2023 ARCHIVES
2023 EVENT 1
March 4
Shooters Family Billiards
Wayne NJ
- 30 player field -
1st $650 Briana Miller
2nd $500 Kia Burwell
3rd $275 Charlene Capers
4th $175 Giovanna Napolitano
5th $ 90 Christine Pross
$ 90 Linda Shea
7th $ 65 Cheryl Sporleder
$ 65 Roseann Daw
L-R: Giovanna Napolitano, Briana Miller, Kia Burwell, Charlene Capers
NEW TD, BRIANA MILLER, COMES FROM THE LOSS SIDE TO WIN JPNEWT SEASON OPENER
~ Skip Maloney, AZBilliards, March 9, 2023
The former J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour director and the current tour director met in the 2023 season opener of the tour this past weekend (Saturday, March 4th, spilling deep into the wee hours of Sunday, March 5). The two of them – Linda Shea (former) and Briana Miller (current) – came within a game of double hill in a winners’ side quarterfinal, but when the smoke cleared, it was Shea advancing and Miller heading off to the loss side. Shea followed her over immediately afterwards, following a winners’ side semifinal loss to Kia Burwell, last year’s tour rankings champion. Miller and Shea almost had a rematch in the event’s quarterfinals, but Shea got eliminated in the matches for 5th/6th and Miller went on to challenge Burwell in the finals, eventually claiming the event title. The $500-added event drew 30 entrants to Shooter’s Family Billiards in Wayne, NJ.
Burwell’s path to the hot seat went through Lynn Richard, Jenn Sylvester and Cheryl Sporleder to arrive at the winners’ side semifinal against Shea. Charlene Capers, in the meantime, got by Lenore Donovan-Chen, survived a double hill match against Ada Lio and defeated Char Dzambo to arrive at her winners’ side semifinal against Christine Pross.
Both battles for advancement to the hot seat match went double hill, with Burwell advancing over Shea and Capers defeating Pross. Burwell claimed the hot seat 7-4 over Capers and waited on the 3:30 a.m., Sunday morning return of Miller.
On the loss side, it was Pross drawing Miller, who, following her loss to Shea had defeated Jennifer Tully 7-2 and Cheryl Sporleder 7-1. Shea picked up Giovanna Napolitano, who’d lost her second-round match to Sporleder and began a five-match, loss-side streak that had recently eliminated Dzambo by shutout and Roseann Daw 7-4.
Miller got herself into the quarterfinals with a 7-2 win over Pross, while Napolitano crashed the Miller/Shea rematch party by downing Shea 7-5. Miller ended Napolitano’s loss-side streak at six with a 7-1 victory in the quarterfinals and then, got a shot at Burwell in the finals with a 7-4 win in the semifinals.
Time stamps on the brackets show the hot seat match concluding at 11:12 p.m. on Saturday night. The quarterfinals finished at 2:13 a.m. on Sunday morning and the semifinals at 3:29 a.m. At that point, Burwell, waiting in the hot seat, had been idle, except (one assumes) for some practice to stay loose and in-stroke, for over four hours. There are very few veteran, competitive pool players of any gender or age who’ll make excuses for a loss, but when the loss-side momentum of a continually active player is set against a hot seat occupant who’s been more or less idle for a long period of time, the final matchup has a way of stacking up against the idle player. It’s not a sure thing, of course, but momentum seems to have a way of showing up as the victor in such circumstances enough times to make the otherwise intangible factor, significant.
It was an extended race to 9. Briana Miller brought momentum into the finals and captured her first 2023 JPNEWT title with a 9-5 victory over Kia Burwell that concluded at 4:43 a.m. on Sunday morning.
Tour director Briana Miller thanked the ownership and staff at Shooter’s Family Billiards for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Frank Maialetti (PA Pro-Am Pool Streaming), George Hammerbacher (Advanced Pool Instructor) Streaming commentator, Mezz Cues and Turtle Rack. The next stop on the JPNEWT, scheduled for the weekend of April 1-2, will be a $1,000-added event, hosted by Champion Billiards Sports Bar in Frederick, MD.
2023 EVENT 2
April 1-2
Champion Billiards Sports Bar
Frederick MD
- 20 player field -
1st $675 Briana Miller
2nd $525 Karen Corr
3rd $270 Kia Burwell
$270 Nicole Christ
5th $ 85 Gracie Kelly Casey
$ 85 Judie Wilson
$ 85 Linda Shea
$ 85 Lynn Richard
L-R: Briana Miller, Kia Burwell, Gracie Kelly-Casey, Nicole Christ, Judie Wilson, Lynn Richard, Karen Corr, Linda Shea
MILLER DOWNS CORR IN 2ND STOP OF JPNEWT
~ Alyssa Solt, AZBilliards, April 6, 2023
Karen Corr has a strong reputation on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour (JPNEWT). In her past eight tour events, she has won seven of them, and only one of them was a split. That split was against Briana Miller in the final stop of the JPNEWT in 2022. With Miller back in the picture, taking the reins of the JPNEWT from Linda Shea in January, Miller has won eight of 10 on the tour. At this weekend’s JPNEWT stop #2 (April 1-2), these monster players met again in the finals, this time with Miller claiming the title, going undefeated in the $1,000-added event that drew 20 entrants to Champion Billiards in Frederick, Maryland.
The 9-ball tournament format was Round Robin, with four groups of five players. Each player in their group would face the other four group members once. The two players with the most wins in each group advanced to Day 2. The top four players with the highest Fargo Rate were seeded into separate groups for the Round Robin phase; Karen Corr, Briana Miller, Linda Shea, and Tina Malm.
The players that advanced to Sunday’s elimination, race-to-8 matches paired Judie Wilson with Nicole Christ and set perennial tour opponents, Linda Shea and Kia Burwell against each other. Corr faced Lynn Richards, as Miller squared off against Gracie Kelly-Casey.
Wilson advanced to the single elimination round by only two racks, while her first-round opponent, Christ, had advanced because while Tina Malm had won in their group, Malm was unable to attend Sunday’s matches. Christ downed Wilson 8-4 to draw Briana Miller, who’d eliminated Kelley-Casey 8-1. Burwell downed Shea 8-4, advancing to the semifinals versus Corr, who’d shut Richards out.
