Euryel Castillo
The combined efforts of the Predator Tri-State and Mezz Cues Tours, along with Mesa Ambi’s Action in the Dark tournaments bring an extraordinary amount of care to the process of each annual George “Ginky” Sansouci Memorial Tournament. That process entails careful calculations which assure that all of the competitors in the Amateur division of the two-event, Memorial Day weekend are afforded an opportunity to compete first, against opponents in their respective skill levels and only later, against more skilled opponents. A random bracket might put a D+ player in competition with an A++ player in an opening round, which could send the D+ player home real early.
To avoid this, the overall bracket(s) created, to include this year’s 11th anniversary of the event (not held in ’20 or ’21), hosted by Steinway Billiards in New York City were divided into two main brackets (upper and lower skill levels) and then further subdivided into sections to assure skill-level separations in the early stages of the event. It was two (A/B & C/D) 64-player brackets that awarded seven C/D ‘byes.’ The tournament personnel use mathematical calculations to assure that the ‘byes’ are not restricted to a single skill level, to avoid one person being able to advance through the field as the recipient of more than one ‘free pass,’ while another has to play two or three matches to get to the same place on a given bracket. This didn’t play out as much at this year’s event, but the calculations applied to brackets anyway.
It is, at minimum, an ‘unseen’ extraordinary effort that goes into such calculations, as opposed to living by a process that entails players just paying their entry fee and taking chances with random draws that could get them ousted early. The latter way is much easier for the organizational forces at work, but not exactly fair to those putting their money into the ‘pot’ and hoping to make some headway in a 121-entrant field. Before he passed away in March of 2011, five months ahead of his 40th birthday, George “Ginky” Sansouci would have been competing in the ProAm division of such a tournament and been unlikely to face such elaborate calculations accommodating his skill level. But from what we know of the man, he’d have appreciated any and all efforts to encourage the participation of all players at all skill levels. We can only assume that he’d like the way the event in his name is being conducted, especially with the Amateur competitors, but it’s a safe assumption.
The man who emerged from all the calculations to claim the $1,500-added, 11th Annual George “Ginky” Sansouci Memorial Tournament’s Amateur Division was Euryel Castillo and he did it without a loss. A ‘B’ player, he came out of the upper bracket, downing seven competitors in eight matches, including runner-up Tahsin Mujib (C+), twice. Mujib (awarded one of the seven ‘byes’) went undefeated through five opponents in the lower bracket and faced Castillo twice; once, in an upper bracket vs. lower bracket battle of the undefeated and later, in the finals, after downing Gustavo Perdomo in the semifinals.
Combined, Castillo and Mujib have recorded only 10 cash-earning appearances in our database since 2019. Two of Castillo’s nine were event victories; one each on the Tri-State Tour (2019) and on the old Predator Pro-Am Tour (2020). Mujib’s only appearance in our database before this past weekend was recorded at the NYC 8-Ball Championships (Mixed Open) event in 2019. So, if all of the above calculations were designed to give competitors at all skill levels a fair chance at winning the tournament named in “Ginky”s honor, it seems to be working.
Castillo worked his way through the Amateur field to arrive at an upper-bracket, winners’ side semifinal against Omar Nelson. From the opposite end of that bracket Yoandel Andujar worked his way through to a winners’ side semifinal meet-up with Roberto Mendoza. On the lower bracket, it was Tahsin versus Abel Barriento and Seamus Cullen facing Sanjid Dewan.
Tahsin downed Barriento 7-3, as Cullen was busy surviving a double-hill fight versus Dewan. Tahsin then sent Cullen to the upper bracket’s loss side 7-4 and became one of the event’s final four. Cullen moved to the loss side, where he was defeated 7-4 by Gustavo Perdomo, who became another of the final four. From the upper bracket, Castillo, in the meantime, survived a double-hill battle against Nelson, while Andujar defeated Mendoza 7-5. Castillo shut Andujar out to become another of the final four. Andujar moved to the loss side and ran into Roberto Mendoza, who defeated him, double hill, to become the last of the final four.
So, it came down to Castillo versus Tahsin on one side of a brand-new, four-player bracket and Gustavo Perdomo taking on Roberto Mendoza. Castillo and Tahsin locked up in a double-hill fight that eventually sent Tahsin to the loss side, where he met up with Perdomo, who’d eliminated Mendoza 10-8 in the quarterfinals of the whole event.
Tahsin then eliminated Perdomo 7-3 in those semifinals and turned to take another shot at Castillo, waiting for him in the last hot seat (remember, there’d been two of them before, one each for the upper and lower brackets). Castillo was the ‘last man standing’ undefeated from the upper bracket (first one), while Tahsin claimed the lower bracket hot seat (the second). Castillo became the hot seat occupant for the second time, when he defeated Tahsin among the final four. Castillo claimed the 11th Annual George “Ginky” Sansouci Memorial’s Amateur title with a last 7-4 victory over Tahsin that brought the event to its close.
As usual, there were a lot of people to thank for a variety of different contributions and tasks, including the very people extending the thanks; Todd Fleitman, John Leyman and Ambi Estevez, each of whom put a lot of work into smoothing out the ‘sail’ through the event’s long weekend of constant activity.
“Ginky was a remarkable player that will always be missed,” said John Leyman, joining the chorus of folks thanking everybody that helped make his memorial tournament happen.
In addition to thanking the ownership and staff at Steinway Billiards for their hospitality, thanks went out to sponsors Predator, Mezz Cues, Kings of Vapor, State Farm Insurance and IntheBox.
In addition to Fleitman, Leyman and Estevez, other members of the ‘Director Team’ included Jose Burgos, Jaydev and Shweta Zaveri and Marisol Palacios. Further appreciation was directed at Erwin Dionisio “with his magic pictures,” Elvis Rodriguez for T-Shirts, Athena “for everything (she) does for us” and all of the players who came out to compete.
