Chris Kemp, RIchard Ng and Noe Videz
Richard Ng, who’s been plying his trade on New York City’s tri-state tours and tables since about 2009, stepped away from the tables for a while in 2018, long before the pandemic hit and returned somewhat in the middle of its broad-range of effects on the pool community in 2021. He placed 3rd and 5th in two National Billiard League Qualifiers that year and last year, almost to the day (April 10), recorded a win on the Garden State Pool Tour. This past weekend (Sat. April 8), Ng renewed acquaintances on the tour, returning to go undefeated on a $200-added, 600-or-lower Fargo rate stop that drew 46 entrants to Shooter’s Family Billiards in Wayne, NJ.
Though Ng would battle to double hill (5-4) in his opening match against Naldo Troncoso, he’d be sitting in the hot seat before his next five opponents scored more racks against him, total! He followed that initial win with 5-1 victories over Susan Durling, Santos Carpio, and Alejandro Azcarate to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Pascal Dufresne. Chris Kemp in the meantime, after an opening round bye, was being stingy about racks-against, too. He won three straight against Joshua Droz, Jennifer Pedutem and Lance Reiser, giving up only two racks against each of them. He drew the eventual runner-up, Noe Videz, in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Ng had been successful in his last three 5-1 matches, so he went for it again. He succeeded, sending Dufresne to the loss side. Kemp must have been paying attention and thinking that 5-1 seemed like a pretty good idea, sent Videz to the loss side by that score. Nothing succeeds like success, as they say, and Ng claimed the hot seat 5-1, sending his racks-against total soaring to five.
On the loss side, Videz picked up Marek Faras, who was working on a modest four-match, loss-side streak that had recently eliminated Tri Chau, double hill, and Azcarate 5-2. Dufresne drew Santos Carpio, who was also working on a four-match streak that had started out with a double-hill win over Mark Johnson and after wins over Maurice Acuna 6-3 and Lance Reiser 8-1 had won a second double-hill match against Troncoso.
Carpio extended his loss-side streak to five with a 5-3 victory over Dufresne. Videz joined him for the quarterfinals after eliminating Faras 5-2.
Videz earned his rematch against Kemp with a 4-1 quarterfinal victory over Carpio. He gave up two to Kemp in the semifinals and advanced for a shot against Ng, waiting for him in the hot seat. After recovering from the shock of having an opponent chalk up a second rack against him, Ng rallied to win 5-2 and claim the title.
Tour director David Gonzalez thanked the ownership and staff at Shooter’s Family Billiards, as well as sponsors Billiard Engineering, Kamui, Off thechu Rail Apparel, JFlowers Cues & Cases, John Bender Custom Cues, In the Box, and Outsville. The next stop on the Garden State Pool Tour, scheduled for Sunday, April 23 will be a 32-entrant, 550 and Lower Fargo Rate, 9-ball event, hosted by a new room, Whiskey Hideaway on Staten Island.
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