Miller got into the finals with an 8-2 win over Christ. Corr joined her after eliminating Burwell 8-3.
Miller had a rough start at the beginning of the final match. Corr took a four-rack lead at 6-2, but Miller refused to go down without a fight. She started building momentum and didn’t allow Corr to win another. Miller claimed her second straight JPNEWT title 8-6.
TD Briana Miller wanted to thank the owners and staff of Champion Billiards Cafe for their hospitality and taking care of the players, as well as their sponsors J Pechauer Custom Cues, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore, PA Pro-Am Pool, Onboard Sportswear, George Hammerbacher, and Turtle Racks by Mezz Cues.
The next stop on the JPNEWT, scheduled for May 6-7, will be hosted by Yale Billiards in Wallingford, CT.
2023 EVENT 3
May 6-7
Yale Billiards
Wallingford CT
- 45 player field -
1st $750 Rachel Lang
2nd $540 Stacie Bourbeau
3rd $450 Alyssa Solt
4th $340 Emily Duddy
5th $220 Emily Smith
$220 Erica Testa *
7th $125 Carol V Clark
$125 Dawn Fox
9th $ 75 Angela Tierney
$ 75 Giovanna Napolitano
$ 75 Jennifer Tully
$ 75 Mindy Maialetti
* WPBA Qualifier winner to Iron City, Alabama, June 2023
L-R: Stacie Bourbeau, Alyssa Solt, Rachel Lang, Emily Duddy
L-R: Tour Director Briana Miller, Stacie Bourbeau, Room owner Bobby Hilton, Rachel Lang
LANG GOES UNDEFEATED AT YALE BILLIARDS IN WALLINGFORD, CT TO CLAIM HER FIRST JPNEWT TITLE
~ Skip Maloney, AZBilliards, May 9, 2023
The most obvious difference in the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour (JPNEWT) since Briana Miller took over as its tour director at the beginning of this year, has been the tour’s geographic ‘reach.’ Where before, the tour’s schedule played out primarily in Maryland and Virginia (seven out of 10 stops in ’21 and ’22), this year’s 10-event schedule features two stops each in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and New Jersey, while adding a stop at Snooker’s in Providence, Rhode Island and just this past weekend (May 6-7), a stop at Yale Billiards in Wallingford, CT. Four of the 10 locations are new venues for the tour this year.
Among the more obvious benefits of this expanded tour footprint is a notable increase in new (or at least, less-seen) faces, exemplified by Rachel Lang, whose listed residence is Catskill, NY and in this year alone, has cashed in three events on the Predator Tri-State Tour and won an event on the Garden State Pool Tour. She has now won her first event on the JPNEWT, facilitated in part by the fact that while a trip to Triple Nines in Elkridge, MD (a previous, twice-per-year stop on the tour) would take about five hours. Yale Billiards in Wallingford, CT would normally take about two hours.
For this most recent JPNEWT stop, runner-up Stacie Bourbeau, who hails from Orange, MA, would have had to drive for just over six hours to reach Elkridge, MD, but under two hours to get to Wallingford, CT. Bourbeau has a history with the JPNEWT, but not since 2010, her best recorded earnings year, when she won the tour’s fifth stop. In previous years, she’d been a regular on the New England Women’s 9-Ball Tour.
Last year (’22), Bourbeau won the APA Women’s Amateur Championship. She and Lang, who finished as runner-up, met twice in the event; Lang winning the first match, Bourbeau the second.
This year, on the JPNEWT’s third stop, they met only once, in the finals of the $1,000-added event that drew 45 entrants to Yale Billiards. Lang got by Mollee Kranes (1), Susan White (0), Erica Testa (5) and Mindy Maialetti (4) to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Emily Duddy, who, by the way, finished in the tie for 7th place in the JPNEWT event won by Bourbeau back in 2010. Bourbeau, in the meantime, after being awarded an opening round bye, was defeated in her first match by Testa 7-4 and was off to the loss-side races where she would proceed to win nine in a row and challenge Lang in the finals. She played (11) and won (9) more matches overall, more than anyone in the tournament.
Advancing to meet Lang in the hot seat match was Alyssa Solt, Maryland State’s current Women’s Bar-box 8-Ball Champion. After an opening round bye, she survived an opening round, double-hill battle versus
Renee Lafferty, downed Catherine Fiorilla 7-5 and Giovanna Napolitano 7-2 to arrive at her winners’ side semifinal against Emily Cady.
The two ‘Emily’s went west. Solt sent Cady to the loss side 7-3, as Lang defeated Duddy 7-2. Lang grabbed the hot seat 7-2 over Solt and began a three-hour wait to face Bourbeau in the finals.
On the loss side, Bourbeau was wreaking havoc. Through the first five matches of her nine-match trip on that side of the bracket, she gave up a total of only five racks; three shutouts, two matches in which she gave up a single rack and one match (against Christine Pross) in which she gave up three. She’d recently eliminated Angela Tierney (0) and Dawn Fox (1) to draw Cady. Emily Duddy picked up Erica Testa, who, after being defeated by Lang, went on a more modest four-match, loss-side streak that had involved two double-hill wins and the recent elimination of Napolitano (1) and Carol V. Clark (one of the double-hill wins).
Bourbeau downed Cady 7-5 and advanced to the quarterfinals. Duddy and Testa locked up in a double-hill fight that eventually allowed Duddy to join Bourbeau.
Bourbeau chalked up her eighth loss-side win, eliminating Duddy 7-3 and then gave up just a single rack to Solt in the semifinals. The two 2022 APA National Women’s Amateur Champions set up to go head-to-head, again, in the finals of the JPNEWT’s third 2023 event.
In that APA Amateur event, 15 months ago at Stroker’s in Palm Harbor, FL, Lang and Bourbeau advanced through a 46-entrant field to square off for the first time in the hot seat match. Lang prevailed, sending Bourbeau off to the semifinals against JPNEWT veteran, Tina Malm. Bourbeau defeated Malm and then, downed Lang 9-4 in the finals to secure her second APA Amateur Championship title (first in 2015).
With that final match loss, echoing around somewhere in her head, Lang got down to the business of shelving the past and facing the present. The woman who had won four out of every five games she’d played on the loss side to get to the finals (63 of 77), was held to a single rack in those finals by the woman who’d been more or less waiting for her to get there. Lang completed her undefeated run to claim her first JPNEWT title 7-1.
