Smith comes back to take Tri State stop

Christian Smith came back on the one-loss side to defeat Rhio-Anne Flores in the finals of the Tri-State Tour stop on Saturday, September 12. He was among 37 entrants who signed on for the $500-added, B-D handicapped event, hosted by Comet Billiards in Parsippany, NJ.

After an opening round ‘bye,' Smith advanced past Sam Rivera and the winner of the previous week's stop on the tour, Duane Toney, before he faced Briana Miller among the final eight on the winners' side. Miller sent him west 7-4 and then got sent over herself by Flores 7-5. Rick Shellhouse joined Flores in the hot seat match after defeating Joe Fego 8-5. Flores then gained the hot seat in a 7-3 win over Shellhouse and waited for what turned out to be Smith's return.

The eccentricities of the bracket kept Smith out of a rematch against Miller. On the one-loss side, he defeated Phil Carr 7-4, Roger Hanos 7-2 and picked up Fego in the matchup that would decide the tie for fifth place. It was Scott Simonetti, after defeating Mike Watson 7-5 and Dave Fitzpatrick 9-3, who drew Miller. Simonetti precluded the possibility of a Smith/Miller matchup in the quarterfinals by defeating Miller 7-5, as Smith dropped Fego 7-3. In the quarterfinal match that followed, Smith reached the hill first, ahead by two games, but Simonetti fought back to tie it. Smith won the deciding game and advanced into the semifinals versus Shellhouse.

Shellhouse took a commanding lead in those semifinals, stretching it to five games at 7-2. Smith roared back to win the next seven games and move into the finals against Flores. In those finals, he allowed Flores only three racks in the 12 games that it took to finish it.