Robles Continues Winning Streak at Billiards
Predator 9-Ball Tour / Stamford, CT
by InsidePOOL Staff
The Predator 9-Ball Tour made its debut in Stamford, CT, the weekend of June 21-22 as Rack N’ Roll Billiards played host. A strong field of 51 players came out to support, with tour director Tony “The Silent Assassin” Robles taking first place again.
Top players included newly crowned 2008 GenerationPool.com women’s champion Xiaoting Pan, WPBA number-two-ranked Ga Young Kim, Mika Immonen, Marc Vidal, Shin Park, Bobby Blackmore, Jeremy Sossei, Chuck Altomare, and the great Earl Herring.
After losing her third match to Victor Nau, Kim won her next two matches on the one-loss side before losing a hill-hill match to reigning Ocean State champion Sossei. Xiaoting Pan won her first three matches before losing to Robles 9-3 and ended up in ninth place.
Robles advanced to play against Immonen for the hot seat. The Finn played a nearly flawless match to earn the win 9-3, sending Robles to the left side of the chart. Meanwhile, Park knocked Marc Vidal out of the tournament 9-3 and got revenge against Mike Fingers to earn a spot in the semifinals against Robles.
This was Robles’ chance to break the Park curse. Going in with a 0-9 record, a determined Robles capitalized on a few mistakes by Park and took the win 9-5 to set up the finals.
Both players started out strong but Robles lucked in three balls in one rack with the match tied 4-4 and another ball in the next rack. That’s all it took to close the deal on Immonen as Robles finished out the following rack to take the 7-5 win.
Results
1st Tony Robles
$1,100
2nd Mika Immonen
$700
3rd Shin Park
$550
4th Mike Fingers
$400
5th Jeremy Sossei
$275
6th Marc Vidal
$275
7th Bobby Blackmore
$175
8th Steve Lillis
$175
9th Victor Nau
$100
9th Earl Herring
$100
9th Xiaoting Pan
$100
9th Chuck Altomare
$100
Highest Finishing C/D: Irene Moser
Cue Raffle Winner: Sammy Poulos