Michael Farley took two out of three matches over Ed Sumner, coming back from the semifinals to defeat him twice in a true double elimination final during a May 31-June 1 weekend stop on the Tri-State Tour. The $3,000-added event drew 64 entrants to Gotham City Billiards in Brooklyn, NY.
Farley's path to the winners' circle went through Alberto Sanchez, Erick Carrasco, Ed Lalmiu and 14-year-old Sam Hoffman, before coming up against Vagif Laekberov in a winners' side semifinal. Sumner, in the meantime, faced Trevor Heal in the other. Farley sent Alekberov to the losers' bracket 6-4, as Sumner defeated Heal 7-4. Sumner took the first of his three versus Farley 7-2 and sat in the hot seat awaiting his return.
Over on the loss side, following his defeat against Farley, Hoffman began his trip back to the semifinals with a shutout over Mike Harrington, and gave up only a single rack to Andrzej Kaldan, which set him up to face Alekberov. Heal drew Lidio Ramirez, who'd defeated Ricardo Mejia 7-5 and the other teenager in the mix, Thomas Rice, 7-3. Hoffman chalked up a second shutout, this time, 6-0 over Alekberov, as Ramirez downed Heal 7-2.
Hoffman took the quarterfinal match over Ramirez 8-6. Farley, though, put a stop to Hoffman's four-match, 28-7, loss-side winning streak with a 7-5 win that earned him a second shot at Sumner in the hot seat.
Farley and Sumner traded racks to 3-3 in the opening set, before Farley edged out to a 5-3 lead. Sumner chalked up rack #9, but Farley took the next two to win the opening set 7-4. In the second set, Farley was on the hill 6-0 before Sumner recorded a game victory. Sumner took three in a row at that point, but it was too little, too late, as Farley completed his quest for a first Tri-State title with a 7th and final rack.
A $500-added second chance event saw Dave Shlemperis collect at $440 first-place prize.
Tour representatives thanked Kevin and Isabel Buckley, owners of Gotham City Billiards, for their continuing support, as well as sponsors Sterling-Gaming, Ozone Billiards, Qpod, Heptig Cues, Kamui Tips, Phil Capelle, BlueBook Publishing, and Human Kinetics. The next Tri-State event, scheduled for June 7, will be hosted by Rockaway Billiards in Rockaway, NJ.
