Lukas Fracasso-Verner, Sharpshooters manager Kayla Riccio and Kevin Guimond
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.
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