Fedor Gorst avenged his only loss of the event, with a nail biting 13-10 win over Mika Immonen in the finals of the Turning Stone Classic XXXVII at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, NY on Sunday September 3rd.

Immonen was the man to beat all weekend, after marquee wins over defending champion Jayson Shaw, Thorsten Hohmann and then Gorst in the hot-seat match.

After Hohmann defeated Jeremy Sossei on the one loss side, he ran into Gorst in the semi-final match. It probably wouldn’t have mattered who it was that Gorst was facing, as he dominated this match, running out to a 6-0 lead before Hohmann could get on the scoreboard. Hohmann managed to win two games, before Gorst regained control and won the match 9-2.

The rematch with Immonen in the finals, an extended race to thirteen, was a back and forth battle between these two champions. The players exchanged one rack leads early, until Immonen was able to take advantage of two dry breaks by Gorst, and build a two rack lead at 7-5. A couple uncharacteristic errors by Immonen let Gorst back into the match, and he tied things back up at 9-9.

Gorst picked the perfect time to regain his break, with two table runs as he took the hill at 12-9. Gorst gave Immonen one last chance, missing a two ball that would have led to an open table in rack twenty-two, but Immonen was only able to put together two racks before missing a one ball that allowed Gorst control of the table, that he didn’t relinquish, making a rail-first one ball and running out the rack for the 13-11 win.

The title is the first Turning Stone Classic title for Gorst, in just his third appearance at the event. First place was worth $10,000 for Gorst, with Immonen taking home $6,500 for second place.

Main Event Results
1st $10,000 Fedor Gorst (Rus)
2nd $6,500 Mika Immonen
3rd $4,000 Thorsten Hohmann
4th $2,700 Jeremy Sossei
5/6th $2,000 each - Jonas Souto (Sp) & Lee Van Corteza (Phi)
7/8th $1,600 each - Hunter Lombardo & Jayson Shaw
9/12th $1,200 each - Erik Hjorleifson (Can), Oscar Dominguez, Alberto Delgado (Sp) & Nick Charette (Can)
13/16th $950 each - Dan Hewitt (Can), Donny Mills, Billy Ussery, & Jeremy Seaman
17/24th $599 each - Lukas Fracasso-Verner, Alex Bausch, Waleed Hashem (Can), Tom Zippler, Steve Mack, Jimmy Rivera, Christoph Neumayer & Kevin Clark
25/32nd $400 each - Vincent Beaurivage (Can), Josh Thiele, Robert Czupryniak (Pol), Jonathan Smith, Mike Yednak, Mike Salerno, Bucky Souvanthong & Greg Antonakos
33/48th - Willie Oney, Henry Cha, Yesid Garibello, Cleiton Rocha, Nick Coppola, Matt Tetreault, Remy Lefebvre (Can), Matt Krah, Ranulf Tamba, Ron Casanzio, Rick Miller, Dave Fernandez, Mike Donnelly, Jim Prather, Kevin West & Frank Hernandez

49/64th - Jim Kearney, Bryzen Manipula (Can), Caroline Pao, Chris Pyle, Hendrik Drost, Roger Miller, Brian Vu, Brad Guthrie (Can), Che Lemmon (Can), Holden Chin, Ray McNamara, Mike Toohig, Joe Sinicropi, Marco Kam, Dominic Byrne (Can) & Frank Wolak

65/96th - Chris Crawford, Tyler Arnold, Ray Lee, Eric Cloutier (Can), Mauri Cotter, Dave Copperwheat, William Bombard, Pascal Dufresne (Can), Dan Sharlow, Gene Hunt, Jimmy Nou, Earl Herring, Barry Hetherington (Can), Veronique Menard (Can), Glen Van Court & Dale Kimmett (Can), Ed Culhane, John Francisco, Dave Shlemperis, Grayson Vaughan, Garrett Vaughan, Cory Payne, Jim McManis, Suzzie Wong, Rick Bentley, Bob Cunningham, Fred Gokey, Steve Sutton, Nick Antonakos, John Moody, Randy Labonte & Jacques Bouchaed (Can)

