Duane Toney, who won three out of the eight Tri-State Tour stops he entered in 2009 and was among the top ten finishers in the tour's C+ class players in that year, picked up his first 2010 stop on the tour with an undefeated day on Saturday, February 6. The $750-added, C-D handicapped event drew 28 entrants to Master Billiards in Queens, NY.
Following victories over Ryan McCarthy, Masatishi Ebihara and Neslihan Gurel, Toney moved among the winners' side final four, to face Charles Vergara. Rounding out the final four were Raul Reyes, Jr. and Kapriel Delimelkonoglu. Toney and Reyes moved into the hot seat match with identical 6-4 wins over Vergara and Delimelkonoglu, and then battled back and forth to double hill, before Toney settled it. He won their first of two to gain the hot seat and send Reyes to the semifinals.
On the one-loss side, Wilfredo Albay was on a mission that would get him into those semifinals against Reyes. He defeated Michael Harrington 6-3 and Chuck Giallorenzo 6-5 to meet Delimelkonoglu coming over from the winners' side final four. After wins over Karen Freire 6-4 and Lenore Donovan 6-3, Mike Garetta picked up Vergara,. Albay and Vergara squared off in the quarterfinals after Albay defeated Delimelkonoglu 6-3 and Vergara sent Garetta packing 6-4.
Albay got into the semifinals with a 6-3 win over Vergara, but ran into a determined Reyes, who dropped him into third place 6-3 to get his second chance at Toney. As they had done in the hot seat match, the two battled back and forth throughout the finals. Though Reyes opened that final match winning two games in a row, Toney came right back to win two of his own and tie it. They traded racks to a 4-4 tie, before Toney took command to win the final two and take home the first place prize.
