Borana Andoni is the “Queen B” of Castle Billiards

In case you were wondering, Borana Andoni means business at the pool table.  While Borana first gained recognition as the model in ad for Jim Murnak Cue Cases, Ms. Andoni is proving that she is much more than a pretty face.  

Along with strong performances in the JPNEWT Ladies Tour, The Predator 9-ball Tour, and weekly tournaments around NYC, she has recently been showing the guys on the Tri-State Tour a thing or two.  

Saturday, August 29 marked her second win on the Tri-State Tour, making her the first female to win a Tri-State event in the 2009-2010 season, as well as the 2008-2009 season.  

A 31-player field turned out at Castle Billiards in East Rutherford, NJ on Saturday for this $500-added Tri-State C/D event.  In this tournament, Borana Andoni, Leo Liu, Randy Mackin, and Mike Schloven came through as the final four players in the winner’s bracket. 

Ironically, Borana would match up against her Amsterdam 9-ball teammate, Mike Schloven, showing no mercy with a close 6-4 win.  Leo Liu, a regular player at Sandcastle Billiards, beat Randy Mackin pretty handily by a score of 6-3.

This set the “hot seat” match between Andoni and Liu, where Liu would jump to a 4-0 lead in a race to 6.  However, Andoni fired back with five more games to take the lead (and the hill) at 5-4.  Liu would win the following game to tie it at 5-5, and had a strong start to the following game, but missed 5-ball on a run from the break.  Andoni was left a tough shot and missed, turning over the match to Liu.  

 

 

Meanwhile, Duane “Wu-Tang” Toney, winner of the August 15th Tri-State at Master Billiards was working on a comeback through the one-loss side, beating Kevin Kemp 6-0 to move on to the final four.  

Wu-Tang went on to defeat Peter Lee by a 6-2 margin, alongside one of the tour’s other strong lady players, NYC’s Naomi Fingerhut, who finished off Tom Ho in the hill-hill game. 

Coming over from the winner’s bracket, Randy Mackin ended Wu-Tang’s run, and Mike Schloven also overcame fellow Amsterdam player Naomi Fingerhut, closing out another hill-hill set.

After her loss for the hot seat against Leo Liu, Borana came back with guns blazing against Randy Mackin, winning the set 6-1.  This set her for a rematch with Leo in the finals.

The final match would be a modified single race.  Since Liu had no losses, if he reached 6 games first, he would win the set, while Andoni would need to win 8 games to take the match.  

Andoni and Liu exchanged racks to meet at at 4-4 tie.  However, this was the last score seen from Liu in that set, as Borana went on to win the following four games to win the match 8-4, for her second Tri-State Tour win.

Borana attributes her recent success to not only her time spent on the table working on drills with coach and boyfriend Tom Wan, but also to quality time at the gym.  “I’ve been working out a lot as well, so I don’t get tired as easily,” said Borana.  

Borana also mentioned that she would like to thank the ladies of her team “Kiss of Death” for their ongoing support and encouragement, and congratulate fellow Amsterdam players Naomi Fingerhut & Mike Schloven on their 5th and 4th place finishes.  

 

 

 

Payout:

1st: Borana Andoni  $600

2nd: Leo Liu  $300

3rd: Randy Mackin $150

4th: Mike Schloven $100

5-6th: Naomi Fingerhut, Duane Toney $75