Lee Vann Corteza, Raxx Owner Holden Chin and Mhet Vergara
Mhet Vergara went through a field of 42 players undefeated, including back to back wins over Filipino powerhouse Lee Vann Corteza, to notch his first career Joss NE 9-Ball Tour win at Raxx Pool Room & Grill in West Hempstead, NY on November 6th – 7th.
Vergara was on a roll on Saturday with wins over Nick Brucato 9-1, Dave Callaghan 9-2, Muhammad Ali 9-0 and Rick Motilal 9-1. Vergara was joined by Vann Corteza, Jonas Souto and Ryan Cullen. While Saturday play had its share of lopsided matches, things tightened up on Sunday. In Vergara’s 9-5 win over Cullen on Sunday, he lost more racks in one match than he lost all day on Saturday. Meanwhile, Vann Corteza defeated Souto 9-6 to set up a Vergara / Vann Corteza hot seat match. That hot seat match was even closer, with Vergara scoring a 9-7 win over Vann Corteza.
On the one loss side, Souto made quick work of Gregg McAndrews 7-1 and Frankie Hernandez made even quicker work of Cullen 7-0. The matchup between Souto and Hernandez went to hill-hill before Souto pocketed the case 9-ball. In the semi-final match though, Souto was on the wrong side of another hill-hill match, with Vann Corteza advancing to a rematch with Vergara in the finals.
With all of the close matches leading up to the finals, surprisingly it was a pretty lopsided final match with Vergara scoring a 9-3 win for his first career Joss Tour win.
Sunday’s second chance tournament saw Aaron Greenwood with an undefeated run through the field for the win. Greenwood’s run didn’t come without its challenges, as he scored three straight hill-hill wins over Mike Callaghan and then Ray Lee twice in the hot-seat and final matches.
