Eklent Kaci pulled off a feat that not many players can stake claim to these days. At the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour stop at Snookers Billiards in Providence, RI on June 3rd - 4th, Kaci defeated Jayson Shaw not once, but twice.
Shaw and Kaci looked to be the cream of the crop, in the 65 player field, and they didn’t disappoint as they cruised through the winner’s side (with neither player losing more than 4 racks in a match) to meet up in the semi-finals on Sunday. That match went to Shaw 9-5.
Shaw then went on to take the hot-seat with a 9-3 win over Nelson Oliveira, but Kaci wasn’t done with Shaw yet on this day. On the left side of the board, Kaci eliminated Bruce Nagle 9-3, Ron Casanzio 9-6 and Oliveira 9-4 to earn a rematch with Shaw in the finals.
While most fans of the game know how rare it is to see Shaw lose a match in the finals, Kaci did the unthinkable and double dipped Shaw 9-7 in both sets of the finals.
“It was scary in the finals” Shaw said after the matches. “Anything he did in the match turned out perfect” he continued.
The 24 player second chance tournament on Sunday also saw a double dip in the finals, as Kerry McAuliffe bounced back from a 3-2 hot-seat loss to Brent Boemmels and scored back to back wins in the double elimination finals for first place.
The event at Snooker’s is the regular season finale for the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour, and their final stop of the season is the Turning Stone Classic XXVIII at the Turning Stone Casino on August 31st - September 3rd. The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will begin their 22nd season in September.