Tour director Briana Miller thanked the ownership and staff at Yale Billiards for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Fort Worth Billiards, PA ProAm Pool and The Sharkstream (for the stream). The next stop on the JPNEWT, scheduled for Saturday, June 17, will be a $500-added event, hosted by Bluegrass Billiards in Philadelphia, PA.
2023 EVENT 4
June 17
Bluegrass Billiards
Philadelphia PA
- 46 player field -
1st $800 Briana Miller
2nd $600 Joann Mason Parker
3rd $450 Caroline Pao
4th $350 Emily Duddy
5th $225 Charlene Capers
$225 Rachel Walters
7th $150 Ashlee Trinci
$150 Kia Burwell
9th $ 75 Billie Billing
$ 75 Cecilia Strain
$ 75 Jay Pass
$ 75 Nicole Nester
L-R: Joann Mason Parker, Caroline Pao, Emily Buddy, Briana Miller
MILLER COMES FROM THE LOSS SIDE TO CHALK UP HER THIRD 2023 JPNEWT WIN
~ Skip Maloney, AZBilliards, June 20, 2023
There is an on-going debate in the regional pool tour community about the wisdom of two-day events. On one side of the debate are players who execute a cost/benefit analysis, determine that the prize money offered proves to be considerably less if players have to factor in one, possibly two nights in a motel and thus, prefer to play out a given tournament in a single day. The other side of the debate argues that single-day tournaments that play out in a room with limited tables and large fields of entrants have a way of finishing at 4 a.m. in the morning of Day Two. Expecting the tournament’s final four or so players to be at their best at that time of the day is unrealistic and likely to impact the ‘reward’ end of the equation.
As a player and tour director of the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour since the year began, Briana Miller has attempted to accommodate both sides of this debate, and other debates as well, including the institution of different tournament formats, like a round robin phase, followed by a single-elimination round. Miller has been offering members of the tour the opportunity to do one or the other, or both. The opening event of the season was scheduled for a single day. The second, employing the Round Robin/single-elimination format was a two-day event. The third was a single-day event, as was this past weekend’s (Saturday, June 17) tour stop (#4). According to its DigitalPool record (subject to being recorded when the person doing the data entry actually does it), the semifinals of Stop #4 finished at 2:26 a.m. on Sunday morning. The finals ended at just after 4 a.m.
It’s hard to know, of course, an individual’s state of mind as it was at 4 o’clock on a given morning, but the time of day did not appear to affect Miller’s performance at the tables. She lost her third-round match to Emily Duddy on Saturday afternoon and had to win seven on the loss side to face Joann Mason Parker in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Having reduced the standard, extended-race-to-nine format of the finals into an extended-race-to-eight format, Miller had to win six games before Parker did, which would extend the winner’s necessary total to 8. Miller did that and as it turned out, she and Parker battled to double-hill (7-7) in the final match before Miller closed it out to claim her third 2023 JPNEWT title. The $1,000-added event drew 46 entrants to Bluegrass Billiards in Philadelphia, PA.
After an opening round bye, Parker gave up only one rack in each of her first three games, to Ada Lio, Giovanna Napolitano and Emily Duddy (who had just sent Miller to the loss side 6-4). Parker faced Rachel Walters in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Caroline Pao, the WPBA’s #1 American competitor, started her journey to the same place with a bit of a roller coaster ride, opening with a shutout over Cassandra Borrell before running into a double-hill battle against Mindy Maialetti. Pao advanced, giving up a single rack to Marie Althouse, two to Kia Burwell and arrived at a winners’ side semifinal match against Charlene Capers.
Pao got into the hot seat match with a shutout over Capers. Parker joined her after sending Walters to the loss side 6-3. It was Parker claiming the hot seat 6-4, sending Pao off to the semifinals against Miller.
On the loss side, Miller and Duddy were on a collision course to a rematch in the quarterfinals. Miller followed her winners’ side loss to Duddy by winning her first three matches on the loss side by an aggregate score of 15-2, giving up one each to Maialetti and Jay Pass and none at all (in the middle) to Alyssa Solt. Kia Burwell then put up a double-hill fight against her, with Miller advancing to pick up Rachel Walters. Duddy followed her winners’ side loss to Parker with a double-hill win over Billie Billing and a 5-3 win over Ashlee Trinci to draw Charlene Capers.
Miller got into the quarterfinals with a 5-2 win over Walters and was joined by Duddy, who’d eliminated Capers by the same score. Miller would give up only two racks in her next two games; one each to Duddy in the quarterfinals and Caroline Pao in the semifinals.
In their only meeting, Miller and Parker set out on a double-hill road that was chasing dawn. The match won by about two hours. Miller won the match, reaching six games first and then, after she and Parker had won a seventh game, dropping the last 9-ball in the deciding, single game to claim her third 2023 JPNEWT title.
Miller thanked the ownership and staff at Bluegrass Billiards for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Fort Worth Billiards, Turtle Racks by Mezz Cues, and for the live stream, PA Pro-Am Pool. The next event on the JPNEWT, scheduled for the weekend of July 29-30, will be hosted by Stroker’s Bar & Billiards in Pelham, NH.
2023 EVENT 5
July 29-30
Strokers Billiards
Pelham NH
- 32 player limited field -
1st $800 Briana Miller
2nd $600 Katie Bowse
3rd $400 Ashley Benoit
4th $250 Erica Testa
5th $135 Jamie Cabral
$135 Charlene Capers
7th $ 80 Jane Im
$ 80 Samantha Barrett
l-r: Jane Imm, Jamie Cabral, Charlene Capers, Ashley Benoit, Erica Testa, Briana Miller, Samantha Barrett, Katie Bowse
l-r: Katie Bowse, Jeff Burnham (Strokers owner), Briana Miller
MILLER GOES UNDEFEATED TO WIN HER 4TH JPNEWT STOP
~ Skip Maloney, AZBilliards, July 31, 2023
While the evidence is more anecdotal than actually measured, it would appear, after five stops on the 2023 J. Pechaeur Northeast Women’s Tour (JPNEWT), that innovations brought to bear by Briana Miller when she took the helm of the tour in January are working to bring fresh faces to the tables, and new locations for the tables. Case in point from this past weekend’s (July 29-30) event: Katie Bowse from Port St. Lucie, FL, who, though unable to prevent Miller from going undefeated and winning her fourth tour event of the year, did challenge her in the hot seat match and finals. Both Bowse and the venue where she finished as runner-up were newcomers to the tour. The $1,000-added stop drew a pre-set 32 entrants to Strokers Bar & Billiards in Pelham, NH.
