Mike Wong (2nd) & Derek Schwager 1st)
The next stop on The Mezz Pro-Am Tour will be held at Rockaway Billiards in Rockaway, NJ on Sunday, September 25. This event will be the 15th $1,000-added stop of the 2011 season. Check the latest news on the three most recent tour stops at Mainline Billiards, Sandcastle Billiards, and Raxx Pool Room, stories courtesy of AZbilliards.com…
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Schwager Punctuates Mezz Pro Am Victory With Finals Shutout
As if going undefeated wasn’t enough, Derek Schwager finished a September 11th stop on the Mezz Pro-Am Tour by shutting out his finals opponent, Michael Wong, who’d moved into the west bracket at the end of the first round. Wong had just wrapped up his seventh straight on the loss side, and had no idea that he’d already won his last game of pool. The $1,000-added event drew 28 entrants to Mainline Billiards in Frazer, PA.
Meanwhile, Megan Smith, who’s won three Planet Pool Tour stops this year, is one-and-one on the JPNEWT and finished 25th at the WPBA US Open in Tulsa this June, is getting into the act with the …gentlemen. She’s cruising along fine until she runs into Schwager among the winners’ side final four. Lou Petrikios and Brad Shearer square off nearby. Schwager gets into the hot seat match, and allows Smith only a single rack doing it. Patrikios gets by Shearer 7-5, but can only chalk up three racks against Schwager, who then sits in the hot seat, waiting for Wong.
Smith moves to the loss-side and runs right into him; Wong, who’s already knocked down four, including Mike Donato 7-4, and one of the event ‘headliners’- Matt Krah 7-5. Shearer’s on the loss-side, facing Josh Brothers, another ‘headliner,’ who shut Wong out in the opening round. Wong then shuts out Smith, who leaves in a tie for fifth place, having won just a single game of her final 15. Brothers downs Shearer 7-5 and the quarterfinal rematch is on.
Wong exacts his revenge against Brothers with a 7-5 victory, and ends his seven-game, loss-side streak with a 7-3 win over Patrikios in the semifinals. Wong joins an elite club of pool players by beginning and ending a tournament run on the wrong end of a shutout and chalking up a shutout of his own along the way. Schwager took him down in the finals to claim the event title.
Final Results:
1st: Derek Schwager – $670
2nd: Mike Wong – $400
3rd: Lou Patrikios – $200
4th: Josh Brothers – $150
5th/6th: Megan Smith, Brad Shearer – $100
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Hunter Lombardo Knocks Down The Mezz Field at Sandcastle Billiards
When he stepped into Sandcastle Billiards on Sunday, August 28, Eddie Abraham was looking to chalk up his third win on the Mezz Pro Am Tour in 2011, and his sixth since March 2010. While he and the other 29 entrants, on-hand for the $1,000-added event in Edison, NJ, were mindful of area flood waters brought on by Hurricane Irene, Abraham may have overlooked another force of nature which had made its way north from southern waters; namely, Hunter Lombardo.
Lombardo had traveled north from his normal ‘hunting’ grounds in and around Florida to participate in the World Straight Pool Championships, which had been scheduled to commence on Sunday in nearby East Brunswick, NJ. When the start of that event was postponed, due to the storm, Lombardo signed on to do battle on the Mezz Pro Am Tour. While Abraham survived their first meeting – a double hill battle among the winners’ side final eight – he was sent west himself in the battle for the hot seat by Daniel Smith, who’d most recently (July) shared 7th place with Stevie Moore in the Richard Sweet Memorial event in Atlanta. Lombardo went on to win five straight on the one-loss side, including the semifinal rematch against Abraham, took both sets of a true double elimination final versus Smith and chalked up his first win on this northeast tour.
Immediately after Abraham had dispatched Lombardo to the loss-side, he got embroiled in another double hill battle; this one, versus Daniel Dagotdot. He survived this one, too, and then faced Smith, who’d just sent Joe Palone west 7-2. It was Smith who moved into the hot seat, with a 7-4 victory and then waited for ‘Hurricane’ Lombardo to return.
