With two events in the books for the 2022/2023 Joss NE 9-Ball Tour season, the tour has now crowned two first time event winners. Kevin Guimond avenged a hot-seat match loss to local young gun Lukas Fracasso-Verner to set him up for the double dip win in the finals of the September 24-25 tour stop at Yale Billiards.
Guimond went undefeated on Saturday with comfortable wins over Joe Raccio, Mike Toohig, Marc Dionne and Rick Matarazzo. Coming back on the winners side on Sunday were Guimond, Ray McNamara, Aaron Greenwood and Fracasso-Verner. Guimond scored a 9-5 win over McNamara and Fracasso-Verner scored a 9-2 win over Greenwood. The hot-seat match went to Fracasso-Verner by the score of 9-4.
Alex Bausch was waiting for Guimond on the left side of the board. Bausch had lost to Fracasso-Verner in the last round of matches on Saturday, but put together a three match winning streak to get to the semi-final matchup with Guimond. This match would be the end of the run for Bausch, with Guimond scoring a 7-3 win.
Guimond won the first set of the double elimination finals by the same 9-4 scores from his earlier match with Fracasso-Verner and then finished off the double dip with a 7-5 win in the second set to earn his first career Joss NE 9-Ball Tour win.
Sundays second chance tournament also saw a double dip in the finals, with Steve Mack coming back from a second round loss to Mike Renshaw to score a total of seven straight wins, including back to back 3-2 wins over Steve Sutton in the finals.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour is back this coming October 1 – 2 weekend at Raxx Pool Room in West Hempstead, New York.
The Golden Cue in Albany, NY one of the oldest and greatest pool rooms ever was host to Mike Zuglan's Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tours 11th stop of the season. The Spinelli family along with a local Chevy dealer added $2000 to the pot and 51 players showed to claim their potion of the over $6000 available. In a room that is as much fun to play in as it is to get action in, the players went right at it from the start.
Play was tight all day as players like SanSouci, Tavernier, Thornly and Hernandez beat all that came their way and remained on the winners side for Sunday. On the one loss side keeping their hopes alive for victory was Kevin Ketz, Robb Saez, Mike Zuglan, Rick Matarazzo, Tom Accivatti, Ted Garrahan, Joe Tucker and Ray Cruz.
Of the 12 players returning Sunday, 8 were past winners on the Joss tour and 6 were multiple event winners, 10 of the 12 were top 3 finishers in previous events. On the winners side SanSouci beat Thornly and Hernandez to win the hot seat. Across the board we had Zuglan defeating Ketz and Saez only to fall to Tavernier after battling to hill-hill. Tavernier beat Thornley then fell to Hernandez to set up the all NYC finals.
In the first set Frankie had George down 8-2 when SanSouci caught stroke and came back to make it a respectable set. In the next set of the true double elimination finals it was nothing short of masterful playing by SanSouci that had him way out in front 8-0. Running rack after rack and playing great safety pool, you could see the determination on Ginky's face as he tried to get a 9-0 win. Getting out of line a bit on a ball in game 9, SanSouci missed and Frankie got out from the only offensive shot he had all set. In game 10 it was again all Ginky as he went on to win.
It would be very hard to find a better room to play in than the Golden Cue and the people in New York's Capitol are just downright nice, The Joss Tour looks forward to making this a regular stop and we would like to thank Rocky, Cathy, Catlin, Ben and the entire staff. An excellent tournament and a great week end.
Mike Zuglan's Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour opened it season in North Providence, RI. The Joss tour's primary Sponsor's Joss Cues Ltd, Webb Custom Cues, Capone Cues, Giuseppe" Custom Cases and Simonis Cloth joined with Rhode Island Billiards and their sponsors to add $5000 to the purse. 92 Players from six countries and all over the USA showed to vie for the over $16000 purse. Players like Zuglan, San Souci, Bustamonte, Saez, Corr, Kelly, Martinez, LeBron, Sambajon, Acaba and many more went at it right from the start. With great matches running all through the day and into the late night we saw some great shot making and a few upsets along the way. Mike Lebron came right out of the gate defeating Francisco Bustamonte, the "Giant Killer" Rick Matarazzo, knocked off Frankie Hernandez and every one else he met this day to go undefeated into Sunday. Local Rhode Island guys Steve Tavernier and Joe Tucker also went unscathed. Young Nick Schulman from New York City, played incredible pool beating Mike LeBron and all that he met this day. Filling out the winners side we had Joe Korsiak, Rafael Martinez and Ramil Gallego. On the one loss side of the chart we had, Garrahan vs Vidal, Davis vs D'Alfonso, Acaba vs Sambajon and Oliviera vs Bustamonte.
With 16 players and a full house of spectators Sunday you could feel the energy in the air. Hill hill matches were the order of the day with some surprises along the way. Playing outstanding 9-ball was Jarrod Clowery of Providence. First Jarrod beat up on the hot Matarazzo and barley lost to Martinez. Bustamonte was Clowery's next match and what a match it was. This young gun stayed with Django all the was and when he caught up to him on the hill you could hear a pin drop. In a game of safe play and a few shots that let us know the nerves were affecting both players, it was Clowery up setting the world champion and the crowd went nuts, Jarrod then lost to Ramil Gallego to claim a strong third and a great tournament. But this day belonged to Rafael Martinez and his play was flawless until the finals. After losing 9-4 to Gallego in the first match of the finals he came back in the second stronger than ever and won the tournament going away 9-5.
Stay tuned to Mike Zuglan's Joss Tour this season. With the greatest players in the world playing for an enormous amount of cash, you know that this is the place for 9-ball at it's best. We are at the Drexeline Billiard Club in Drexel Hill, Pa for this weekend and a $2500 added purse with the normal $100 entry fee.
Enough cannot be said about the hospitality extended by the Costanzo family. This tournament was the New England 9- Ball Championship and a memorial to Tony Costanzo. Anthony Costanzo, his Mom Phyllis and their staff were incredible and everyone had a great time. Next year is The Rhode Island Billiard Club's twentieth anniversary and Anthony promises something very special for the Joss tour.