97/128th - Naoyuki Oi (Jpn) (F), Rachel Lang, Chris Pringle, Jamy Nadeau, Steven W Smith, Larry Phlegar, Jeremiah Pucci, Carlin Sanderson (Can) (F), Jerome Rockwell, Sean Santoro, Tony Ignomirello, Julie Madlener, Jordan Turner, Brian Namulik, Thomas Aguis, Dave Callaghan, Don Polo, Nick Torraca, Shawn Jackson, Martin Longmire, Greg Hogue (F), Patrick Bergeron (Can), Brandon Fletcher, Lida Mullendore, Andrea Duvall, Dave Powis, Dave Mills, Ryan Smith, Greg Bombard, Brian Tierney, Tony Antone& Pat Fleming.

Second Chance Results
1st $500 Mike Salerno
2nd $300 Jordan Turner
3/4th $200 each - Bryzen Manipula & Don Polo
5/8th $100 each - Tyler Arnold, Steve Mack, Jerome Rockwell & Rachel Lang

$1,900 Joss Cue raffle winner, Johanne Guyer
$1,900 Joss Cue raffle winner, Gene Black

Turning Stone XXXVII Final Player List

Mike Zhu got off to a slow start at the Massachusetts State 9-Ball Champion, held as part of the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour at Amazin Billiards in Boston on May 20th – 21st, but once he got things going, he was impossible to beat.

Zhu got his event started with a one-sided 9-2 win over Luca Bares, but then things took a poor turn for him. After a hill-hill loss to Jay Aliomer, Zhu found himself on the one loss side and tied hill-hill with Dev Bhattacharya. Zhu got himself out of that jam, and won the match hill-hill, before taking off on an undefeated run through the left side of the board.

Zhu won three matches on Saturday with wins over John Morlock, Rich Howard and Craig Boaman. He then kicked off his Sunday with back to back 7-5 wins over Dan Sharlow and Francisco Cabral, before a 7-0 drubbing of Alex Gurevich.

Back on the right side of the board, Chad Bazinet was beating Steve Sutton for the hot-seat 9-4.

Zhu went on to defeat Cleiton Rocha 7-4 and then Sutton 7-5 to earn his place in the finals against Bazinet.

After his nine match winning streak on the one loss side, two more matches were no big deal for Zhu, as he defeated Bazinet 9-8 and 7-4 for the win and his first Joss NE 9-Ball Tour title.

Beau Power’s path to the win in Sunday’s second chance tournament was a much shorter one, as he ran through four matches undefeated to score the win over Bill Gallager in the finals 3-2.

The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will finish off their regular season on June 3rd – 4th at Snookers in Providence, RI.

Nick Charette made it three in a row, with another win on the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour at Utica Billiards on the Boulevard on April 29th – 30th, and it looked an awful lot like the first win in this series of success.

A month and a half ago, on March 18th – 19th, Charette won the first of these three straight tour stops at Brick House Billiards in Syracuse, NY. He won that event with an undefeated run to the hot-seat, like he did this time. The Brick House hotseat was at the expense of Ron Casanzio, while this hot-seat was earned with a win over fellow Canadian Martin Daigle. Charette was leading the match at 5-2 when Daigle decided he had seen enough and unscrewed his cue.

Daigle brought his frustration under control pretty quickly and defeated Casanzio in the semi-finals. Casanzio had lost his second match of the weekend to Qays Kolee, before winning eight straight matches on the left side of the board. Casanzio’s run was ended by Daigle by a 7-4 scoreline.