In their first two matches combined (34 games), Miller and Bowse gave up a total of 6 racks. Miller gave up two each to Amanda Laverriere and Charlene Capers, while Bowse gave up a total of two (one each) to Stephanie Rickett and Latonia Taylor. Bowse advanced to down Sarah Archer 7-2 in a winners’ side quarterfinal and pick up Ashley Benoit in one of the winners’ side semifinals. Miller defeated Jean Minyety 7-1 and drew Erica Testa in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Miller got into the hot seat match with her third 7-2 win, over Testa, while Bowse watched Benoit chalk up more racks against her than all three of her previous opponents combined. Not enough though, as Bowse advanced 7-5 to join Miller in the hot seat match. Given their paths to the eventual match against each other, one might have expected the ‘over’ to prevail in an over/under bet (in other words, betting that the number of games would be closer to double hill than a shutout in the hot seat match). It didn’t turn out that way. Miller gave up just one rack and claimed the hot seat.
Testa and Benoit moved to the loss side, downed their first opponents and advanced to the quarterfinals. Testa had picked up Charlene Capers, who’d followed her loss to Miller with four straight wins that had recently eliminated Catherine Fiorilla 7-3 and Jane Im, double hill. Testa ended her loss-side streak 7-3. Jamie Cabral, who’d lost her opening match (to Michelle Haddock), won five straight on the loss side, including two double-hill matches. She’d recently eliminated Minyety 7-3 and (in the second double-hill match) Samantha Barrett. Benoit, who’d not held an opponent to a single rack since her opening round match against Jozy Vienneau, opened her loss-side work by giving up just one to Cabral and advanced to quarterfinal.
Benoit followed her first loss-side win with a shutout over Erica Testa in those quarterfinals. Bowse, though, was not to be denied her second shot at Miller in the hot seat. She defeated Benoit in the semifinals 7-5 and earned the shot.
Bowse did better in her second matchup versus Miller, but not by a lot. Instead of giving up just a single rack as she’d done in the hot seat match, Miller gave up only two and claimed her fourth 2023 event title.
Miller thanked the ownership and staff at Strokers Bar & Billiards for their hospitality, along with title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore, Onboard Sportswear (from which one can pre-order JPNEWT apparel), Jodie Thompson (for the live stream), Mezz Cues and Advanced Pool Instructor George Hammerbacher. The next stop (#6) on the JPNEWT, scheduled for the weekend of Aug. 19-20, will be a $750-added event, hosted by First Break Sports Bar in Sterling, VA.
2023 EVENT 6
August 19
First Break Sports Bar
Sterling VA
- 14 player field -
1st $500 Briana Miller
(split) $500 Kia Burwell
3rd $220 Judie Wilson
$220 Linda Shea
l-r: Linda Shea, Kia Burwell, Judie Wilson, Briana Miller
MILLER AND BURWELL SPLIT TOP PRIZES ON JPNEWT ROUND ROBIN STOP
~ Skip Maloney, AZBilliards, August 23, 2023
It was an unusual stop for the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour (JPNEWT) this past weekend. Well, actually only Saturday, August 19. The tour’s plan for an event, hosting its usual array of competitive women didn’t materialize. When the scheduled start time had passed with only 14 entrants signed on to compete in the tournament being hosted by First Break Sports Bar in Sterling, VA, tour director Briana Miller made an executive decision. Instead of proceeding with a double-elimination bracket, she decided to utilize a Round Robin format that would avoid elimination of a good percentage of the field within a matter of a couple of hours.
In a 16-entrant, double-elimination bracket accommodating 14 players, there would have been two opening-round byes and six of the 12 that competed in the first round would move to the loss side, where shortly, three more would be gone in the opening loss-side round, etc., etc., etc. With the round robin format, a number of the 14 players, eight of them to be exact, would be afforded the opportunity to play at least three matches, win or lose. The 14 were divided into four groups; two with 4 players and two with 3 players. Each competitor would play opponents within their group and since it’s impossible for a player to compete against themselves, each member of the four-player groups would play three opponents, while each of the three-player groups would play 2 opponents. In races to 5, one player from each group (the one with the most wins in that group) would advance to a quick pair of semifinal matches plus one final match. And that’s how it went down.
Former tour director Linda Shea earned her spot in the semifinals by winning all three matches in her group by an aggregate score of 15-4, downing Vanessa
Hood (3), Taylor Perkins (0) and Kara Stotler (1). Current
tour director Briana Miller won her two matches (10-2), defeating Lynn Richard (0) and Debra Pavan-Peterman (2) to join Shea in one of the semifinals.
Judie Wilson advanced to the other semifinal with an aggregate score of 15-11, winning two double-hill matches against Kelly Wyatt and June Prescop before defeating Peng Wu (3). She was joined in that other semifinal by Kia Burwell, who, winning the two matches in her group, gave up only a single rack in matches against Karlene Goodrich (1) and Cecilia Strain (0).
Wilson got out to a quick 4-0 lead in her semifinal match against Burwell, but only won three of the next 10 games. Burwell dropped the deciding 9-ball in the double-hill, 15th game and advanced to the finals. The two JPNEWT tour directors (former and current) came within a game of double-hill, but Miller got out in front by a pair and joined Burwell in the finals with an 8-6 win over Shea.
Burwell and Miller opted out of a final match. They negotiated the split and called it a day.
Miller thanked the ownership and staff at First Break Sports Bar for their hospitality, along with title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore, Turtle Racks by Mezz Cues and Frank Maialetti for his PA Pro-Am Pool streaming services. The next stop on the JPNEWT has already created some excitement among tour members as 82 of them (so far) have signed on to the 1st Annual Pennsylvania State Women’s 9-Ball Championships. Scheduled for the weekend of September 16-17, the $1,500-added event, presented by JPNEWT and PA Pro-Am Pool will be hosted by Bluegrass Billiards in Philadelphia, PA.
