Robb
Saez takes down Raxx Blaze
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Robb Saez, Owner Holdin Chin and 2nd Place Finisher Adam Kielar
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On Sunday March 8th, the Blaze Pro-Am 9-Ball
Tour brought 43 of the Northeast’s toughest pool players
out to Raxx Pool Room in West Hempstead, NY for their fifth
stop of the 2009 season. Raxx Pool Room and Grill has 29 beautiful
AMF tables with royal blue Simonis 860 cloth and is an enjoyable
room to play at. Some of the top names to turn out for this
event were Shaun Wilkie, Mika Immonen, Eddie Abraham, Matt Krah,
Robb Saez, and Ignacio Chavez. This Blaze stop was also attended
by two of the area’s top female players, WPBA pro Caroline
Pao and Erin McManus.
The fifth Blaze stop saw great performances from many of the
players, but it was Robb Saez who pulled ahead of this tough
pack to win the event. Robb, who is originally from Bridgeport,
CT, came to this Blaze event in preparation for his next pro
event, the Diamond Open 10-Ball Professional Players Championship,
which will be held at the upcoming Super Billiards Expo in Valley
Forge, PA.
This event also saw a number of notable battles, including a
match-up between Kenny Rutman and Mike Fingers. When he played
against Eddie Abraham, Mike ran out every time he broke, but
he was clearly feeling the heat against Kenny. In this match,
Kenny pulled out a hill-hill victory by firing in a long shot
on the 9-ball, capitalizing on a missed shot by Mike Fingers.
One of the surprises of this20event was that current #1 world-ranked
player, Mika Immonen, did not make it to the money rounds. Although
he played well, Immonen took two losses to Shaun Wilkie (7-4)
and Ignacio Chavez (7-3).
A less-common face on the Blaze Tour, Jamie Gremmo, turned out
at Raxx with a solid 7/8 finish. Gremmo faced Robb Saez on the
one-loss side, but could not get into his comfort zone, losing
7-3.
Waiting in the hot seat for Robb Saez was 21-year-old Adam Kielar
from Quakertown, PA. Adam had an impressive run at Raxx with
a big hill-hill win over Shaun Wilkie, who had a stellar performance
at last year’s Expo, finishing 2nd to Shane Van Boening.
In this feature match, Adam came back from being down 5-3 in
the set and pulled out the clutch win.
Current Blaze Tour #1 ranked player Eddie Abraham looked to
be the dominant player throughout the event, running through
the winner’s side bracket before things turned around
quickly as Eddie ran into a brick wall in Adam Kielar in the
hot seat match, who played near flawless in
putting together a perfect 7-0 score.
Amazingly, this win marked Kielar’s fourth consecutive
appearance in the finals of the Blaze Tour. On Kielar’s
road to the hot seat, he also impressively defeated Mike Boyles,
Greg McAndrews, Bobby Blackmore, and Shaun Wilkie.
In the semi-final match, Robb Saez would avenge his winner’s
side loss to Eddie Abraham, winning by the same score of 7-5
to move him into the finals. We also saw Robb defeat Wali Muhammed,
Carmen Lombardo, Matt Krah, Bobby Blackmore, Jamie Gremmo, “Alaska”
Sean Morgan, “The
Mexican” Ignacio Chavez, and finally Eddie Abraham.
In the finals, it was a match-up of between the up-and-coming
phenom vs. the battle-tested road warrior. This was a true double-elimination
format, so Robb Saez would have to defeat Adam Kielar two sets,
both races to six.
In the first set, Robb pulled out a strong 6-3 win, to close
the gap to one final race to six to determine the winner. In
the first game of the second set, Robb makes a error in misjudging
the rails as he made the 3-ball and sent the cue ball three
rails around the table before barely scratching. This gave Adam
ball in hand, which he took advantage of to run out and take
a 1-0 lead in the short race to 6 games. Adam and Robb then
traded games back and forth until Rob pulled ahead to the hill
5-3. Adam won the following game, and with the score 5-4, Robb
scratches on the break, giving Adam an opportunity to tie the
match 5-5. However, Adam had an uncharacteristic miss on the
4-ball, allowing Robb to take the win.Congratulations to Robb
Saez and Adam Kielar, as well as all the players that turned
out for this event, for their outstanding play. |
| Complete Results: |
1st Robb Saez $1325
2nd Adam Kielar $725
3rd Eddie Abraham $475
4th “The Mexican” Ignacio Chavez $200
5th/6th: “Get Some” Shaun Wilkie, “Alaska”
Sean Morgan $150
7/8th: Kenny Rutman, Jamie Gremmo $100 |
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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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