Bruce Nagle went undefeated to win a very contested John Babravich / Jim Romanowski Memorial tournament held by the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour at Sharp Shooters Billiards & Sports Pub in Amsterdam NY on October 13th – 14th.
While Nagle went undefeated, none of his wins (Jeremy Sossei, Sam Marranca, Nick Brucato, Tom Haas and Scott Haas for the hot-seat) were by a margin of more than three racks. His hot-seat opponent, Scott Haas, only had one match that could be continued one sided, when he defeated Willie Oney 9-4 on Saturday.
On the one loss side, Ron Casanzio was bouncing back from a Saturday loss to Brucato. While his Saturday wins on the left side of the board were pretty dominant, his Sunday started with back-to-back 7-5 wins (Nicolas Charette, Tom Haas and Sossei). Casanzio’s semi final win over Scott Haas was even closer at 7-6.
With all of the close matches that Nagle had, and Casanzio’s momentum from the one loss side, a close final match was expected. Surprisingly, Nagle scored his most lopsided win of the event in the first set of the finals when he defeated Casanzio 9-5 for first place.
In Sunday’s fourteen player second chance tournament, Bob Forchilli fought to a 6-7 overall record against Ben Werblow, but that was still enough for first place. Forchilli lost to Werblow 3-0 for the hot-seat, but came back to double dip Werblow in the finals 3-2 and 3-2.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be back in action this weekend, with another $1500 / $500 added stop at Brick House Billiards in North Syracuse, NY. Joss Tour director Mike Zuglan says he is over 2/3 full as far as entries into the Turning Stone Classic XXXI on January 10 – 13. Interested players are urged to get their entries into Mike as soon as possible as this event will fill up.
Matt Tetreault, Brick House Billiards Owner Brian Holmes and Dwight Dixon
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour kicked off the second half of their 2017-2018 season on January 13th – 14th with a field of 30 players at Brick House Billiards in Syracuse, NY, where Dwight Dixon earned his first tour win.
Although Dixon went undefeated to win the event, he didn’t have it easy. His first four matches (Nick Coppola, Dave Sunday, Bucky Souvanthong and Bruce Carroll) were won by progressively smaller margins each match, starting with a 9-5 win over Coppola and ending with a 9-8 win over Carroll. Dixon had a little more breathing room in the hot-seat match, where he defeated Bruce Nagle 9-7.
Nagle had defeated Matt Tetreault 9-7 in the final eight on the winner’s side, but Tetreault rode the left side of the board through four match wins and then made it five with a hill-hill win over Nagle.
With Nagle’s winning streak through the left side of the board, and the narrow margins of Dixon’s wins, fans in attendance were expecting a close match in the finals. Dixon would have none of that though, and trounced Tetreault 9-3 in the first and only set of the finals.
Sunday’s second chance tournament was James Chemaly run through a field of 12 players undefeated for first place. Chemaly beat Willie Oney 3-0 for the hot-seat and then beat Oney again 3-2 in the first set of the finals.
The next stop on the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be February 17th – 18th at the NE 9-Ball Open XXX at Sharpshooters in Amsterdam, NY. That event will be another $1500 added main event with a $500 added second chance tournament on Sunday.
Tour director Mike Zuglan is already taking signup for the Turning Stone Classic XXX, to be held August 23rd – 26th at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, NY. Players are urged to get their entry fees to Zuglan as soon as possible, to avoid being shut-out.
Congratulations to stop # 4, "Al Conte Memorial" winners, Ron Casanzio ($1,000 main event), Willie Oney ($300 second chance event) & Pete Khuoc ($1,200 Joss Cue raffle winner)
Stop # 5 of the Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour's 21st season will be at the beautiful Snookers Billiards Sports Bar & Grill in Providence RI on November 11 & 12 for the very prestigious, $5,000 Added, 29th Ocean State 9-Ball Championship. Our most generous hosts Steve & Regina Goulding, owners of Snookers deserve a multitude of thanks for all they do for pool in the Northeast! In case you didn't already know, Snookers was TWICE voted "The Best Billiard Parlor In The USA". Snookers also is one of the best restaurants in the Providence area, always with an air of fun in the atmosphere. These people really know their business!
FYI, our last event at Snookers in June 2017 just happened to have the same two players in the finals as were in the just concluded US Open 9-Ball Championship final!! Jayson Shaw vs Eklent Kaci in case you forgot! The winner here at Snookers was Eklent Kaci, while Jayson Shaw prevailed in the Open!