2023 EVENT 7
Pennsylvania State Women's
9-ball Championships
September 16-17
Bluegrass Billiards
Philadelphia PA
- 65 player field -
1st $1600 Bean Hung
2nd $ 950 Briana Miller *
3rd $ 600 Karen Corr
4th $ 430 Sofia Mast
5th $ 255 Giovanna Napolitano
$ 255 Lai Li
7th $ 190 Brianna Aristeo
$ 190 Emily Duddy
9th $ 150 Charlene Capers
$ 150 Dawn Hopkins
$ 150 Kari Anderson
$ 150 Rachel Walters
13th $ 75 Ashley Benoit
$ 75 Bethany Sykes
$ 75 Lynn Richard
$ 75 Serena Copenace
* WPBA QUALIFIER winner to DR Pool Championships, Wisconsin 12/2023
l-r: Briana Miller, Frank Maialetti, Meng-Hsia 'Bean' Hung
l-r: Karen Corr, Brianna Aristeo, Bean Hung, Giovanno Napolitano, Sofia Mast, Brianna Miller, Emily Buddy, Lai Li
BEAN HUNG WINS THE INAUGURAL PENNSYLVANIA STATE WOMEN’S 9-BALL CHAMPIONSHIP
~ Frank Maialetti, PA Pro-Am Pool for AZBilliards, Sept. 21, 2023
The Inaugural Pennsylvania State Women’s 9-Ball Championship presented by PA Pro-Am Pool and the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour (JPNEWT) was held this past weekend (Sept 16th-Sept 17th) at Bluegrass Billiards in Philadelphia, PA. The $1,500-added event for the new, highly coveted “Doris Sciarra Women’s Championship Belt,” supplied by TrophySmack.com., drew 65 women from four different countries and 12 states. When the dust settled, Bean Hung from Brisbane, Australia had gone undefeated, besting JPNEWT’s tour director, Briana Miller in the finals to claim the event title.
Hung opened with a surprising first-round, double hill match against Giovanna Napolitano. She advanced from that promising start to give up only five racks over the next four matches. She shut out Kristen Gore and gave up two to Eugenia Gyftopoulos before coming up against Miller for the first time in a winners’ side quarterfinal. Hung took the first of her two against Miller 6-2 and then, advanced to the hot seat match with a 6-1 victory over junior competitor Sofia Mast in one of the winners’ side semifinals.
Aside from the main story of the finalists and their immediate predecessors, Mast and Brianna Aristeo were two of the event’s other major stories. Mast, known as The Pink Dagger, is a seasoned-veteran, not yet out of high school, who arrived to the winners’ side semifinal against eventual winner Hung, having given up only four racks to reach her and securing advancement to Day Two of the event.
Aristeo entered the tournament with an APA skill level of 3, having never played in a tournament before, let alone a state championship with players of the caliber she faced at this one. She came with a personal goal of winning a single match. She won three on Day One by an aggregate score of 18-10 and then, in a winners’ side quarterfinal, drew Karen Corr. Nerves no doubt played a role in her shutout loss to the legendary Hall of Famer. Aristeo went on to win two on the loss side. Her second, on Day Two, was her last as she fell to Giovanna Napolitano 5-1 and finished in the tie for 7th place.
Corr followed her victory over Aristeo, with a winners’ side semifinal, 6-1 win over Lai Li, which put her into the hot seat match against Hung. In a match that could have been a Main Event at any women’s tournament in the world, Bean downed the Irish Invader 6-1 to claim the hot seat.
Meanwhile on the loss side, Briana Miller was running a five-match gauntlet of races to 5, against top-notch competitors, destined to get her into a rematch against Hung in the finals. She started with a 5-2 win over the famed Dawn Hopkins and then, defeated WPBA star Emily Duddy in a double-hill thriller. She picked up Lai Li, fresh from her winners’ side semifinal loss to Corr, defeated her 5-1 and then, eliminated The Pink Dagger, Sofia Mast, 5-1 in the quarterfinals.
Next up for Miller, Karen Corr in the semifinals. Though likely not as ‘breezy’ as the score might indicate, Miller, who was five-years-old when Corr won her first WPBA title in 2000, defeated Corr 5-2 and turned to her rematch against Hung in the finals. Miller and Hung squared off with a crowd of over 100 in attendance and over 300 watching on the PA Pro-Am Live stream which collected $1,000 in donations during the broadcast towards the University of Pennsylvania’s Cancer Research center. Bean prevailed to complete her undefeated run with a hard-fought 9-6 win to claim the inaugural Pennsylvania State Women’s 9-Ball Championship title.
Tournament Directors Frank Maialetti and Briana Miller thanked the ownership and staff at Bluegrass Billiards for their hospitality along with sponsors Integrity Cues, J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Kamui Tips, TrophySmack.com, Forth Worth Billiards Superstore, InTheBox Sports Apparel, Salotto and Advanced Pool Instructor George Hammerbacher. The next event for PA Pro-Am Pool is the $2,500 added Pennsylvania State 9-Ball Open at Bluegrass Billiards in Philadelphia, PA on Oct 7th-8th. The next event on the JPNEWT (Stop #8), scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 21-22, will be a $1,000-added event, hosted by Eagle Billiards in Dickson City, PA on October 21st -22nd .
2023 EVENT 8
October 21-22
Eagle Billiards
Dickson City PA
- 22 player field -
1st $ 650 Briana Miller
2nd $ 450 Christine Pross
3rd $ 300 Giovanna Napolitano
$ 300 Joella Thomson
5th $ 125 Melissa Jenkins
$ 125 Colleen Shoop
l-r: Christine Pross, Giovanna Napolitano, Briana Miller, Melissa Morris, Joella Thomson
l-r: Briana Miller, Eagle Billiard owner-Chris Wilson, Christine Pross
MILLER GOES UNDEFEATED TO CLAIM HER 5TH 2023 JPNEWT TITLE AT EAGLE BILLIARDS IN PA
~ Skip Maloney, AZBilliards, Oct 25, 2023
Briana Miller has been something of a juggernaut on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour since she returned to competition on the tour in 2022. Later in the year, after agreeing to take over from the tour’s retiring director, Linda Shea, she began to assume increasing degrees of responsibility for the tour’s activities and in January of this year became its official director.
juggernaut – a massive, inexorable force, campaign, movement or object that crushes whatever is in its path (Merriam-Webster)
Her ongoing string of event victories (11 of 13 events) began with the season opener in 2022, when she defeated Caroline Pao in the finals. She would go on to win five more of seven in which she competed and splitting the top two prizes with Karen Corr in the season finale' which became, in effect, the first step in the JPNEWT’s version of a peaceful ‘transfer of power.’ Miller has won five of the eight 2023 stops so far and split a fifth with Kia Burwell. This past weekend (Oct. 21-22), she went undefeated in one of the tour’s newly-initiated (by Miller) series of round-robin events, leading to a second-day (Sunday) single-elimination bracket of six. The $1,000-added event round robin/single elimination event drew 22 entrants to Eagle Billiards in Dickson City, PA.
