Mike Dechaine, who won the inaugural Gotham City Billiard Club 9-Ball Pro Classic in 2015, and finished fourth in 2016, came back to the event on the weekend of October 14-15, and went undefeated to win the 3rd Annual Gotham City Classic, held under the auspices of the Predator Pro Am Tour. Also known as the Sharon “Sam” Fagnoni Memorial, to commemorate Gotham City Billiards’ owner, Kevin Buckley’s sister, who passed away in May of 2015, the $21,500-added event drew a surprisingly low (given the added money and total prize pool involved) 39 entrants to Gotham City Billiards.
Dechaine had to go through Taiwan’s Yu Lung Chang to complete his undefeated run. They met first in the hot seat match. Dechaine had sent Marc Vidal to the loss side 10-2 in one of the winners’ side semifinals, while Chang downed Lee Vann Corteza, double hill, in the other. Dechaine claimed the hot seat, double hill, over Chang and waited on his return.
On the loss side, Vidal picked up Alex Kazakis, who’d gotten by defending Classic champion, Poland’s Konrad Juszczyszyn 10-3 and Hunter Lombardo 10-6. Vann Corteza drew Taiwan’s Pin Yi Ko, who’d eliminated Kai Lun Hsu 10-6 and John Morra 10-4.
Kazakis and Ko handed Vidal and Vann Corteza their second straight loss; Kazakis, 10-6 over Vidal and Ko, in a double hill win over Vann Corteza. Kazakis advanced another step with a 10-6 win over Ko in the quarterfinals, only to have his loss-side streak ended by Chang 10-6 in the semifinals.
Dechaine and Chang locked up in a second double hill fight in the extended race-to-13 finals. Dechaine completed his undefeated run by sinking the last 9-ball and claiming his second Gotham City Classic title.
Tour director Tony Robles made note of the fact that while relatively small, the entire field was “humbled and appreciative” of Gotham City Billiards’ owner Kevin Buckley’s sponsorship of this annual event, which has included the addition of increasingly large amounts of money into the prize pool ($11,000 in the first year, $15,000 last year, and $21,500 this year).
“I want to send out a HUGE thank you to Kevin and Isabel Buckley for putting this event together,” he said.
Robles also thanked a roster of sponsors, including Predator Cues, Ozone Billiards, The NAPL, The DeVito Team, and PoolOnTheNet.com. The next stop on the Predator Pro Am Tour, scheduled for October 28-29, will be a $1,000-added, Double Points event, hosted by Spin City Billiards in Woodside, NY.
