Dennis Kennedy, Miguel LaBoy and Ron Gabia
It was a repeat of a matchup held in January at the House of Billiards on Staten Island. At that event, Miguel Laboy downed the owner of the room, Dennis Kennedy, twice, to claim his first Tri-State title. On Saturday, September 27, Laboy did it again, defeating Kennedy twice to capture his third Tri-State title (he'd won his second in August). The $1,000-added event on the last weekend in September drew 27 entrants to BQE Billiards in Jackson Heights, NY.
As he'd done back in January, Laboy defeated Kennedy in both the hot seat match and finals. In the most recent event, Laboy had defeated Chumreon Sutcharitakul, Ben Castaneros, and Dave Ascolese before running into Luis Jimenez in a winners' side semifinal. Kennedy, in the meantime, faced Jennifer Pedutem. Laboy sent Jimenez to the losers' brackets 7-4, while Kennedy shut Pedutem out to join him in the hot seat match. Laboy defeated Kennedy 8-4 this time (it was 6-4 back in January), and once again, waited on Kennedy's return from the semifinals.
On the loss side, Pedutem picked up Larry Chandler, who'd defeated Michael Aro 6-3 and John McArthur 6-5. Jimenez drew Ron Gabia, who'd advanced past Arturo Reyes and Jimenez, both 7-5. Gabia moved into the quarterfinals with a 7-6 win over Jimenez, and faced Pedutem, who'd eliminated Chandler 8-6. Gabia got a shot against Kennedy with an 11-9 win over Pedutem.
Kennedy, though, most likely looking to reverse his fortunes from his January defeat by Laboy, downed Gabia 8-3 and earned his shot. He took early advantage of the chance he'd earned by getting out to a 3-0 lead in the finals.
Laboy responded quickly, tying the score at 3-3, but Kennedy came right back to regain the three-rack lead and extend it to four racks at 7-3. Laboy responded with three to pull within one, before Kennedy chalked up his eighth, thereby extending the race to 10 games. Laboy won his seventh, then his eighth to tie it, and his 9th to reach the hill. Kennedy won rack 18 to force a deciding rack, won by Laboy to claim the event title.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at BQE Billiards, along with sponsors Ozone Billiards, Sterling-Gaming, Qpod, Kamui Tips, Ron Vitello, Focus Cases by John Bartron, Phil Capelle, BlueBook Publishing, Human Kinetics, and Focus Apparel. The next stop on the Tri-State Tour, scheduled for October 4, will be hosted by Clifton Billiards in Clifton, NJ.