Originally split up into four ‘flights,’ two with six competitors and two with five, four players with the most match wins in their flight would automatically advance to the single-elimination bracket. Two other competitors drawn from the overall match statistics of the four flights would advance as ‘wild cards,’ creating a six-player, single-elimination bracket. Two of those six would receive opening round byes in the three-round march to the winners’ circle.
It was Miller and Christine Pross who earned those two, opening-round byes in single-elimination play. Each had emerged undefeated from the round robin phase of their flights. Miller had chalked up four 6-2 wins and a shutout. Pross
survived a double-hill challenge by Christina Raimer in the opening round of her flight. She would move on to win two 6-2 matches and one 6-4 match. As one of the flights with only five players, Pross was awarded a round-robin bye.
Advancing automatically from the other two ‘flights’ were Joella Thomson and Melissa Jenkins. Thomson lost only one of her five matches (4-6 to Colleen Shoop), while Jenkins (in a five-player flight, with a bye) lost one of her three (double hill to Michaela Semon). Shoop picked up one of the ‘wild card’ slots, while Giovanna Napolitano picked up the other one to round out the single-elimination, first money-round field of six.
Shoop forfeited out of her match against Thomson, who advanced to face Miller in the semifinals. Napolitano downed Jenkins 8-3 and drew Pross in the other semifinal. In two distinctively different semifinal matches, Miller and Pross advanced to face each other in the finals. Miller shut out Thomson, while Pross and Napolitano locked up in a double-hill match that eventually sent Pross to face Miller.
It would become Pross’ third double-hill match of the event and Miller’s one and only. Miller completed her fifth win on the 2023 JPNEWT and her 11th since January, 2022 by dropping the last 9-ball at the 8th stop on the tour.
Miller, in her role as tour director, thanked the ownership and staff at Eagle Billiards for their hospitality, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore, Onboard Sportswear, PA Pro-Am Pool, Mezz Cues and George Hammerbacher (Advanced Pool Instructor). The next stop on the JPNEWT, scheduled for this weekend (Oct. 28-29), will be the $1,500-added 2023 Pennsylvania State Women’s 8-Ball Championship, in collaboration with PA Pro-Am Pool. The event will play out on the 9-ft. tables of Bluegrass Billiards in Philadelphia, PA.
2023 EVENT 9
Pennsylvania STATE Women's
8-ball Championships
October 28-29
Bluegrass Billiards
Philadelphia PA
- 49 player field -
1st $1250 Briana Miller
2nd $ 875 Elise Qiu
3rd $ 575 Skylar Hess
4th $ 425 Nina Torvund
5th $ 225 Rachel Walters
$ 225 Erica Testa
7th $ 175 Jay Pass
$ 175 Ashley Benoit
9th $ 100 Nicole Nester
$ 100 Dawn Luz
$ 100 Amanda Laverriere
$ 100 Christine Pross
l-r: Rachel Walters, Jay Pass, Elise Qiu, Briana Miller, Frank Maialetti, Nina Torvund, Erica Testa, Ashley Benoit, Skylar Hess
front: Mindy Maialetti
l-r: Briana Miller, Elise Qiu
MILLER WINS NINE ON THE LOSS SIDE, DOWNS QUI TO WIN SIXTH OF NINE STOPS ON 2023 JPNEWT
~ Skip Maloney, AZBilliards, Nov 1, 2023
We used the term ‘juggernaut’ in last week’s report on the eighth stop of the 2023 J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour (JPNEWT) to describe its tour director and current top player in the tour standings, Briana Miller. Not since Ireland’s Karen Corr established a similar set of ‘juggernaut’ credentials when she won eight in a row on the 2015 tour, has a competitor so dominated the tour standings. This past weekend (Oct. 28-29), that ‘juggernaut’ chalked up her seventh win on the 2023 tour (to include an undefeated split with Kia Burwell at a round robin event back in August). This brought her two-year total to 14 wins (two splits) of 18 tour stops, in which she has competed. She has won 71% of the 575 games she has played during this year’s events. And she did it the hard way this time, losing her second match, and winning nine on the loss side to face and defeat Elise Qui in the finals. Held under the auspices of the JPNEWT and PA Pro-Am Pool, the $1,500-added, Pennsylvania State Women’s 8-Ball Championships drew 49 entrants to Bluegrass Billiards in Philadelphia, PA.
Miller’s appearances on the winners’ side of the bracket were short, consisting of an opening-round shutout over Angela Brown, and a double-hill defeat at the hands of Nicole Nester in Round 2. We’ll pick up Miller’s tale on the loss side later.
Hard not to imagine a collective sigh of relief on the part of the winners’ side competitors as the event progressed. Or a bit of a silent groan from the loss side. Elise Qiu set out on a six-match march to the hot seat, while 14-year-old Skylar Hess, awarded an opening-round bye, began a five-match trip to the same place.
In races to 5, Qiu’s trip went through Ashley Benoit (3), Melissa Jenkins (0), Emily Smith (2), and Amanda Laverriere (1) to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Rachel Walters. Hess’ trip through the field got by Giovanna Napolitano (3) and survived a double-hill match against Lai Li, before she sent the woman who’d defeated Miller to the loss side, Nicole Nester 5-2. This set Hess up to face Erica Testa in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Qiu and Hess advanced to the hot seat match with identical 5-3 wins over Walters and Testa, respectively. Somewhat predictably, Qiu and Hess locked up in a double-hill battle for the hot seat. Qiu won it, sending Hess off to a fateful meeting versus the tour’s top competitor in the semifinals.
