Nick Torraca, Ambi Estevez and Raymund Paragus
This past weekend (Sat., Feb. 10), in an increasingly-popular tournament format that advances the final 12 players from an originally-split (by ratings), double-elimination bracket (four from the winners’ side and eight from the loss side) to a single-elimination bracket that closes out the event (in effect, eliminating a hot seat match), Raymond Paragas went undefeated to ‘book-end’ his recorded pool career with a win on the Predator Tri-State Tour. The other ‘book-end’ of that career was recorded when he won his first (recorded) regional tour event on the Mac Attack Tour in 2020. This most recent event drew 47 entrants to Diamond Jim’s Billiards & Pub in Nanuet, NY.
As this particular format plays out, the last opportunity for advancement to the single-elimination bracket from the winners’ side, hinges on the results of the winners’ side quarterfinal of the double-elimination bracket. As it turned out, three of the four competitors who lost that winners’ side quarterfinal this past weekend – Hunter Sullivan, Aidan Wagner and Peter Franco – moved to the loss side and won the single match necessary for advancement to the event’s final 12. Bob Toomey, who’d lost his winners’ side quarterfinal to Nick Torraca, moved to the loss side and lost his only match to Christian Hourihan.
That pivotal, winners’ side quarterfinal would normally have set up two winners’ side semifinals with Raymond Paragas facing Alexander Reyes and Ambi Estevez meeting up with Nick Torraca. This time, those four faced off against the loss side winners of what would have been the loss side’s 9/12 matches, thereby making the eventual single-elimination bracket the first ‘money round’ of the event.
All but one of the winners’ side quarterfinals was repeated in that first ‘money round.’ Hunter Sullivan, who’d been sent to the loss side by Paragas, came right back to face and lose to him a second time 7-3. Paragas advanced to the event semifinals versus Alexander Reyes, who’d soundly defeated Aidan Wagner earlier, but had to contend with a double-hill fight before advancing to the semifinals.
Estevez and Franco played their second straight, double-hill match, with Estevez defeating him a second time and advancing to the other event semifinal. Nick Torraca, who’d sent Toomey to the loss side in the double-elimination’s winners’ side quarterfinal, didn’t see him again, but he did get to see Christian Hourihan again. Torraca had sent Hourihan to the loss side in the opening, double-elimination round and did it again (7-5) to join Estevez.
Paragas punched his ticket to the final with a 7-5 victory over Reyes. Estevez and Torraca locked up in a double-hill fight that eventually advanced Estevez to the final versus Paragas. As befitting the battles they’d fought to get there, Paragas and Estevez fought a double-hill battle for the event title. Paragas dropped the last 9-Ball.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Diamond Jim’s for their hospitality, along with title sponsor Predator Cues, Romer’s Trophies, Phil Capelle and Sterling Gaming. The next stop on the Predator Tri-State Tour, scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 24, will be hosted by Shooter’s Family Billiards in Wayne, NJ.
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