Mike Zuglan made it "2 for 2" with a come from behind victory at the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour Stop this weekend at Comet Billiards in Parsippany, NJ.
Zuglan escaped day one of the event unbeated, but ran into a buzzsaw in the quarterfinal match in the form of Joe Dipietro. Dipietro had just sent Jerry Slivka to the one loss side by the score of 9-4 and didn't stop there. Dipietro beat Zuglan 9-5 in a match that Zuglan described as "not even that close". "He just drilled me" said Zuglan.
Meanwhile, on the one loss side, Slivka was being shown the way to the bleachers by Tony Robles and Frankie Hernandez was eliminating Rich Kravetz. This set up a match between Robles and Hernandez, which Hernandez won 9-5. In the semi-final match, Hernandez led Zuglan 6-5, but let Zuglan back to the table where he ran out the set for a 9-6 win.
The rematch between Zuglan and Dipietro looked like another cakewalk for Dipietro as he cruised to a 6-2 lead. Zuglan clawed back to within one game at 6-5, but Dipietro won 2 of the next three games to get to the hill at 8-6. That was as close as Dipietro would get as Zuglan won the next three games for the 9-8 win and forced a second set.
The second set was a carbon copy of the first, with Dipietro again leading 6-2 and Zuglan again coming back to get within one rack at 6-5 down. Dipietro again won two out of three racks to get to the hill at 8-6, but couldn't get out in the next rack and Zuglan got back to 8-7 down. The 16th rack was Zuglan's turn to miss a relatively easy shot and he let Dipietro to the table with a table waiting to be ran, but Dipietro was unable to finish the rack off and Zuglan tied the match at 8-8. To Dipietro's dismay, the 9-ball found a hole on Zuglan's break and the match was over with a 9-8 Zuglan win.
Zuglan collected $1500 for first, while Dipietro settled for a disappointing $1040 for second. Hernandez and Robles filled out the top four spots.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be at Snooker's Café & Billiards in Providence, RI on January 29th - 30th for the $5000 added 16th Ocean State 9-Ball Championship. The Turning Stone Casino Classic scheduled for Febuary 19th and 20th has once again filled up with 96 players. The last chance to get into the event will be a qualifier scheduled at Hippos House of Billiards in Yorktown NY. More information can be obtained by calling Hippos at 315-768-0218. The poker tourney scheduled to take place in conjunction with the Turning Stone event still has spots open and interested players should call 800-386-5366 for info.
Complete Payouts:
1st Mike Zuglan $1500
2nd Joe Dipietro $1040
3rd Frankie Hernandez $800
4th Tony Robles $600
5th/6th Jerry Slivka, Rich Kravetz $400
7th/8th Joe Tucker, Shaun Wilkie $250
9th/12th Greg Antonakos, Keith McCready, Lester Smulowitz, Jonathan Smith $150
