Ryan Cullen, Jeremy Sossei and Yale Billiards Owner Bobby Hilton
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour Stop at Yale Billiards in Wallingford, CT on July 24th – 25th featured two division winners who will be hoping to build on their weekend wins in the upcoming week.
The main event winner, Jeremy Sossei, will be traveling 2500 miles west this week, as he heads to Tucson, Arizona for the Predator US Pro Billiard Series Stop at Casino Del Sol on July 28th – Aug 1st.
Sossei, a multiple time winner on the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour, found himself in unfamiliar territory after dropping a late Saturday match to Ryan Cullen. Sossei had wins over Lukas Fracasso-Verner, Dave Fernandez and Pete Genovese before dropping a hill-hill match to Cullen late in the day on Saturday. Sossei then defeated Yesid Garibello on the one loss side 7-2 to end his Saturday play.
Sunday was business as usual for Sossei, with wins over Ron Casanzio, Shawn Dickson and Rob Piersa to earn a rematch with Cullen in the double elimination final match. Cullen had come back on Sunday to score wins over Bob Madenjian and Piersa to take his first career Joss Tour hot-seat, with hopes to turn that hot-seat into his first career Joss Tour Win. Cullen would have to wait for that first win though, as Sossei won both sets of the finals 9-4 and then 7-2 for the tournament win.
Sunday’s second chance tournament saw a win from another competitor who will be adding to his frequent flyer miles this week. Lukas Fracasso-Verner will be traveling a little further this week, as he will fly to Las Vegas, Nevada to compete in the Billiard Education Foundation’s Junior National Championship.
After the aforementioned loss to Sossei in the main event, Fracasso-Verner rode the one loss side with a bye and then three match wins before finally dropping a late Saturday match to Steve Mack to finish one spot out of the money. Undeterred, Fracasso-Verner came back for the second chance tournament on Sunday where he had wins over Demian Provost, Darren Jevons and Nick Coppola before dropping the hot-seat match to Joe Darigis 3-2. Fracasso-Verner took that loss in stride and quickly defeated Coppola 3-0 for another shot at Darigis in the finals. He then made the most of that second shot, scoring 3-1 and 3-2 wins for first place.
With the Yale Billiards stop being its final “supplemental tour stop”, the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will now take three months off before kicking off the official 2021/2022 season at East Ridge Billiards in Rochester, NY on October 2nd – 3rd.
Though he won the Derby City Classic’s Bigfoot Challenge and a stop on the Euro Tour (the Dynamic Billiards Treviso Open) early in the year and was a dynamic and vocal member of the European winning 2020 Mosconi Cup team, later in the year, it was, overall, a slow year for Jayson Shaw; his lowest in recorded payout earnings (at AZBilliards) since 2015. He wasn’t alone in that regard, of course; the pandemic doing its work world-wide, but Shaw was busy, too, with a few other things.
In May, he created his own YouTube channel, and during the summer, he was hard at work, preparing US 1 Billiards and Bar in West Haven, CT for an October 9th re-opening, under his new ownership and management. For those who don’t follow him or US 1 Billiards and Bar in West Haven on Facebook or elsewhere, the re-opening with (as Jayson put it) “everything brand new, and I mean, brand new” went off smoothly and in a matter of weeks, Shaw had regular tournaments running.
The latest of those tournaments occurred this past weekend, on Sunday, January 24. IT was a $500-added 9-ball tournament, for Fargo-rated players 700 or below, which drew 27 entrants to US 1 Billiards and Bar and saw Robert Piersa go undefeated through the field, defeating separate opponents in the hot seat match and finals.
After Piersa had defeated “young gun” Thomas Rice in a winners’ side semifinal and Ryan Lineham sent Jorge Vivanco to the loss side, Piersa and Lineham squared off in the hot seat match. Piersa claimed it and waited on what turned out to be the return of Vivanco.
Rice moved over to the loss side and ran right into his second straight loss, delivered to him by another “young gun,” Lukas Fracasso-Verner, who’d been sent over by Lineham in a winners’ side quarterfinal and defeated Mario Argentino (who’d split the top two prizes in the previous week’s tournament with Nicholas Bosquet) and Henry Cha. Vivanco got right to work on his trip to the finals, downing Kerry McAuliffe.
Vivanco then eliminated Fracasso-Verner in the quarterfinal match and Lineham in the semifinals that followed. Piersa ended Vivanco’s three-match, one-loss winning streak with a victory in the finals.
Shaw’s US 1 Billiards and Bar will hold another $500 added tournament this weekend for players rated 650 and below, on the last day in January; Sunday, Jan. 31.
Shaw has also just announced a $1500 added pro-am event in February 6-7 at US 1. Check the US 1 Billiards and Bar Facebook page or Shaw’s page for further information.
(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
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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.
Joe Kaulenas went undefeated on the J. Pechauer Ride the 9 Tour stop on Sunday, December 11, and stopped a seven-match, loss-side winning streak by Josh Gormley to do it. The $1,000-added event drew 63 entrants to Rhode Island Billiards Bar & Bistro in Providence, RI.
From among the winners’ side final four, Kaulenas defeated Paul Torri 3-3 (Torri needing to reach four games), as his eventual hot seat opponent, Roarke Dickson, was sending Ian McKelvey to the loss side 4-1. Kaulenas got into the hot seat on the heels of a second 3-3 victory, with his opponent (Dickson) needing to reach four games.
Over on the loss-side, Kaulenas’ eventual opponent in the finals, Gormley, was in the midst of his seven-match winning streak. Following his third and fourth win, against Tim Perry and Cleiton Rocha, he squared off against the man who’d sent him to the loss side, McKelvey. Torri drew Dave Gavrish, who, like Gormley, had been sent west by McKelvey, and then defeated Mike Minichello and Rob Piersa.
Every match from that point through the single set of the finals turned into a double hill battle. Gormley wreaked his vengeance on McKelvey that way, and in the quarterfinals, faced Gavrish, who’d eliminated Torri that way, as well. Gormley took his last hurdle into the finals with his third straight, double hill win.
Gormley engaged in his fourth double hill battle in the opening set of the finals. His seven-match winning streak ended there, with Kaulenas’ third straight, 3-3 victory to capture the event title.
Tour director Gloria Magnano thanked Rhode Island Billiards Bar & Bistro owner, Anthony Costanzo, for his hospitality and money-added to the prize pool. Cleiton Rocha was the raffle winner of a J. Pechauer Cue, valued at $500.
