Jayson Shaw chalked up his third win on the Open/Pro side of the Predator Tour with a victory in the tour's finale, held on the weekend of December 12-13. It brought his 2015 victory total to 11, which has included two Turning Stone victories (XXIII & XXIV), the 27th Annual Ocean State 9-Ball Championship, the Pro side of the Ginky Memorial, and the 2015 Eastern States Open/Pro Championships at Snooker's in Providence in September. He went undefeated on this most recent, $1,500-added event, which drew 24 entrants to Raxx Billiards in West Hempstead, NY.
Shaw faced separate opponents in the hot seat match and finals, thanks to Tour Director Tony Robles, who mounted a five-match, loss-side winning streak (including three double hill wins) to face him in those finals. Shaw was challenged by Jeremy Sossei in a double hill, winners' side semifinal, but advanced to the hot seat match against Michael Yednak, who'd sent Robles to the loss side 7-4 in a winners' side quarterfinal and defeated Holden Chin (the owner of Raxx Billiards) in the other winners' side semifinal. In Yednak's words, Shaw "crushed" him in the hot seat match 7-1.
On the loss side, Chin and Sossei ran into Jorge Rodriguez (who entered the tournament, and remained, the tour's top Open player) and Robles, respectively. Rodriguez had eliminated Thomas Rice 7-2 and shut out Earl Strickland to draw Chin. Robles, following his defeat at the hands of Yednak, defeated Hunter Lombardo, double hill, and Chris Derewonski 7-3 to pick up Sossei. Rodriguez downed Chin 7-5, as Robles was busy winning his second, double hill match on the loss side to Sossei.
Robles chalked up his third, double hill win in the quarterfinals, eliminating Rodriguez, before having a somewhat easier, 7-2, time against Yednak in the semifinals. The finals between Shaw and Robles was a battle between the second (Robles) and third (Shaw) ranked players on the Predator's Pro rankings (Zion Zvi was ranked at #1, going in to the tournament). Shaw put a stop to Robles' winning streak to take the finals 7-3 and claim the event title.
