Owner-Operator Kevin Buckley, Dave Shlemperis and Chumreon Sutcharitakul
Dave Shlemperis, a veteran on both the Predator and Tri-State Tours, went undefeated through a field of 46, on-hand for the May 2 stop on the Tri-State Tour. The $1,800-added event was hosted by Gotham City Billiards in Brooklyn, NY.
Shlemperis' trip to the winners' circle went through Luis Jimenez, Keith Diaz, and Philip Pearce before arriving among the winners' side final four and a matchup against Kapriel Delimelkonoglu. Alex Osipov, in the meantime, squared off against Terrence Bryant. Shlemperis, #10 on the Tri-State's current list of B-ranked players shut out Delimelkonoglu (#5 on the B+ list), and in the hot seat match faced Osipov. Shlemperis defeated Osipov (#4 on the B+ list) 7-4 and waited in the hot seat for his return.
On the loss side, Bryant met up with Chumreon Sutcharitakul, who was in the midst of a seven-match, loss-side winning streak that included wins #4 and #5 over Philip Pearce 7-1 and Chris Kelly 7-4. Delimelkonoglu drew Kirill Safronov, who'd eliminated Amy Yu 7-3 and Jaydev Zaveri 7-6. Sutcharitakul and Safronov handed Bryant and Delimelkonoglu their second straight losses; Sutcharitakul 9-5 over Bryant and Safronov 7-2 over Delimelkonoglu.
Sutcharitakul and Safronov locked up in a double hill quarterfinals that eventually sent Sutcharitakul to a semifinal match against Osipov. Osipov ended Sutcharitakul's loss-side run 7-4 to earn himself a second shot against Shlemperis.
It was a finals match with some history behind it. Two years ago in July, on the Predator Tour, Shlemperis had been defeated by Osipov in a winners' side semifinal and came back to defeat him in the semifinals (and Trevor Heal in the finals). Shlemperis was taking no chances with this one. He opened the finals with five straight racks, before Osipov got on the board with two. Shlemperis took the eighth rack and was on the hill when Osipov came back with two more. Shlemperis closed it out in the 11th rack to claim the event title.
Tour representatives thanked Kevin and Isabel Buckley and the Gotham City Billiards staff for their continuing support of the tour, along with sponsors Ozone Billiards, Sterling-Gaming, Kamui Tips, Ron Vitello, Focus Cases by John Barton, Phil Capelle, BlueBook Publishing, Human Kinetics , and Focus Apparel. The next stop on the Tri-State Tour, scheduled for Saturday, May 16, will be hosted by Steinway Billiards in Astoria (Queens), NY.
