“The Iceman” Mika Immonen Snows the Competition in the Predator Tour at BQE Billiards

On October 10th-11th the Predator 9-Ball Tour was hosted by a new pool room on it's season schedule, BQE Billiards in Queens, NY.  Forty-one strong players showed up for Stop #16 of it's 19-event season. With only two more regular season stops before the final event, the Predator Tour points race is heating up for player of the year. Each year, tour owner Tony Robles gives trophies and prizes to the tour's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers in each respective division: Pro, Open, Ladies, A, B, and C/D. With the US Open 9-Ball Championships right around the corner, this event served as a great warm-up for the most prestigious tournament in the US.  World #1-ranked player "The Iceman" Mika Immonen made a special appearance along, with several other world-class players. NY fan favorite and Filipino legend, "Amang" Jose Parica came out to play along with one of the hottest young up-and-coming players on the pro circuit, Mike Dechaine. Mhet Vergara, Oscar Bonilla, Zion Zvi, "Ginky" George Sansouci, Lorenzo Nonato, Tony Robles, Jorge Rodriguez, Holden Chin, "Alaska" Sean Morgan, Frankie Hernandez, and WPBA pro Liz Ford topped off and impressive field. One of the highlights of this event was a strong performance from Predator Tour newcomer Cleiton Rocha from Haverhill, MA.  After a first-round hill-hill (9-8) loss to Al Zea, Cleiton then beat Jerry Tarantola 9-4, Mhet Vergara 9-7, Zion Zvi 9-8 and Tony Robles 9-7 to come back on Sunday for the final 8. On Sunday, Cleiton played another impressive set against 1st place "A" player Lionel Rivera defeating him 9-5 before losing 9-4 to Jose Parica. Raxx Pool Room owner Holden Chin came back on the winner's side on the second day, before losing a nail-biting hill-hill set versus Mike Dechaine and being eliminated by Oscar Bonilla, 9-7. One of the winningest pros of all time, Jose Parica, was tearing up the field, until he went head to head with reigning US Open Champion,Mika Immonen. In a gritty battle, it looked like it would be Jose to pull out the "W," as he was got to the hill first, 8-6, in the race to 9. Mika climbed back to make it double hill when Jose elected to attempt to execute a tricky safe. Parica had a long tough shot on the two ball, and opted to play a safe, bringing the cue ball around three rails to hide behind a cluster of balls. He leaked the shot, and left Mika a shot on the two. Mika then went on to run out in impressive fashion, breaking up a few clusters of locked-up balls in the process. After the loss to Mika, Jose was fired up and played a near-perfect set against Cleiton Rocha en-route to a 9-4 score. Jose's next match was against top NY player, Oscar Bonilla who has been impressive of late. Oscar came out of the gate firing, and built up a 6-4 lead over Jose. After Oscar had a costly scratch on the break, Jose began to build up momentum and dominated the set from that moment. Parica won 5 consecutive games to close out the set 9-6. This win lined up Jose to play the loser of the match for the hot seat, between Mike Dechaine and Mika Immonen--who also recently dueled for the hot seat at the Galveston World Classic 10-Ball event. In this rematch, it was Mika who jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, before seeing Mike come back to tie the set at 4 games a piece. In what was the turning point of the set, Mike was running out a spectacular rack, before getting bad position on the 9-ball. Mike elected to go for a tough down-table cut, which he barely missed--giving Mika back the lead 5-4. From that point on, through a combination of outstanding play from Mika and several good rolls, Mr. Immonen went on to cruise to a 9-4 win. In the semifinal match between Jose Parica and Mike Dechaine, the 22-year-old young gun was able to capitalize on his big break and amazing shotmaking to overcome the battle-tested veteran, 9-4. The final match at BQE between Mika Immonen and Mike Dechaine was all Mika, who took control early and never gave Mike much to work with. In a clinic by the reigning US Open Champion and number 1 player in the world, Mika took the set 11-5 for the win. BCD Tournament 14 players turned out for the Sunday BCD second-chance tournament at BQE Billiards. In this event, Predator Tour Tournament Director William "Finn" Finnegan cruised through the winner's bracket to to secure a spot in the finals. En route to the hot seat, "Finn" defeated Ron Mason 6-3, Gail Glazebrook 6-3, Diana Rojas 5-3, and Naldo Troncoso 6-3. Prior to his loss against "Finn," Naldo Troncoso had an impressive shut out win against top "B" player, Ariel Rivera, 6-0. In that match, Naldo played superb pool, showing a combination of heart and gritty safety play. After losing the "hot seat" match to William Finnegan, Naldo awaited the winner of Ariel Rivera or "Snooky" Diana Rojas. This was a hard-fought battle between two players who have been both improving in leaps and bounds. Snooky and Ariel went blow for blow early on, but Ariel pulled away to close out a 6-3 win, setting up a rematch against Naldo. Naldo won the first 4 games against Ariel, which made it 10 consecutive games including their last set. However, Ariel began to battle back, returning with five consecutive games to take the lead, before Naldo tied it up hill-hill. In the tie-breaking game, it was a back-and-forth safe battle, which Ariel closed out after a missed 9-ball bank by Naldo. Ariel was then set to face "Finn" in the finals, to make it his third consecutive appearance in the finals of the Predator BCD events, having won previously at both Comet Billiards and Raxx.  However, it was Finn's day to shine, as he won by final score of 5-3. BCD Final Results: 1st:  $200 William Finnegan 2nd: $130 Ariel Rivera 3rd:  $ 80 Naldo Troncoso 4th:  $ 45 "Snookie" Diana Rojas Tony Robles would like to thank his sponsors, Predator Cues, Blatt Billiards, The Seminole Tribe of Florida, and Delta 13 Racks for their support of the tour.  Special thanks also goes to Nick and John Katelas, owners of  BQE Billiards for rolling out the red carpet for the Predator Tour's players. The next stop will be taking place at Eastside Billiards in NYC October 24-25. Please log on to www.predator9balltour.com for more information. Hope to see you all there!