Pierre Palmieri, Tony Crosby and Chris Gentile
Tony Crosby went undefeated during the $1,000-added Open portion of the June 21-22 stop on his own Poison Tour. The event drew 32 entrants to Capone’s in Spring Hill, FL. Pierre Palmieri went undefeated in a concurrently-run, $1,000-added Amateur event, which drew 64 entrants, and featured a number of players who participated in the Open.
Crosby, in fact, faced the Amateur winner, Palmieri in a winners’ side semifinal in the Open event. Palmieri reached the hill in that match without Crosby having chalked up a single rack. Crosby came back to win six straight and advance to the hot seat match against Albert Baker, who’d defeated Mike Delawder 6-1 (Delawder would finish third in both events). Crosby went on to defeat Baker 6-3 to gain the Open hot seat.
On the loss side in the Open, Delawder met up with Ray Linares, who’d gotten by Mike Lear and Justin Gilsinan, both 5-1. Palmieri drew Donnie Mills, who’d defeated George Saunders 5-4 and Chris Gentile 5-1 (Gentile, who was runner-up in the Amateur event, had sent Mills to the loss side in the opening round of play). Delawder defeated Linares 5-1 and in the quarterfinals, met up with Mills, who’d eliminated the winner of the Amateur event, Palmieri 5-3.
Delawder survived a double hill fight over Mills in the quarterfinals, but fell to Baker 5-3 in the semifinals. Crosby completed his undefeated run in the Open event with a 7-5 win over Baker to capture the event title.
In the Amateur event, it was Palmieri and Delawder who battled for the hot seat. Palmieri had sent Jason Richko west 6-4, as Delawder was busy sending Jose Del Rio over 6-5. Palmieri got into the hot seat 6-2 over Delawder and waited on what turned out to be the return of Chris Gentile.
On the loss side, Richko ran into Stephen Richmond, who’d survived a double hill battle versus Justin Gilsinan, and eliminated Ray Linares 5-1. It was Del Rio who had the misfortune of running into Gentile, who’d been sent to the losers’ bracket by Linares, and had already chalked up six wins on the loss side, including, most recently, Mark Wathen 6-4, and Albert Baker (runner-up in the Open) 5-3.
Gentile got by Del Rio 5-4 and in the quarterfinal match, faced Richko, who’d defeated Rchmond 5-2. Gentile then gave Delawder his second, third place finish of the weekend, with a 5-2 win in the semifinals. Palmieri, though, hung on to win the final match 6-5 over Gentile.
