Lukas Fracasso-Verner got by the slightly higher-ranked Ryan Cullen once, but he couldn’t get it done a second or third time in the finals of the New England 9-Ball Series’ Players Championship (stop #16), held on the weekend of March 16-17. Cullen came back from the initial loss and double dipped Fracasso-Verner in the event finals to become the tour’s 2019 Players Champion. The $1,000-added event drew 50 entrants (27 in a lower bracket, 23 in an upper bracket) to Yale Billiards in Wallingford, CT.
The two met first in a winners’ side semifinal, which, in effect, was the final of the event’s initial upper bracket. So, too, did Tyler Boudreau and Jimmy Gonzalez meet in a winners’ side semifinal, which, in effect, was the final of the event’s initial lower bracket. Playing with a FargoRate that was six points below Cullen’s (650-644), Fracasso-Verner got by him the first time 7-4, which put him into the hot seat match against Boudreau, who’d defeatEd Gonzalez 4-3 (Gonzalez with the higher FargoRate – 500 to 400 – racing to 6). Fracasso-Verner gave up only a single rack against Boudreau (racing to 4) and claimed the hot seat 10-4.
Put another way, Fracasso Verner won the event’s upper bracket competition, while Boudreau picked up the win in the event’s lower bracket competition. Neither one of them would win the overall Players Championship title, won by Cullen.
On the loss side, with the brackets still divided, upper bracket competitors Cullen and Mike Hurley met, while in the lower bracket, Gonzalez and John Porto hooked up. Hurley had survived a double hill fight against Bart Rivezzi and eliminated Mario Argentino 7-3 to draw Cullen. Porto had downed Nicole Netherland 5-3 and shut out Tim Nieves to pick up Gonzalez.
Cullen downed Hurley, double hill (7-5) and in the quarterfinals, faced Gonzalez, who’d defeated Porto 5-3. In those quarterfinals, Cullen (from the upper bracket) eliminated Gonzalez (from the lower bracket) 9-2.
In the semifinals, Boudreau, separated from Cullen by 250 FargoRate points (600-450) put up a double hill fight (in essence, Boudreau began a race to 10, with 6 on the wire), but it wasn’t enough. Cullen chalked up the 10 he needed before Boudreau had won his necessary 4th rack.
In a straight-up race to 7, in the opening set of a true double elimination final, Cullen and Fracasso-Verner battled to double hill before Cullen finished it to force a second set. Fracasso-Verner weakened a little in the second set, and Cullen pulled ahead to win it by three 7-4 and claim the Players Championship title.
Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Yale Billiards for their hospitality, as well as sponsors Predator Cues, USAPL New England, Fargo Rate, Bert Kinister, AZBilliards, Inside English, Professor Q-ball’s National Pool and 3-Cushion News, Delta 13 Racks, MJS Construction, Bob Campbell, Bourgeois Farms and OTLVISE Billiard Mechanics of America. The next stop on the New England 9-Ball Series (#17), scheduled for Sunday, April 7, will be a Partners Tournament, hosted by Snookers, in Providence, RI. The event will be limited to the first 64 teams and pre-registration is recommended.
(l to r): Clyde Matta, Dave Morganelli & Robert Piersa
Lineham wins second-tier 10-ball event
There were two distinctly different events at the 12th stop on the New England 9-Ball Series; its annual Winter Classic held on the weekend of January 26-27 and hosted by Snooker’s in Providence, RI. The main event was a $2,000-added 9-ball tournament that was traditionally handicapped with the use of FargoRates to determine the matches and drew 112 entrants. There was also a $500-added, non-handicapped 10-ball tournament with 21 entrants, which was billed as something of a Second Chance event, but offered $1,570 worth of cash prizes for the top four finishers.
Dave Morganelli went undefeated through the field of 112 to take the 9-ball event, downing Rob Piersa twice. RYan Lineham did likewise through the shorter-field 10-ball tournament, defeating Corey Avallone in the hot seat match and Lukas Fracasso-Verner in the final. It took Morganelli seven matches to claim the 9-ball title. Lineham grabbed the 10-ball title in five.
Morganelli was one of 12 competitors in the 9-ball tournament’s lower bracket that was awarded an opening round bye, after which he got by Justin Grant, Chuck Sampson, Mourad Idrais, and Phil Medeiros to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal match against Bob Lucas. Rob Piersa, in the meantime, without a bye in the upper bracket, defeated Rich Senna, Ryan Lineham (the eventual winner of the 10-ball event), Brian Chase and Bill Cote to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal matchup against Kevin Bauccio.