It was Walters who had the misfortune to run into Miller on the loss side. At the time, Miller had already chalked up six of her eventual nine loss-side wins, by an aggregate score of 24-4. She shut out three of the six, gave up two to one opponent (Christine Pross, who’d finished as runner-up at last week’s tour stop) and one each to two others. Not the kind of record you want to be facing, no matter how many times you’ve been told to maintain your focus on the game at hand. Testa picked up a rematch against Nina Torvund, whom she’d sent to the loss side 5-2 in the third round. Torvund had survived a double-hill battle against Rebecca Hilton in her opening, loss-side round and then won three straight 4-1 matches against Karlene Goodrich, Laverriere and Jay Pass.
Miller chalked up her fourth loss-side shutout, over Walters, and advanced to the quarterfinals. She was joined by Torvund, who’d extended her loss-side streak to five. It ended right there as Miller eliminated her 4-2 to face Hess in the semifinals.
Asked later how she threw off the intimidation factor of playing an obvious top-notch competitor who’s just completed an eight-match, loss-side run of wins with an aggregate score of 28-4, Skylar Hess had this to say.
“When playing someone like Briana, you just have to have fun,” said the 14-year-old. “Yes, you’re trying to win the match . . . but when playing someone with more experience, you just have to accept the rolls and your (own) playing ability at the same time. You have to look at the positive side of things,” she added. “You just have to be in the moment to achieve your goals and push through tough matches.”
Miller won the semifinal against Hess 4-1. In another somewhat predictable turn of events, Miller and Qiu battled to double-hill to claim the title. Miller prevailed to become Pennsylvania’s 2023 8-Ball Woman’s State Champion.
Tour directors Miller (for JPNEWT) and Frank Maialetti (with PA Pro-Am) thanked the ownership and staff at Bluegrass Billiards for their hospitality, along with JPNEWT’s title sponsor, J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Kamui, Salotto, Integrity Cues, InTheBox Sportswear, Trophy Smack, and Billiards Beauties. The next stop on the JPNEWT, scheduled for this weekend (Nov. 4-5), will be a $1,000-added event, hosted by Stroker’s Bar & Billiards in Pelham, NH. The season finale, another $1,000-added event, is scheduled for Dec. 2-3 at Players Billiards & Café in Eatontown, NJ.
2023 EVENT 10
November 4-5
Strokers Bar & Billiards
Pelham NH
- 32 player limited field -
1st $ 725 Briana Miller
2nd $ 575 Dawn Luz
3rd $ 400 Becca Ellis
4th $ 250 Amanda Laverriere
5th $ 130 Catherine Fiorilla
$ 130 Erica Testa
7th $ 80 Rachelle Rainey
$ 80 Stephanie Rickett
l-r: Briana Miller, Amanda Laverriere, Dawn Luz, Becca Ellis
l-r: Briana Miller, Jeff Burnham-Strokers owner, Dawn Luz
IT’S ‘MILLER’ TIME AGAIN, AS JPNEWT’S TOUR DIRECTOR WINS HER SEVENTH 2023 TOUR STOP
~ Skip Maloney, AZBilliards, Nov 7 2023
There are only so many ways that one can approach a report on a consistent winner. One can note, as an example, that the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour director, Briana Miller has “once again, chalked up a win on the tour,” and go on to mention how many times she’s won this year. As of this past weekend (Nov. 4-5), that number is up to seven. She’s won 15 of 19 tour stops (two splits) over the past two years, including her undefeated run in this past weekend’s $1,000-added event which drew a capped-at-32 number of entrants to Strokers Bar & Billiards in Pelham, NH.
She is not unbeatable, of course. Nobody gets to wear that ‘medal.’ She had a seriously odd finish (13th) at this year’s third stop in May and finished as runner-up to Bean Hung in September. She was runner-up to Caroline Pao and Kia Burwell in 2022. Not exactly a comfort to competitors stepping into an event with her name on the roster, although there is that aspect of inspiration for potential opponents; players getting ‘fired up’ trying to throw a monkey-wrench into the machinery of her dominance.
There is, too, an aspect of this remarkable run of tour victories which has to do with her recent ascent to director of the tour. In that role over the past year, Miller has increased the tour’s geographic reach beyond its previous base in Maryland, expanding it to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, and, for the second time this year (this past weekend), New Hampshire. This has had a way of attracting new players to the tour, the downside of which is that the newer competitors tend toward a lower skill level for whom Miller’s obvious skills and experience represent a ‘tougher nut to crack’ than they would otherwise encounter. All but three of this past weekend’s competitors (Erica Testa, Amanda Laverriere and Catherine Fiorilla) came into the event with Fargo Rates that were 200 points or lower than Miller’s 669. The upside to the expanded reach is that the newer competitors, like everybody else who competes in the sport, tend to get better, only when they’re exposing themselves to a competition level that’s higher than the ones that they’ve been used to.
All that said, here’s how the weekend played out. Miller seems to get stronger as an event progresses; this event being a case in point. She was strong coming in, mind you, giving up only three racks to Amanda Soucy, two to Catherine Ong and in a winners’ side quarterfinal, three to her closest Fargo-rated competitor (at 562), Erica Testa. From that point, over the next 23 games to her claiming the event title, Miller gave up only two racks. She gave up the first of those two in a winners’ side semifinal to her second-closest, Fargo-rated opponent, Amanda Laverriere (at 500) and advanced to the hot seat match.
Meanwhile, Becca Ellis was winding her way through the field to join Miller in the hot seat battle. Ellis got by Jozy Vienneau (3), Christal Heath in a double-hill match, and Jenn Sylvester (1) to arrive and defeat her winners’ side semifinal opponent, Dawn Luz 7-4. In the battle for the hot seat, Miller allowed Ellis to chalk up a second rack against her, claiming the seat 7-1.
Luz came to the loss side and picked up Testa, who’d followed her loss to Miller with victories over Stacy Hamel 7-1 and Stephanie Rickett 7-2. Laverriere came over and picked up Catherine Fiorilla, who’d been shut out in her opening match by Luz and was working on a five-match, loss-side winning streak that had recently eliminated Jenn Sylvester 7-3 and Rachelle Rainey 7-5.
