A-Karim Moumen and Wilson Cruz opted to split the top prizes from the Saturday, April 13 stop on the Tri-State Tour. They met once, in the battle for the hot seat, which was won by Moumen, and when Cruz came back from a victory in the semifinals, they chose not to play a final match. The $760-added, A-D handicapped event drew 36 entrants to Castle Billiards in East Rutherford, NJ.
They got into their one and only match after Moumen had defeated George Poltorak 6-2 and Cruz had downed Bob Larbalestrien 7-5 in the two winners' side semifinals. They battled to double hill in the subsequent hot seat match, but Moumen prevailed in what turned out to be his final match. Cruz would play only one more.
Poltorak moved west to pick up Tony Ignomirello, who'd gotten by Kyle Bubet, double hill, and Tom Riley 6-4. Larbalestrien drew Jimmy Rivera, who'd fallen to Scott Simonetti in a first-round, double hill match, and then proceeded to win seven straight on the loss side. With three notches on his loss-side belt, he wreaked his vengeance on Simonetti 7-4 and then, defeated Guy Iannuzzi by the same score to face Larbalestrien.
Rivera advanced to the quarterfinals with a 7-5 win over Larbalestrian, and was met by Ignomirello, who'd handed Poltorak his second straight loss 6-3. Rivera won his final match in an 8-6 quarterfinal victory over Ignomirello, and then, fell to Cruz, in a straight up, race-to-7, double hill match in the semifinals. At this point, Moumen and Cruz opted out of a final match, declaring Moumen, as the undefeated occupant of the hot seat, the event's official winner.
1st A-Karim Moumen $700
2nd Wilson Cruz $450
3rd Jimmy Rivera $250
4th Tony Ignomirello $150
5th Bob Larbalestrien $100
George Poltorak
7th Guy Iannuzzi $80
Tom Riley
