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.

After a break of 454 days, the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour kicked things off (post Covid) at the same place where it left off, Snookers in Providence, Rhode Island. The occasion was the 32nd Ocean State 9-Ball Championship, and the players showed how ready they were to get back to action, as a field of 112 players came out to try to earn a banner hanging in the rafters of Snookers with their name on it.

Through the matches on Saturday and early Sunday, Francisco Salas set himself as the man to beat, with dominating wins in his matches. His Saturday matches consisted of wins over Chris Leal 9-4, Jerry Guitard 9-1 and Ray Lee 9-2. He then started his Sunday off with the same domination he showed on Saturday, with a 9-4 win over John Francisco and then a 9-2 win over Pat Fleming.

By comparison, Salas’s next opponent, Raphael Dabreo, didn’t have things as stress-free. Dabreo had wins over Max Watanabe, Jason Noble and Brian Chase on Saturday, followed by a 9-3 win over Joey Dupuis and then a 9-7 nail biter against Levy Lampaan. Their final four match was another one-sided win for Salas and he moved on to the hot-seat match with a 9-2 win.

The hot-seat match also went to Salas, with a more competitive 9-6 win over Jared Demalia.

After the loss to Salas, Dabreo won a tough one on the left side of the board over Mike Yednak 7-5, and then he appeared to get settled into his game. “I felt like I struggled quite a bit on Sunday dealing with my own emotions. The weight I placed on myself going into the tournament, wanting the win and my name placed on that legendary snooker banner, played a major part in that.” said Dabreo after the event.

After the win over Yednak, Dabreo rolled over Lanna 7-2 and then Demalia 7-3 to earn another shot at Salas in the double elimination finals. Beating Salas twice in the finals would be a tough goal to accomplish for Dabreo, but he did have recent experience in matches like that to rely on. Dabreo had recently played Shane Van Boening in the finals of the Dynaspheres Cup 10-Ball Championship back in May. “After coming back home placing second to SVB In Maryland, I felt I could have performed better. To win that would of been great, but I appreciated the lessons learned losing to him. To share the table with greatness such as him is addictive for me.” said Dabreo.

In the end, it was Dabreo who scored a 9-2 win over Salas in the first set of the finals, and then a 7-2 win in the second set, for the tournament win. It was Dabreo’s second career Joss NE 9-Ball Tour win and it will certainly lead to more confidence from Dabreo in the future. It will also help Dabreo as he continues to display the game he knows he is capable of. “Becoming aware of my potential and staying honest with myself helps me target areas I need improvement. “ said Dabreo.

Sunday’s second chance event saw 31 players come back to Snookers to compete for the $500 in added prize money. Chad Bazinet bounced back from a final eight loss to Francisco Cabral and double dipped Jim Prather in the finals 3-0 and 3-2 for first place.

The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be at Brick House Billiards in N. Syracuse, NY for their next event on June 26th – 27th.