Albay and Raval Win Handicapped Billiard Event
Tri-State Tour / Sunnyside, NY
by Skip Maloney
Wilfredo Albay came from that one-loss side and defeated Doug Rhee to win the C/D handicapped Tri-State Tour event June 7. The C/D side of the tournament drew 32 entrants to the $1,000-added (pro-rated with the A/B side) event held at Master Billiards in Queens, NY, while the A/B division drew 16, with Paul Raval taking first.
Earlier in the day in the C/D event, Albay and Rhee sent Ron Mason and Mike Davie to the one-loss side and then squared off in the hot seat match. They fought back and forth to hill-hill before Albay was sent westward to the semifinals.
Mason went on to win his next match on the one-loss side, but Davie was defeated by Andrew Kane. The quarterfinal match that followed saw Mason eliminate Kane and then turn to face Albay, who dropped Kane and returned for a second match-up against Rhee.
There were three hours between the hot seat match and the finals, and while Rhee had spent a portion of that time practicing, it didn’t keep him as sharp as Albay, who’d just concluded his victory in the semifinals. Albay jumped out to a 6-0 lead that he never relinquished. When Albay reached 7-2, the match was extended to 9. Albay won the next two racks and the first-place prize.
The A/B side of the tournament drew 16 entrants and saw Raval turn the tables on Brian Capp, who’d sent him to the one-loss side earlier in the day. Capp faced Chris Leuthi in the hot seat match, defeating him in a hill-hill final game.
Raval defeated Johnny Ortiz in the quarterfinals and Leuthi in a hill-hill semifinals before returning to face Capp a second time. Like Albay in the C/D side of the tournament, Raval capitalized on momentum from his semifinal victory to defeat Capp 9-4 and take home the first place prize.
C/D Results:
1st Wilfredo Albay
2nd Doug Rhee
3rd Ron Mason
4th Andrew Kane
5th Mike Davie
George Osipovich
7th Gail Glazebrook
Floyd Reece
9th Andrew Cleary
Mike Harrington
Ed Miller
Borana Andoni
A/B Results:
1st Paul Raval
2nd Brian Cap
3rd Chris Leuthi
4th Johnny Ortiz
5th Ed Medina
Adam Kosmin