In a straight-up race to 5, Morganelli advanced to the hot seat match 5-3 over Lucas. Piersa joined him after downing Bauccio 7-4 (Bauccio racing to 6). Morganelli, with a FargoRate of 539, started the hot seat match with three on the wire in a race to 7 against Piersa, with his FargoRate of 651. They split the actual games 4-4, but with the handicap, Morganelli claimed the hot seat.
In straight-up races to 5 (Lucas/Blair) and 7 (Matta/Bauccio), Blair and Matta handed Lucas and Bauccio their second straight loss; Blair 5-3 over Lucas and Matta 7-5 over Bauccio. Matta took the subsequent quarterfinal match over Blair 7-3.
In a straight-up race to 6, Piersa (651) downed Matta (611) 6-1 in the semifinals to earn himself a second (and potentially, third) shot against Morganelli, waiting for him in the hot seat. Morganelli took the opening and only set necessary 5-2 to claim the NE 9-Ball Series Winter Classic title.
Lineham becomes second person on the weekend to eliminate Fracasso-Verner
[photo id=50706|align=right]
Lukas Fracasso-Verner, 17, has made something of a dangerous habit out of coming from the loss side to claim a number of event titles, including a 12-match, loss-side trip to win last year’s “Ginky” Memorial, and a seven-match, loss-side winning streak to win the NE 9-Ball Series’ Robert Dionne Memorial, two weeks ago. On the weekend of January 26-27, the habit got the best of him at the NE 9-Ball Series’ Winter Classic. He was sent to the loss side in the third round of the main event, and won only one match on the loss side, before being eliminated, out of the money. He rallied a bit in the 10-ball tournament, advancing to a winners’ side semifinal, and then, winning three on the loss side for a shot against Ryan Lineham in the hot seat. Lineham prevailed.
After an opening round bye, Lineham had defeated Kerry McAuliffe and Mike Hurley to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal match against Chad Bazinet. Fracasso-Verner, in the meantime, faced Chad Avallone. Lineham downed Bazinet 7-5, as Avallone was sending Fracasso-Verner to the loss side 7-4. Lineham claimed the hot seat 7-2 over waited on what turned out to be the return of Fracasso-Verner.
On the loss side, Fracasso-Verner shut out Jon Leandro and in the quarterfinals, faced Bazinet, who’d eliminated Francisco Cabral 5-1. Fracasso-Verner downed Bazinet in those quarterfinals 5-3, for a rematch against Avallone in the semifinals. A double hill fight ensued that eventually sent Fracasso-Verner to the finals.
They could have played a modified race to 5 in the finals, but Fracasso-Verner and Lineham opted to play it out to the normal race to 7. Fracasso-Verner survived the double hill, opening set of the true double elimination final 7-6, but Lineham grabbed the second set 7-5 to claim the 10-ball event title.
Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Snooker’s for their hospitality, as well as sponsors Predator Cues, USAPL New England, FargoRate, Bert Kinister, AZBilliards, Inside English, Professor Q-Ball’s National Pool and 3-Cushion News, Delta 13 Racks, MJS Construction, Bob Campbell, Bourgeois Farms and OTLVISE Billiard Mechanics of America. The next stop on the New England 9-Ball Series (#13), will be a $750-added event, scheduled for the weekend of February 16-17 and hosted by Straight Shooters Family Billiards in Fall River, MA.
In the pool world, it can sometimes be many tournaments before a player gets a chance to get revenge for a loss to another player. On the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour, it only took a week.
Last week, it was Bruce Nagle going undefeated and shutting down a streak of wins on the one loss side by Ron Casanzio in the finals. This week, at Brickhouse Billiards in Syracuse, it was Casanzio cruising through the winner’s side and taking the hot-seat with a 9-5 win over Mike Donnelly. Just prior to that hot-seat match, Donnelly sent Nagle to the left side of the board 9-6.
After that loss to Donnelly, Nagle won three tight matches on the one loss side with a 7-6 win over Sourith Thammavong, a 7-5 win over Qays Kolee and then a 7-6 win over Donnelly.
In a case of deja-vu, Casanzio ended Nagle’s winning streak with a 9-5 win in the first set of the finals. (Nagle had defeated Casanzio 9-5 in the first set of the finals last week).
Sunday’s second chance tournament saw Mark Creamer go undefeated with a 3-0 hot-seat win over Mike Hurley and then a 3-2 win over Dave Lebrun in the first set of the finals.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour returns to action this weekend with another $1500 / $500 added stop at Utica Billiards on the Boulevard in Utica, NY.
