Marco Costello Earns First Tri-State Win in an Undefeated Showing at House of Billiards

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Alison

On Saturday, January 26, Staten Island, NY pool room House of Billiards hosted a forty-player field for The Tri-State Tour’s A/B-C/D tour stop.

Marco Costello would have an impressive day in this event, heading through the winner’s bracket to go to the hot seat match after defeating Rajesh Vannala 7-6, Michael Sprague 7-6, Louise Petronica 7-4, and Justin Muller 7-5.

Meeting Costello in the match for the hot seat was Luis Lopez, who had previously defeated Mike Strassberg in the final four at 6-3. However, Marco Costello then sent Lopez to the one-loss side after defeating him 9-5.

The player to take charge on the one-loss side of the bracket would be Emerson Verano, who made it through a tough grind to go all the way to the finals, defeating Sharik Sayed 7-4, Gary O’Callaghan 7-6, and got redemption against Justin Muller 7-6, after having lost to him earlier on the winner’s side. Verano then defeated Jud Parker 9-6 in the quarterfinal and Luis Lopez 10-6 in the semi to go on to the finals.

Emerson Verano (Photo by NYC Grind contributor Keith Diaz - Scroll down to check out more photos from Keith at the bottom of the page)

In the final match between Emerson Verano and undefeated Marco Costello, the players fought closely to tie at 7-7…but Costello then won the final two games needed to win the match, which made for his first ever tournament win. Congratulations to Marco Costello on a strong win, along with Emerson Verano on a great finish, having a 8/2 win/loss record, and 3rd place finisher Luis Lopez.

Emerson Verano (2nd), Marco Costello (1st), Luis Lopez (3rd)

Payout:
1st: Marco Costello – $700
2nd: Emerson Verano – $440
3rd: Luis Lopez – $270
4th: Jud Parker – $160
5th/6th: Justin Muller, Mike Strassberg – $100
7th/8th: Gary O’Callaghan, Luis Jimenez – $75

Tri-State Tour staff would like to thank Sterling-Gaming, Ozone Billiards, Poison Cues, Ron Tarr Cues, Kamui Tips, Phil Capelle, BlueBook Publishing, Human Kinetics for their sponsorship leading to this event.

The next Tri-State Tour stop is a $1,000 Added A/B-C/D event, to be held this Saturday, February 2, 2013, at Castle Billiards in East Rutherford, NJ. For more tour information & schedule, visit www.TheTristateTour.com.