As always, for the Ocean State 9-Ball Championships, beautiful trophies will be awarded to the top 3 finishers and the winner's name will be placed on a banner and hung forever at Snookers. Whether you come to play, or just watch, you will have the opportunity to win a gorgeous, custom, engraved, Joss Cue valued at $1,200, by participating in the Snookers cue raffle. Anyone can participate and you Do Not have to be present to win! The drawing will be just prior to the final match on Sunday. So come on down and play and win, watch some great pool action for free, have some great food and drink, and take a chance at winning a $1,200 Joss Cue. A great time will be had by all!!
This $5,000 Added event has an entry fee of $125 (plus any applicable tour fees) for All players and there is no second chance event scheduled. Please be advised that in the event of the usual large field, the one loss side may be reduced to a race to 7.
For those of you coming to play, please arrive on Saturday Nov. 11, BEFORE 11:30 AM, and in proper dress please. Yes, jeans and sneakers are permitted in our billiard parlor events. But please, NO T-SHIRTS, NO TANKS, NO SHORTS OR SWEATS. Complete tour info including our schedule, results, current point standings and other pertinent tour info can be found on our site www.joss9balltour.com
There will be a free live stream featuring Upstate Al Leon for those who cannot make it to Snookers. This can be found at www.snookersri.com
There are still some openings for our Turning Stone Classic XXIX (Jan 4-7, 2018). Seriously interested players should call Mike Zuglan immediately at 518-356-7163 or see me at Snookers. I advise you not to wait much longer or you will be shut out.
Once again I ask all of you to please frequent your local billiard parlors and utilize the services of our most generous sponsors who are the backbone of our sport. Thank You & I hope to see all of you at Snookers. Mike Zuglan
The Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour Is Proudly Sponsored By;
(l to r): Andrea Duvall (owner of Hippo’s), John McConnell, Ron Casanzio, & Matt Tetreault
Ron Casanzio has had several shots at the Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour’s Al Conte Memorial over the years. He’s cashed in seven of the nine, to date. He was runner-up to Dennis Hatch in the first one (2009) and Shaun Wilkie in the fifth (2013). On the weekend of November 4-5, he became the event’s seventh winner, following in the footsteps of (in order) Hatch, Shane Winters, Mike Davis, Jeremy Sossei (three-time winner; ’12, ’14 and ‘15), Wilkie and Nelson Oliveira. The $1,500-added, 9th Annual Al Conte Memorial, the fourth stop on the 2017-2018 Joss NE 9-Ball Tour, drew 33 entrants to Hippo’s House of Billiards in Yorkville, NY.
Casanzio was one of three competitors at this event, along with Bucky Souvanthong and Angelo Hilton, who cashed in the first Al Conte Memorial. He became the only one of the three to do so in this one. Match by match, until the finals, Casanzio’s opponents steadily closed the margin of victory against him. He got by Bruce Nagle in the opening round 9-1, then Aaron Greenwood 9-3, and Marko Clarke 9-4 to join Matt Tetreault in one of the winners’ side semifinals. John McConnell, in the meantime, who’d sent Frank Cartani (9-4), Jerry Crowe (9-3), and Dwight Dixon (9-4) to the loss side, squared off against Mike Donnelly in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Casanzio got into the hot seat match with a continuation of the ‘reduced margin of victory’ phenomenon, downing Tetreault 9-5. McConnell joined him with a 9-5 victory over Donnelly. Casanzio claimed the hot seat 9-7 over McConnell and waited on his return.
On the loss side, Tetreault picked up Joe Darigis, who’d been sent over by Donnelly in a winners’ side quarterfinal and then defeated Nick Brucato 9-4 and Dwight Dixon 9-6. Donnelly drew Jose Mendez, who was on a modest four-match, loss-side winning streak that was about to end and had included recent wins over Norm Vernon 9-3 and Marko Clarke 9-5.
Tetreault advanced to the quarterfinals with a 9-6 win over Darigis, and was joined by Mendez, who’d handed Donnelly his second straight loss 9-7. Tetreault eliminated Mendez in that quarterfinal 9-3, but had his hopes for a re-match against Casanzio eliminated when McConnell defeated him 9-5 in the semifinals.
In their second of two, Casanzio broke the ‘margin of victory’ chain. He defeated McConnell 9-5 to claim his first Al Conte Memorial title.
