Shin Park wins Predator 9-Ball Tour Soho Stop
The Predator 9 Ball Tour continues to impress in terms of turn out and prize money. The fourth stop of the season drew a record 84 players to the heart of NYC, as Tony Robles introduced Soho Billiards to the hottest tour in the Tri-State area. The Predator 9 Ball Tour surpassed its previous record of 83 players set on the second stop of the season. The tournament drew many new faces to the tour along with the usual standout players. Some of the top players in attendance were Tony Robles, Shin Park, George Sansouci, Jeremy Sossei, Frankie Hernandez, Eddie Vasquez, Chuckie Altomare and Evan Broxmeyer as well as Joe Pierce from Kentucky.
Frankie Hernendez came close to repeating "Back to Back" Predator Tour wins as he and Shin Park were the two undefeated players of the winner?s bracket. The two battled it out for the hot seat and it was Shin Park who cam e out undefeated for the event, sending Frankie to the one-loss side.
Tony Robles was sent to the one-loss side late Saturday night in a grueling match against Frankie Hernendez on day 1. With Tony at the hill, a devastating scratch on the break would prove fatal to Robles as Frankie closed out the rack and broke and ran to win 9-8. The loss fueled Tony in Day 2 as his incredible momentum gained him 6 consecutive wins in the loser?s bracket defeating George Sansouci 9-1, Eddie Vazquez 9-2, Altomare 9-2 and Jorge Rodriguez 9-6 to face off against Hernendez again. Jorge Rodriguez continues his impressive play of late, as he had a tremendous tournament in claiming a very respectable fourth place finish.
In the battle of two of NY's greatest players, Tony proved unstoppable convincing defeating Frankie 9-3.
In the finals, Shin Park took an early 3-0 lead, but Tony would fight back to even the score. Throughout the match, Shin Young Park's break was consistently effective, while Tony struggled in keeping the cue ball on the table, scratching 5 times. The battle continued all the way to 8-8. A missed 7 ball by Robles, would allow Shin Park to gain a 10-8 lead. Shin surprisingly missed an easy 4 ball to give Tony an opportunity to close the gap. Tony was clearly frustrated from the costly errors, and continued to run out the balls with a confident force.
Park broke and made two balls, stopping the cue ball in the dead center of the table, but had no shot on the two ball. Park pushed allowing Tony the choice to shoot it or give Park back the shot. Tony elected to play a safe, and left Park a very difficult two rail kick on the two ball. Park made an unbelievable high risk shot, as he kicked the two ball in two rails and cut it down the long rail in the corner pocket, while getting perfect position on the 3 ball. Park took a quick second to sip some water, and continued to run out the rest of the rack to capture the 4th stop of the Predator tour by a score of 11-9.
In this event, Tony added a new prize to inspire women to play in the event, as he announced that the highest finishing female would receive an additional $100. NY's own Caroline "CaPow" Pao, not only claimed the highest finishing spot, but remained undefeated as day 1 concluded, and impressed the crowd with an stellar 9-12th finish amongst some of the best in NY.
Tony Robles would like to welcome and thank his new sponsor Billiard Life Clothing for contributing to the Predator 9 Ball Tour's season of prizes.
The next stop of the Predator 9ball Tour will be April 12th and 13th at Comet Billiards in Parsippany, NJ. The tour would like to also thank all it?s sponsors who continue to add more to the finale and player of the year funds for the season. Also you can view key ?Cuetable? shots of the tournament at NYCGrind.com.
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