Hunter Sullivan and Clint Pires
Clint Pires is proving himself to be a force to be reckoned with in the New York City tri-state area. In September, he chalked up a win on the Garden State Pool Tour at a C-D 9-Ball event. This past weekend, Saturday, Nov. 26, he went undefeated at a $500-added, ABCD 9-ball event on the Predator Tri-State Tour, which drew 42 entrants to Clifton Billiards in Clifton, NJ.
Pires had competed in another Garden State Pool Tour stop two weeks ago and finished 9th, which normally might not have been worthy of mention, were it not for the fact that the runner-up in that event, Hunter Sullivan, turned out to be the runner-up this past weekend as well. Pires and Sullivan faced each other twice, hot seat and finals.
The two worked their way forward from opposite ends of the bracket. Pires defeated Rob Rodriguez 6-2 in a winners’ side quarterfinal to draw Don Henriques in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Sullivan downed Christian Taeza 7-3 in another winners’ side quarterfinal and faced Raymund Paragus in the other semifinal.
Sullivan advanced to the hot seat match without giving up a rack to Paragus. Pires joined him after sending Henriques to the loss side 6-4. Pires claimed the hot seat 7-4 and waited on Sullivan’s return from the loss side.
On the loss side, Paragus drew Tri Chau, who’d defeated Taeza and Robert Calton, both 7-4. Henriques drew a rematch versus Rushard Patrick, whom he’d defeated 6-2 in a winners’ side quarterfinal. Patrick defeated Dennis Feliciano III 8-4 and Sung Lee 6-2 to draw the rematch.
Chau got by Paragus 7-5 and in the quarterfinals, faced Henriques, who’d defeated Patrick a second time, 6-3. Henriques took one more step, eliminating Chau 7-3 in those quarterfinals.
The semifinal was the only match among the event’s final 18 matches that went double hill. When it was over, Sullivan had earned himself a second shot at Pires in the hot seat.
The final match was a replay (by score, at least) of the hot seat match. Same 7-4 score, same result, as Pires completed his undefeated run and claimed the event title.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Clifton Billiards, as well as title sponsor Predator Cues, Poison Cues, Arcos 2 Balls, Ozone Billiards, Sterling Billiards, Kamui, Hustlin’ USA Clothing, Bloodworth Ball Cleaner, Billiard Engineering, Joe Romer Trophies, Phil Cappelle Publications, Pool & Billiards and Billiards Digest. The next stop on The Predator Tri-State tour, scheduled for this weekend, Saturday, December 3, will be a $500-added event, hosted by Shooter’s Family Billiards in Wayne, NJ.
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