(l to r): Spencer Auigbelle, Kayla (Manager of Shooters) & Jeremy Sossei
It’s been just over 10 years (November, 2007) since Jeremy Sossei chalked up his first win on the Joss Northeast Open 9-Ball Tour. That first win, at what was the Ocean State 9-Ball Championships, saw him win five on the loss side, including a semifinal victory over George “Ginky” Sansouci to double dip Tony Robles in the finals, with the second set going double hill. On the weekend of February 17-18, at the 30th Northeast 9-Ball Open, Sossei recorded his 18th victory on the tour, going undefeated through the field. Though he would enter the event as the #2 player on the tour and face #1 (Matt Tetreault; 10 points ahead) in the hot seat match, it would be a four-years-in-the-making finals rematch against Canadian Spencer Auigbelle that would decide it. The win, combined with Tetreault’s third place finish, moved Sossei 65 points ahead of Tetreault and into the top spot in the tour standings. The $2,000-added ($500 for Second Chance) event drew 40 entrants to Sharpshooter’s Billiards & Sports Pub in Amsterdam, NY.
Four years ago, they’d met in the hot seat match and finals, with Sossei winning them both. This past weekend, they met first in a winners’ side quarterfinal, each having downed three opponents to get there. Sossei defeated Auigbelle 9-6 in that winners’ side quarterfinal and advanced to a winners’ side semifinal against Bucky Souvanthong (who finished third in the event four years ago). Tetreault, in the meantime, squared off against Dave Giner in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Sossei sent Souvanthong to the loss side 9-7, and in the hot seat match, faced Tetreault, who’d defeated Giner 9-2. The tour’s #2 player (Sossei) claimed the hot seat from the #1 player (Tetreault) 9-5 and waited on the return of (at the time) a player (Auigbelle) with only 60 ranking points chalked up over two events.
Auigbelle began his trip back to the finals with a 7-4 win over Mike Hurley, and then defeated Jorge Teixeira 7-2, to draw Giner. Souvanthong picked up Bruce Carroll, who’d been defeated in the opening round of play, and was in the midst of a seven-match, loss-side winning streak that would end when he finally ran into Auigbelle. A double hill win over Nick Brucato, and a 7-2 victory over Bruce Nagle, set Carrol up against Souvanthong.
Carroll advanced to the quarterfinals 7-2 over Souvanthong, while Auigbelle defeated Giner 7-1 to join him. Auigbelle ended Carroll’s loss-side streak 7-4 in those quarterfinals, and then, defeated Tetreault in the semifinals 7-3.
With momentum as a bit of a tail wind, Auigbelle won the opening set of the true double elimination final 9-3. Sossei came back and won the second 9-6 to claim the event title.
A 16-entrant Second Chance Tournament saw Jared Zimmerman go undefeated through the field, but not before Mark Stewart, who lost his opening round match and won seven on the loss side, challenged him in the finals. Zimmerman took that final 3-1 to claim the Second Chance title, and its $300 first prize. Stewart took home $200 as the runner-up, whiLe Mike Hurley finished third ($140). Josh Scheff finished fourth ($100), while Greg Bombard and Nick Brucato finished in the tie for fifth ($40 each). Ryan Smith was the raffle winner of a $1,200 Joss Cue.
The next stop on the Joss Northeast Open 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for the weekend of February 24-25, will be hosted by East Ridge Billiards in Rochester, NY.
Jeremy Sossei, Golden Cue Owner Kate Spinelli and Mike Dechaine
Mike Dechaine cruised, relatively untested, through a field of fifty three players to win the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour's NE 9-Ball Open XXVII at Golden Cue Billiards in Albany, NY on April 12th – 13th.
The closest any player got to Dechaine on day one, was a 9-6 win over Dwight Dixon. No one would come close to that on Sunday as Dechaine ran over Jarrod Clowery 9-2 for the hot-seat.
Clowery's return to the Joss Tour would come to an abrupt halt, with Mosconi Cup hopeful Jeremy Sossei scoring a 9-1 win over Clowery on the one loss side.
Sossei's dominating performance over Clowery wasn't enough preperation for Dechaine though, as Dechaine quickly dispatched Sossei 9-3 in the first and only set of the finals.
The second chance tournament drew twenty one players on Sunday, where Steve Greene defeated Mike Hurley 3-2 for the hot-seat, but then fell in two sets to tour newcomer Kiet Mieu in the finals.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be back in action at Raxx Billiards in West Hempstead, NY on April 26th and 27th.
Mike Zuglan's Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour stop #7 was at Joe Speach's Salt City Billiards this past weekend. While 45 players shot for the $5100 in prize money, the great pool fans of the Syracuse, NY fans got to see some great pool and enjoy some of the best food you ever tasted at a sporting event. Sausage and peppers, tortalini soup, barbecue beef, macaroni and meatballs, carrot cake and more were on the menu. If you didn't cash at this tournament you could at least gain 5 pounds. Adding $1500 and playing on some great Gold Crown one tables with Simonis cloth and using centennial balls made this a really great event.
