Double-Hill Makes the Way for Madaio
Tri-State Tour / Somerset, NJ
by Skip Maloney, Inside POOL Magazine
Durt Madaio worked his way through a double-hill defeat and three hill-hill victories to take first place at One Shot Billiards in Somerset, NJ.
Durt Madaio worked his way through a double-hill defeat and three hill-hill victories to take first place on the Tri-State Tour stop September 6. The B-D handicapped, $500-added event drew 30 entrants to One Shot Billiards in Somerset, NJ.
All three of the matches that determined who sat in the hot seat among the winners’ side final four were double-hill affairs. Madaio defeated Sal Lanuto 6-5, as Kevin Frazer bested Mario Sahatjian 7-6. In the hot seat match that followed, it was Frazer sending Madaio west to the semifinals with a 7-6 victory.
On the one-loss side, it was Brian Lau and Ben Sadowski who faced Lanuto and Sahatjian, respectively, in the matches that determined fifth place. Lau and Sahatjian advanced to meet in the quarterfinals, which were won by Lau 7-4. Madaio tallied his second double-hill victory, defeating Lau 8-7 in the semifinals for a second chance at Frazer.
Madaio, as the lower-ranked player, was up 2-0 automatically in the final race to 7 but was saddled with the burden of having to extend the match to 9 in the event of his being the first to reach 7. Frazer won five of the first eight racks, but with the handicap at work, the score was tied at 5-5. Frazer took the next game to reach hill first but couldn’t close it out. Madaio won the next two to reach hill first, forcing the extension to 9 games, and then won again to reach hill first in the extended match. Frazer came back to tie it at 8-8.
Each had multiple opportunities to sink the tournament-winning 9 ball in that final rack, but it was Madaio who finally did so to capture the first-place prize.
Results:
1st Durt Madaio
2nd Kevin Frazer
3rd Brian Lau
4th Mario Sahatjian
5th Sal Lanuto
Ben Sadowski
7th Jason Egeln
Dave Fitzpatrick
9th Ed Medina
Rajeesh Vannala
Chris Luethi
Joe Varvaro