Zion Zvi worked his way through a field of 31 entrants, on hand for the 17th stop on the Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour on the weekend of May 22-23, and emerged undefeated to chalk up his first win on the tour. The $1,500-added event was hosted by Raxx Pool Room & Grill, in West Hempstead, NY.
From among the winners' side final four, Zvi advanced past Kevin Guimond, with a 9-7 victory and faced Mhet Vergara in the hot seat match. Vergara had just sent “Ginky” Sansouci west 9-4. Zvi chalked up a commanding 9-2 win over Vergara to take possession of the hot seat, and waited for what turned out to be Guimond's return.
Guimond's three-match trip back to the finals began with a 9-6 win over Scott Tollefson, who'd defeated Stewart Warnock 9-6 and Chance Chin 9-3 to reach him. “Ginky” drew Brian Deska, who'd survived a hill-hill match versus Mike Wong and scored a more lopsided victory over George Rodriguez 9-2. Deska dropped “Ginky” into the tie for fifth place with a 9-4 win, as Guimond was busy defeating Tollefson 9-6.
The quarterfinal match was a double hill struggle, that ended with Deska in fourth place and Guimond facing Vergara in the semifinals. Guimond then got into two straight 9-5 matches. The first was a win over Vergara, that put him into the finals, while the second was a victory for Zvi, which secured his first Joss Northeast 9-Ball win.
A $500-added Second Chance Tournament, held for non-pro players who had been eliminated from the Open event on Saturday, drew eight entrant, competing for a $660 prize package. Mike Panzarella took home the first place prize with a 3-2 victory over Holden Chin in the finals. Scott Murphy finished third and Victor Nau finished fourth.
