Ben Zimmerman and Bud Robideau
They were both looking to chalk up their first win on the Predator Tri-State Tour, although one of them, Bud Robideau, had recorded a victory on what was then the Predator ProAm Tour back in 2017. The other one, Ben Zimmerman, had recorded his first known payout in a pool tournament anywhere back in August at Shooter’s Family Billiards in Wayne, NJ. Returning to that room this past weekend (Sat., Nov. 5), Zimmerman went undefeated to the hot seat, downing Robideau to claim it. Robideau returned from the semifinals, at which point he and Zimmerman opted out of final match and split the top two prizes. The $500-added, ABCD 9-Ball event drew 32 entrants to Shooter’s Family Billiards.
In the winners’ side semifinals, Robideau downed Aaron Butler 7-2, as Zimmerman sent Thomas Crane to the loss side 7-4 in the other one. Zimmerman defeated Robideau 8-4 and sat in the hot seat, awaiting his return, which, in effect, never happened.
On the loss side, Butler picked up Tae Chang, who’d defeated Tri Chau and KC Clayton, both 7-3 to reach him. Crane drew a rematch against Jay Chiu, whom he’d defeated 6-2 in a winners’ side quarterfinal. Chiu opened his loss-side campaign with a 7-5 win over Michael Graf and followed it with a 6-1 victory over Nick Torraca to get to the rematch.
It was Chang and Chiu who advanced to the quarterfinals; Chang, 7-5 over Butler and Chiu successfully navigating the rematch 8-6 over Crane. Chiu defeated Chang 7-4 in the quarterfinals that followed.
In what proved to be the final match of the event, Chiu’s four-match, loss-side winning streak came to an end in the semifinals. Robideau defeated him 7-5. Negotiations got underway to split the top two prizes, with Zimmerman, the undefeated occupant of the hot seat at the time, declared the official winner of the event.
Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Shooter’s Family Billiards for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor Predator Cues, Poison Cues, Arcos 2 Balls, Ozone Billiards, Sterling Billiards, Kamui, Hustlin’ USA Clothing, Bloodworth Ball Cleaner, Billiard Engineering, Joe Romer Trophies, Phil Cappelle Publications, Pool & Billiards and Billiards Digest. The next stop on The Predator Tri-State tour, scheduled for Saturday, November 26, will be a $500-added, ABCD 9-Ball event, hosted by Clifton Billiards in Clifton, NJ.
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