Cue Bar Owner & Manager Sam Andol, Mike Miller, Joey Korsiak & Tony Robles
The Predator Tour kicked its 2011 Season this past weekend, January 29th-30th, at Cue Bar in Bayside, Queens, NY. The $1,000 Added first stop of the season was stacked with a full field of 64 players who came out to make a statement at this double points event.
Top names in the field included Stewart Warnock, Jerry Tarantola, Daniel Dagotdot, Shorty Santiago, Michael Yednak, Dinko Busanich, and Justin Muller, along with top female players Diana Rojas and Gail Glazebrook.
Veteran player Linden Druminski, who recently came back to the game after some time away, was impressive while going through the winners bracket. Linden had wins over Luis Novas, Ray Sam, Dave Shlemperis, and Eddie Filangeri, before losing 7-5 to Alberto Estevez. Alberto went undefeated to the finals with wins over Gail Glazebrook, Alex Borukhovich, Mike Harrington, Antonio LoBello, Linden Druminski and Michael Yednak 9-8.
Adrian Daniel also had a fantastic tournament finishing a strong 4th.
In the finals Alberto would play Victor Nau, who had a breakthrough event. Victor started out with wins over Bob Mammarella, John Trobiano, and Rikki Ragoonan before losing to Michael Yednak 7-5. Victor Nau bounced back with wins over Gary Murgia 7-4, Lionel Rivera 7-6, Christian Smith 7-6, and Adrian Daniel 7-5, which set up a rematch with Michael Yednak.
Michael has been playing great as of late, and had several dominant matches in the event, making him the player to beat in the tournament on Sunday. In the feature match between Michael and Victor, Mike broke, made a ball and looked to have a chance at the run out… but after making a costly position error on the one ball, Victor was able to gain control of the game, and eventually squeaked out a clutch "W", putting him in the first finals in approximately three years.
Victor went on to get the monkey off his back by capturing the first event of the Predator Tour season by emerging victorious in the finals over Alberto Estevez 7-5. The elated Victor Nau was quick to say that he was lucky to get through several difficult key matches. Either way, Victor was impressive to take advantage of those key opportunities and come away with the win.
Final Results:
1st: Victor Nau $1,000
2nd: Alberto Estevez $700
3rd: Michael Yednak $425
4th: Adrian Daniel $300
5th/6th: Christian Smith, Linden Druminski $205
7th/8th: Dave Shlemperis, Lionel Rivera $150
9-12th: Jack Smith, Gary Murgia, Antonio LoBello, Eddie Filangeri $100
13th-16th: Alex Borukhovich, Diana Rojas, Rikki Ragoonan, Dennis Lake $75
On Sunday, January 30, the Open/Pro 10-ball event took the stage at Cue Bar, which featured names including Joey Korsiak, Mike Fingers, Mike Miller, Tony Robles and Frankie Hernandez.
This was the first of 4 qualifying events for the U.S. Open 10-Ball Championship at the Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas in May. CueSports International, (CSI) has teamed up again with the Predator Tour this year to give a paid entry to the Open/Pro that is ranked 1st after stop # 5 which takes place at Mr. Cue Billiards in Lindenhurst, NY on the weekend of April 16-17.
Joey Korsiak was impressive with an 8-1 win over Mike Fingers as well as a tight hill-hill match against "The Silent Assassin" Tony Robles en route to the finals. In the final match, Joey met Tony Robles, who bounced back from his loss to Joey with wins over Carl "The Warrior" Khan 8-2, Frankie Hernandez 8-2 and Mike Miller 8-2.
In the finals it was all Tony, who controlled the match on the way to a 8-5 score to close out the first stop of the season.
1st: Tony Robles $500
2nd: Joey Korsiak $300
3rd: Mike Miller $170
Stop # 2 will be taking place at the beautiful Cue Nine in Levittown, NY. Cue Nine House Pro Charles Eames recently informed me that Cue Nine owner, John Brendle has hired table mechanic Steve Gephart to strip down all the tables, repair the rails and re-cloth them just for the upcoming Predator Tour stop February 19-20 as well as the charity event for the Little Shelter Animal Rescue & Adoption Center on February 13th which will feature The Kiss of Death Team, World Trick Shot Champion Andy Segal, Mika Immonen and Tony Robles.
For more information, please visit our site. www.predator9balltour.com