In the finals of the aforementioned event at Brick House Billiards, Charette had faced off against Daigle, and he found himself facing off with him again in the finals on this weekend. Just like the finals before, Daigle scored a convincing win in the first set of the finals. This weekend, it was by a 9-3 scoreline. That set up a second set and just like at Brick House Billiards, the second set of the finals went to hill-hill before a winner was crowned. That winner, just like at Brick House Billiards, was Charette with the hill-hill win in the second set.

Sunday’s second chance tournament was a miniature version of the main event, with Joe Whiteley taking the hot-seat with a 3-2 win over Jamie Gauthier, and then dropping the first set of the finals, in a lopsided 3-0 match against Jordan Turner. Just as Charette did in the second set of the main event, Whiteley went hill-hill with Turner in the second set of the finals, before pocketing the case 9-ball for the win.

The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour was back in action on the weekend of May 6th – 7th at Raxx in West Hempstead, NY.

As the old adage goes, the first time doing something is the biggest challenge, and it’s supposed to be easier after you have proven that you can do it. That is apparently the case for Nick Charette as he won his first career Joss NE 9-Ball Tour stop a month ago in Amsterdam, NY and now he has added his second title on March 18 – 19 at Brick House Billiards in Syracuse, NY.

Charette ran through Saturday undefeated, with wins over Andrea Duvall, Demian Provost and Tom Cayer. Charette kicked off his Sunday with a 9-6 win over Nate Marshall to get to the hot-seat match against Ron Casanzio. Charette’s aforementioned win back in February was earned by defeating Casanzio in the finals. Just like winning events, apparently Charette just needed to do it once and he was set, as he defeated Casanzio for the hot-seat this time 9-7.

Casanzio would not get another shot at Charette on this weekend, as he then dropped the semi-final match to Martin Daigle. The win over Casanzio was Daigle’s fifth straight win on the left side of the board, and he extended that streak to six matches with a 9-3 win over Charette in the first set of the double elimination finals. The deciding second set of the finals came down to hill-hill, with both players missing what could have been the case 9-ball, before Charette finally pocketed the elusive ball for his second career Joss Tour title.

Sunday’s second chance tournament saw Dan Sharlow drop the hot-seat match to Aaron Greenwood, before coming back to double dip Greenwood in the finals 3-0 and 3-1 for the tournament win.

The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour is back in action this weekend with another $1500/$500 added event at Yale Billiards in Wallingford, CT.

When Pat Fleming first announced that he wanted to step away from the “day to day” workings of Accu-Stats Video Productions, one of the reasons that he cited was the desire to spend time working more on his pool game. Apparently that work is paying off, as Fleming cruised through day one of last weekends New England Pool & Billiard Fall of Fame 9-Ball Open at Snookers in Providence, Rhode Island on March 4th – 5th undefeated.

Fleming made his way through day one of the field of 109 players with convincing wins over Dave Fontaine, Luca Bares, Steve Tavernier and Jim Prather. Sunday matches were looking like a repeat of the day one performance, as Fleming defeated Kevin Bauccio and Pete Genovese to get to the hot-seat match.

The hot-seat match turned out to be a clash of two different types of “experience”. Fleming used to run 100 balls every day in practice, but that practice was many years ago. Sossei has “current experience” on the Joss Tour, with well over 30 tour stop wins under his belt. Sossei came out on top of the hot-seat match with a 7-2 win to send Fleming to the one loss side.

On the left side of the board, Fleming ran into another tour regular, in the form of tour points leader Ron Casanzio. Casanzio has even more Joss Tour titles than Sossei, and just keeps winning. Fleming came through in the semi-final match though, and eliminated Casanzio in 3rd place 7-6.

The rematch between Sossei and Fleming in the finals looked to be just about complete with Sossei holding a 6-4 lead. Fleming wasn’t done though, as he came back to win three straight games, to win the first set 7-6. Sossei took a break and gave himself a pep talk. “ I took a bathroom break after the first set and I was thinking to myself if I play solid I will win” Sossei remembered. Sossei indeed did play solid and he did win, by the score of 7-4 in the second set.

