Filipino Pool Superstar Marlon Manalo Snaps off the Open Tri State Event at Master Billiards

Marlon Manalo

The Tri-State Tour stopped by Master Billiards in Queens, NY yesterday September 26, holding their first one-day Open event.

A surprisingly small field of 17 players came out to play on the beautiful fall day in New York. Even though it was a small field, there was no shortage of heavy hitters in attendance.  “Ginky” George Sansouci,  Frankie Hernandez, Jorge Rodriguez, Mhet Vergara, ‘08 Tri-State Tour “A” Class Player of the Year Dan Cintron, John Alicea, and special appearance by World-Class Filipino champion Marlon Manalo.

While the majority of Tri-State Tour events are amateur-only events (A-D), some of the area’s Open and Pro-level players were looking to snap off the first of their three Open events of the year, along with a beautiful trophy.

Click Here to view the photo gallery from this event.

One of the standout performances in this event came from NJ player Scott Simonetti, as he continues to impress the top players in the Northeast.  Scott in one of the upset matches in this event, Scott came from behind in a 4-0 deficit to Master Billiards house pro Mhet Vergara and win 9-5.

Ginky was tearing up the winner’s bracket before running into the Filipino superstar pool player, Marlon Manalo in the match for the hot seat. The two heavyweights drew a nice crowd, who were delighted to see some world-class pool action.

In that match, the players traded games for the first ten games (5-5), in a highly-defensive, tightly-played match. Manalo took the lead with an impressive out, before Ginky bounced back in the next game, only to scratch, which turned out to be the turning point in the set. Marlon advanced via a 9-6 score, guaranteeing his place in the finals.

After bouncing back with a win over his prodigy, John Alicea, Ginky was ready for a rematch against Manalo. The only other time Ginky had played Marlon Manalo was the night before, in a weekly 10-ball event at Masters, which Ginky had won.

In the finals, Marlon controlled the flow of the match, always staying 2 steps in front of Ginky, en route to another 9-6 final score. It was great to see the New York area pool fans buzzing about the play of one of the greatest pool players of our time. Congratulations to Marlon Monalo for taking a gritty win, in impressive fashion.

Final Results:

1st: Marlon Manalo $730

2nd: George Sansouci $350

3rd: John Alicea $200

4th: Dan Cintron $120