Jayson Shaw and Ron Mason went undefeated in their respective appearances on the Predator Tour's Open/Pro and Amateur events on the weekend of November 1-2. The $1,000-added events ($500 each) drew 37 amateurs and eight Open/Pro players to Castle Billiards in East Rutherford, NJ.
Mason got into the hot seat of the Amateur event by virtue of a forfeit. He'd survived a double hill, winners' side semifinal fight against Chickie Romero, and was preparing to face Koka Davladze, who'd sent Juan Guzman to the losers' bracket 7-2. Davladze, though, arrived some 20 minutes late to the hot seat match, and was, by rule, forced to forfeit the match to Mason.
Moving to the loss side, Guzman picked up the youngster, Thomas Rice, who'd defeated Brooke Meyer and Daniel Schneider, both 7-4, to reach him. Romero drew Julie Ha, who'd gotten by Eddie Perez 7-5 and Jaydev Zaveri 7-3. Rice defeated Guzman 7-5, and in the quarterfinals, faced Romero, who'd eliminated Ha 7-3.
Romero defeated Rice 7-5, and turned to face a this-time, on-time Koka Davladze in the semifinals. Davladze got what should have been his second, but was actually only his first shot against Mason with a 7-5 win over Romero. The final match came within a game of being extended to 10 games, but Mason reached eight first to complete his undefeated run.
Jayson Shaw got by Predator Tour Director Tony Robles twice to capture the Open/Pro title. After battling to double hill against Hunter Lombardo in a winners' side semifinal, as Robles was busy sending Juan Guzman west 7-1, Shaw shut Robles out in the hot seat match.
On the loss side, Lombardo ran into Spanky Kava, who'd shut out Chris Hogan to reach him. Guzman drew Kevin Guimond, who'd eliminatEd Scott Simonetti 7-5. Lombardo gave up only a single rack against Kava, and in the quarterfinals, faced Guimond, who'd given up only two defeating Guzman.
Lombardo gave up another single rack in the quarterfinals, which ended Guimond's day and then faced Robles, who gave him a much more significant challenge. They battled to double hill, before Robles prevailed to earn the second shot against Shaw.
It started out well for Robles, with two break-and-run racks. As the balls scattered across the table during the break of the third rack, one of them kicked the cue ball in. Shaw stepped to the table, completed that rack and then ran four more to take a 5-2 lead. Robles narrowed the lead to two, but Shaw responded to reach the hill at 6-3. Robles fought back and won three to force a deciding game. He broke, and was looking at a decent table to run out. He was, he said "a little off, shooting at the 3-ball," and the cue ball took one of those all-too-common bounces off the corner of one side pocket, and landed in the other side pocket. Shaw picked it up and finished the rack to claim the Open/Pro title.
