John Messina, Rick Miller, Ifzaal Mohammed and George Gavin
Although the 2024 Empire State Raxx Classic, held this past weekend (Aug. 24-25) at Raxx Billiards in West Hempstead (Long Island) NY, was replete with competitors who’d attended the event numerous times over the years, its final match featured two competitors in search of only their second (recorded) cash payout in a pool tournament, ever, anywhere. George Gavin, who went undefeated to claim this year’s title, came to the event having previously recorded his only cash finish (9th place) at last year’s George “Ginky” Sansouci Memorial at Steinway Billiards. Runner-up John Messina arrived having finished in the same position at this past January’s KC Clayton Memorial at Raxx Billiards. Proof, if ever needed, that there’s room in this sports’ varied winners circles for everybody. The $2,000-added event drew 56 entrants to Raxx Billiards.
Originally split up into two, double-elimination brackets, based on Fargo Rates – Upper (575 and higher; 23 entrants) and Lower (574 and lower; 33 entrants) – they joined at a point when eight competitors from each of the brackets (four each from the winners’ and loss sides) entered a single-elimination Stage 2 of the event, which defined the extent of the payouts and eventually, crowned an Empire State Champion.
Gavin and Ifzaal Mohammad both went undefeated in Stage 1 of the lower bracket to what would have been one of the winners’ side semifinals of that bracket and as a result, advanced to Stage 2 of the event. Gavin defeated Charlene Capers 7-3, Tahsin Mujib 7-4 and Tony Meo 8-4 to get there. Mohammad downed Mike Callaghan 7-3, Jerry Almodovar 6-3, Derron Thomas 7-2 and Alex Guerrero 7-5 to get to the same place. They both advanced to Stage 2, along with Niko Berdzeni and Steve Kalloo, who also went undefeated to what would have been the other winners’ side semifinal of the lower bracket. From the loss side, Patrick Byrne, Eduardo Cordova, Alex Guerrero and Tony Meo advanced to Stage 2. With a little re-seeding work, those eight became the top half (or bottom half, depending on how you look at it) of the 16-entrant, single-elimination phase of the event.
From that point, Gavin and Mohammad, working from opposite ends of the Stage 2 bracket’s top half went undefeated a second time to meet a second time in the event semifinals. Gavin had defeated Patrick Byrne 9-3 and Alex Guerrero 10-6 to draw Mohammad, who’d eliminated Tony Meo 9-5, and Eduardo Cordova 8-5. So, hold that event-semifinal thought as we take a trip to the upper bracket and bring two of its competitors to the event semifinals.
Things were a little different in the upper bracket as eventual runner-up John Messina emerged from the loss side of the Stage 1 bracket, and eventually met up with Rick Miller in the event semifinals. Miller had advanced on the winners’ side of the bracket, past Tony Liang 7-2 and Kevin Shin 7-5. Joining him from the winners’ side were Duc Lam, Paul Puma and Kapriel Delimelkonoglu, who’d sent Messina to the loss side of the Stage 1 bracket 7-3 in the second round.
On the loss side, Messina won four straight, beginning with two straight, double-hill wins over Jason Halpin and Pascal Dufresne, before eliminating Joshua Friedberg 4-1 to advance to Stage 2. He was joined in Stage 2, from the loss side crowd, by John Francisco, Paul Wrangpetch and Christopher Lazarovitch.
Messina opened his single-elimination work with an 8-6 win over Paul Puma before he drew a rematch against Delimelkonoglu, defeating him 9-3 in one of the event quarterfinals. In the event semifinals, he drew Rick Miller, who’d defeated Paul Wrangpetch 10-5 and Duc Lam 9-6 to reach him. The re-seeding for single-elimination got underway and the upper bracket began its trip to the event semifinals and eventually, finals.
All caught up now? It’s Gavin and Mohammad representing the lower bracket in the event semifinals, while Messina and Miller square off representing the upper bracket in the event semifinals.
Gavin punched his ticket to the finals with a rematch, 9-6 win over Mohammad. Messina eliminated Miller 8-6 and joined him. Fittingly, the final between two competitors looking for their first regional event win (their second cash payment in a tournament was already ‘in the bag,’ so to speak) went double hill. Gavin won it to claim the 2024 Raxx Classic/Empire State Championships.
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