Jayson Shaw
It had been on Tony Robles' mind for quite a while; the creation of a Northeast regional BCA Pool League tournament.
"I read all about their tournaments on-line," he said, "and I noticed that the BCA had regional tournaments in places like the Midwest and Texas, but nobody had ever done one in the Northeast.
"So I was all set to put one together," he added, "and Snookers ended up doing one last year."
Undaunted, Robles, operating under the auspices of his newly created Silent Assassin Productions, with CSI sponsorship, created the five-event tournament, and while, thanks to Snookers, it wasn't the first BCA Regional Tournament in the Northeast, it was the first such regional tournament in New York City.
The event, held on the weekend of June 6-8, was separated into five separate tournaments. Robles combined some BCA Regional categories, reducing an original plan for eight events. The $2,000-added, 1st Annual NYC 8-Ball Championships were hosted by Steinway Billiards in Astoria, NY, and began on Friday evening, June 6 at 6 p.m. They concluded with the finals of the Men's Grand Masters event, very early on Monday morning, June 9.
In all, the tournament(s) played host to 83 entrants, the largest number of which (23) signed on for the Mixed Open event. The Men's Grand Masters event and the Women's Leisure event drew 16 each. The Men's Leisure event drew 15, while the Mixed Advanced event drew 13.
In the interest of space, and time, we'll tackle the event with the marquee names first - the Men's Grand Master event - and look to provide a later story on the other four events, either separately or together.
In the planned-for, 16-entrant Men's Grand Master tournament, Jayson Shaw went undefeated, downing Sean Morgan twice in the process. He faced Zion Zvi in a winners' side semifinal, while Morgan squared off against Chris Derewonski. Shaw sent Zvi to the losers' bracket 8-3, while Morgan was busy defeating Derewonski 8-4. Shaw and Morgan battled to double hill for possession of the hot seat, and with alternate breaks in play, Shaw broke rack #15 and won it.
On the loss side, Tony Robles, who'd defeated Jerry Tarantola and Jude Rosenstock, both 8-3, was waiting for Zion Zvi. Michael Yednak, who'd gotten by Al Zea 8-6 and Jorge Rodriguez 8-3, drew Derewonski. Robles advanced to the quarterfinals 8-2 over Zvi and was met by Derewonski, who'd eliminated Yednak 8-4.
Derewonski and Robles battled to double hill in those quarterfinals, before Derewonski prevailed for a re-match versus Morgan in the semifinals. Though Derewonski would chalk up one more rack against Morgan than he had in the winners' side semifinal, Morgan defeated him a second time. Shaw, though, stepped up his pace in his second match against Morgan, defeating him in the finals 8-4 to claim the first Men's Grand Masters title in the first NYC 8-Ball Championships.
Promising "bigger and better events in the future," Robles and his Silent Assassin Productions team, which included John Leyman as tour director and referee for the event(s), thanked Steinway Billiards' owner, Manny Stamatakis and his staff, as well as sponsors Cue Sports International, Delta-13 Racks, Predator Cues, National Amateur Pool League (PlayNAPL.com), Gotham City Technologies, NYC Grind (Jerry and Alison Fischer), AZBilliards, Upstate AL, Joey Leon, and Bob Cmbwsu.