Luz and Testa battled back and forth to double hill, before Luz prevailed and advanced to the quarterfinals. She was joined by Laverriere, who’d defeated Fiorilla 7-4. Luz took care of Laverriere in those quarterfinals 7-3.
It was only the fourth time that Luz had competed on the 2023 tour, having finished 33rd in May and 25th in July. She took a major step forward when she finished in the tie for 9th place on the tour’s previous stop, a little over a week ago in Philadelphia at the PA State Women’s 8-Ball Championships. She shared that finish place with the woman she faced and defeated in the quarterfinals at this event, Amanda Laverriere.
In a semifinal that came within a game of double hill, Luz advanced to defeat Ellis 7-5. In what was already her highest finish on the tour and only her second, recorded cash finish in a tournament anywhere (she’d finished 3rd in a virtual event on the Ride the 9 Tour in 2021), Luz stepped into her first known final, against Miller.
It didn’t go well for her. The four-hour wait between the conclusion of the hot seat match and the end of the semifinal had no apparent effect on Miller. She denied Luz even a single rack in claiming her seventh 2023 JPNEWT title.
In her role as tour director, Miller thanked the ownership and staff at Strokers Bar & Billiards, as well as title sponsor J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore, Onboard Sportswear, PA ProAm Pool (for livestreaming), Mezz Cues and George Hammerbacher (Advanced Pool Instructor).
The next stop on the JPNEWT will be its season finale, scheduled for the weekend of Dec. 2-3 at Players Billiards Café in Eatontown, NJ.
2023 EVENT 11
December 2-3
Players Billiards Cafe
Eatontown NJ
- 20 players -
1st $ 850 Dawn Hopkins
2nd $ 635 Giovanna Napolitano
3rd $ 430 Carol V Clark
4th $ 275 Rona Brown
l-r: Giovanna Napolitano,
Dawn Hopkins
l-r: Carol Clark, Rona Brown, Dawn Hopkins, Giovanna
HOPKINS COMES FROM THE LOSS SIDE TO DOWN NAPOLITANO IN JPNEWT SEASON FINALE
~ Skip Maloney, AZBilliards, Dec 4 2023
Prior to this past weekend (Dec. 2-3), the last time Dawn Hopkins recorded a win on the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour, George W. Bush was the President (’06). Lotta water been flowing under the bridge since she founded the tour in the early ‘90s as an adjunct to a magazine she published (All About Pool Magazine, with a related All About Pool Men’s Tour in Massachusetts). The original All About Pool Ladies Tour (and Hopkins) shifted its base of operations to New Jersey, where it became the Northeast Women’s Tour, while Hopkins and her husband, Allen, started the Super Billiards Expo, which opened for the first time in 1993. Under different leadership, the Ladies tour began its association with and later name-change to the J. Pechauer Northeast Women’s Tour at the end of the 2001 season.
Hopkins’ 2006 JPNEWT win made her the NY State Women’s 9-Ball Champion that year. This past weekend, coming from the loss side, her win at the tour’s Season Finale made her one of only three competitors, other than Briana Miller, to claim a JPNEWT title this year. Bean Hung defeated Miller in the finals of Stop #7, while earlier in the year, Rachel Lang won Stop #3, at which Miller finished in the tie for 13th. Hopkins, who opened her campaign this past weekend with a 7-1 victory over Colette Finegan and was then sent to the loss side (double hill) by Miller, got a second shot at Miller on the loss side and was able to chalk her up as her fourth loss-side win of six. The $1,250-added event drew 19 entrants to Players Billiards Café in Eatontown, NJ.
Miller moved on from her victory over Hopkins to down Melissa Jenkins 7-1 and draw Giovanna Napolitano in one of the winners’ side semifinals. From the upper level of the bracket, Carol V. Clark got by Shelah Joner 7-1 and Shuang Gao 7-2 to pick up Ada Lio in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Napolitano, who is recording her first set of payout finishes with us at AZBilliards this year, was making her seventh appearance on the tour, finishing ‘in the money’ at six of them. After previously finishing 9th, 5th (twice), 4th and 3rd, she was about to make this season finale her best finish of the year. Guaranteed at this winners’ side final stage of the game at least another 5th place finish, she needed to start her
advance to a better conclusion against the formidable tour director, Briana Miller. And she did, battling Miller to double hill before dropping the final 9-ball and advancing to the hot seat match. She was met by Clark, who’d sent Lio to the loss side 7-4. Napolitano won her second-straight double-hill match, claiming the hot seat and guaranteeing that at this season finale, she would be recording her best finish of the year.
On the loss side, Hopkins was working her way through the field, headed for the finals, the event title and distinction as the competitor who played more matches than anyone else (9). She’d followed her loss to Miller with wins over Bettyanne Mauceri (1), Judie Wilson (3), and Alyssa Solt (3) to draw Miller a second time. In a match that came within a game of double hill, Hopkins eliminated Miller (5) and advanced to the quarterfinals. She was joined by Rona Brown, who chalked up her fourth, loss-side win, double hill, versus Lio.
Hopkins shut Brown out in those quarterfinals and faced Clark in the semifinals. A 7-3 win there (Clark recording her best finish of the year) put Hopkins in the finals against Napolitano.
With the exception of her earlier loss to Miller, no one ended up winning more racks against Hopkins than Napolitano did in the race-to-9 finals. Hopkins claimed the event title 9-6; her first JPNEWT title since 2006 and her first (recorded) anywhere since she won a stop on the Garden State (Ladies) Pool Tour in 2018.
As the JPNEWT’s Season Finale, Miller, in her role as tour director, took steps to assure that it was festive. Everybody got a door prize, whether it was a gift basket, a t-shirt, or a ‘cozie.’ One of the top prizes was paid entry to all of the tour’s 2024 events and tour members might be forgiven for being a little nervous about the fact that it was Dawn Hopkins who won it.
Miller thanked the ownership and staff at Players Billiards Café, along with title sponsor, J. Pechauer Custom Cues, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore, IntheBox Sportswear, Mezz Cues, and George Hammerbacher (Advanced Pool Instructor). The JPNEWT will hold its 2024 season opener on the weekend of March 9-10, a $750-added event, to be hosted by Shooter’s Family Billiards in Wayne, NJ.