Team DMIRO 10-Ball Tour / New York City, NY
by Jerry Tarantola
At the first stop of the Tiger Products and Team DMIRO Nationwide 10-Ball Tour, presented by Allen Hopkins, a tough group of pros and amateur from around the area as well as other parts of the world turned out to play August 29-30 at host room Eastside Billiards in New York City, NY. Top players who attended the event included Mike Davis, “Alaska” Sean Morgan, Mike Yednak, Jonni Fulcher, Zion Zvi, and Zaid Thweib, with 24 players total, but it was Hopkins who walked away with the lion’s share and the title.
Team DMIRO, which stands for “Don’t Miss … I’ll Run Out” will feature over 20 stops across the country and culminate in a final event to be held at the Super Billiards Expo in March 2010. With the preliminary round of the event completed, the four amateurs to move on were Mike Yednak, Ron Gabia, house player Basdeo “Sean” Sookhai, and Andrew Kane. Along with them, the four pros to advance were Davis, Morgan, Thweib, and Hopkins. The final eight were re-drawn into a double-elimination bracket.
In the final eight, Yednak defeated Sookhai and then Morgan 7-0 to take the hot seat. In the preliminary pro bracket, Hopkins was a dominant force in his first two matches, with 7-5 wins over Davis and Thweib. However, Morgan knocked the Hall of Famer into the one-loss side in the final eight by a score of 7-4. Hopkins went on to play a nearly flawless set against Thweib to win 7-0, defeat Davis 7-5, and knock out Morgan by a score of 7-0 to land in the hot seat against Yednak.
The final match was one race to 9 between Yednak and Hopkins. The score was even in the first half of the match, where it was tied at 4-all. Yednak dominated the next rack, but the 9 ball skidded and the lead went to Hopkins. From there, Yednak could not seem to get back into the groove. Hopkins took full advantage of this and bore down to win the match 9-4.
At the first stop of the Tiger Products and Team DMIRO Nationwide 10-Ball Tour, presented by Allen Hopkins, a tough group of pros and amateur from around the area as well as other parts of the world turned out to play August 29-30 at host room Eastside Billiards in New York City, NY.
Results:
1st Allen Hopkins $1198
2nd Mike Yednak $856
3rd Sean Morgan $513
4th Mike Davis $342
5th Zaid Thweib $171
Baseo Sookhai
7th Ron Gabia $85
Andrew Kane