Terry Petrosino and Angie Payne (Photo courtesy of Marty Jones)
The kickoff of the 2019 JO Ladies Tour was held at Big Tyme Billiards in North Houston on the weekend of January 12th-13th. 54 women came out to compete in a double elimination, race to 7, 9-Ball match on Diamond Bar Boxes. Prior to the start of each tournament, a players’ meeting is held and this one was quite special. A major announcement made was the addition of Strokin’ Billiards, owned and operated by brothers, Tuan and Nam Nguyen. Strokin’ Billiards will be providing the fashion of the tour and adding $100 to the “Best of the Rest” Tournament at each stop. We are excited to have Strokin’ as part of the JO Tour and look forward to the amazing designs that will be available! Check them out at www.strokinbilliards.com!
The JO Ladies Tour also commemorated the years of service and dedication given by Monica Anderson and Shayla Neris, both who resigned from board positions at the end of 2018. Also resigning from the tour was our “Tour Angel”, Carter Nakashima. We are actively looking to fill that spot, so applications are being accepted… As always, our fearless sponsor, Jerry Olivier, was on site to provide flawless cue repair and sales of his great playing cues! To order one of his fabulous cues go to www.jocues.com!
The battle of the 54 ladies went late into Saturday night and the remaining 12 returned to play on Sunday. On the winners’ side was a showdown between Angie Payne vs Chris Fields and Terry Petrosino vs Kim Pierce. The B Side featured Robyn Petrosino vs Shayla Neris, Jeannie Cockman vs Orietta Strickland, Michelle Yim vs Natalie Mans, and Jennifer Kraber vs Tam Trinh. When it was all said and done, the hot seat match featured Angie Payne from Austin and Terry Petrosino from Houston. Terry sent Angie to the other side to duke it out with 2018 Tour Champion, Orietta Strickland from Dallas, and it was Angie who came out on top. Angie hadn’t played in an Tour stop in quite some time and she was on a mission. She beat Terry in the first set, however, Terry wasn’t going to let her get away with the second set. Terry nabbed the first place trophy and prize money of $800! Congratulations!
The second day of the stop isn’t all about the main event. The Best of the Rest tournament is held on Sunday and it is no less competitive than the main event. 24 ladies returned to play and then there were 2 remaining. Ellen Robinson from San Marcos and Yvonne “Casher” Asher from Houston were the last 2 standing and split the winnings of $210 and were declared the Best of the Rest.
Main Event Standings:
1st Place Terry Petrosino $800
2nd Place Angie Payne $600
3rd Place Orietta Strickland $450
4th Place Kim “Texas Heat” Pierce $335
5th-6th Place Jennifer Kraber $200
Chris Fields $200
7th-8th Place Natalie Mans $125
Shayla Neris $125
9th-12th Place Robyn Petrosino $85
Tam Trinh $85
Jeannie Cockman $85
Michelle Yim $85
Best of the Rest Standings:
1st-2nd Place Ellen Robinson $105
Yvonne Asher $105
4th Place Teresa Garland $35
5th-6th Place Crystal Dunn $20
Deedra Trammell $20
A huge thank you to Big Tyme Billiards (www.bigtymebilliards.com) and Billy Sharp for hosting the event. Big Tyme is truly a players’ pool hall with its wide open spaces, Diamond Bar Boxes, 9’ Diamonds and Gold Crowns, and friendly staff! We appreciate it and look forward to returning next year!
We hope to see everyone at the next stop! From Diamond Bar Boxes to 9’ Gold Crowns, we head out to Round Rock, TX (just north of Austin) to Skinny Bob Billiard’s (www.skinnybobs.com), home of the Texas State 9 and 10 Ball Opens, the weekend of March 9-10th. Come on out and enjoy some great pool and meet the women of the JO Ladies Tour! For more information, please contact one of the Board members: Teresa Garland, Natalie Mans, or Yvonne Asher.
The JO Ladies Tour is a sanctioned Division II tour of the North American Pool Tour (NAPT). Good Luck to these 14 women who will represent the JO Tour in the upcoming NAPT Division II Championships held at Bull Shooters in Phoenix, AZ, February 21-24: Jennifer Kraber, Michelle Cortez, Nicole McDaniel, Kim Pierce, Natalie Mans, Yvonne Asher, Teresa Garland, Tam Trinh, Ellen Robinson, Robyn Petrosino, Kim Sanders, Shayla Neris, Julie Collins, and Kelly Jones. Let’s hope one of these ladies brings the championship to our tour!
Jerry Olivier Custom Cues www.jocues.com
JO Ladies Tour www.joladiestour.com
Strokin’ Billiards www.strokinbilliards.com
Mz Tam Trinh www.mztam.com
North American Pool Tour (NAPT) www.playnapt.com