Looking back after the event, Sossei had nothing but compliments for Fleming’s play all weekend. ““Pat was playing very solid. I don’t really remember him missing many balls on that tight table” said Sossei. “I hope when I’m his age, I’m playing half as good as he is”.

In Sunday’s second chance event, Jordan Emerson went undefeated through a field of 21 players to win his first career second chance title. Emerson defeated Mike Salerno for the hot-seat 3-1 and then defeated Brian Tierney 3-2, in the first set of the finals.

Lukas Fracasso-Verner’s victory at the 34th Annual Ocean State 9-Ball Championships, held under the auspices of the Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour at Snooker’s in Providence, RI this past weekend (Nov. 12-13), put him over the top, making 2022 his best earnings year since his recorded earnings began seven years ago. Though he didn’t have to face the event’s defending champion and winner of the previous stop (#8) on the Joss Tour, Bucky Souvanthong, he did have to contend with Spain’s Jonas Souto, who was defeated by Souvanthong in a winners’ side quarterfinal and came back to challenge Fracasso-Verner in the finals. Souto was looking for his first reported (to us) win, anywhere, even though entering the tournament, he’d already earned (primarily in Europe) over three times the amount that Fracasso-Verner has earned in 2022. The $5,000-added event ($500 to a Second Chance Tournament) drew a full field of 128 entrants to Snooker’s.

Fracasso-Verner’s seven-match trip to the winners’ circle got him by Ashley Benoit, Derek Cunningham, Ray McNamara (double hill), Barry Hetherington and Mhet Vergara, before coming up against Bob Forchilli in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Jared Demalia, in the meantime, defeated Mike Zhu, Mike Crema, Chad Bazinet, Moritz Neuhausen and Matt Jarrell to arrive at his winners’ side semifinal versus defending champ, Souvanthong, who had just sent the eventual runner-up, Souto, to the loss side 7-4.

Fracasso-Verner gave up just one rack to Forchilli in advancing to the hot seat match. Demalia gave up four to Souvanthong and joined him. In the first of two straight double hill matches that he faced to claim the title, Fracasso-Verner first claimed the hot seat over Demalia.

On the loss side, Souvanthong ran into Germany’s Neuhausen, who, earlier in the month, had finished 9th in both the American 14:1 Straight Pool Championships and the following week’s International Open, before packing his bags and heading north to New England. Neuhausen had followed his loss to Demalia with victories over four opponents by an aggregate score of 20-4; Beau Powers (5-2), Frank Hernandez (1), Mhet Vergara (1) and Suad Kantarevic (1).

Jonas Souto had followed his loss to Souvanthong with victories over Jaydev Zaveri (1) and Tom Zippler (2) to pick up Forchilli. He downed Forchilli 5-1 to draw Neuhausen, who’d battled Souvanthong to double hill before spoiling the potential Souto/Souvanthong rematch. .

There was a bit of an exclamation point to the two matches that eventually put Souto into the finals against Fracasso-Verner. He arrived at the final match having not given up a single rack to either of his previous two opponents, shutting out Neuhausen in the quarterfinals and Jared Demalia in the semifinals.

He battled to double hill in the finals but Fracasso-Verner dropped the last 9-ball and claimed the event title, his second of the Joss NE Tour’s 2022 season.

Tour director Mike Zuglan thanked Regina and Steve Goulding, along with their Snooker’s staff for their hospitality, ongoing support of the tour and the live stream that was provided for this event. He also noted the continuing support of title sponsor Joss Cues, Turning Stone Resort Casino, Simonis Cloth, Poolonthenet.com, AZBilliards, Aramith, Billiards Press, and World Class Cue Care.

The 34th Annual Ocean State 9-Ball Championships were the last 2022 event of the ‘22/’23 season. The next stop on the tour, scheduled for the weekend of January 5-8, 2023 will be Turning Stone Classic XXXVI, as always, hosted by the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, NY. The field for this event is full, but Mike Zuglan is taking names on the waiting list, for players interested in competing in this Matchroom Pool Nineball Ranking event. Zuglan can be reached at 518-356-7163.

