Each season, Amsterdam Billiards in NYC’s Union Square consistently draws both top players and newcomers to the game with their great variety of leagues that accommodate players of all levels. With leagues ranging from 8-ball, 9-ball, and Straight Pool, nearly every player can find a league suiting their interest.
Amsterdam’s Fall Season of competition has come to a close, as each league capped off their seasons with a playoff showdown featuring the top teams. NYC Grind was on-site for some of the playoff sessions, and we would like to thank our contributing photographers Brian Leong and Beau Gianna for their awesome work.
Mhet Vergara & Ben Castaneros of team 'Invaders' - Photo by Brian Leong
Joe Palone of team 'Natural Born Killers' - Photo by Beau Gianna
On Sunday, January 13, the semifinal round of the playoffs for the Team 9-Ball league was held, which featured the four top remaining teams in the league.
‘Monkey Steals Peach’ was one of the two teams to move on to the finals, following their dominant win over Invaders. Two of Monkey Steals Peach’s team members, Nicholas Chan and Vincent Rochefort, played very strong from the start of the match to put the team up by eleven games, and helping them to win the match immediately in the next round.
Nicholas Chan of Monkey Steals Peach - Photo by Brian Leong
The second semifinal match was a closer battle between Cobra Kai and Natural Born Killers. However, Cobra Kai got out to a strong lead with a 7-2 win in the first round of the match, and in the end, Natural Born Killers wasn’t able to catch up and Cobra Kai came with the strongest finish.
Joe Latona of Cobra Kai - Photo by Brian Leong
Natural Born Killers and Invaders would finish the season tied for 3rd/4th place.
Ada Lio of team 'Natural Born Killers' - Photo by Beau Gianna
Marco Dy of team 'Invaders' - Photo by Brian Leong
The finals of the Team 9-Ball between ‘Cobra Kai’ and ‘Monkey Steals Peach’ were held on Wednesday, Jan. 16 at 7pm on the two feature tables in front of Amsterdam’s bar. Cobra Kai opened up the match with two wins: Joe Latona over Nick Chan and Charles Bromley over Caroline Pao 7-5. Monkey Steals Peach would win the following round with Vincent Rochefort defeating Cesar Celli, but Mas Hashimoto would capture the win in the next round against Jay Chiu, closing out Cobra Kai’s first playoff victory.
Cobra Kai - Photo by Brian Leong
Caroline Pao of Monkey Steals Peach - Photo by Brian Leong
Cesar Celli of 'Cobra Kai' - Photo by Brian Leong
In the Team 8-Ball division, the two top teams, ‘Pocket Rockets’ and ‘Balls Deep’, battled through the regulation play in the final playoff match to tie at 19 apiece. To determine the winner, one player was chosen from each team to go head to head in a best two-out-of-three format, where the two players would alternate picking their game of choice, 8-ball or 9-ball.
Jonathan Chan of team 'Balls Deep' - Photo by Alison M. Fischer
John D’Antonio of ‘Pocket Rockets’ and Jonathan Chan of ‘Balls Deep’ were the two players to play the tiebreaker. D’Antonio won the opening game of 8-ball, but Chan bounced back to win the following games of 9-ball, then 8-ball, to win the top honors for his team Balls Deep. Congratulations to both teams for their efforts throughout the season.
Team 'Balls Deep' - Jonathan Chan, Keith Sabin, Dan Gaulkin, Rio Guha - Photo by Alison M. Fischer
Team 'Pocket Rockets' - John D'Antonio, Inessa Gelman, Allison La Fleur, Joel Bischoff (Not pictured: Sara Firestone) - Photo by Alison M. Fischer
Amsterdam’s Straight Pool league playoffs brought the top players from all of its divisions together to compete in a handicapped finale. The two players left standing to compete in the final match were Jude Rosenstock and Paul Manes. In this 14.1 final, Rosenstock (one of New York’s top straight pool players) would need 150 points, while Manes would need 50. Manes would come out the winner of this match, getting to 50 points first, while Rosenstock ended with 125.
Paul Manes - Photo by Brian Leong
Jude Rosenstock - Photo by Brian Leong
In the Individual 9-Ball playoff finals, Christopher Linder came in as the #1 seeded player, while his opponent Fred Netzband impressively won six playoff matches in a row, finishing with a win in the final match against Linder. Congratulations to both players on their great showing this season.
Winner Fred Netzband & runner-up Christopher Linder - Photo courtesy Chris Lynch
Amsterdam Billiards’ spring league season is set to begin its first week of competition on the week of Jan. 21. For more information about Amsterdam Billiards’ leagues, visit www.AmsterdamBilliards.com.