A $500-added Second Chance tournament saw Willie Oney finish in the top spot, downing Mark Creamer in the finals. Aaron Greenwood finished third and Bruce Carroll took the fourth spot. Pete Khudc took home a $1,200 Joss Cue in the event’s raffle.
The fifth stop on the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be the 29th Ocean State 9-Ball Championship. Scheduled for the weekend of November 11-12, the $5,000-added event will be hosted by Snooker’s Billiards, Bar and Grill in Providence, RI.
Jeremy Sossei, Julie Berlin (owner) and Martin Daigle
Jeremy Sossei recovered from a late Saturday loss, and avenged that loss on his way to winning stop #10 on the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour at Sharpshooters Billiards & Sports Pub in Amsterdam, NY on Feb 18th – 19th.
It was smooth sailing for Sossei early on Saturday, as he notched dominating wins over Willie Oney (9-1), Joe Hagen (9-1), and Danny Basavich (9-0). Bucky Souvanthong then derailed Sossei’s trek through the winner’s side with an equally dominating 9-3 win over Jeremy.
The late Saturday loss meant that Sossei would have a long day of pool on Sunday, if he hoped to add another Joss tour stop to his resume. Sossei resumed his winning ways on Sunday with wins over Mark Creamer, Steve Lillis, Nelson Oliveira and Jorge Teixeira.
Back on the right side of the board. Souvanthong had beaten Ron Casanzio, but then dropped the hot-seat match to Martin Daigle 9-6. That left Souvanthong facing Sossei in the semi-final match, where Sossei redeemed himself for the earlier loss and defeated Souvanthong 9-6.
As always, the Joss Tour final match is a true double elimination contest, and Sossei forced that second set with a 9-5 win over Daigle in the first set. The second set was Sossei at his best, as he crushed Daigle 9-0 for first place.
Sunday’s second chance tournament saw Bruce Nagle put on a show. Nagle’s 3-2 win over Josh Harding in the second round of the tournament was the only rack he lost over five matches. Nagle followed up the win over Harding with 3-0 wins over James Chemaly and then Norm Vernon for the hot-seat. After Vernon’s 3-0 loss to Jordan Turner on the one loss side, Nagle ended the day with another 3-0 win, this time over Turner for first place.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour is back in action this weekend at Snookers in Providence, RI for the N.E. Pool & Billiard Hall of Fame 9-Ball Open.
Jeremy Sossei, Room Owner Andrea Duvall and Nelson Oliveira
Nelson Oliveira defeated Jeremy Sossei two out of three matches to earn first place at the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour's Al Conte Memorial at Hippo's House of Billiards on November 5th – 6th.
Oliveira and Sossei advanced through the right side of the board to meet up for the hot-seat, which was won by Oliveira 9-7.
Sossei found Bucky Souvanthong waiting on the one loss side. After an early Saturday loss, Souvanthing had mowed through the one loss side with seven straight match wins. His weekend would finally come to an end, with Sossei scoring a 9-7 win and advancing to the final rematch with Oliveira.
Sossei pushed the final match to two sets with a 9-5 win in set one, but Oliveira took the second set 9-6 for first place.
The second chance tournament saw Hendrick Drost make the most of his hot-seat appearance. Drost took the hot-seat with a 3-1 win over Dwight Dixon, and knew that his final match opponent would have to win six games against him to keep him from the winner's circle. After eliminating Dixon 3-1, it was Willie Oney coming from the left side of the board. The final match once again proved the adage about how tough it is to win that final game as Oney won the first set 3-0 and led the second set 2-0 before Drost came back to win three straight games for first place.
This weekend, the Joss NE 9-Ball tour will be at Snookers iin Providence RI, for the 28th Annual Ocean State 9-Ball Championship, a $5000 added event.
Day one of the Turning Stone Classic XXVI is complete, and matches went mostly as expected.
Three time Turning Stone winner Jayson Shaw looked like he might have a challenge on his hands in his first round match with Korean Champion Kang Lee. Lee came out strong and led the match 2-1 early. Eight racks later, Shaw was putting his cue away after another lopsided match win.
Joss Tour regular Willie Oney made his bid for "comeback win of the day", as he trailed Jerome Rockwell 7-2 and 8-5 before coming back to win the match 9-8.
Kevin Guimond was well on his way to notching the tournament's first big upset as he led Rodney Morris through most of their match. Morris did hold a brief lead at 4-2, but Guimond controlled the majority of the match and took the hill at 8-7. Guimond would be unable to close out the match though, and Morris stayed undefeated with the 9-8 win.
