Marlon
Manalo over Immonen at Raxx Blaze
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Winner Marlon Manalo and runner-up Mika
Immonen
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The Blaze 9-Ball Tour made its way to Raxx Bar
& Grill in West Hempstead NY, Sunday September 27, 2009.
A strong field of 29 players came out to play, including Mika
Immonen, Marlon Manalo, Oscar Bonilla,Joey Korsiak, Pete Tascarella
Sr, and ladies points leader ErinMcManus, to name a few. This
was a $1,000-added event, and each setwas a race to seven.
Marlon Manalo, who was visiting New York in preparation for
the US Open, led the top half of the bracket with wins over
Pat Byrne 7-2,Ariel Rivera 7-2, Oscar Bonilla 7-4, and Pete
Tascarella Sr, 7-3.Leading the bottom half of the bracket was
World Champion Mika Immonen with wins over Joey Korsiak 7-6,
Antonio Guerrero 7-1, Rob Pole 7-3,and Mike Fingers, 7-0.
Facing off to play for the hot seat were the two favorites in
this event, Marlon Manalo and Mika Immonen. This was a well-played
match with Mika pulling away late in the set to win the match
7-5, and send Marlon to the one loss-side.
Meanwhile on the one-loss side, Joey Korsiak had fought his
way backafter a hill-hill loss to Mika Immonen to meet Oscar
Bonilla in thequarter-final, The two Long Island-based players
had a very closebattle, but Joey made it to the hill first.
Joey broke with the scoreat 6-4 and had an open table, but he
hit the the 6 ball too hard whencoming back uptable with the
cue ball, and missed position. Oscarwould win both that game
and the following game to go 6-6. In thehill-hill game, Joey
ended up with the same shot on the 6, but overcompensated, leaving
himself short on position for the 7. Joeyelected to play a safe,
trying to lock the cue ball behind the 8 downtable, but it leaked
out, leaving Oscar a tough thin cut shot, which he sliced in,
using the 9 ball for position on the 8, to win the set.
This win moved Oscar Bonilla on to the semi-final match against
Marlon Manalo. This was another closely-fought match, and Oscar
edged ahead of Marlon, 5-3. Marlon didn’t give up however,
and he won the next three games to reach the hill first. Oscar
came back to win the next game and make it hill hill, but Marlon
had a monster break in the tie-breaking game, and ran out the
rack to win the match 7-6.
The final was a re-match between the undefeated Mika Immonen
and Marlon Manalo, which would be a true double elimination,
with Marlon having to beat Mika twice. With Mika recently winning
the Galveston World Classic 10-ball event, it appeared like
no one one be able to beat him at Raxx. And in the first set
that's exactly how it appeared, as Mika jumped out to a big
5-1 lead. However, the tables turned after Mika missed a 7-9
combo, and Marlon began to rise from the ashes. At 5-4 there
was an interesting turn of events, as Marlon missed the one,
but got lucky and hooked the cue ball dead on the 2. The 1 ball
was left sitting near the side pocket, and Mika kicked it in,
but the cue ball followed and scratched, allowing Marlon to
run out the rack at tie at 5-5. Marlon took the next two games
to win 7-5 and move the finals to the second set.
In the second set of the finals, Marlon started out flawless,
with a 3-0 lead. Marlon broke hot in the fourth game and it
looked like he had an open runout, but surprisingly over-cut
the 6, giving the game to Mika. Mika would break and run out
the following game to go 3-2 in Marlon's favor. From this point
on, Marlon would dominate the match with some great shot-making,
including a full-table kick into the 3-ball to combo in the
9. Marlon showed his strength in the final match, making it
his second win of the weekend, after his Saturday win in the
Tri-State Tour at Master Billiards.
Blaze Tour Director Jose Burgos would like to thank tour sponsor
Blaze Cues, but most of all he would like to thank all players
for coming out, and he looks forward to seeing everyone at the
next event.
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| Complete Results: |
1st Marlon Manalo $915
2nd Mika Immonen $500
3rd Oscar Bonilla $200
4th Joey Korsiak $150
5th/6th Pete Tascarella Sr. $70 Mike Fingers $70 |
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Top 5 Men's Points Leaders
Season 2009
(through stop #39) |
1. Joey Testa 6570
2. Eddie Abraham 5020
3. Matt Krah 4960
4. Shaun Wilkie 4600
5. Josh Brothers 3820 |
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Top 5 Women's Points Leaders
Season 2009
(through stop #39) |
1. Erin McManus 1280
2. Caroline Pao 900
3. Denise Reeves 850
4. Sharon Ohanlon 430
5. Pam Cimarelli 250 |
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| Entry Fees |
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$100 Pro Men & Women/Open
$75 A
$60 B/C/D
$50 Juniors |
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Tour Membership Fee: $35/yr
Non Member Fee: $20/event |
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64 Player Fields
Double Elimination
Races based on field size
Finals 2 Races to 7
Alternate Breaks |
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Doors open at 10 am
Matches begin at Noon |
Aprl 3rd, 2010
$1000 Added |
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One Shot Billiards
1713 Route 27 South
Somerset NJ 08873
732-249-4555
directions |
April 17th, 2010
$1000 Added |
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One Shot Billiards
1713 Route 27 South
Somerset NJ 08873
732-249-4555
directions |
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