Mike Zuglan and his Joss NE 9-Ball Tour were at Comet Billiards in Parsippany, NJ where a field of 55 players were competing for the $6400 in total prize money. Being the only major event in the NE area, the field was full of top talent including recent World Summit of Pool winner Santos Sambajon, Mike Davis, Danny Basavich, George San Souci, #1 rated WPBA player Karen Corr and Julie Kelly.
Sambajon cruised to the hot-seat with a 9-4 win over Mike Zuglan. Zuglan went to the one-loss side where Danny Basavich was waiting. Basavich took control early and led by the score of 7-4 in the race to 9 match. Zuglan won the next three games to tie the match at 7-7 and it was tied again at 8-8 before Zuglan won the case game to earn the rematch with Sambajon in the finals.
Zuglan held his own with Sambajon early in the match, but Sambajon made his move with the score tied at 2-2 and ran out to a big lead. In the end, it was Sambajon with another 9-4 win over Zuglan. Zuglan commented that Sambajon was playing the best pool he had ever seen him play, and coming from Zuglan that is quite a compliment.
Sambajon pocketed $1600 for first, while Zuglan settled for $1100 in second place prize money. Basavich and George San Souci filled out the top four spots.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be at Action Billiards in Hamden, CT on November 13th-14th for their next event. The event at Drexeline Billiards that was originally scheduled for next weekend has been moved to November 27th-28th.
Complete Results:
1st Santos Sambajon $1600
2nd Mike Zuglan $1100
3rd Danny Basavich $800
4th George San Souci $600
5th/6th Mike Davis, Karen Corr $450
7th/8th Joey Korsiak, Joe Tucker $300
9th/12th Tom Walter, Christian Smith, Teddy Garrahan, Jack Wetch $200