(l to r): Miguel Laboy & Raymond Lee
In the report on Miguel Laboy’s December 10 victory on the Tri-State Tour, it was noted that he’d been keeping a ‘top 10 finisher’ pace on the Tri-State Tour for about four years. On Sunday, December 17, Laboy chalked up a second straight win on the Tri-State Tour (his first back-to-back victories on the tour), this time going undefeated through a field of 52 entrants. The $1,000-added event was hosted by Steinway Billiards in Astoria (Queens), NY.
Following victories over Gus Iliopoulos, Thomas Schreiber, and Shivam Gupta, Laboy moved into a winners’ side semifinal match against Tony Liang. Michelle Brotons, in the meantime, faced Raymond Lee in the other winners’ side semifinal. Laboy downed Liang 7-5, as Brotons was sending Lee over 8-6. Laboy claimed the hot seat 12-10 over Brotons and waited on what turned out to be the return of Lee.
On the loss side, Lee picked up Kevin Chong, who’d reached him after victories over Erick Carrasco Pashk Gjini, both 6-4. Liang drew Jaydev Zaveri, who’d eliminated Duc Lam 8-2 and Gupta 7-4.
Lee advanced to the quarterfinals 6-4 over Chong. Liang did not, falling to Zaveri 7-5. Lee then dropped Zaveri 7-3 into fourth place, before completing his brief, loss-side visit with a double hill, re-match win over Brotons in the semifinals.
Lee took an early 4-0 lead in the finals against Laboy, but Laboy responded by winning six of the next eight games to knot things at 6-6. He then won three of the next four to close out his second straight Tri-State win 9-7.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Steinway Billiards, as well as sponsors Ozone Billiards, Sterling-Gaming, Kamui Tips, Phil Capelle, BlueBook Publishing, Human Kinetics, Pool & Billiards, Professor Q Ball, Bender Cues, Joe Romer Trophies and DIGICUE OB. This most recent event was the last 2017 stop on the Tri-State Tour, which will reconvene in 2018 on Sunday, January 7 for a $1,000-added event, to be hosted by Clifton Billiards in Clifton, NJ.
