Park Scores Perfect Performance

Park Scores Perfect Performance
Predator 9-Ball Tour / New York City, NY

by Jerry Tarantola
The Predator 9-Ball Tour’s fourth stop of the season drew a record 84 players to the heart of New York City the weekend of March 22-23. Soho Billiards played hosted to the event, which brought out new faces and the usual stand-out players, including Tony Robles, Shin Park, George Sansouci, and Jeremy Sossei, but Shin Park was the only player left standing at the end of it all.

Frankie Hernendez came close to repeating back-to-back Predator Tour wins as he and Park were the two undefeated players of the winners’ bracket. The two battled it out for the hot seat, and Park came out undefeated, sending Hernandez to the one-loss side.

Robles was sent to the west side late Saturday night in a grueling match against Hernendez on the first day. However, that loss fueled Robles Sunday as his momentum gained him six consecutive wins, defeating Sansouci 9-1, Eddie Vazquez 9-2, Chuck Altomare 9-2, and Jorge Rodriguez 9-6 to face off against Hernendez again. In the battle of two of the state’s greatest players, Robles proved unstoppable, convincingly defeating Hernandez 9-3.

In the finals, Park took an early 3-0 lead, but Robles fought back to even the score. Throughout the match, Park’s break was consistently effective, while Robles struggled to keep the cue ball on the table, scratching five times. The battle continued all the way to 8-8. A missed 7 ball by Robles allowed Park to gain a 10-8 lead, but Park surprisingly missed an easy 4 ball to give Robles an opportunity to close the gap. Robles managed to grab only one more rack before Park made it across the finish line to capture the fourth stop of the Predator Tour 11-9.

Results:
1st Shin Park
2nd Tony Robles
3rd Frankie Hernandez
4th Jorge Rodriguez
5th Chuck Altomare
Jeremy Sossei
7th Eddie Vazquez
Joe Pierce
9th Caroline Pao
George Sansouci
Mike Fingers
Mike Wong