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.