Huidji See and Tony Robles battled twice during the $500-added Open portion of the September 21-22 Predator stop, which drew only eight entrants to the Cue Bar in Bayside, Queens. They split the two matches, but See captured the event title by winning the second one, the finals. In the concurrently-run, $500-added, A-D handicapped event, Raphael Dabreo went undefeated through a field 50 to take the top Amateur prize.
See and Robles met first in the hot seat match. Robles had sent Frankie Hernandez west 8-3, as See was busy with an 8-4 win over Dave Grau. Robles took the first of his two against See 8-4 and sat in the hot seat, awaiting his return.
Hernandez moved over to take on Adrian Daniel, who'd defeated Vikram Dasari 8-4. Grau picked up Nigel Francis, who'd gotten by Jim Yonge 8-6. Grau and Hernandez moved on to match up in the quarterfinals with identical 8-1 victories over Francis and Daniel. Hernandez took the quarterfinal 8-5, but was stopped by See in a double hill, semifinal match.
In the extended-race final, Robles need to reach 8 games, ahead of See, to chalk up an undefeated run. He almost got there. Ahead by four, and on the hill at 7-3, Robles admitted to missing numerous opportunities, which allowed See to close the gap, pass him and eventually win 10-9 to claim the event title.
As in the Open event, the Amateur finalists - Raphael DaBreo and Tony Liang - met twice; once in the battle for the hot seat and again, in the finals. Unlike the Open event, the hot seat occupant, DaBreo, won both matches to go undefeated and claim the amateur title.
DaBreo had downed Meshak Daniel 7-5, as Liang was sending Bogie Uzdejczyk west 7-1. DaBreo gave up only three racks to Liang in the hot seat match and sat in that seat, waiting for the re-match finals.
Daniel and Uzdejczyk moved west and immediately picked up their second straight loss. Daniel went down 7-5 to Tommy Hagan, who'd first defeated Silver Fret 7-2 and Rene Villalobos 7-3. Uzdejczyk fell, also 7-5, to Eric Grasman, who'd gotten by Keith Adamik and Justin Muller, both 7-4.
Hagan took the quarterfinal match against Grasman 7-4, but was eliminated by Liang 7-2 in the semifinals. DaBreo completed his undefeated run with a second victory over Liang, 7-5.
