For the second time in a month, Mika Immonen stopped a loss-side streak by Tony Robles to capture an Open event on the Predator Tour; this one on the weekend of March 16-17. In a concurrently-run Amateur event, Rob Piersa went undefeated to take the amateur title. The $500-added Open event drew 12 entrants to Mr. Cues in Lindenhurst, NY. The $500-added Amateur event drew 55 entrants.
In a deja vu, all over again scenario from March 3, Tony Robles lost his first match, albeit on this St. Patrick Day's weekend, he'd been awarded a bye in the opening round. Joey Korsiak sent him west 7-5, and went on to face Liam Monk among the winners' side final four. The Iceman, in the meantime, squared off against Ray Romanski. Korsiak advanced with a 7-3 win over Monk, while Immonen was busy shutting out Romanski. Mika got into the hot seat with a 7-4 win over Korsiak, and once again, found himself waiting on Robles.
Robles moved west and after shutting out Darren DeFilippis, downed Asa Shaw 7-3, which set him (Robles) up to face Romanski. Monk picked up Mark Perel, who'd survived a double hill struggle against Dave Shlemperis and defeated Rich Lang 7-5. Robles then eliminated Romanski 7-0, and in the quarterfinals drew Monk, who'd defeated Perel 7-3 (Robles had been sent west by Monk and defeated him in the 5/6 matches back on March 3).
Robles then wreaked his vengeance on Korsiak with a semifinal shutout. The Iceman gave up one more rack to The Silent Assassin than he'd given up back on March 3 (7-2 that time, 7-3 this time), but the result was the same. Immonen completed an undefeated run and claimed the event title.
In the Amateur event, it was Piersa and Phil Davis meeting in the hot seat, once Piersa had defeated Dave Ascolese 7-2 and Davis had sent Scott Murphy west 7-5. Piersa got into the hot seat with a 7-3 win over Davis and waited on his return.
Ascolese and Murphy picked up their second loss in a row, when both fell in double hill matches against Rikki Ragoonan and Shawn Sookhai, respectively. Ragoonan had defeated Aaron Moody and Keith Adamik, both 7-4 to reach Ascolese, while Sookhai had downed Brian Toolsee 7-5 and survived a double hill battle against Carl Yusuf Khan.
Ragoonan then eliminated Sookhai 7-4 in the quarterfinals, and had his own loss-side streak ended by Davis 7-3 in the semifinals. Piersa claimed the Amateur title with a 7-5 final victory.
Amateur
1st Rob Piersa $1,000
2nd Phil Davis $675
3rd Rikki Ragoonan $450
4th Shawn Sookhai $300
5th Dave Ascolese $225
Scott Murphy
7th Keith Adamik $150
Carl Yusuf Khan
9th Bill Meyer $100
Aaron Moody
Billy Santiago
Brian Toolsee
OPEN
1st Mika Immonen $550
2nd Tony Robles $350
3rd Joey Korsiak $200