Mika Immonen won an all-star Joss NE 9-Ball Tour stop over the October 1st/2nd weekend at Raxx Pool Room & Grill in West Hempstead, NY.

With the US Open and International 9-Ball events coming up later in the month, some of the best players in the world are making their way to the east coast, and this event saw it’s fair share of them. Immonen was joined by World Champion Carlo Biado, recent Michigan Open runner-up Robbie Capito and Predator Canada Open Champion Chia Hua Chen (Amber) just to name a few.

Capito won his first match, a 9-6 decision over room owner Holden Chen, but then dropped a hill-hill match against Nick Torraca. Torraca would then lose his next one to tour regular Mhet Vergara 9-2. The win over Torraca moved Vergara into Sunday’s matches undefeated, where he joined Immonen, Biado and Chen.

Immonen had scored four comfortable wins on Saturday, with the most games he allowed to any one opponent being the five racks that South Africa’s Kyle Akaloo won in the last match of the day. Sunday proved to be a bit more challenging for Immonen as Vergara took him to hill-hill on Sunday morning before Immonen could pocket the case 9-ball. In the other winner’s side match on Sunday morning, Biado scored a one-sided 9-4 win over Chen. The clash between Immonen and Biado for the hot-seat was another close one, with Immonen prevailing 9-7.

On the one loss side, Chen defeated reigning Under 23 World Champion Moritz Neuhausen from Germany, 7-3 and then defeated another tour regular, Alex Osipov, 7-5. Her next match, against Biado in the semi-final, didn’t go any better than their first meeting, with Biado winning 7-3.

Fans in attendance might have been expecting another epic battle between Immonen and Biado in the finals, but Immonen had other ideas. He took complete control of the match early and ran away to a 9-3 win in one set.

Sunday’s second chance tournament saw Holden Chin with an undefeated run to first place. Chin had wins over Mikhail Kim, Pat Byrne, John Francisco, America’s #1 WPBA player Caroline Pao and Mike Renshaw by a combined scoreline of 15-3.

The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be back in action this weekend at Sharp Shooters Billiards & Sports Pub in Amsterdam, NY for another $1500/$500 added main event and second chance tournament.

The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour kicked off their 2022/2023 season with The Maine Event XIV at TJ’s Classic Billiards in Waterville, Maine on September 17th – 18th, and crowned a first time tour stop winner in local favorite Dave Hall.

Hall, from nearby Portland Maine, is one of the top players in the area and always does well when the Joss Tour comes to town. With all of that success though, he still had yet to win a tour stop. Hall kicked the weekend off with a hill-hill win over Doug Brown, and then got comfortable with wins over Mike Perry (9-1), Cody Porter (9-4) and Ray McNamara (9-5) to finish undefeated for the day.

Sunday kicked off with Hall taking on Alex Osipov for the hot-seat. In another hill-hill thriller, Osipov sent Hall to the left side of the board 9-8.

Ray McNamara was waiting for Hall on the one the loss side but was still unable to win more than five racks in their rematch, and lost the semi-final match to Hall 7-5. That set up Hall and Osipov for a rematch in the finals.

Being a true double elimination tournament, Hall would have to beat Osipov twice if he wanted to win his first Joss Tour title, and he did just that. Hall won the first set 9-7 and then the second set 7-5 for the tournament win.

Sunday’s second chance event saw Jeff Mosimann hold off an attempt by Doug Brown to duplicate Hall’s double dip. Mosimann took the hot-seat with a 3-0 win over John Francis. Brown won the first set of the final match 3-1, but dropped the second set 3-2 for Mosimann’s victory.

The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be back in action this weekend with stop 2 of the 2022/2023 season at Yale Billiards in Wallingford, Ct.