The Joss North East 9-Ball Tour started the second half of the season at at Comet Billiards in Parsippany, NJ this weekend with a field of 50 players. A number of these players were not Joss Tour regulars but were using the tournament as a tune-up for the upcoming Mid Atlantic 9-Ball Championship.
The first half of the season quickly became the Ronnie Alcano show as he won five stops and dominated the points list. The big question in New Jersey this weekend was whether anyone could stop Alcano.
Joey Korsiak, coming off a 10th place finish last weekend at the Derby City Classic proved he was up to the task as he send Alcano to the left side of the board on Sunday. Korsiak was not able to get to the hot seat though, as he fell to Finnish player Marko Lohtander in the winners side finals.
Korsiak took his trip to the one-loss side, only to find Alcano waiting for him there. Korsiak fought hard but fell 9-8 to Alcano.
This set up the true double elimination final match between Alcano and Lohtander for first place. In another hard fought match, Alcano scored a 9-8 victory over Lohtander to set another race to 9. This final set was much different than the last. Lohtander won the first game and then snapped the nine on the break twice to grab the lead 3-0. Lohtander never looked back as he cruised to the 9-2 victory for the win.
Lohtander pocketed $1600 for the win while Alcano settled for $1100. Korsiak and Allen Hopkins filled out the top four positions. The Joss Tour will be at Snooker's Café & Billiards in Providence, RI on February 1st - 2nd for the 14th Annual Ocean State 9-Ball Championship.
Payouts:
1st Marko Lohtander $1600
2nd Ronnie Alcano $1100
3rd Joey Korsiak $800
4th Allen Hopkins $600
5th/6th Mike Zuglan, Dan Barouty $400
7th/8th Nick Mannino, Robb Saez $250
9th/12th Mark Dunay, Jamie Garrett, Scott Casagrande, Jason Michas $150
