Ronnie Xu and Anthony Torre
Momentum helped Ronnie Xu, who, after winning five on the loss side, came into a double-elimination final and won the opening set during the Garden State Pool Tour’s season opener this past weekend (Jan. 6-7). But the hot seat occupant, Anthony Torre, with four ‘beads on the wire’ in a race to 8, jumped out to an early lead in the second set and claimed the event title. The $300-added event for competitors with a 675 or lower Fargo Rate drew 36 entrants, who braved a snowstorm to compete at Shooter’s Family Billiards in Wayne, NJ.
Torre’s path to the hot seat match (after a bye) went through Nancy Moy, Jay Pass and Marc Lamberti before running into Richard Ng in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Torre’s destined-to-be opponent in the hot seat match, Deiby Calderon (who entered the AZBilliards’ player database for the first time last June with a 3rd place finish on the Predator Tri-State Tour) would end up playing six matches, only one of which would allow him to compete in an equal-Alafooting, straight-up race to 5. The other five were all rated higher, including (in match order) Shpetim Murturi (double hill), Timothy Clark 4-5 (Clark racing to 7) and in a winners’ side quarterfinal, eventual runner-up Ronnie Xu 4-3 (Xu racing to 7). Calderon advanced to a winners’ side semifinal against Brian Valania.
Calderon sent Valania to the loss side 4-3, as Torres was busy sending Ng over 4-2. In the one straight-up race to 5 for both of them, Torres claimed the hot seat 5-2.
On the loss side, it was Ng who had the misfortune of meeting up with finals-bound Ronnie Xu, two matches into his five-match, loss-side streak. Following his loss to Calderon, Xu had eliminated Jason Nicholson 7-2 and Joe Valania, double hill. Bryan Valania (Joe’s son, who’d defeated his Dad in a winners’ side matchup) picked up Alfredo Altamirano, who’d lost his winners’ side quarterfinal matchup to Ng and then defeated Timothy Clark, double hill, and Brook Villa 5-1.
Xu and Ng, in a straight-up race to 6, battled to double hill before Xu advanced to the quarterfinals. Altamirano extended his loss-side visit by a match, downing Bryan Valania 5-2 and meeting up with Xu. Xu eliminated Altamirano 6-2 in those quarterfinals.
Calderon put up a double-hill fight in the semifinals that followed, but eventually Xu got by Calderon for a shot at Torre, waiting for him in the hot seat. According to the Digital Pool bracket, there were just over four hours between the conclusion of the hot seat match at 6:44 p.m. and the end of the semifinal at 10:50 p.m. Though Torre may have had the opportunity to practice in those four hours, Xu’s continuous match play in that time frame is the definition of momentum.
That said, Xu did take the opening set of the final, but not before Torre had forced a double-hill last game. Torre got out in front in the second set by two, but with Xu racing to 8, it was enough for him to take that second set 4-2 and claim the Garden State Pool Tour’s season opening event title.
The Garden State Pool Tour thanked Kris Kemp and her Shooter’s Family Billiards staff for their hospitality, as well as sponsors Billiard Engineering, Off the Rail Apparel, World Beaters Apparel, Outsville, John Bender Cues, JFlowers Cues and Cases, In The Box, and Kamui.
The next stop on the Garden State Pool Tour, scheduled for the weekend of Jan. 27-28 will feature two separate, 9-ball events; Fargo Rates from 526 to 675 and 525 and below. The event will be hosted by Diamond Jim’s Billiards and Pub in Nanuet, NY.
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