The Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour started out the new 2008/2009 season this weekend (September 27th-28th) at T.J.'s Classic Billiards in Waterville, Maine. The twelfth season looks to be a great start for Robb Saez, as he went undefeated through the field of twenty-eight players in this $2000 added event. With a total prize fund of $4240 to spread to the players, Saez opted to take down the big cheese with a win over Marc Vidal 9-6 to get to the hot-seat match; while his opponent, Billy Lanna, bested Ivaylo Petrov 9-6 to match up with him.
In the hot-seat arena, the match went back and forth. Quite frankly, it was described as a match that could have gone either way, a very tight set. But in the end, Lanna was outgunned by Saez by a final score of 9-7, sending him west in the brackets.
On the one-loss side, Ivaylo Petrov and Marc Vidal met in the quarter-finals with a similar score – Vidal moved past Petrov 9-7 to have his chance at Lanna. Unfortunately for Lanna, Vidal was one determined guy and he ended Lanna's tournament life by a close 9-6 for another shot at Saez.
Saez was way too much for Vidal to handle on this day as the finals ended up being pretty much one-sided – Saez jumped out to a huge lead and never looked back winning the inaugural season event 9-3.
Thank you to TJ's owner, Steve Reynolds, and staff for hosting the season's first event!
The tour continues to be sponsored by a fantastic group of individuals and companies – visit its supporters at www.joss9balltour.com/sponsors.asp (links are available to each sponsor). In addition, this season the tour welcomes four new sponsors - Total Shot Trainer www.totalshottrainer.com; Zinola Custom Cues www.zinzola.com; Cue-Z www.cuezcuetipcover.blogspot.com; and OB-1 Cue Shaft www.obcues.com.
The second stop of the season will be held at Trick Shot Billiards, 1602 Rte. 9, Clifton Park, New York (near Albany) on October 4th-5th. To contact the venue directly, (518) 383-8771. Also, for those that are interested in attending the hottest venue around - the $25000 added Turning Stone Classic XII 9-Ball Open – it is scheduled for February 19th-22nd and entries are now being accepted. Contact Mike Zuglan directly at (518) 356-7163 for more details. The tour website has additional information concerning same at www.joss9ballltour.com
