It is the very definition of ‘sweet revenge.' Geoffrey Bauer was sent to the one-loss side by Scott Simonetti from among the winners' side final eight of the Tri-State Tour stop on the weekend of Saturday, September 4-5. He proceeded to chalk up five straight wins in the west bracket for the right to meet Simonetti in a true double elimination final. He won them both to take home the first place prize. The $1,000-added, A-D handicapped event, which separates higher and lower handicaps until late in the tournament, drew 28 entrants to Amsterdam Billiards and Bar in Manhattan, NY.
Just after sending Bauer to the west bracket 7-4, Simonetti met up with ChristIan Smith, and survived a double hill battle that put him into the hot seat match versus Ryan McCarthy. McCarthy had just sent Ramilo Tanglao to the one-loss side 6-4. Simonetti gained the hot seat with an 8-6 win and waited for what turned out to be Bauer's return.
Bauer's five-match journey back to the finals opened with arguably his toughest challenge – perennial Tri-State competitor and multiple winner, Danny Cintron. With a B+ versus A+ advantage, Bauer dropped Cintron into the tie for ninth place and then defeated Carl Yusuf Khan 7-2 to pick up Smith. Tanglao drew Nicholas Chan who had defeated Luis Nova 6-4 and Yomaylin Feliz 6-2 to reach him. Bauer got by Smith 7-2, advancing to the quarterfinals against Tanglao, who'd defeated Chan 6-2.
Bauer dropped Tanglao in those quarterfinals 8-7 and then defeated Ryan McCarthy 7-5 in the semifinals for a second chance at Simonetti. With some momentum on his side, Bauer dominated the opening set of the true double elimination final, not allowing Simonetti a single rack. In the second set, Bauer looked to finish things quickly, opening the set with five straight, before Simonetti began to fight back, winning five of the next six games to knot things at double hill. Simonetti cleared half the rack, but was forced to play safe. The two traded safeties back and forth, until Bauer sunk a long shot that opened the table for a ‘game-set-match' finish.
