With Dennis Hatch in Las Vegas getting ready for his challenge match with Darren Appleton, the players of the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour took comfort in knowing that a different player would be making their run to the winners circle this week at Snookers Cafe and Billiards in Providence, RI. A field of forty seven players including Mike Zuglan, Joe Tucker, Jason Michas, Ray McNamara, Tom McGonagle, Matt Tetreault, Tim D'Alfonso and Dave Grau all threw their hat in the ring looking for the lion's share of the $5760 in prize money.
The winners side came down to Tom McGonagle vs Matt Tetreault for the hot-seat. McGonagle had just sent Joe Tucker to the left side of the board by the score of 9-8 and Tetreault sent Damon Sobers left by the same 9-8 score. With the two hill-hill matches prior to the hot seat match, fans might have expected a close match between McGonagle and Tetreault. So, of course, Tetreault beat McGonagle 9-0 to take the hot-seat.
On the one loss side, Tucker came back with wins over Dave Grau and Tom D'Alfonso; and then defeated McGonagle 9-5 to earn the shot at Tetreault in the finals.
The final match was true double elimination, so Tucker would have to beat Tetreault twice to earn first place. Tucker won the first match 9-8, and then won the second by a slightly larger margin at 9-7.
Tucker earned $1460 for first place, and Tetreault settled for $1000 in prize money. After the tournament, both players offered their thanks to both Darren Appleton and The Action Report for putting together the challenge match with Dennis Hatch.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour's regular season is now complete, and they will not be in action again until August 20-23 for the Turning Stone Classic XIII at the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, NY. This $25000 added tournament is filling fast and players need to get their entry fees into Zuglan sooner than later if they still want to play in the event.
