seat between Tony and Eddie was very close as both players struggled with their breaks. Tony managed to win 9-6 to earn his spot in the finals. After his close loss to Robles, Marc Vidal was tearing up the one loss side winning seven in a row beating Eric Mezz 9-7, Jose Cruz 9-3, Mike Wong 9-5, Mark Pamtovic 9-0, Joe Hong 9-0, Amilcar Contreras 9-2 and Mike Fingers 9-3 before losing in the semifinal to Eddie Abraham 9-6. This set up a rematch in the final between Tony and Eddie. The match went back and forth until it was tied at 6-6. Tony then held off Abraham by winning the next 5 racks to earn his third consecutive Predator 9-Ball Tour victory. The next Predator 9-Ball Tour Stop will be the first ever Women’s Event sponsored by Jim Murnak Custom Cue Cases and will be held July 19th & 20th at Comet Billiards in Parsippany, New Jersey. This special event is Open to all Ladies and is recognized by the WPBA. The next Pro Am Predator 9-Ball Tour stop will be taking place at Master Billiards in Sunnyside, Queens on July 26 & 27. Have a great Fourth of July weekend everyone!

The Predator 9-Ball Tour made it’s debut in Stamford, Connecticut this past weekend as Rack N’ Roll Billiards played host to stop #10. A very strong field of 51 players came out to support. Top players included, newly crowned 2008 BCA Generationpool.com women’s champion Xiao-Ting Pan, WPBA #2 ranked Ga-Young Kim, Mika Immonen, Marc Vidal, Shin Park, Mike Fingers, Bobby Blackmore, Victor Nau, Jeremy Sossei, Chuck Altomare, Steve Lillis, Ray McNamara and the great Earl Herring. After losing her third match to Victor Nau, Ga Young Kim won her next two matches on the one loss side before losing a hill-hill match to reigning Ocean State Champion Jeremy Sossei. Xiaoting Pan won her first three matches before losing to Robles 9-3 and would end with a 9th-12th finish. Marc Vidal was having his way on the winner’s side until he lost a heart breaker to Mika Immonen 9-8. Meanwhile, Mike Fingers was tearing them up on the top side of the winner’s bracket including a win over Shin Park 9-4. Mike had a few missed opportunities against Tony Robles which cost him the match 9-6. This set up the match between Tony and Mika for the hot seat. It was all Mika as he played a near flawless match to earn the win 9-3 sending Robles to the left side of the chart. Meanwhile, Shin Park knocked Marc Vidal out of the tournament 9-3 and got revenge against Mike Fingers to earn a spot in the semifinal against Robles. This was Tony’s chance to break the Shin Park curse. (Tony had a 0-9 record against Shin going into this match.) A determined Tony capitalized on a few mistakes by Park and took the win 9-5 to set up the final with Mika. In the final, both players started out strong but Tony lucked in three balls in one rack with the match tied 4-4 and again another ball in the next rack. That’s all it took to close the deal on Immonen as Robles finished out the following rack to take the 7-5 win. Stop #11 will be taking place next week at Park Slope Billiards in Brooklyn, NY. Please visit www.predator9balltour for more information, payouts and standings.

An impressive 50 player field over Father’s Day weekend gathered at Master Billiards in Queens, NY for the 9th stop of the season. With more than one third of the field at Open/Pro level and twenty percent of the field women, no one was safe from a difficult draw or the female power. First round action saw tough matches such as Frankie Hernandez over Mike Fingers 9-7, Bora Jeong over Victor Nau 9-8, Ryan McCreesh, over Marc Vidal 9-6, and Eddie Abraham over Chuckie Altomare 9-8 and the second round wasn’t any easier. Shin Park lost a close one to George “Ginky” San Souci 9-8, Abraham destroyed Shaun Wilkie 9-1, and femme fatale Liz Ford defeated the powerhouse, Frankie Hernandez in a crowd pleasing hill-hill match. Liz would win the Highest Finishing Female award of $100 and finish just shy of the money round losing to Shaun Wilkie 9-4. San Souci and Joey Kong were both having a great tournament. After defeating Park, Ginky went on to defeat Abraham 9-5, and won on the hill against Jeremy Sossei and Mhet Vergara before losing to Joey Kong, last week’s runner up, for the hot seat. Kong had earlier sent Tony Robles and Jorge Rodriguez both to the left side of the chart with 9-7 scores and waited in the hot seat for the left side of the chart to declare his opponent. After his lost to Kong, Robles was fighting his way back through the event with wins over Michael Yednak 9-6, Eddie Abraham 9-8, Mhet Vergara 9-5, Jorge Rodriguez 9-3 and a stunning 9-1 victory over Ginky to battle Kong again for the cash. The final was a close one up through the very end. In the race to 11, each player traded racks keeping the score tight. As his son Jonathan watched from the crowd, Tony would take the top prize of $1,000, a nice father’s day gift!