Lombardo, in the meantime, was embarked on a five straight, one-loss side streak that featured an aggregate score of 35-12. He opened that campaign with a 7-4 win over Gregg McAndrews, and followed it with a 7-2 victory over Raul Reyes, which set him up to face Palone, coming over from the winners’ side final four. Dagotdot drew Brett Stottlemyer, who’d defeated perennial northeast powerhouse Dan Cintron 7-1and Zack Christiansen 7-2.
Dagotdot and Stottlemyer got locked up in a double hill battle that eventually sent Dagotdot to the quarterfinals. Lombardo, in the meantime, was picking up speed and joined Dagotdot with a 7-1 victory over Palone. Lombardo then downed Dagotdot 7-3 to earn his rematch against Abraham.
Like the floodwaters that surrounded the facility, Lombardo swept Abraham aside in their re-match7-2, and moved on to the true double elimination finals. He took the opening set versus Smith 7-4, and then allowed him only a single rack in the second set that earned him the event title.
Noel Bensurto, Hunter Lombardo (1st), Daniel Dagotdot (4th), Daniel Smith (2nd), Eddie Abraham (3rd), & Sandcastle Owner Ed "Sandman" Liddawi
Payout:
1st: Hunter Lombardo – $800.00
2nd: Daniel Smith – $430.00
3rd: Eddie Abraham – $270.00
4th: Daniel Dagotdot – $150.00
5th/6th: Joe Palone, Brett Stottlemyer – $100.00
7th/8th: Raul Reyes, Zack Christiansen – $50
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Mike Wong Wins His First Tour Stop, Dedicating His Win to Ginky
Michael Wong has been kicking around the Northeast pool scene for a few years now, and though he’s been among the top ten finishers on a variety of tours, like the Tri-State, Action Pool, and Mezz Pro-Am, and finished 33rd in last year’s US Open, he had, until Sunday August 21, failed to chalk up a major tour victory. That all changed when he showed up at Raxx Bar & Grill in West Hempstead, NY last weekend, and went undefeated through a field of 30 entrants, on-hand for the $1,000-added Mezz Pro-Am stop.
As it turned out, Wong was able to record the victory without benefit of a final match. His opponent in the finals – Oscar Bonilla, who had won seven on the one-loss side to get back to those finals – forfeited the match, and split the first and second place prize money. In recognition of the many ways that he had been helped by the man, Wong dedicated this first major victory of his to George “Ginky” Sansouci.
From among the winners’ side final four, with three wins behind him, Wong sent Paul Revel west 7-3. He was joined in the battle for the hot seat by Manny Chau, who’d sent Bonilla west 7-3 in the event’s second round, and defeated Holdin Chin 7-1 for the opportunity against Wong. Wong chalked up an impressive, hot seat shutout versus Chau, in what proved to be his last match of the day.
Revel moved over to face Scott Simonetti, who’d gotten by Ariel Rivera 7-1, and Mark Pantovic 7-3. Chin ran into Bonilla, who, with three wins already on the one-loss side, had survived a double hill battle versus Gregg McAndrews, and then defeated Scott Murphy 7-3 for the right to face Chin. Bonilla would win his last four matches by the same 7-3 score.
Simonetti downed Revel 7-2, while Bonilla eliminated Chin 7-3. In the quarterfinals that followed, Bonilla ended Simonetti’s day with his third straight 7-3 win, and then, in his semifinal re-match versus Chau, defeated him 7-3, as well.
At this point, with the necessity of defeating Wong twice in a true double elimination final format, that could easily have chased the dawn, Bonilla conceded. An offer to split the first and second place prize money was agreed upon, with Wong as the winner of record. Wong had his first major event victory.
Mike Wong (1st), Raxx Owner Holden Chin, Oscar Bonilla (2nd)
Mezz Tour staff would like to thank all of the tour sponsors, including Mezz Cues, Billiards Life Clothing, Black Boar Custom Cues, Kamui Tips, Carolina Cues, Hard Luck Sportswear, Run Out Sportswear, Inside Pool, Poolonthenet.com, Allen Hopkins’ Super Billiards Expo, AZ Billiards, and Rack Starz for all their support. I would also like to also thank all the players that came out to play.
Payouts:
1st: Michael Wong – $770
2nd: Oscar Bonilla – $660
3rd: Manny Chau – $235
4th: Scott Simonetti – $150
5th/6th: Paul Raval, Holden Chin – $100
7th/8th: Marc Pantovic, Scott Murphy – $50
