Alicea Masters Tri-State Field

By admin
for InsidePOOLmag.com

Published: June 7, 2009

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Tri-State Tour / Sunnyside, NY

by Lea Andrews

June 6 was John Alicea’s day to shine, and his undefeated run through a field of 48 earned him first place on the Tri-State Tour stop. The $1,500-added double points A-D event was hosted by Master Billiards in Sunnyside, NY, and was sponsored by Sterling Games and Ozone Billiards.

The tournament featured separate brackets for A-B and C-D players in the earlier rounds, and a mixed field for the later rounds. Alicea plowed his way through the winners’ side of the A/B bracket, ultimately taking down Tony Eglesias 8-7. Meanwhile, Alicea’s opponent for the hot seat match, C-ranked Alex Berszinn, was working his way through the C/D bracket, ending with a 6-3 win over Nicholas Cahn.

On the one-loss side, still in separate brackets, players were fighting to get to the mixed-field bracket. In the A-B bracket, Tony Panzarella earned his spot with a 7-6 win over Stuart Warnock, while Bernie Chua earned the C-D spot with an 8-2 win over Ron Mason.

The mixed-field bracket pitted B+-ranked Panzarella against Chua, who moved up to a D+ during the tournament, and Eglesias against Cahn. Panzarella and Eglesias moved on with 9-7 and 7-6 wins, respectively, and their face-off was set.

Meanwhile, in the hot-seat match, Alicea dominated Berszinn 10-6, sending him to meet the victor of the Panzarella/Eglesias match, which turned out to be Eglesias with a 7-5 win. Eglesias was ready for his rematch with Alicea, but he needed to get through Berszinn—he took the match hill-hill and put Berszinn in third.

For Eglesias to win the event, he would need to reach 8 games first, at which point the race would be extended to 10, while undefeated Alicea would win if he reached 8 games first. Eglesias got to a 5-1 and then 6-2 lead, but Alicea tied it at 6. Eglesias took the next five racks in a row, but Alicea, in whom many see the spark of a future world champion, was not going to let the race go long—playing with the skill that had garnered him his A+ ranking, he took the next two games for the win.

June 6 was John Alicea’s day to shine, and his undefeated run through a field of 48 earned him first place on the Tri-State Tour stop.

Results:
1st John Alicea $1,190
2nd Tony Eglesias $710
3rd Alex Berszinn $420
4th Mike Panzarella $250
5th Nicholas Cahn $160
Bernie Chua
7th Stuart Warnock $120
Ron Mason
9th Robert Kite $90
Brian Hunter
Dan Li
Jeff Dworzanski

Tagged with: Alex Berszinn, Alicea, Bernie Chua, Brackets, Brian Hunter, Cahn, Chua, Dan Li, Eglesias, Face Off, Future World, Hot Match, Hot Seat, Jeff Dworzanski, John Alicea, Master Billiards, Masters, Match Hill, Mike Panzarella, Nicholas Cahn, Opponent, ozone, Panzarella, Robert Kite, Ron Mason, Sterling, Stuart Warnock, Tony Eglesias, Tournament Brackets, Tri-State, Warnock, World Champion

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