Saturday started with some very tough matches Ron "Julio" Casanzio had to beet Chuck Altomare, Ryan McCreesh and Mike Zuglan to go through the day unscathed, Rochester's Lyn Wechsler had to win over Raphael Saldana, last weeks winner Ray Cruz and have an incredible comeback from an 4-8 deficit to win on the hill against Bob Levandowski. Joining Casanzio and Wechsler on the winners side for the day was Teddy Garrahan and Jim Forsythe. On the one loss side we had Tim Parisian, Mike Zuglan, Gary Empey and Bob Levandowski. Making the cash line but not returning Sunday was Time Allen, Mike Hurley, Ryan McCreesh and Claude Spence.
Sunday Started with Teddy Garrrahan beating Wechsler only to lose to Julio for the hot seat. Casanzio had beaten Forsythe and now had to wit for the play on the one loss side.Wechsler upset Zuglan 9-7 and then lost to Gary Empey. Garrahan beat Empey for the losers side and got a chance to meet Ron Casanzio in the finals. In the finals the people got to see why we call Ted Garrahan the Magic Man. Garrahan won the first set of the true double elimination 9-5 including an incredible out from the hill that included a jump shot a table length combination and a carom. In the second set it was 6-0 by the time Casanzio got to shoot and when he did he played great. Playing safe and scratching his way to win 4 games Julio then proceeded to snap two 9's in a row to get to 6 and we all thought it was going to be a match again. But when Casanzio broke and made nothing Ted made the one and a 2-9 carom to win the match.
All the staff at Salt City did a great job and the fans got to see great pool with no admission charge. We look forward a returning next year and I personally am not eating a thing the week before this event. Many thanks to Joe and Judy Speach for a great job. Next stop on the tour is Nov. 17 in Levittown, NY(Long Island) at Leisuretime Billiards.
Not only did Mike Zuglan bring his Joss Northeast 9-Ball tour to TJ's Billiards in Waterville, Maine this past weekend, he brought his A-Game along too. 62 Players from all over showed to play in this $3000 added event. The area this time of year is too beautiful for words and the competition was incredible. Playing for the cash this weekend, we had Zuglan, Sambajon, Acaba, Lapena, Saez, Altomare, Tavernier, Tucker, LaFlamme and more. The story in this tournament was not only Mike and the "big guns" on the Joss tour but also some the young players and their great play.
Saturday had it's share of close matches and good play. At the end of the day we had Chuck Altomare, Tom D'Alfonso, Mike Zuglan and Santos Sambajon all unbeaten. On the one loss side we had Karen Corr, Dave Hall, Ray Suda, Al Lapena, Sylvan Grenier, Dave Rodrigue, Darrell Canning and Carlos Vieira. Cashing for the first time on the Joss tour in his 3 years was Mike Hurley from Glenn Falls, NY and Patrick Adam from Quebec. Good job guys welcome to the cash line. Also cashing but not returning on Sunday was Joe Tucker and Robb Saez.
Sunday started with Zuglan beating Sambajon and young Tom "Shorty" D'Alfonso beating 5 time event winner Chuck Altomare. D'Alfonso played great for two days to meet up against Zuglan for the hot seat. After losing to Zuglan, Shorty had to wait for some great matches on the one loss side. Playing wonderfully, Karen Corr beat Robb Saez, Dave Hall, and Al Lepena. Karen came up on the short side to Chuck Altomare to finish a respectable 5th/6th. Darrell Canning from Prince Edward Island beat Pat Adam only to lose to fellow Canadian Syl Grenier. Grenier a newcomer to the Joss tour from Three Rivers, Quebec played well all week end beating Carlos Vieria on the hill, Dave Rodrigue, Joe Tucker and Steve Tavernier only to lose to Altomare and finish 4th. Altomare beat D'Alfonso to face Zuglan in the finals. In the last set it was all Mike Zuglan. At 3-1 Zuglan left himself with a long jump over a ball for the 4 ball. Hitting the cue dead perfect the 4 split the pocket and the cue went two rails for perfect position on the 5. It went that way for the entire set and Zuglan came out on top 9-4.
What a great event at a great room only 3 1/2 hours from Boston. This northern pool room has a lot to offer any serious player. Great tables, balls and cloth in a nice room makes it a great place to play. TJ and Debbie LaFlamme are incredible host and their staff really takes care of things. It is no secret that this is one of the tournaments a lot of us look forward to each year. Our thanks to TJ and Debbie along with Joss Cues Ltd, Webb Custom Cues, Giuseppi Cases, Cappone Custom Cues and Simonis cloth.