The fans were treated to Canadian battle on the TV table as Erik Hjorliefson faced off against Martin Daigle. It was looking good for Hjorliefson, as he led early at 3-0. Daigle would then win nine of the next ten games for a 9-4 win.
The final round of play on Thursday night held multiple tight matches. Shaun Wilkie won a 9-6 battle with Jorge Rodriguez, and Tom D'Alfonso sent Brandon Shuff to the one loss side with the same 9-6 score.
The ladies were well represented on day one with wins scored by Jennifer Barretta, Dawn Fox and Karen Corr. Corr's win was no "gimme" though. She trailed Sean Morgan 5-1, but came back to score a hill-hill win to close out the night.
Stop eight on the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour went basically as expected with Jeremy Sossei (ranked #1 on tour) defeating Ron Casanzio (ranked #2 on tour) twice to complete an undefeated run and capture first place at Sharpshooters Billiards in Amsterdam, NY.
The latter stages of the event couldn't have been closer with all four of the matches between the final eight players on the winners side going hill-hill before a victor was determined. Sossei would defeat Willie Oney in that round of play, before scoring a 9-7 win over Casanzio for the hot-seat.
Casanzio wouldn't stay on the left side of the brackets for long though, as he cruised through his match with Danny Hewitt and won 9-4.
Sossei looked like he would run away with the first set of the finals as he led the match 8-2 before Casanzio made one more push. Down by six racks, Casanzio broke and ran four straight racks to get back within two games at 8-6, but his run would end when he broke dry in the 15th rack and Sossei ran out for the 9-6 victory.
Twelve players came back on Sunday to compete in the second chance tournament that saw Bruce Carroll hold off a late charge from Jorge Teixeira in the finals. Carroll defeated Phil Davis 3-0 for the hot-seat, and Davis then lost 3-2 to Teixeira. Teixeira defeated Carroll 3-1 in the first set of the double elimination finals, but Carroll would come back to win the second set by the same 3-1 scoreline.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be back in action on Feb 21st and 22nd at Trick Shot Billiards in Clifton Park, NY.
A week after Jeremy Sossei's undefeated run through the field at the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour stop at Salt City Billiards, he came out on top of the Al Conte Memorial at Hippo's House of Billiards in Utica, NY.
The closest anyone came to beating Sossei a week ago was Bucky Souvanthong's 9-5 loss. This time Souvanthong and Sossei faced off in the 4th round, with Sossei scoring a 9-6 win. No one would get any closer to Souvanthong on his way to the hot-seat, which he captured with a 9-5 win over last week's runner up Spencer Auigbelle.
The tournament ended with more rematches from last week as Souvanthong and Auigbelle faced off in the semi-final match to see who would play Sossei in the finals. Auigbelle had won this matchup 9-8 last week, but this week it was Souvanthong scoring the 9-2 win. In the end though, it didn't matter who the opponent was for Sossei as he defeated Souvanthong 9-8 in the first set of the finals.
The second chance event on Sunday went to Willie Oney, who defeated Dwight Dixon 3-0 for the hot-seat, and then fought off Kevin Ketz in two sets in the finals.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be at Snookers in Providence, RI for their next stop – The 26th Ocean State 9-Ball Championship – on November 15th and 16th.
Danny Hewitt, Jeremy Sossei, Frank and Jennifer Delconte
Jeremy Sossei went undefeated through a field of 45 players at Salt City Billiards in Syracuse, NY to win the April 5th/6th stop on the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour.
A fairly routine 9-5 win over Danny Hewitt for the hot-seat, was followed up by a battle for Sossei in the finals.
Hewitt quickly eliminated Gerry Williams 9-2 in the semi-finals, and he geared up to take on Sossei in the finals. Sossei came out of the game on fire and quickly held a 5-1 lead. Sossei extended the lead to 7-2 and that was when Hewitt caught a gear. Hewitt pocketed 9-ball after 9-ball and the two players were soon tied at 8-8. Unfortunately for Hewitt, his streak of wins would come to an end in the 17th rack as Sossei won the case game to earn first place 9-8.
Sunday's second chance tournament saw Phil Davis come back from the one loss side for his second straight second chance win. Willie Oney would beat Ben Werblow for the hot-seat, but Davis came from the left side of the board and beat both players to earn first place and $300 in prize money.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be back in action next weekend for the NE 9-Ball Open XXVII at Golden Cue Billiards in Albany, NY.
