Mike Zuglan, Jeremy Sossei, Nelson Oliveira & Room Owner Phil Harju
It looked like it was going to be smooth sailing for Nelson Oliveira on his run through the field of 40 other players at the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour's stop at Union Station Billiards in Portland Maine on November 19th – 20th, but in the end he would have to fight it out with Jeremy Sossei in a double elimination final before a winner was crowned.
Oliveira had no problems on Saturday, as he scored wins over Jeff Mosimann, Andrew Burns and Bob Dennis to remain undefeated. Joining him on the winner's side Sunday were Jeff Provencher, Dave Hall and Josh Rupard. Sunday matches saw Oliveira beat Provencher 9-1, and Hall beat Rupard 9-4. Oliveira would then go on to defeat Hall by that same 9-4 score.
On the one loss side. Jeremy Sossei was on a tear after a hill-hill loss to Samoth Sam on Saturday. After that loss, Sossei went on a seven match winning streak, including notable wins over Martin Daigle, Chad Bazinet, Provencher, Rupard and Hall.
Sossei extended his streak to eight matches with a 9-5 win over Oliveira in the first set of the double elimination finals. The second set was close early, with the players tied at 3-3, before Oliveira took control and won six straight games for the 9-3 win.
The second chance tournament on Sunday drew a field of 20 players where Brent Boemmels went undefeated to earn first place. Boemmels defeated Travis Webster 3-1 for the hot-seat and then held off Lindsey Monto 3-2 in the first set of the finals. Boemmels collected collected $320 for first, while Monto settled for $200 in second place prize money.
In addition to a fourth place finish in the second chance event, Josh Lerner was also the winner of the raffle for the $1500 custom engraved Joss cue at this event.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour now takes a break until the Turning Stone Classic XXVII on January 5th – 8th in Verona NY. This event is now full.
Mike Dechaine completed an undefeated run through the field of thirty two players to win the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour's Maine Event VII at TJ's Classic Billiards in Waterville, Maine.
Dechaine was tested for the hot-seat, as he defeated Nelson Oliviera 9-7.
On the one loss side, Tom D'Alfonso had put together a wining streak of five matches after early Saturday loss to Dechaine. D'Alfonso made it six in a row with a 9-5 win over Oliviera, sending Oliviera to the seats in third place.
D'Alfonso was looking for revenge against Dechaine in the finals, but it wasn't meant to be on this day. Dechaine cruised to a 9-2 win in the first match of the finals.
In Sunday's second chance tournament, it was Jeff LaFlamme coming back from a hot-seat loss to Bob Dennis and defeating Dennis 3-0 and 3-2 in the finals for first place.
Sunday also saw the raffle drawing for the $1500 Joss Custom Cue, which was won by tour regular Bill Cote.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be at Sharpshooters Billiards in Amsterdam, NY next weekend for another $1500/$500 added event.
As it turned out, the second time was a little easier than the first. Brandon Gagane met up with Bob Dennis twice during the April 15th stop on the Lucasi Hybrid New England 9-Ball Tour. Though Gagane prevailed both times, Dennis battled him to double hill in their first meeting, and came within a rack of double hill in their finals matchup. The event drew 18 entrants to Sneaky Pete’s Billiards in Windham, ME.
As Gagane was busy sending Dennis west double hill from among the winners’ side final four, fellow Brandon (Cole) was doing the same to Nick Conner 5-6 (Conner going to 8). Gagane then downed Cole 4-4 (Cole going to 6) and sat in the hot seat awaiting Dennis’ return.
Dennis began his loss-side, three-match march to the finals with a 6-2 victory over John Morrison, who’d defeated Stan Rupard 4-4 (Rupard going to 6) and Chad Avalone, double hill, to reach him. Conner drew Gary Columbie, who’d gotten by John Washington 5-2 and Fred Dechaine, double hill. Dennis dropped Morrison 6-2, as Columbie survived a double hill contest against Conner.
Dennis then defeated Columbie 6-3 in the quarterfinals, and took Brandon Cole out, double hill in the semifinals. With Dennis going to 6 again, Gagane kept him a rack short of a second straight double hill match against him with a 4-4 win that secured the event title.
