The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour was back in action over the March 9th – 10th weekend at Utica Billiards on the Boulevard with a field of 48 players.

Saturday play narrowed the initial field of players down to four undefeated players in the form of Jason Reese, Geoff Montgomery, Ron Casanzio and Jeremy Sossei. Reese kicked off Sunday with a comfortable 9-4 win over Montgomery, while Sossei eked out a 9-8 win over Casanzio.

With his appearance in the hot-seat match against Sossei, Reese had already guaranteed his best career finish at a Joss Tour stop. It was his first career Joss Tour hot-seat match appearance, and it was against one of the most winningest players that the tour has seen. Sossei did what he has done so many times and dominated the match, scoring a 9-0 win over Reese.

Reese’s first match on Saturday had been a 9-7 win over another tour regular, Bucky Souvanthong. Reese had gone on to play four more matches after that first match and he might have forgotten about that first opponent. Souvanthong, had definitely not forgotten about that match though. Souvanthong won eight straight matches on the one loss side and then happily extended that run to nine matches with a 7-4 win over Reese to setup his place in the finals.

Sossei and Souvanthong have faced off in multiple matches on the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour, and their showdown in the finals was another close one, with Sossei pulling out the 9-8 win in one set for his first tour stop win since last May.

Sunday’s second chance tournament saw Aaron Greenwood start things off with four straight hill-hill wins, before a 3-0 win over Rick Bentley in the finals for the win.

The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be at Brickhouse Billiards in Syracuse, NY this weekend for their next stop.

As the famous saying goes, “If at first you don’t succeed, try try again”, and after back-to-back runner-up finishes on the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour, young gun Lukas Fracasso-Verner was one of sixty nine players at Joss Tour stop #13 at Snookers Sports Billiards Bar & Grill on March 2nd – 3rd.

Fracasso-Verner looked good on Saturday, emerging undefeated along with Thomas Haas, Francisco Cabral and German phenom Moritz Neuhausen. These four came back on Sunday morning and started the day with Neuhausen defeating Cabral 9-3 and Fracasso-Verner beating Hass 9-2. It was Neuhausen who would take the hot-seat with a 9-3 win over Fracasso-Verner.

On the one loss side, stop 12 winner Kevin Guimond was recovering nicely from his Saturday loss to Haas. Guimond won four straight matches on the one loss side to earn his place against Fracasso-Verner in the semi-final match. Guimond had defeated Fracasso-Verner in the finals of stop 12, and Fracasso-Verner returned the favor with a 7-3 win over Guimond to setup a rematch with Neuhausen in the double elimination finals.

The first set of the finals was another 9-3 match, with Fracasso-Verner getting the win this time, to force a second set. The second set went hill-hill before Neuhausen pocketed the final 9-ball for the win.

Sunday’s second chance tournament saw Steve Mack navigate the one loss side and double dip Russ Bellisle in the finals, for the tournament win.

The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour’s Mike Zuglan is known for a few things in his long career in the game (we think he is still trying to forget that match with Mike Sigel in 92), one of the things he is not particularly known for is his embracing of “change”. With that in mind, a person might be surprised to see Zuglan’s Joss NE 9-Ball tour holding an event on 7’ tables, but the February 17th – 18th event at Sharp Shooters Billiards in Amsterdam, NY saw sixty players ready to do battle on the fifteen Diamond 7’ Smart Tables that Sharp Shooters has to offer.

The players didn’t seen to have any problem with the temporary shift to the 7’ tables with Nate Marshall, Bob Madenjian, Lukas Fracasso-Verner and Kevin Guimond all advancing undefeated after Saturday’s matches. Sunday morning matches were close, with Madenjian beating Marshall 9-6 and Guimond sending Fracasso-Verner to the one loss side 9-7. Guimond then took the hot-seat with another close 9-6 win over Madenjian.

One of the highlights of Sunday’s matches on the one loss side included Zuglan pulling double duty, not only running the event but also competing for the first time this season. Zuglan dropped a second round match to Bucky Souvanthong on Saturday, but notched five straight wins on the left side of the board, before dropping another match to Souvanthing to finish in 7th place.

Souvanthing would soon join Zuglan in the stands, dropping his next match to Fracasso-Verner 7-2. Fracasso-Verner then went on to eliminate Jeremy Sossei, and Madenjian to earn a rematch with Guimond in the finals.

Neither Guimond or Fracasso-Verner were strangers to the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour winners circle, as they both won events back in 2022. Fracasso-Verner had come up one match short of earning another Joss Tour title earlier this month, when he lost to Shaun Wilkie in the finals of the Ma. State Nineball Championship at Amazin Billiards. This week’s event would end up the same way, with Guimond scoring a 9-6 win in the first set of the finals, for the tournament win.

Sundays second chance tournament saw Jody Amundson bounce back from a 3-2 loss to Chris Tiru in the hot-seat match and double dip Tiru in the finals 3-1 twice.

The Joss NE 9-Ball will be back in action on March 2nd – 3rd at Snookers in Providence, RI for a $2500 added main event and $500 added second chance tournament.

The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour got the second half of their 2023 – 2024 season underway with eighty-one players at Amazin Billiards in Malden Massachusetts for the 2024 Massachusetts State Nineball Championship.

The right side of the board narrowed down to just four players by the end of Saturday play. That left Sunday morning winners side matches with Dave Hall facing Jimmy Nou and Ranulf Tamba playing Shaun Wilkie. Wilkie made quick work of Tamba 9-3 and Dave Hall made even quicker work of Nou in a 9-0 match.

