Geoffrey Bauer Grinds Back for a Win at the Amsterdam Billiards Tri-State Stop while ABC Announces Table Time Specials!

Geoffrey Bauer (1st) & Scott Simonetti (2nd)

By NYC Grind Contributor, Alison M. Fischer

On the weekend of September 4th-5th, The Tri-State Tour headed to Amsterdam Billiard Club, which hosted their A/B/C/D 9-ball event.  This $1,000-added, two-day event drew 28 top amateur players from around the area, including a number of Amsterdam’s top league talent.

Highlighting the field were players including 2009 Player of the Year Dan Cintron, Christian Smith, Carl Yusuf Khan, Geoffrey Bauer, and Scott Simonetti.  And in this event, it would be Simonetti who would dominate throughout the winner’s bracket.

Making it through to the winner’s side final four, Scott edged ahead of Christian Smith at hill-hill, winning 7-6.  Meanwhile in the final four match-up, Ryan McCarthy defeated Ramilo Tanglao 6-4.  In Scott and Ryan’s face-off for the hot seat the two had another close battle, but Scott Simonetti came out on top at 8-6.

Back in the third round of the tournament, Scott Simonetti handed a 7-4 loss to Geoffrey Bauer… however, tour rising star Bauer was not ready to bow out yet.  Having won two tour stops on the ‘09-’10 season and finishing runner-up in the Tri-State Tour ‘B’ Class Invitational, Geoffrey Bauer has been proving himself to be more of a threat in each event.

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Dechaine Wins Seminole Empire State Title Undefeated at Raxx

Empire State Champion, Mike Dechaine (Photo by Jerry T)

Story by NYC Grind Contributor, Geoff Conway

Sunday morning saw a slew of the best players on tour fighting it out to take down this coveted title. Click here to check out the photos from Day 1 of the tournament, by Jerry T & Charles Eames.

First match up on the winner’s side final eight was Corey Deuel vs  Earl Herring, where Herring handed a walk over to Deuel, with a 8-0 forfeit… as Earl Herring is a minister and had to return to church on Sunday morning.

Also in that round, we saw a much-awaited match up between Dennis Hatch and Jeremy Sossei. This match did not go the way of the betting line, with Jeremy coming out the winner 8-6. I should point out that neither player showed us their best game, and the latter racks were consumed with safety play. This win propelled Jeremy into a match against Corey Deuel, and an upset Mr. Hatch had to wait for the outcome of the loser’s side match between Matt Krah and Mike Davis, which went to Mike 8-7.

Jeremy Sossei (Photo by Charles Eames)

Next up was Mike Dechaine vs Josh Brothers, which went to Mike, 8-6.  Josh was not able to capitalize on his strong break, and would then have to start his comeback in the loser’s side of the draw.

In the next match we had Mike Sigel, who had batted a 1,000 through his first three matches on Saturday.  In Sunday’s 11:00 round, Mike continued his winning streak, when he devastated Dustin Morris 8-0, making for 28 games won and no losses.

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Dennis Hatch & Mike Sigel Dominate on Day 1 of the Empire State Championships

Living legend Mike Sigel astoundingly went 21-0 through his first three matches. (Photo by Charles Eames)

EMPIRE STATE CHAMPIONSHIP DAY ONE AT RAXX BILLIARDS LOUNGE WEST HEMPSTEAD

By NYC Grind Contributor, Geoff Conway

Well, the big guns came out this weekend for the Empire State Championships, which is being put on jointly by the Seminole Florida Pro Tour and Ozone Billiards Predator Tours. This prestigious event is being played at Raxx Billiard Lounge in West Hempstead, NY, is filled with the who’s who of pool, with such notables as Stevie Moore last weeks winner of the Mezz Tournament held at Skyline Billiards in Brooklyn and Tony Robles who took second place at Skyline.

Dennis Hatch made the long trip from Buffalo, NY, Corey Deuel came up from Florida, Jeremy Sossei from CT, Mike Dechaine from MD, Josh Brothers from PA, and the legendary Mike Sigel decided to showcase his game to his many fans, Mike Davis who is back in form, Shaun Wilkie, Zion Zvi, George “Ginky” Sansouci, and Joey “K” Korsiak who came out of moth balls for this event.

This event has also has the added attraction of having the event covered by PoolActionTV.com with live streaming of feature matches, the brainchild of Ray Hanson from Texas. Last year’s event had a 9-Ball format and was won by Dennis Hatch, while this year the format has been switched to 10-Ball, with a call-shot format which basically eliminates most of the luck from the game.

Click here to view photos by Charles Eames from Day 1 of the event.

Kicking off the 11:00 feature table match is “The Mouth” Mike Sigel facing a young gun from Minnesota, 27-year-old Dustin Morris.

Dustin Morris is facing off with Mike Sigel on the live stream in the 11 am round (Photo by Charles Eames)

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