Besar Spahiu (Photo courtesy of Erwin Dionisio)
As the day's of the Inaugural UPT Tournament drew near and the players list was filling up, Besar Spahiu was the biggest underdog leading to the event. July 6th, 2017 as the players filled Raxx Pool Room in West Hempstead, Spahiu had paid the Amateur level entry fee to later on prove that he was much more.
The Ultimate Pool Tournament Inaugural event drew just under 30 players, and with such a small field, there were some big name players. The Ultimate Pool Tournament brought out a format for the event in which a set can go hill-hill or a complete blowout. In order to rise to the occasion, Besar Spahiu quickly realized by the second day of the event, the break is what would win him the tournament. As players were breaking from the box, with the 10ball racked on the spot, balls were flying everywhere, but a dry break quickly lead to players losing that rack. Besar,had utilized his breaking capabilities in which majority of his break shots lead to 1 or more balls being pocketed.
Spahiu drew one of the tougher Amateur leveled players in NY, rated A++ on the Predator Pro/AM Tour,Rob Pole. Spahiu And Rob began play at 7PM on July 6th in what was expected to be a great showcase for the first round match. Besar quickly set the stage with a quick win over Pole even before the 2hour time limit sending Pole to the Loser side to face Co-Founder of UPT, Elvis Rodriguez. At this point, Besar had patiently waited for his next opponent for the 9PM round in which he had already felt comfortable. Denis Grabe had just completed his battle with Michael Wong in a outstanding 9-2 victory as Besar was already awaiting for Denis at the next table.
Denis and Besar had an incredible back and forth battle, in what had boiled down to the better breaks and capitalization of the spread. As the match had finished up fairly quickly, once again before the 2hour time limit, Besar was feeling good about himself with a win over the Estonian sending Grabe to the "B" side of the chart.
What had lied in the eyes of Besar was determination. Besar would continue his quest on Friday with the first round with Brooklyn's own, Jorge Rodriguez. Besar came in equipped and ready for battle, but Jorge had the better of the set. The first round had left both players aggravated at the mistakes and the rolls of the table, but both players never gave up. Young 24 year old Besar was on a mission that day as he quested to be the better player but Jorge Rodriguez had stopped him in his tracks with a 9-6 win over Spahiu. This match had pushed Jorge Rodriguez to remain on the winner side to face, "King Kong Kaci" as one referenced him over the livestream of the event. Klenti Kaci would try to avenge for his friend in a semi-finals round with Rodriguez.
Over on the "B" side of the bracket Spahiu needed to redeem himself from his mistakes as he did not waste any time as he went on the next available table for practice. In what was another back and forth battle with a credited player from the Predator Pro/Am Tour, Besar Spahiu had played Victor Nau in the 5PM round. Given that this was Besar's 2nd match for the day but 3rd match for Victor, Victor seemed to be fatigued at the early going of the match letting Besar get the early lead of the set. Taking a break at the 4th rack,it was just what both players needed to rejuvenate. With Besar having a 4-1 lead over Victor, he had let loose at this time of the set allowing Victor to step up to the plate and making it a 4-3 game in a matter of minutes. Besar knew at this point he couldn't let this one slip, as he shifted into a higher gear playing a lot of tough safeties leaving Victor, nearly impossible kicks but someone was able to get out of them. As though the safeties didn't plan out as great as Besar wanted to, both players gave it there. In which at one point everyone thought Besar would have definitely lost this set. Besar playing with determination had other plans, better plans, as Besar capitalized on some key mistakes leading with 8-6 on Victor, Besar breaks the following rack making not a singLe Mistake to win the set. With a sigh of relief after that win, Besar's toughest opponent was yet to come. At the 7PM round Besar was waiting on 2 world renown players, Tony Robles and Mika Immonen in what had been a blow out that no one saw coming, Tony had beaten Mika and sent him packing with a 9-3 victory.
Table 28 of Raxx Pool Room, the secondary streaming table of the event was appointed to the Besar and Tony Robles match without regret. This match showcased the immortality of Besar Spahiu amongst thousands of spectators worldwide. In what had been already a long day for all players competing, Besar showed what he was really made of. Besar played hands-down the best he had played while competing at this event. Tony Robles had seemed to use all his energy in his previous match against Mika, but he was shooting well enough to run a table. Unfortunately, everyone makes mistakes, and that is what exactly happened in this match. Besar limited the amount of times Tony Robles was able to shoot at the table. Besar capitalized on every mistake made by Robles to gain the early leade of 3-0 then 5-0 then 7-0. Besar was playing well, and Tony Robles was being outplayed by the Albanian youngster. Everyone was astonished from the spectators to the commentators to the fans tuned in from Tokyo to Serbia. A well fought day to stay alive , Besar had completed his quest to compete another day and head over to Day number 3 in which 6 players would return for a prize purse of over 10,000.00.
Spahiu would return to day 3 bright and early, an hour and a half before his scheduled match awaiting his opponent Jeremy "Giant Killer" Sossei who had came a long way and battled through a tough field consisting of Mark Gray, Elvis Rodriguez, Alex Kazakis, Jon Smith and Jorge Rodriguez. Jeremy and Besar would go on and put on a show for everyone watching as the safety battles were intense and both players were in it to win it. The experience of Jeremy Sossei made him the favorite, but Besar being the under dog had already set the stage that he was very well much playing on the same plane as his partner, Klenti Kaci. Spahiu and Sossei would put on quiet a match which lead to about 2 hours and 30 minutes. At the end the underdog became the big dog as Besar won to move on to the next round with a tremendous win of 9-7 over Jeremy Sossei.
Besar would quickly break away from pool as Alex Kazakis had been waiting after a loss to Klenti Kaci for the hot seat match. This match would have been the longest match of the event traveling a bit over 3 hours of play on the main stream table. As both players were determined to cash for the grand prize, both players played nothing short of great and they had both put on a show for the fans. With a neck and neck set of points going back and forth, this set was a true meaning of a pool match. Both players triumphed with incredible runs, mistakes, safeties and unbelievable encounters back and forth, it was obvious that both it was taking a toll on the players. Besar would take the lead, as Alex Kazakis would trail right behind him and never letting Besar lead by more than 3 points ahead. The set had came down to the wire, in which the match was 8-8, as Alex was at the table, it came down to tieing up the 7ball and Cue Ball in which Alex was more than capable of running out. Besar took advantage of the failed safe played by Alex and ran the table to gain the win and the right to play in the finals.
The finals would come about around 9PM on Saturday July 8th as the chat room was packed and Klenti had been waiting for 5 long hours for this match. Besar and Klenti had both came here from Albania with one mission on their mind and that was to conquer to pool world of America. Klenti Kaci was the favorite leading to this match, but after the show Besar had put on, everyone thought twice about this match up. The finals was set up for a single race to 11 points in which both players made many mistakes throughout the sets. At some times of the match both players would make mistakes that they would end up conceding with 3-4 and even 5 balls on the table.As the set started winding down, it seemed as if Besar Spahiu was ready for another tournament. The ending result coming down to 11-7 victory over Klenti Kaci, and that was a statement made out to the pool world that Besar will be a dominant factor in every tournament he participates in.
The Ulimate Pool Tournament founds would like to congratulate Besar Spahiu on a well deserved win of claiming the top prize and earning the respect of many for his determination and dedication to be the best.
