Evgeny Stalev plowed through a field of 59 players to win the Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour stop at Diamond Billiards in Lancaster, PA.
Stalev almost didn't make it into the hot-seat. He was tied at 8-8 with Brandon Sluzalis from Reading PA with Sluzalis running out the rack. Sluzalis shocked the room when he missed an absolute hanger on the 8-ball to give the game, set and hot-seat to Stalev. Sluzalis then fell to Mike Miller from Allentown, PA on the one-loss side to set up the final match between Miller and Stalev.
Miller was having a great tournament, including two wins over Keith McCready. Stalev however, already had one win over Miller earlier on Sunday and he made quick work of Miller in the finals as he cruised to a 9-2 victory for first place.
Stalev pocketed $1700 for first, Miller settled for $1200 in second place prize money. Sluzalis and Keith McCready filled out the top four positions.
The next stop on the Joss Tour will be at Classic Billiards in Rochester NY on March 29th - 30th. This event will be a $5000 added event with confirmation of last year's winner Earl Strickland and Keith McCready appearing. We will have complete coverage of that event including pictures and online brackets.
Complete Payouts:
1st Evgeny Stalev $1700
2nd Mike Miller $1200
3rd Brandon Sluzalis $820
4th Keith McCready $600
5th/6th Dave Daya, Santos Sambajon $425
7th/8th Jarrod Clowery, Frankie Hernandez
9th/12th Bob Maidhof, Don Polo, Ryan McCreesh, Mike Zuglan
13th/16th Mike Davis, Jim Louis, Tony Long, Ian Costello
Photo courtesy of Diana Hoppe - Pool Pics by Hoppe
