Christian Jay Orque, a newcomer to the Tri-State Tour, was introduced to what he had in store for himself in his first two matches at a $1,000-added stop, which drew 28 entrants to Shooter’s Billiards in Wayne, NJ on Sunday, November 18. Orque faced two Tri-State Tour veterans, Nate Raimondo and Jaydev Zaveri, and introduced wondering what they’ll have in store for themselves as Orque continues to compete on the tour. Orque defeated them both, double hill, to start his day, and though he’d get sent to the loss side out of the hot seat match, he’d return to meet and defeat another newcomer, Amir Elgantiry in the finals to claim his first Tri-State title.
After downing Raimondo and Zaveri, Orque advanced to defeat Wazeer Abasi 7-2 to draw Kevin Scalzitti in one of the two winners’ side semifinals. Elgantiry, in the meantime, starting with two somewhat less dramatic wins over Sabrina Sherman and Marc Lamberti, defeated Jake Kislowski 6-3 to draw Mac Jankov in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Orque and Elgantiry came head to head in the hot seat match, after Orque had sent Scalzitti loss-side packing 7-5 and Elgantiry had sent Jankov over 6-3. It was Elgantiry who got to claim his first Tri-State Tour hot seat with a 7-4 win over Orque.
On the loss side, Jankov picked up Rick Rodriguez, who’d defeated Bob Toomey 6-3 and Jake Kislowski 6-4 to reach him. Scalzitti drew Dave Shlemperis, who’d eliminated Wazeer Abasi 7-5 and Frank Sieczka 6-1.
Shlemperis got by Scalzitti 7-2 and in the quarterfinals, faced Jankov, who’d ended Rodriguez’ day 6-3. In what would prove to be his final match, Jankov eliminated Shlemperis in those quarterfinals 8-4.
Jankov was forced to forfeit his semifinal match against Orque, which set Orque and Elgantiry up for a final in which they were both well rested. Orque came out ‘guns a’ blazin,’ as they say, gave up only three racks and claimed his first Tri-State title 9-3 over Elgantiry. He may have also, rather inadvertently, picked up a pool nickname, when initial reports coming out of the tour, auto-corrected his last name to ‘Orquestra.’
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Shooter’s Billiards, as well as sponsors Ozone Billiards, Sterling-Gaming, Kamui Tips, Phil Capelle, BlueBook Publishing, Human Kinetics, Pool & Billiards, Professor Q Ball, Bender Cues, and DIGICUE OB. The next stop on the Tri-State Tour, scheduled for this Thanksgiving Day weekend (Sunday, Nov. 25), will be a $1,000-added, double points event, hosted by Clifton Billiards in Clifton, NJ.
