Raul Reyes and Harry Lau chose not to play a final match and split the winnings of the Saturday, April 9 stop on the Tri-State Tour, with Reyes going into the books as the official event winner. The $1,250-added, B/D-handicapped event drew 46 entrants to Gotham City Billiards in Brooklyn, NY.
Reyes and Lau did meet once, in the battle for the hot seat. They had both survived double hill matches among the winners' side final four; Reyes surviving his match against Trevor Heal and Lau outlasting Carl Yusuf Khan. It was Lau advancing to the hot seat with a 7-5 win that sent Reyes to what would prove to be the final match of the event.
Khan and Heal paid short visits to the one-loss side; Khan meeting Christian Smith, who'd defeated Keith Diaz 8-3, and Basdeo Sookhai 7-4, and Heal squaring off against Dave Shlemperis, who'd gotten by Raphael DaBreo 7-6, and Stiles 7-3. Smith downed Khan 7-5 to move into the quarterfinals and was joined by Shlemperis, who'd shut out Heal.
It was Smith advancing to the semifinals with a 7-2 win over Shlemperis. Reyes would then conclude the day's events with a 7-5 victory over Smith, and after deciding, with Lau, not to play a final match, accept the official event victory.
Thanks were tendered to Kevin and Isabel Buckley for their generous support of the Tri-State tour and all the players, as well as sponsors Sterling-Gaming, Ozone Billiards, Ron Tarr Cues, Phil Capelle, BlueBook Publishing, and Dr. Dave Billiards Instructional Products.
