Eric Tang, Raphael DaBreo and Jamiyl Adams
He's been chalking up undefeated wins at a pace of one per month since August; three on the Tri-State Tour (August, October and November) and one on the Predator Pro-Am Tour in September. He chalked up his fifth with a Tri-State victory on Saturday, December 28, once again, going undefeated; this time through a field of 43, on-hand for the $1,000-added event, hosted by the Cue Bar in Bayside (Queens), NY.
DaBreo advanced to a winners' side semifinal against Dave Shlemperis with earlier wins over Gary Murgia, Shivam Gupta, and Eric Tang (who would come within a single 9-ball, hanging in a corner pocket, of facing him a second time). Jamiyl Adams faced Bryan Toolsee in the other winners' side semifinal. DaBreo downed Shlemperis 8-5 and in the hot seat match, faced Adams, who'd sent Toolsee packing 6-2. DaBreo moved into familiar territory with a 9-5 win over Adams, and waited in the hot seat for his fifth different opponent in the five finals he'd been a part of since August.
On the loss side, Eric Tang started his comeback with a 7-1 win over Thomas Hagan, and then just did survive a double hill battle versus Miguel Laboy. This set him up to face Shlemperis. Toolsee drew Ramon Feliciano, who'd defeated Tony Ignomirello and Akbar Karmoeddien, who'd won the previous week's Tri-State stop, both 6-3.
Tang and Feliciano handed Shlemperis and Toolsee their second straight defeat; Tang, 7-5 over Shlemperis and Feliciano 6-3 over Toolsee. Tang then dropped Feliciano 7-4 in the quarterfinals, and was a single step away from facing DaBreo a second time. That single step was Jamiyl Adams. With the victory in sight, knotted at double hill, Tang hung the 9-ball in a corner pocket, allowing Adams to drop it and be the one to face DaBreo a second time.
Adams took advantage of that 'old school' intangible, momentum, to take a 4-0 lead in the finals, but DaBreo came right back with four of his own to tie it. They traded racks to 5-5, before DaBreo took two in a row. Adams took rack #13 to pull within one, but DaBreo finished it with another two to claim his fourth (and last) 2013 Tri-State title.
Tour representatives thanked their hosts at the Cue Bar in Bayside, as well as sponsors Sterling-Gaming, Ozone Billiards, Qpod, Heptig Cues, Kamui Tips, Phil Capelle, BlueBook Publishing, and Human Kinetics. The next Tri-State Tour stop, scheduled for January 4-5, will be hosted by Gotham City Billiards in Brooklyn, NY.
