Veteran 14.1 pro Ed Hodan, a straight pool champion in both States of New Jersey and Maryland, came from the one loss side, on the weekend of March 28th, to win the first North Jersey Straight Pool Pro/Am Quarterly of 2009 with decisive victories over Gerard Soriano, Jason Michas, and Carmen Lombardo. In the final match, Ed defeated a strong amateur player, Gerard Soriano, by the score of 200 to 64. Ed's one loss was from an early match against Jason Michas who managed to maintain control of the table and capitalize from every opportunity acquired from uncharacteristic misses made by Ed. But Ed managed to compose himself after that match and began playing like the true straight pool artisan that he is, not letting any other opponent get near their needed match points.
The final match between Ed and Gerard started out as a double elimination final, however with the players' consent it was modified to an extended single elimination match. On the outset of the final match, Gerard would only need to score 110 points before Ed got to his 150 match points – Ed got to his match point total first so the match points were extended for both players with Ed now needing to get 200 points and Gerard needing 145 points for the championship. During this final match, Ed ran 29 balls to get an early and uncontested lead. Ed also had a 77 ball run in this match, which was tournament high run, and a “53 and out” for the victory. Gerard was not able to get his game in gear during this final match even though he had numerous opportunities; and having respectable ball runs in other matches, had the ability to have won when given those opportunities.
In earlier matches, Gerard ran 53 balls during the “hot seat” match against Jason Michas, defeating Jason by the score of 110 to 27. Gerard also had a 57 ball run in his defeat of Carmen Lombardo. Ed Hodan had 19 runs during the two-day event, all over 20 balls and with a notable 63 ball run in his victory over Jason Michas who finished in third place and a 61 ball run against John McCole who finish in 5th /6th place along with Tim Edmonds.
John McCole, who plays at skill level 2 (one position below Pro Ed Hodan), also managed to get some decent ball runs during his first participation in the North Jersey 14.1 Pro-Am Quarterly. John had back to back balls runs of 42 and 30 in his victory over Ted Williams, a 38 ball run against Tim Edmonds, and a 29 ball run in his first round match against Ed Hodan, which lasted more then 3 hours. Ed won that battle by the score of 150 to 80.
Player statistics and tournament flow chart for this tournament and prior events, and tournament info can be viewed at www.NorthJerseyStraightPoolProAm.com. For those who are interested in playing in a North Jersey 14.1 Straight Pool Pr-Am Quarterly event please contact tournament Producer/Director Scott Abramowitz at 973-736-3435 or send an email to scott@northjerseystraightpoolproam.com.
The three final matches where all taped and streamed live from the Accu-stats OnLocation arena located at Comet Billiards, Parsippany, NJ. These matches can be viewed for free via “ustream” on the Accu-stats web site and high quality DVDs can be purchased from Accu-stats. The DVDs are an excellent learning tool for both beginner and experienced straight pool player. Each match has instructive commentary by Hall of Fame inductee Pat Fleming and with guest commentary by Carswell (Cosmo) Ransome during the final match. DVDs are for sale at $20 each and $50 for all three DVDs. Call Pat Fleming at Accu-stats or call Scott Abramowitz at SDA Productions if you are interested in obtaining these DVDs.
Sponsors for this tournament where Jacoby Custom Cues and the Blaze Pro-Am 9-ball Tour.
