Tri Chau
First, Tri Chau had to navigate his way through a lower bracket. When he was done doing that, he had to face the winner of the upper bracket and then, he had to face the winner of the two competitors who played against each other after they’d finished as runner-up in the two separate brackets. Then and only then, undefeated, was Tri Chau able to walk off with the Garden State Pool Tour’s 2023 Grand Amateur Champion prize(s). Held this past weekend (Dec. 9-10), the $500-added event drew a total of 44 entrants to Players Billiards in Eatontown, NJ.
Throughout the year, participation in Garden State Pool Tour stops allowed competitors to amass points, based on their finish position at each of the stops. The top 64 players in total points were invited to the event. Of those 64, 23 were able to compete in the event’s upper bracket, while 21 squared off in the lower bracket.
Working in the lower bracket, Tri Chau got by Alejandro Azcarate and Vicki Moore before sending Dave Schuil to the loss side 6-3 in one of the winners’ side semifinals. in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Joining him in the lower bracket’s hot seat match was Giancarlo Delgado, who’d defeated Jennifer Pedutem, Pat Mareno, John Torp and in the other winners’ side semifinal, Brook Villa 5-3.
In a straight-up race to 6, Tri Chau grabbed the hot seat over Delgado 6-2. Delgado moved over to the loss side and downed Brook Villa in the semifinals 5-2. And that was the end of the lower bracket proceedings, as Chau and Delgado advanced to an after-bracket Final Four.
In the upper bracket, Eduardo Cordova got by Ronnie Xu, Rachel Lang (double hill), and in his winners’ side semifinal TJ Casper 6-4. In the hot seat match, he met and defeated Nic Torraca, who’d sent Bud Robideau, Michelle Brotons, Mike Johnson and, in the other winners’ side semifinal, David Marchant (5-3).
Cordova grabbed the upper bracket hot seat 6-1 over Torraca, who moved west into a semifinal match against Levie Lampaan. Lampaan had been sent to the loss side by Rachel Lang in his opening (2nd round) match and was, when Torraca showed up, working on a six-match, loss-side winning streak. Three of those six went double hill, including the fifth, in the quarterfinal, versus Hunter Sullivan. He chalked up his sixth against Nic Torraca 7-2, thereby ending the proceedings of the initial upper bracket. Cordova and Lampaan joined Chau and Delgado in the after-bracket Final Four – Chau v. Cordova and Delgado v. Lampaan.
In a set of four final matches, the lower-ranked competitors fared better against their higher-ranked opponents, until the final match. Chau defeated Cordova 5-3 (Cordova racing to 7), while Delgado downed Lampaan 4-4 (Lampaan racing to 8). Delgado then played against the only upper-bracket competitor left standing, Cordova. Delgado defeated Cordova (racing to 7) 4-5. As the last upper-bracket competitor to be eliminated, Cordova became the de facto Upper Bracket champion, as Chau and Delgado squared off in a rematch in the event finals.
The match went double hill. Tri Chau became the Grand Amateur Champion by winning it and Delgado became the de facto Lower Bracket Champion as the last competitor from that bracket to be eliminated.
During the event, the Garden State Pool Tour identified the tour’s top four competitors in three divisions:
LOWER BRACKET
Mike Strassberg
Dave Schuil
Thomas MacManamon
Jennifer Pedutem
UPPER BRACKET
Hunter Sullivan
Pascal Dufresne
Levie Lampaan
Jim Conn
LADIES
Michelle Brotons
Jennifer Pedutem
Rachel Lang
Susan Durling
Robert Durling, among the Lower Bracket competitors, and Rachel Lang from the Upper Bracket received accolades as the tour’s Most Improved Players, while Susan Durling (Lower Bracket) and Nick Torraca (Upper Bracket) received the tour’s two Sportsmanship Awards.
Tour director Dave Fitzpatrick thanked Bill Hill and his Players Billiards’ staff for their hospitality, as well as the tour sponsors, who gave prizes of one kind or another to all of the participating players – Billiard Engineering, World Beaters, Brutal, Outsville, John Bender Cues, JFlowers Cues and Cases, Kamui, In the Box, & Off the Rail Apparel.
The final event of the year, scheduled for this coming weekend (Dec. 16-17), will be an Open 10-Ball event, hosted by Shooter’s Family Billiards in Wayne, NJ.
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