Tony Robles started the year off with a victory over Mike Dechaine in the first stop on his Predator Tour. Dechaine had downed him in the battle for the hot seat on the weekend of January 11-12, but Robles came back to defeat him 11-5 in the finals. Seven months later, on the weekend of July 12-13, after finishing second or third in four subsequent stops on the tour, the Silent Assassin returned to the winners' circle with an undefeated run that saw him best Zion Zvi twice (Robles had defeated Zvi in the semifinals of the January stop). The $500-added Open/Pro side of the tour stop drew 12 entrants to the Amsterdam Billiard Club in Manhattan.
In the concurrently-run Amateur event, Phil Davis came from the loss side to defeat Thomas Rice in the finals. The $500-added Amateur event drew 57 entrants.
Robles and Zion Zvi met in the hot seat match, after Robles had defeated Hunter Lombardo 8-5 and Zvi had dispatched Frankie Hernandez to the loss side 8-4. Robles took the first of his two against Zvi 8-6.
Lombardo and Hernandez moved to the loss side and were immediately eliminated. Adam Wheeler, who'd gotten by Shawn Sookhai 8-1 and Craig McAndrews 8-3, took out Hernandez in a double hill match. Jeremy Sossei, who'd picked up a forfeit against Jerry Tarantola and defeated Sean Morgan 8-3, ended Lombardo's day 8-4.
Sossei gave up only a single rack in the quarterfinals against Wheeler, and then had his short, loss-side run ended by Zvi, who allowed him only a single rack in the semifinals. In their second meeting, Robles and Zvi battled to double hill, before Robles prevailed to capture his second Predator Open title of the year.
In the Amateur event, it was teenager Thomas Rice advancing to the hot seat, only to be bested in the finals by Phil Davis. Davis had been sent to the loss side by Chris Derewonski 7-1 in a winners' side semifinal, while Rice was busy defeating Akbar Karmoddien 7-2. Rice got into the hot seat with a 9-1 victory over Derewonski, and waited on the fateful return of Davis.
On the loss side, Davis picked up Raphael Dabreo, who'd defeated Marco Dy 7-3 and Miguel Laboy 7-4, to reach him. Karmoddien, in the meantime, faced Ron Mason, who'd survived a double hill match against Wanlop Chan and downed Dax Linden 7-3. Mason and Davis advanced to the quarterfinals; Mason, 7-5 over Karmoddien and Davis, 7-2 over DaBreo.
Davis survived a double hill battle against Mason in those quarterfinals, and then took out Derewonski 7-5 for a shot against Rice in the hot seat. Rice took an early and lengthy lead over Davis in the finals. Ahead 8-2, however, Rice faltered and saw Davis chalk up nine in a row to snatch the Amateur title away from the teenager.