Announcements! Predator 9-Ball Tour Adds Three New Stops!!!

The Predator 9-ball tour has listened to the players and added more stops for this season. Women’s Open Event – July 19th & 20th – Comet Billiards (Women Only)
* Sponsored by Jim Murnak Custom Cue Cases Pro-Am Open Event – August 30th & 31st – Comet Billiards Pro-Am Open Event – September 6th & 7th – Cue Bar
* Sponsored by Dr. Louis Pannullo/Leukemia Foundation Charity Event All players in the women’s event will have points go toward the Female Player of the Year tally only. Remember, in order to play in the Finale and pay the standard entry fee, you must have competed in at least 3 events. If you have not played in 3 events, you will have to pay double the normal entry fee at the Finale. Thank you for supporting the tour. See you this weekend at Master Billiards!

Abraham Snaps Off First Predator Tour Stop Win

A field of 43 players came out to support the 8th stop of the Predator 9-ball tour this weekend held at Raxx Pool Room in Hempstead, NY. The tournament saw many close matches throughout the 2-day event. John Chong, a newcomer to the tour had a great opening event defeating such tough opponents as Holden Chin & Hiram Sherman. Day 2 of the event found Jonathan Smith battling Eddie Abraham for the hot seat. Jonathan Smith was having a great tournament, but Eddie Abraham who had earlier defeated Frankie Hernandez 9-5, was simply unstoppable and convincing defeated Smith with another 9-5 victory, sending Smith to the left side of the chart. Over to the one loss side, Joey Kong was delivered an early tournament blow by Frankie Hernandez with a crushing 9-1 loss. A fueled Kong battled back through the one-loss side to face off against Hernandez again, who just escaped from Bobby Blackmore with a score of 9-8. The Kong/Hernandez match was full of ups and downs, great safety play and incredible breaking skills, and at hill-hill Kong defeated Hernandez to advance face off against Jonathan Smith. The Kong and Smith match was another nail biter as both clearly wanted a chance at Abraham in the finals. Another hill-hill match victory for Kong would leave Smith to settle for 3rd place. In the finals it was all Abraham. The unbeaten champion just wouldn’t let up exhibiting a terrific break, great cue-ball control and the same battle-tested skills that kept him undefeated throughout the event. An incredible jump shot at 7-4 simply added fuel to his game and he closed the door on Kong 11-6.

The Predator 9 Ball Tour presented by Tony Robles and Predator Cues, made its 7th stop of the season at Comet Billiards in Parsippany NJ. The event drew 62 players. Top players included, Allen Hopkins, Karen Corr, Julie Kelly, Mika Immonen, Shin Park, Shane Winters & Warren Kiamco as well as the top ranked Open, A, B & C/D players that always come out to represent. Stop #7 had it’s share of women. Nine to be exact. Karen Corr won her first match against Dave Deserio 9-2 and ran into a very hot Shane Winters who defeated Karen 9-2. Karen’s next match was against Bobby Blackmore who lost to Warren Kiamco 9-5. Bobby was in dead stroke and defeated Karen 9-6 for a rare early exit. Liz Ford won her first two matches 9-6 & 9-0 before running into newly inducted Hall of Famer Allen Hopkins. Liz lost to Allen 9-3 and Bill Horne 9-6 but received $100.00 for the highest finishing female. Meanwhile, Gail Glazebrook got a bye in the first round and beat the always solid Lionel Rivera 9-6 in the second round before falling to the Iceman 9-1. She then gave Jason Michas a run for his money before bowing out 9-5. Gail received $100.00 for the highest finishing C/D player. Congratulations ladies! Mika was business as usual, taking care of the bottom portion of the chart by defeating Julie Kelly 9-6, Bill Gricenko 9-2, Gail Glazebrook 9-1, Jim Conn 9-1 and Warren Kiamco 9-8 to earn a shot at the hot seat. The Silent Assassin was taking aim defeating Jonathan Castillo 9-1, Bora Jeong 9-4, Carmen Lombardo 9-2, Victor Nau 9-5 and the always dangerous Allen Hopkins 9-6 to earn his shot at the hot seat. The hot seat was all Tony who played a near flawless match to beat the Iceman 9-5.