Those two matches were lopsided, but the hot-seat match was a true battle with Wilkie emerging the winner of a hill-hill match.

Looking back on the four matches that Wilkie won on Saturday, one of those matches was a 9-5 win over young gun Lukas Fracasso-Verner. If Wilkie thought that was all that he would have to deal with from Fracasso-Verner, he was wrong. Fracasso-Verner capped off a nine-match winning streak on the one-loss side, with a 7-6 will over Dave Hall to earn a rematch with Wilkie in the finals.

Fracasso-Verner extended his winning streak to ten straight matches, with a hill-hill 9-8 win over Wilkie in the first set of the finals, but was on the wrong end of another hill-hill match in the second set, as Wilkie won 7-6 to hold on for the tournament win.

Sunday’s second chance tournament saw twenty-three players competing for nearly $1000 in prize money. Dan Sharlow took the hot-seat with a 3-0 win over Jay Aliomer. On the one-loss side, Beau Powers handed Aliomer his second loss, 3-2, and the final match between Sharlow and Powers was set.

Powers won the first set of the finals 3-0, but Sharlow came back to win the second set 3-2 for the win.

The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour is off this weekend but will be back in action on February 17th – 18th with another $1500 added events at Sharpshooters Billiards & Sports Pub in Amsterdam, NY.

It’s been a good year for Germany’s Young Gun Moritz Neuhausen. Neuhausen teamed up with Joshua Filler for a second place finish at the World Cup of Pool back in June and then teamed up with both Pia and Joshua to win November’s World Teams Championship. A second place finish to Lee Vann Corteza and then a win in Connecticut were other highlights of the year. After an undefeated run last weekend at Snookers in Providence RI, Neuhausen can now add the 35th Ocean State 9-Ball Championship to his list of 2023 accomplishments.

Neuhausen hadn’t even planned on playing the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour’s Ocean State event, but was staying with friends in New York and they showed an interest in playing, so off they went. Neuhausen went through Saturday play with wins over Bill Longmore, Evan Moreau and winner of the Joss Stop on the weekend before in New York, Christoph Neumayer.

After a 7-4 win over “Giant Killer” Jeremy Sossei on Sunday morning, Neuhausen scored a comfortable 7-2 win over Jared Demalia and then a 7-0 win over Alex Bausch for the hot-seat. Bausch eliminated Sossei in the semi-final match 7-5, but wouldn’t fare much better in his rematch against Neuhausen as Neuhausen won the first set of the finals 7-3 for the tournament win.

Sunday’s second chance event came down to Phil Davis and Steve Mack for the hot-seat, with Davis winning 3-1. Mack then lost his one loss side match to Mehdi Bahloul to set up Davis and Bahloul in the finals. Bahloul won the first set of the finals 3-1, but Davis came back to win the second set 3-0 for the tournament win.

The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour now takes it’s mid-season break until the Turning Stone Classic XXXVIII at the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, NY on January 4th-7th.

Alex Bausch bounced back from a third place finish at the last Joss NE 9-Ball Tour stop and powered through a field of 53 players at Golden Cue Billiards in Albany, New York to earn his second career Joss Tour Title over the September 30th – October 1st weekend.

Bausch was looking pretty comfortable in early matches, with dominating wins over Brad Guthrie and Ron Casanzio, before dropping a hill-hill match to Canadian Vincent Beaurivage in the final round on Saturday.

Bausch was unstoppable on the left side of the board on Sunday, as he cruised through matches against Nick Coppola, Jordan Turner and Joe Darigis by a combined scores of 21-5. Next up for Bausch was a rematch with Beaurivage that went just as quickly as the other matches on Saturday, as Bausch earned his revenge with a 7-2 scoreline and then defeated Bucky Souvanthong 7-2 in the semi-final match.

The win over Souvanthong put Bausch in the finals against Canadian, Dan Hewitt. Bausch would have to win twice, and that was just what he did with a 9-6 win in the first set and a 7-4 win in the second.

Sunday’s second chance tournament saw Mike Salerno go undefeated with a 3-1 win over John Dennis for the hot-seat and a 3-0 win over Dennis in the first set of the finals.

Dave Hall, known as “Eagle” in his home state of Maine, was inducted into the New England Pool & Billiards Hall of Fame this year. The announcement of his induction referred to the vast number of titles he has won in the Maine area. He added to that list of titles again over the September 9th – 10th weekend with an undefeated run through the Maine Event XV, the first stop on the 2023-2024 Joss NE 9-Ball Tour.

Hall cruised through Saturday with wins over Wyatt Dutton, Cody Francis and Jeff Mosimann. Wins over Cleiton Rocha and Beau Powers on Sunday put Hall in the hot-seat.

Rocha won two on the left side of the board (Dillon Nickerson and Tom Cayer), but came up short in the semi-final match against Powers.

Hall’s win at this tournament last year, his first career Joss Tour title, came from the one loss side. This year he did himself one better by beating Powers 9-4 in the first, and only, set of the finals.

Sunday’s second chance tournament saw Kyle Carpenter dominate the field on his way to the hot-seat. Carpenter defeated Mike Berube, Wyatt Dutton, Jeff Neubauer and Robert Lee by a combined score of 12-3. Mike Renshaw was the story on the one loss side as he bounced back from a loss in his first match of the day, to win five straight matches to earn his place in the finals against Carpenter. Carpenter did away with any idea of Renshaw continuing his winning streak, as he beat Renshaw 3-0 in the only set of the finals.

The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour is back in action this weekend at Run Em Racks Billiards in Johnston, RI for another $1500 added main event and $500 added second chance tournament.