Marlon Manalo took advantage of a weekend off before the 2005 Skins Billiard Challenge and won the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour stop at Ultimate Billiards Club in Berlin, CT this weekend.
Manalo might have ended the tournament in first place, but he did get off to a rocky start with a loss to Tom D'Alfonso in the second round of the winners side.
On the winners side, local player Earl Herring made his way through the 47 player field to take on tour director Mike Zuglan for the hot-seat. This match went to Herring in a one-sided 9-4 scoreline.
Zuglan then went to the one loss side and found himself as another notch in Manalo's pool case as Manalo beat him 9-5.
The win over Zuglan was Manalo's seventh straight match win and they were just warmups for the finals as Manalo took his game up a notch and defeated Herring 9-3 and 9-1 in the double elimination finals.
Manalo earned $1700 for first, while Herring took home $1200 for second. Zuglan and Holden Chin filled out the top four spots.
Next weekend's Joss NE 9-Ball Tour stop is at Trick Shot Billiards in Clifton Park, NY. The event was originally scheduled to take place at Stockade Billiards in Kingston, NY but was moved. Mike Zuglan is already taking calls from interested players for the Turning Stone Classic VI 9-Ball Open that was announced this week. The $25,000 added event will take place on February 16th - 19th at Turning Stone Casino in Verona, NY.
Complete Payouts:
1st Marlon Manalo $1700
2nd Earl Herring $1200
3rd Mike Zuglan $900
4th Holden Chin $660
5th/6th Al Lapena, Mhet Vergara $450
7th/8th Santos Sambajon, Tom D'Alfonso $300
9th/12th Marty Herman, Pete Genovese, Mark Ransom, Tony Frisina $200
