Jaydev Zaveri, Aurelio Romero and Jim Gutierrez
It was a double battle between the #1 and #4-ranked B players on the Tri-State Tour. Jaydev Zaveri, who’d won a stop on the tour in October, sat comfortably in the #1 position among the tour’s B players. Aurelio Romero, looking for his first win on the tour, was a couple of hundred ranking points away in fourth place on the list. They faced each other twice and when it was over, the underdog, Romero had pulled it off to claim his first Tri-State title. The $568-added event, hosted by Cue Bar in Bayside (Queens), NY, and held on Sunday, November 6, drew 27 entrants, some of them having been eliminated from the NYC 8-Ball Championships the day before at Steinway Billiards.
They met first in a winners’ side semifinal. Romero had chalked up wins over Pascal Dufresne, and Ron Chau to draw Zaveri. Jim Gutierrez, in the meantime, faced Ron Bernardo in the other winners’ side semifinal. Before the whole thing was over, Romero and Zaveri would play almost 30 games, 13 of them in their double hill first match, won by Zaveri. Gutierrez downed Bernardo 6-4 to face him in the hot seat match. Zaveri won his final match, claiming the hot seat 8-5 over Gutierrez.
On the loss side, Romero opened his loss side campaign against Akbar Karmoeddien, who’d defeated Eugene Ok 7-4 and Victor Dabu 7-3 to reach him. Bernardo picked up Ryan Dayrit (#2 among the tour’s D/D+ players), who’d just eliminated Tony Ignomirello 7-4 and Mario Lanzo 6-3. Romero and Bernardo got right back on the winning track, knocking off Karmoddien 7-5, and Dayrit 6-5 in the event’s first money round.
Romero took the subsequent quarterfinal match over Bernardo 7-4. And then, faced the tour’s #2-ranked D/D+ player, Gutierrez, in the semifinals. Romero took that match 8-3 to earn himself the re-match against Zaveri in the hot seat.
It started out well for Romero, as he chalked up five in a row to get things underway in the finals. Zaveri checked in with two, but Romero came right back with two of his own to make it 7-2. Zaveri then added three to pull within two at 7-5. They each chalked up another single game, which put Romero on the hill, before Zaveri won game #15 to pull within one at 8-7. Romero finished it at 9-7 to claim his first Tri-State title.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Cue Bar, as well as sponsors Ozone Billiards, Sterling-Gaming, Kamui Tips, Ron Vitello, Phil Capelle, BlueBook Publishing, Human Kinetics, and Bloodworth Ball Cleaners. The next stop on the Tri-State Tour, scheduled for Sunday, November 13, will be hosted by Steinway Billiards in Astoria (Queens), NY.
