Scott Simonetti Breaks Through at Castle for an Undefeated Tri-State Win

Story & photos By NYC Grind contributor, Alison M. Fischer

On Saturday, November 14, The Tri-State Tour headed to Castle Billiards for their A/B/C/D tournament, which drew 53 of the areas top up-and-coming players.  Castle is known for the hospitality of its staff and owners, John & Minnie Trobiano, as well as their great food, but on this day the players had their sights set on an $825 first-prize.  The format for this event split the A/B players into the top half of the bracket and the C/D players into the bottom half, allowing everybody to have a chance at cashing in the event.

Following suit with his high level of play as of late, dedicated Castle house player Scott Simonetti went through the A/B bracket undefeated, to meet with Roger Hanos to play for the “hot seat” after beating Christian Smith 7-4.  Scott has been overcoming the obstacle of shooting with both a prosthetic hand and leg after a rare Staph infection back in March resulted in amputation.

Scott Simonetti is currently ranked #2 in the Tri-State’s “B+ Division,” and had an impressive second place finish in the Predator Tour’s A-D event on November 7-8.  Roger Hanos (rated a “C+) came in after a hill-hill win over Sandie Paterino, winning 6-5, but would fall to Simonetti in the hot seat match, 7-4.

Meanwhile, the players on the one-loss side would have to battle to see who would meet Hanos in the semi-final.   In the final four on the one-loss side, Stu Warnock defeated Jason “Buffalo” Hunt 7-4, while junior rising star, Jonathan Castillo knocked out Duane “Wutang” Toney (both rated C+) in a hill-hill battle, 6-5.

15-year-old Jonathan Castillo has been playing performing very well at Castle in recent months, having won the previous Tri-State event hosted there, and finishing third in the Predator Tour’s A/B/C/D event. Castillo would finish tied for 5/6th in this Tri-State, after falling to Sandie Paterino in the next round.  Also coming over from a winner’s-side loss was Christian Smith, who dominated over Stu Warnock, 7-2.

This put Christian Smith in the quarterfinal match against Paterino, who impressively defeated Smith, currently ranked #3 in the “B+ Division” in a close battle that ended 8-6.  But, Sandie wasn’t finished there, as she eliminated Roger Hanos 6-4 to move on to the finals to meet with undefeated Scott Simonetti.

In the final match, Sandie Paterino also showed a lot of heart, battling back and forth with Scott Simonetti, who would edge over at hill-hill to win 8-7.  Congratulations to Scott Simonetti for pulling out an undefeated win at Castle Billiards, which was in fact his first win since his amputation in March, showing that he is still one of the most dominant players in the area.

Sandie Paterino has also shown a lot of dedication to her game, and she can be seen both competing as well as putting in long hours practicing at many of the area’s pool rooms.  We will definitely look to see Sandie continue to place high.

The next Tri-State Tour stop will be held this Saturday, November 21st, at Master Billiards in Sunnyside, Queens, which will be a “B/C/D” event.  Good luck to all the tour’s players!  Visit www.thetristatetour.com to check out the schedule and learn more about the tour.

Payout:

1st: Scott Simonetti - $850
2nd: Sandie Paterino - $510
3rd: Roger Hanos - $320
4th: Christian Smith - $245
5th/6th: Stu Warnock, Jonathan Castillo - $100
7th/8th: Jason Hunt, Duane Toney $80
9th-12th: Antonio Navarro, Diana Rojas, Brian Hunter, Wali Muhammed - $75