On September 5-6, 2009, the Predator 9-ball Tour spent the weekend at Master Billiards in Queens, NY, and it brought some of NYC's toughest players along with it. Players like George Sansouci, reigning Empire State Champion "Spain" Marc Vidal, Tony Robles, Jorge Rodriguez, Jeremy Sossei, Joey Korsiak, Oscar Bonilla, Jonathan Smith, Mike Miller, and John Alicea were some of the top names to appear at Master for the Predator Tour's 13th stop of the season.
There were also some international visitors to the tour, such as 18-year-old Dennis Fokin of Russia, and Lorenzo Nonato of Italy. Nonato plays on the Euro Tour and is currently studying English in NYC. Along with his stop on the Predator Tour, you will also see Lorenzo Nonato at the upcoming US Open in Chesapeake, Virginia.
Also making a guest appearance on the Predator Tour was Pool, Poker, and Pain creator Blair Thein, who after a first-round loss to Arturo Reyes, was impressive defeating Wali Muhammed, Bobby Blackmore, and Michael Wong, before exiting with a 8-3 loss to Jonathan Smith on Saturday night.
Out of the 55 total players attending this event, 5 of them were females, with Gail Glazebrook, Alison M. Fischer, Brenda Heras, Diana "Snooky" Rojas, and the Highest Finishing C/D Player in the event, Erin McManus. This is the second time this season that Erin has won this award, and she continues to prove that she can play with some of the toughest guys in NYC.
On top of competing in the event and helping run the tournament, Gail Glazebrook, along with Snooky Rojas, were also busy commentating on a number of feature matches, streamed live by Go4Pool.net.
However, reigning Ocean State Champion and Connecticut native, Jeremy Sossei, was the player to rise above the crowd at Master Billiards, going undefeated to make it his first-ever win on the Predator Tour.
On his route to the finals, Jeremy landed in the final four of the winner's bracket after defeating John Alicea, along with George Sansouci, Jorge Rodriguez, and Marc Vidal. Jeremy would defeat Marc Vidal by a 9-5 score to move on to play in the match for the hot seat.
Also moving into the hot seat match was Jorge Rodriguez, who came with a strong win over Ginky, to meet with Jeremy Sossei. In this match, Jeremy took a 7-1 lead on Jorge, but after taking a break, he did not come back to the table playing quite the same. Jorge fought all the way back to pass up Jeremy and take an 8-7 lead, winning seven consecutive games to take the hill. In the following game, Jeremy would come out on top of a safety battle, to make the match hill-hill.
In the tie-breaking game, the two got into a safety battle early on, but Jeremy left an open shot and Jorge took advantage. Jorge had a clear table, but got out of line on the 8-ball. However, he wowed the crowd with a show-stopping thin cut down the rail, and the cue ball barely missed scratching in the side pocket. He was left a cut shot with the 9 one diamond out of the corner. Incredibly, he under-cut the shot, and the 9 bounced out and onto the head spot. The fans were in shock as the cue ball then rolled towards the opposite corner pocket, but hung in the jaws. This left Jeremy Sossei with a make-or-break 9-ball, which he fired in to win the match and secure a position in the finals.
Meanwhile, after a first-round loss to Sean Morgan, winner of Predator Stop #12, Mike Miller, was grinding back through the one-loss side, with wins over Carl Khan, Justin Muller, Arturo Reyes, Juan Guzman, and Oscar Bonilla to come back on Sunday to knock out Joey Korsiak. Miller's run was then ended by Marc Vidal, who had just come from his winner's side loss to Jeremy Sossei.
Also returning on Day 2 was NYCgrind.com's Jerry Tarantola, who bounced back after a first-round loss to Tony Robles to beat "Alaska" Sean Morgan, Lionel Rivera, Steve Wright, Mhet Vergara, and John Alicea. However, Jerry would forfeit his Sunday rematch with Tony Robles, who was ousted to the one-loss side by Ginky on the hill.
However, Tony avenged his 1st loss to Ginky by beating him on the hill, 9-8. Tony did not last much longer though, as Marc Vidal would continue his strong play to beat Tony 9-5, in what Spain mentioned was his first-ever win over "The Silent Assassin."
This win moved Spain forward into the semi-final to meet Jorge Rodgriguez, who was returning from his hot seat loss to Jeremy Sossei. In this semi-final match (race to 9), Jorge and Spain stayed locked, alternating games to meet at 6-6. After Spain took a one-game lead at 7-6, Jorge had a chance tie the match again, but missed another surprising 9-ball, and Spain sailed through to win the set 9-6 to get a chance in the finals.
Marc "Spain" Vidal then met with the undefeated Jeremy Sossei in the finals. At the late hour, the players decided to shorten the race to 7 games. In the first few games, Jeremy took charge of the match with an early 3-1 lead, and continued to move forward to win dominantly with a final score of 7-3. Congratulations to Jeremy Sossei for his first win on the Predator 9-ball Tour, along with Marc Vidal for a strong performance.
The Predator 9-ball Tour would also like to thank it's sponsors Predator Cues, Blatt Billiards, Delta 13- Racks, The Seminole Pro Tour, and NYCgrind.com.
Payout:
1st: Jeremy Sossei $1,100
2nd: Marc “Spain” Vidal $ 800
3rd: Jorge Rodriguez $ 550
4th: Tony Robles $ 400
5th/6th: George "Ginky" Sansouci, Mike Miller $ 275
7th/8th: Joey Korsiak, Jerry Tarantola $ 200
9th-12th: Teddy Cook, Jonathan Smith, John Alicea, Oscar Bonilla $ 150
Highest Finishing C/D: Erin McManus $100
On Sunday, the Predator Tour also held a B/C/D event, which featured a comeback performance from one of NYC's toughest up-and-coming players, Justin Muller. Justin, who hails from Long Island, had a first-round loss to Chris Laz, then returned with wins over Teddy Cook, Steve Wright, Rene Villalobos (6-5), Carl Khan (6-2), and Alex Gonzales (6-2).
However, young Dennis Fokin was dominating the winner's bracket of this tournament, going undefeated to land in the hot seat. And, in the final match, it looked like Dennis would easily take out Justin Muller, as he took big 4-0 lead in the final race to 7. But, Justin got back on track and turned the match around to win the final match 7-5.
Congratulations to Justin Muller, who has been officially dubbed "The Rogue Rhino" by Jerry T, for his killer instinct, aggressive style, and his "never say die" attitude, which he proved in this event.
Payout:
1st: Justin Muller $150
2nd: Dennis Fokin $100
3rd: Alex Gonzales $ 50
This weekend, the Predator 9-ball Tour and the Seminole Pro Tour will join forces to bring the 2nd-Annual Empire State Championships to Raxx Pool Room in West Hempstead, NY. This $6,500-added event sponsored by Seminole Tribe of Florida will be the first event ever to count towards points on two different tours (both the Predator and the Seminole).
If you stop out to Raxx on September 12-13, you will catch some of the biggest names in pool in action, such as Dennis Hatch, Tony Crosby and Stevie Moore, as they join NYC's toughest players like George Sansouci, Tony Robles, Frankie Hernandez, and Marc Vidal, along with many more.
