The eleventh annual Tri-State Tour Invitational took place July 12 - 13, 2008, at Comet Billiards in Parsippany, NJ bringing together highly skilled amateurs hoping to sharpen their game en route to the pro circuit and ambitious upstarts looking to advance in class. The weekend was a huge success with 8 A & A+ Players, 32 B & B+ Players, 32 C & C+ Players and 16 D & D+ Players showing up to play in their respective classes. Comet Billiards owners Bill Haley along with the staff were gracious hosts and provided a professional and engaging atmosphere for the event. Their generosity and support is without equal. The room donated a cue case to the event along with their room and all the table time. Not enough positive and complimentary things can be said about Bill or his establishment.

As each day began, organizers John Leyman, Todd Fleitman & Bill Focaccia congratulated the players on reaching the top of their classes for the season and handed out awards to the top players of the year in each class. The Tri-State Tour added $4000 in cash prizes and the sponsors Viking Cues, Fury Cues, Stealth Cues, Sterling Gaming, Ozone Billiards, Phil Capelle, Wild Eyes Creations, Pool Tees.com, Jim Murnak Custom Cue Cases, Billiards Digest, Pool & Billiards, Inside Pool, Professor-Q-Ball’s News, Blue Book Publications, Amsterdam Billiards and Romer’s Trophies went out of their way to provide the event with some great equipment and prizes. All of the sponsors are owed a debt a gratitude for their dedication to the game and the players, their efforts and generosity are what made the event so special and such a great success. The awards went to the top 3 players in each class and to the Most Improved player of the Year. The top players of the year in their respective classes were Adam Kosmin, Stewart Warnock, Eddie Medina, Dave Shlemperis, George Osipovitch, Mike Davie and Borana Andoni. The top female player of the year was awarded to Naomi Fingerhut. Starting out the season as a C Class player Christopher Luethi moved up 3 classes to the B+ Class and claimed the coveted Most Improved Player of the Year. This year the Pro/Open class was won by Shin Park. The tour each year gives out an award to a player we think exemplifies what is good about the sport and this year’s Sportsman of the Year award went to Sal Lanuto.

The action in the tournament got going around ten on Saturday morning, with B+, B, C+ and C class players kicking off the event. The B+, B and C classes were all won by players who went undefeated for the day. In the C+ class, Ben Sadowski played strong and consistent all day with his only real challenge coming in the finals against Michael Seas, Michael had lost his 3rd match of the day to Ben and beat everyone else to get back to the finals. This time though the match would turn in the other direction and Michael won 7-3. The C Class was won by Gail Glazebrook who bested Ed Miller in the finals 6-4 and all her other opponents handily to win. In the B+ class Christian Smith played very well with his two toughest matches being his first and last of the day. Christian won both of those matches on the hill with the finals match against Tom McCloud being his toughest win of the day. The B-Class was another story Wazeer Abassi cruised to easy victories all day with the exception of one hill/hill match against Jim Murnak in the second round. In the finals Wazeer beat Jason Blanchard 7-4.

On Sunday, the A+/A class was dominated by 2 players Wilson Cruz and John Alicea. As they came to the Hot Seat match both playing very well John moved ahead and beat Wilson 7-3. Wilson would win his one loss side match against Noel Bensurto on the hill in a very tight match and then in the rematch John continued to play well and won 7-5.

The D+/D Class was also dominated by 2 players Mike Poisler and Jeff Dworzanski and as in the the A Class Jeff defeated Mike in the Hot seat match 5-1 and then again in the finals 5-2.

This left the top players in each class to meet in the playoffs. Christian Smith continued his dominance and once again and crushed his next 2 opponents, Wazeer Abassi 7-4 and John Alicea 7-3, giving him the honor of competing for the overall champion. Gail Glazebrook who, although nervous, continued to play with heart and conviction and went on to win as the underdog beating one of the favorites “to win it all” Michael Seas on the hill to advance and then beat Jeff Dworzanski 6-4 to guarantee her spot in the finals against Christian Smith. Christian who had won this event back in 2005 started off slow and Gail took immediate advantage and pulled out to lead and got on the hill first. Christian fought back playing well and not really affording any opportunities for Gail to take advantage of, he made a 9 on the break and got some good rolls and brought the match to hill/hill. In the hill game Christian broke and made a ball but did not have a run out. He tried to make something positive happen but relinquished the table. Gail came to the table but also had a tough table and she gave it back to Christian who was running out when he made a slight mistake which allowed Gail back to the table. Gail made the 7 ball but missed the 8 ball and left a 2 ball out for Christian who made the 2 balls and won the event thus being crowned the Tri-State Tour Invitational Champion for the second time in 4 years.