Earl Strickland, Tony Robles, Mika Immonen, Mike Yednak, Chad Bolling, Brian Singh, William Finnegan, and Anthony Chiappina got together on Sunday, April 13 and played a little pool on the Predator Tour. They signed on to the tour's $500-added Open event, and it was Earl the Pearl winning four in a row who went home with the top prize, defeating Mika Immonen in the finals. In the $500-added Amateur event, which drew exactly eight times as many entrants, it was Kapriel Delimelkonoglu, who went undefeated to capture the Amateur title. Both events were hosted by the Cue Bar in Bayside, Queens.
Strickland took care of Chiappina in the opening round and faced Yednak, who'd downed Singh, in a winners' side semifinal. Tour director Robles defeated his assistant Finnegan and drew Immonen, who'd defeated Bolling, in the other winners' side semifinal. Strickland sent Yednak west 8-4 and in the hot seat match, faced Robles, who'd sent Immonen over 8-6. Strickland defeated Robles 8-4 and waited for the return of Immonen.
On the losers' side, Bolling and Singh downed Finnegan and Chiappina, respectively; Bolling 8-6 over Finnegan and Singh in a forfeit by Chiappina. Immonen and Yednak switched opponents from the opening round and defeated them a second time; Immonen over Singh 8-1 and Yednak over Bolling 8-2. Immonen took the quarterfinal match against Yednak 8-1 and then elminated Robles 8-3 in the semifinals. Strickland completed his four-match, undefeated day with a 9-3 win over the Iceman in the finals.
In the Amateur event, it took Delimelkonoglu four matches just to reach the winners' side semifinal, where he squared off against Chickie Romero. In the meantime, Shawn Sookhai faced Laszlo Kovacs. Delimelkonoglu defeated Romero 7-6 and in the hot seat match, met up with Sookhai, who'd defeated Kovacs 7-4. In their first of two, Delimelkonoglu and Sookhai battled to double hill before Delimelkonoglu prevailed to sit in the hot seat.
On the loss side, Romero and Kovacs met up with Ron Mason and Tommy Hagan. Mason had gotten by Glenn Ramsey 7-5 and Meshak Daniel 7-2. Hagan, who was in the midst of a six-match, loss-side winning streak that would take him as far as the semifinals, defeated Stuart Warnock 7-5 and survived a double hill match versus James Stevens to draw Kovacs. Mason and Hagan handed Romero and Kovacs their second straight loss; Hagan 7-3 over Kovacs, Mason 7-4 over Romero.
A double hill quarterfinal eventually advanced Hagan to the semifinals, where his loss-side streak came to an end at the hands of Sookhai, who defeated him 7-4 for a second shot against Delimelkonoglu. Their second meeting was as hotly contested as the first. They fought to double hill again, and again Delimelkonogluu prevailed to capture the Amateur title.
