Kevin Guimond & Jeremy Sossei
On May 8th & 9th, Tony Robles welcomed 51 of the strongest players in the Tri-State area for the 7th stop of the Ozone Billiards Predator Tour. This tour stop was hosted by BQE Billiards in Queens NY. Special thanks to BQE owners and staff Nick, John, Theo & Gus for adding $1,000 and letting us use their beautiful room. Top amateur players like Victor Nau, Michael Yednak, John Alicea, Mike Wong, Lionel Rivera, and Scott Simonetti topped off a strong field.
In the amateur event, Melvin Aguilera made a strong statement coming in as a D player… knocking off several top guns. Melvin went straight through the winner's bracket, defeating Travis Walker (7-4), John Hacsi (7-4), Alberto Estevez (7-4), Sam Li (7-5), and Brent Boemmels (7-5), earning a spot in the hot seat. Before the hot seat match began, Tony Robles raised Melvin from a D to a C player for his much-improved speed.
Brent Boemmels, who was rated an A in this event, also made a strong statement. Brent grinded out W's over John Ortiz (7-6), Mike Wong (7-3), Alex Gonzalez (7-2), Scott Simonetti (7-3), and Wellington Reyes (7-4)… before losing to Melvin Aguilera (7-5).
In the one-loss bracket, Brent was lined up with a rematch against Wellington Reyes. Wellington bounced back from that loss to Brent to defeat John Alicea (7-6) and Sam Li (7-4). Sam had an impressive run on that day, winning four consecutive matches, before losing to Melvin Aguilera (7-5) and Wellington Reyes (7-4).
In the hot seat match, Brent came out strong, but a combination of a few bad rolls and costly errors shifted the momentum. Wellington capitalized and took over the flow and control of the set… leading to a 7-3 final score.
The stage was set for a final match up between Wellington Reyes, who came in on the one-loss side, versus Melvin Aguilera in the hot seat. Wellington had come from the one-loss side to win the tournament… capping off a stand out day with a 9-8 victory in the finals.
Final Results:
1st: Wellington Reyes $800
2nd: Melvin Aguilera $600
3rd: Brent Boemmels $400
4th: Sam Li $300
5/6th: John Hacsi, John Alicea $200
7-8th: Alberto Estevez, Wali Muhammad $125
9-12th: Mike Wong, Ramilo Tanglao, Scott Simonetti, Steve Way $85
In the Open/Pro field, things got shaken up by Kevin Guimond. Kevin, who had won the Empire State Amateur Championships in March, stormed through Oscar Bonilla 8-6, Zion Zvi 8-6, and George "Ginky" Sansouci 8-7 to make it to the finals. Jeremy Sossei came from the one-loss side to meet Kevin in the finals, but was unsuccesful, and Kevin claimed the case game to win the final match. Congratulations to Kevin Guimond for an impressive first win in the Open/Pro Predator field.
Open/Pro:
1st: Kevin Guimond $600
2nd: Jeremy Sossei $300
3rd: George "Ginky" Sansouci $100
Tony Robles and the Predator 9-ball Tour would like to thank their sponsors: Predator Cues, Poison Cues, Ozone Billiards, Delta-13 Racks, The Seminole Tribe of Florida, The Seminole Pro Tour, Poolonthenet.com, Digital Ink Printing, Billiards Press, RJH Custom Cues, Jim Murnak Cue Cases, Go4Pool.net, and NYCgrind.com.
For more information on the Ozone Billiards Predator 9-Ball Tour, please log on to: www.predator9balltour.com
The next event on the Predator Tour will be held at Master Billiards on May 29-30.
